VELAFestival’s first major event: Great sailors compared: fools or heroes?

The TAG Heuer VELAFestival’s big events begin at 3 p.m. Friday, May 6, at the Hospitality Area with a confrontation between some of Italy’s greatest sailors and sailors who have been the protagonists of feats bordering between heroism and madness.

Vittorio Malingri, Ambrogio Beccaria Balduzzi, Giancarlo Pedote, Salvatore Mantaci and Gaetano Mura will recount their legendary exploits. You can attend the meeting from the comfort of your seat in the spectacular event area and submit to these great sailors all the questions you have long had in your drawer: how many times reading their stories have you called someone crazy and after a short time they entered the Olympus of your heroes? What, for example, drives Vittorio Malingri to come up with ever crazier feats? Or young Ambrose to fly all the way to Portugal to retrieve a semi-destroyed Mini and become Italian champion in no time? And again, what drives a Sardinian boy to brave the oceans? How does it feel to see one’s boat sink in the middle of the Atlantic, as happened to Salvatore Mantaci, or to become like Giancarlo Pedote the king of loners on French soil?
A meeting that is a prequel to “warm up” your spirits and prepare you for the big Evening of Champions that will feature the 2016 Sailor of the Year winners and kick off at 7 p.m., also on Friday.