Setting sail at age 91 for a round Italy sailing trip? Done!

We have written and rewritten it that sailing extends life. We also brought you the direct testimony of over 100-year-old Angela Besana Gagliardi, among the “godmothers” of the VELA Cup.

But this story is unbelievable. And that is the story of Mario Battilanti, 91 years old, who has just set out to sail around Italy, from La Spezia, on the Lumiere III, a 13.50-meter Orca from 1980. “I’m not a phenomenon. But what should I do stay at home and take my blood pressure?” the senior sailor said in an interview.

First leg, Spezia-Livorno. Joining him on board were Paolo Zannini, 56, Leandro Bernardini, 24. Three generations of sailors, members of the Paper Ship Association. They are being supported by the Italian Naval League, which has already alerted local sections to give assistance and mooring to Mario and his crew.

Mario’s voyage has been christened #Forza91, a tribute to the sea veteran’s age but also a reference to the weather conditions the crew will face. As soon as he set off, Mario firmly at the helm for a good stretch was finally able to unleash his will to go; on his side he has a sense of the sea, quite a few years of experience and also a gangly spirit. “When I started sailing there weren’t all these instruments, you looked at the sea, the sky, the clouds, experience did the rest,” he says seraphic and uninterested in weather-marine forecast sites.

WATCH VIDEO OF MARIO AT THE HELM

https://www.facebook.com/navedicarta/posts/3404984296234663

WHO IS “THE OLD MAN OF THE SEAS”

Born in Taranto in 1929, Mario Battilanti at only 15 months old arrived in La Spezia following his father, an Army non-commissioned officer, artilleryman, bomb disposal and ballistics expert. At the height of the war the family moved back to Apulia where they remained until the end of the conflict. Then again the move to the North, destination Turin where young Mario arrives as an emigrant and has to deal with the animosity against southerners.

He does everything from selling lipstick and candy to working as a laborer, until he manages to get into Fiat as a “trusted person,” basically a cleaning man. “I used to clean executive offices, from Valletta on down,” he recalls. However, he also wants to study and get his diploma as an electrical engineer. Tuberculosis stops him, two years of sanatorium. He goes further. His lungs are damaged, but he does not give up apnea. The physique is tried, but he goes boating as soon as he can. The sea is its testing ground.

He did not give up and continued to study and work at Fiat. He manages to get his surveyor’s degree and move up the ladder, becoming one of the personnel managers. But the sea is constantly calling him. Sailing school at Caprera (“I was supposed to become an instructor, but I didn’t like dinghies. I was bored to death,” he recalls) summers on Pianosa where his uncle is a prison warden, sailing in the Mediterranean, and with his retirement he finally managed to buy a sailboat with a friend of his. A nearly century-long passion for the sea and sailing led him to take on this new challenge.

The journey of #Forza91 can be followed HERE.

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