VIDEO – Carlo Falcone: “Me, Antigua, sailing, boats, my children.”

We are at Antigua Sailing Week, the great Caribbean sailing festival where our Ida Castiglioni is on the hunt for stories(here the first episode and the second episode). After meeting Irina, who escaped the war in Ukraine “thanks” to sailing, today Ida profiles a celebrated Italian on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Carlo Falcone, former Honorary Consul of Italy in Antigua (until last year, now the role has passed to his daughter), a life for sailing, protagonist at Antigua Sailing Week with his Caccia alla Volpe (13.50 m, designed by Andrea Vallicelli).

Carlo Falcone, when sailing becomes legend

Carlo Falcone, a Leghorn doc ’54, is a volcano, a true myth that is reinforced when you see him out racing his Fox Hunt where, as part of the winning crew are six Falcones. Carlo helmsman and three of his four children, Shirley bowman, Rocco tactician and Shaun mainsail trimmer (the fourth son is Shannon, who is in Italy and has just finished the RAN,(winning with Matteo Uliassi’s foil catamaran F4 Falcon, which he designed and developed), plus two grandchildren (of the seven) who are just kids, Cade, first of Shannon’s children, and Haizea, Shirley’s second daughter.

Carlo has believed in sailing from the beginning and has managed to grow this passion in his children (there are few who make it). The boat is a dated boat, which turns 47 this year: a 13.50 m One Off IOR design by Andrea Vallicelli, built in marine plywood by the Bani shipyard in Porto Santo Stefano.

Video – Interview with Carlo Falcone

Carlo is a challenging skipper, a perfectionist, who in these races was not overly influenced by his son Rocco and Federico Colaninno, who were on board, well-deserved winners with Marco Gradoni and Giunluigi Ugolini, as Team Luna Rossa, of the Young America’s Cup in Barcelona, raced on AC40s.

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Loro Piana Giraglia, Ker 40 Vito 2 on its way to overall victory

Here in Antigua to make the boat go there are no buttons or computers: you pull up on the tiller when Carlo says so, you tack when he decides (although he does take some suggestions). The result in the end is a well-deserved win in the Racing 4 class and a splendid second place Overall.

The story of Charles the sailor

But let’s rewind the tape and see where and when the sailing and human story of Carlo, who has done everything and more in sailing, even passing through the Olympic Games, began.

He is the son of a Leghorn doctor, a recreational sailor, and like his brothers was born opposite the Naval Academy, but he must have been imprinted by his uncle, Carlo Falcone, who was an admiral. He attended the Nautical Institute in Livorno and then decided to go and learn how to make sails at the Horizon Veleria in Connecticut. He returned to Italy and opened Millennium, his own sailmaker, in Prato, with a move to the Marina in Porto Cervo in between, as deputy port director.

But Charles dreams of the ocean and the tropics, and so he sells everything, including the sailmaker, and decides with his partner, Pandora Dance, from Ireland, to leave. It is 1984 and in Casablanca, Morocco, he is at the start of the Transat des Alizées with the Fox Hunt: Shannon, their 3 1/2-year-old son, is also on board.

Landing in Antigua

The finish line of the regatta is in Guadeloupe, and from then on the family lives aboard, sailing from island to island in the Caribbean. Until they land in Antigua, not yet touched by tourism, and become so fascinated by it that they decide to stop and live there.

At first Carlo starts a business to import products from Italy, and since 1986 he has been an active partner in the Antigua Yacht Club, which has more than a deficit balance sheet and is about to close. And here Carlo throws his heart over the hurdle and, to save the Club, decides to build at his own expense a dock with piers to make it a landing place for cruising boats coming down to the Caribbean from the U.S. and Canada, and for those arriving here from old Europe: thus was born in Falmouth Harbour the Antigua Yacht Club Marina, which he still owns together with the Residence, located opposite.

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Loro Piana Giraglia: war of nerves and no wind, Scallywag first in Genoa

But in the meantime, life goes on, and Carlo, who also had Sirley with Pandora, begins sailing with Paola Vittoria, a Neapolitan passing through Antigua. And it is with her that he plans to participate for Antigua in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, in the Star class, where they place honorably.

Also in 1992 with Paola Vittoria, she purchased at auction a vintage boat with beautiful water lines and full of history. During these years the family expanded and Shaun and Rocco were born.

Mariella is a 24 m Bermudian yawl, made of wood in 1938 at the William Fife & Son shipyard, designed by Alfred Milne. She was built for coffee importer James Patterson and then passed to Baron Ronald Teacher, the whiskey man, who sailed her for 32 years and in the 1980s cruised around the world with a long stop in New Zealand, where the boat went to the yard for major maintenance work. On Mariella Carlo then crossed the Atlantic several times from Europe to the Caribbean and back.

In 1994 and 1995 Mariella took first place Overall in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta and has since participated in many world-class regattas.

In 2012, helmed by Dennis Conner, Mariella won the Antigua Sailing Week in her category.

In 2021, she underwent a rigorous refitting in Viareggio, first with every part rebuilt according to the original drawings, and then an overhaul of the masting. The interior was also adapted to the times with a refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioning, and engine soundproofing.

America’s Cup in Antigua

In 2024 the boat stayed in Barcelona during the two months of the America’s Cup and allowed many wives or girlfriends and children of Luna Rossa crewmen to follow the races at sea. For this summer 2025, the plan is to participate in all regattas, for both vintage and non-vintage boats, in the Mediterranean.

Speaking of the America’s Cup, Carlo has succeeded in a most complicated feat. After winning the 2013 America’s Cup on Shannon’s Oracle, which raced all 19 races with Jimmy Spithill, Carlo managed to bring the America’s Cup, the real one, to Antigua. Just as he managed to bring to this small remote island the Cup won by Rocco and Team Luna Rossa in the Young America’s Cup. In a sailing club that couldn’t be simpler.

Carlo, who was until last year Honorary Consul of Italy in Antigua (a role that has now passed to his daughter) reminded me during the award ceremony that his other great passion is rallies. This – I told him – is another story and I would leave it for the moment.

Ida Castiglioni