24-year-old buys Simone Bianchetti’s first boat, restores it and sails around Italy!

Nicolò Todoli, a 24-year-old young man from Cervia, was able to purchase “Penelope,” the sailor’s first boat, after learning about Simone Bianchetti’s story. He restored it and now sails on it exalting a slow, romantic spirit of sailing.

I bought Simone Bianchetti’s boat

In this age of technological sailing, all foil, speed and adrenaline, it’s hard to imagine a kid getting hooked on a little wooden boat just 20 feet long. And even more difficult is to imagine that inspiring his dreams of sea voyages aboard that little shell might be a myth from the past. Yet this was indeed the case for Nicolò Todoli, a 24-year-old young man originally from Cervia who works as a mooring attendant at the Cervia Marina.

Passing on his love for the sea when he was just 6 years old was a friend of his grandfather who took him on a launch. From that moment, the classic path of learning to sail with dinghies began. First Optimist and then Laser. A few years later, when he started going out on his own with his first cabin cruiser, some people told him that he reminded them of a certain Simone Bianchetti. Intrigued by this sailor, Nicholas read all the books about his life. And he was thunderstruck.

They used to tell me, “You look like Bianchetti.” But Bianchetti who?

After all, the story of Simone Bianchetti (Cervia 1968 – Savona 2003) is unique. He was the first Italian to complete the Vendée Globe, a nonstop, solo round-the-world race. And in 2003 he participated in Around Alone, a solo round-the-world stage race, placing 3rd. Unlike many of his opponents Simone managed to achieve important results without the help of big budgets, aided and spurred on by Cino Ricci. He returned to Italy and died suddenly of an illness in the port of Savona when he was only 35 years old.

• READ THE STORY OF SIMONE BIANCHETTI

One day Nicolò Todoli discovers that “Penelope,” the first boat that belonged to Bianchetti, is for sale, and decides to buy it. Only 6.20 meters long, class of 1959 was the boat Simone Bianchetti used to go to school from Cervia to Cesenatico when he went to the Nautical Institute as a boy. “It didn’t seem real to me,” Nicolo recounts today, “It was April 3, 2018. I spent 1,500 euros, but I had to work so hard to restore her. Basically only the hull, mast and boom are left of the original. When I go out I feel like I am sailing together with Simone. It is as if I have him next to me. This is where he started from. This is where his sailing career was born.”

After restoration a first test in the Tremiti Islands

Having finished the restoration work on “Penelope,” Nicolò last October set off solo from Cervia to reach the Tremiti Islands. A chance to test his little boat, but also to discover a slow, romantic dimension of sailing that won him over. “I had two weeks off. I prepared the galley and fixed the boat so that everything was in place and I set off,” Nicolò explains, “mine is a navigation made of many small simple things I observe nature, I watch the clouds, I follow the pressure, the winds, I study the arrival and the moorings. On these small boats you won’t have the comfort of a 15-meter boat, but you can do a lot of things, they sail well, you don’t spend a lot of money, and you can get into any place because you don’t have a draft problem.”

Next venture: a Giro d’Italia, slow and essential

Now Nicolo has taken a liking to it and wants to attempt a bigger feat, the Tour of Italy by Sail, but still with the same spirit inspired by simplicity and slowness. He wants to enjoy long coastal sailing aboard “Penelope” under the banner of “small is beautiful”: few costs, ability to moor almost anywhere, easier repairs and more.

He has already announced his trip on the “Sailors on Facebook” group and has already collected many invitations: some offer him a beer in Leuca, others two cannoli in Cefalù. Here is the program: “Departure from Cervia around mid-April,” he says enthusiastically, “to arrive in the ‘paradise’ of the Adriatic Sea, namely the Tremiti. Then Santa Maria di Leuca and down to Sicily, Messina, Syracuse, the Aeolian and Egadi Islands. After that, the idea is to sail up the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Tuscan coast and then bring the barque home, this time on a road vehicle.” Always aboard that small boat that carries the soul of a true myth of solo sailing.

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