One only has to look at this photo, “stolen” from Botin & Partners’ Facebook page, to see that we are looking at a superboat. A superboat designed with a clear goal: to beat everyone on sailing’s most cutting-edge circuit. Not least because Marcelino Botin, the great designer who revolutionized the world of Mini Maxis and TP52s, collaborated with a team of engineers who worked for Luna Rossa in the America’s Cup.
A SUPER MAXI FOR THE KING OF COSMETICS
We are talking about the new Maxi 72 put up for sale, even before the launch, by Roberto Tomasini Grinover (the owner of the successful Robertissima series of boats) and which, at 99.99%, should be bought by Dario Ferrari (the cosmetics tycoon: 72 years old, from Milan, founder of Intercos, the largest beauty multinational in the world: think of it having a turnover of 420 million). Now it is getting ready to finally hit the water, in Dubai (home of Premier Composite, a giant high-tech construction yard), as you can see from the photo we “stole” on Facebook and is ready for testing. This is an innovative boat that breaks with current patterns, the ones that make the TP 52 and Maxi 72 designs very similar to each other: look at that volume in the forward part, the “rounded” reverse bow and the very long bowsprit/rudder integral with the hull.
VASCOTTO TEAM LEADER
Given the purchase by Ferrari for granted, the team on board should remain the same as Robertissima, with multi-titled Vasco Vascotto as skipper and “team leader,” and such sailors as Daniele Cassinari, Cico Rapetti, Guillermo Parada and much of the crew of the TP52 Azzurra (of which Vascotto is tactician and skipper), Federico Michetti and so on. An Italian team on the world’s most advanced boat circuit. There will be fun to be had!