Epaminonda Ceccarelli, father of modern sailing. An exhibition celebrates it

Epaminonda Ceccarelli in Ravenna is a myth. He was the designer who, in the 1960s, gave birth in Italy to modern sailing, that of mass-produced fiberglass boats. Twelve years after his passing in 2011, the city pays tribute to him with the exhibition “Epaminonda Ceccarelli. The Man and the Designer,” which opens to the public on Friday, April 7 (through May 27) at the Classense Library (Via Baccarini 3A, Ravenna), where his most significant works will be available to the public in the two “sleeves,” one dedicated to his land works and one – the one that interests us most – to his boats.

The story of Epaminonda Ceccarelli

Epaminonda Ceccarelli a.k.a. Nanni, engineer, father of John (who followed in his father’s footsteps: great designer, including America’s Cup, designed multi-win boats), certainly left his mark on the world of nautical design, from his pencil came so many“Classic Boats.” That is why his story deserves to be told.

Ceccarelli, the importance of ideas

Ceccarelli (1925-2011), as we anticipated, was the man who, in the 1960s, gave birth to modern sailing in Italy, that of mass-produced fiberglass boats. He is the first designer who, in 1973, went to the lair of the French masters, in La Rochelle, and beat them with his EC 26.

He is the one who has never tired of repeating that we Italians are not inferior to anyone, least of all in the field of boating. And the facts proved him right. And to the very last, young people who wanted to try their hand at design were asked what ideas they had in their heads, before they knew if they could “fiddle” well with the computer.

In his long life Epaminonda Ceccarelli had many ideas and always found someone who allowed him to put them into practice. Opening its archives is like swimming through the history of modern sailing. One is stunned by the amount of ideas with which he has inundated boating since the postwar period. Most successful, sometimes before others brought them to prominence, making them their own.

Epaminonda Ceccarelli, the engineer

His first work, the eight-meter Malaguegna of 1951, he called it “ugly, with very short leaps.” Created for cruising in regattas it left behind big-name and much larger boats in the stern.

If there is a secret to the speed of his boats, even his pure cruising boats, experts attribute it to his solid engineering training. As in: matching flair and creativity with solid technical foundations, in an era where the computer was unknown, calculations were done at the max with the calculating machine, and drawings were born on the drafting machine.

And it is the same Epaminonda who revealed to us in a 2008 GdV report, what was in that period, where software was just the cogs in his brain, the extra gear in design that allowed him to understand how few principles of fluid dynamics and appendage design: “I’ve always been passionate about aeronautics, and I’ve also tried my hand at model aircraft.” His engineering degree, quite different from his architecture degree, later enabled him to become the daddy of modern Italian boating.

Success

His is the first standard fiberglass boat, the Classis 26. It was 1966 and until then boats were made of wood, some of them of steel. Applying the concepts of industrial design, Epaminonda designed the prototype of today’s boat, where everything is studied first, both in terms of construction and layout.

Since that 1966, his career has been one of continuous success, evidenced by hundreds of EC-branded boats that have come out of yards all over Italy.

But to those of us who asked him what was the most pleasant memory of his long career, Epaminondas replied without doubt, “In 1968, when the aristocrats of Trieste, who considered themselves the repositories of Italian sailing, were pissed off. We ‘poor’ people from Ravenna beat them with one of my boats, the C-class Maelstrom, winning the Trieste-San Giovanni in Pelago-Trieste race.“. His good blood as a Romagnolo never lied. Until the end.

• Read also: John Ceccarelli, all about the bows

Epaminonda Ceccarelli story

We summarized the design history of Epaminonda Ceccarelli (1925-2011) in seven key moments.

1925. Epaminonda Ceccarelli was born in Ravenna, nickname Nanni. In 1952, after graduating with an engineering degree, he was awarded a scholarship to the School of Aeronautical Engineering. There he realized that the use of polyester resin would revolutionize boating.

1951. Malaguegna. His first boat is an 8-meter C-class (RORC) built of planking wood. “Ugly because he had very short spurts,” Nanni recalls. It anticipates the current design trend by fifty years.

1952/60. Construction innovation. Shaula (17 meters) Silvica (15 meters) Bella Ciao (third class RORC). The first are two wooden boats with classic lines that adopt, for the first time, bonding with aviation technology. The Bella Ciao is the first plywood sea-edge racing boat.

1961. Ceccarelli Jr. arrives. His son Giovanni was born in Ravenna. While attending scientific high school, she began working in the studio with him and passed on all her knowledge and especially the forma mentis. With great success. John graduated in engineering in 1987, with the thesis “Multipurpose Floating Unit. In 1983 his first boat, the minitonner “Anita.” He became the wizard of the Three Quarter Tonner in the 1990s, was voted 6 times designer of the year, even made it to the America’s Cup in 2002 by designing Mascalzone Latino.

1966. Classis 26, the first in fiberglass. A 7.30 m cruising and racing fiberglass. One of the first non-wood boats in Europe. In those years he designed numerous small boats built in hundreds.

1973. EC 26, the French get pissed off. In the temple of sailing at the time, La Rochelle, Ceccarelli’s 7.80 m won the long race in her class in real time. The French are stunned.

1974/77. Size is growing. Epaminonda also designs larger boats that are very successful, such as the EC 37 Albsail and the Seariff 55 (16.80 m).

Epaminonda Ceccarelli. The exhibition

As you may have gathered from reading these lines, Epaminonda Ceccarelli was a giant of modern sailing. We recommend visiting the exhibition dedicated to him. In the poster below you will find all the information and times.