What are creative sailing courses, Lele Panzeri’s latest invention (and how to participate)

Happening to be in the vicinity of Carloforte, southwest Sardinia, the GdV editorial staff points out a guy to go interview.

“His name is Lele Panzeri, he is half-crazy but very nice, we have published several times in the past his bizarre nautical adventures in the newspaper. Go listen to him, he is organizing creative sailing courses for September and October on his boat. You can find him at the Marinatour, or more likely at the bar across the street.”

Creative sailing? And what on earth could it be?

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I look him up first on the Internet and find that the aforementioned Lele Panzeri is a well-known advertising creative, the author of memorable award-winning campaigns of the recent past, and has been up to all sorts of things in his life. He has written books, been a director, television and film writer, been an actor, organized and produced Air Guitar concerts where illustrious strangers would get on a stage, put on a record and pretend to play a nonexistent guitar. And then he also became Implausible Master of Pataphysics-what a guy! He should be over seventy years old now.

He sounds like a mixture of Merlin Wizard, Panoramix and the guitarist from ZZTop.

I look for it on the Marinatour dock and find it right away.

He is aboard his beautiful fire-red boat, the Vampa. She is a 1979 Baltic 39 C&C, in splendid shape.

He is reassembling a winch he just cleaned.

Creative Sailing, interview with Lele Panzeri

“Are you Lele Panzeri?”

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“Today, yes,” he replies with a smile.

We are off to a good start.

“And who are you?”

“Armando Frustalupi of the Sailing Newspaper — I’d like to do a little interview with you about your idea of creative sailing courses.”

He helps me over the gangway and sits me in the cockpit.

“What on earth is creative sailing?”

“Sailing, by itself, would not be creative, it has to submit to strict and precise laws but, if it is practiced by creative people, a little bit it becomes creative. My courses are dedicated to people, probably quite young, who are tackling my work or who are intent on doing it. But this, instead of in the desks of a university, takes place aboard a sailboat sailing in these wonderful waters.”

“Okay. I get it-you teach creativity and sailing at the same time.”

“More or less. Actually, creativity cannot be taught, but it can be honed. And here I can help with my experiences and my attitude toward life. And then creativity resembles the practice of sailing … there are no roads or roadways at sea … you have to create your own path, taking into account what you have available to you and adapting to the landscape and conditions. I want to go straight but there is an island ahead. Which way do I pass? And then, if we are talking about regattas, it kind of applies what said such John Hegarty, famous English creative: “When everybody zig, zag!”. Are you last? It’s useless to go after the others — go to the other side and create a chance.”

“Got it … sounds good to me.”

“Being on a boat is much the same as being in an advertising agency. You have your colleagues beside you working for the success of the company and the principals. And you also have to contribute, but you have to do it in your own way, according to your inclinations and talents. And the roles … tactician, helmsman, strategist, bowman … in advertising it would be art director, copywriter, account, media, strategist, planner and so on.”

“Have you also done regattas in your life?”

“And how! On the Dinghy, on the Mattia Esse, on the Laser… and then I fell into the pot of Class A, the 18-foot singlehanded catamarans…tremendous, crazy…in twenty-five years I managed to win only one regatta, in France, for the sole reason that there were no Italians except me…and the Italians were the best….”

“Now they are flying.”

“They’ve been flying for quite a while … they’re very light, foil-equipped … you experiment with things that then go straight to the America’s Cup … Peter Burling, Glenn Ashby and so many other America’s Cup chiefs come from the A-Class. The last A-Class I had, ready to sail with hulls, platform, rudders, mast, sails, drifts and everything … weighed 10 pounds less than I did naked.”

“And do you race cabin cruisers?”

“Very few times. I’m not passionate about them. I feel like I’m racing on the Monza track with an RV … it’s not for me … I prefer to ‘sail’ and go for a walk with friends.”

“Did you make the Atlantic or not?”

“Yes, twice…once with Austoni’s legendary Chica Boba 2… we brought it home to him after he had done the 80 Ostar…and then about ten years ago with my GS46 that I later sold to Santo Domingo.”

“But in the newsroom they told me about another strange adventure of yours in a Mini….”

“Oh, sure! I wanted to commit suicide in my own way and bought a Salt Tea 6.50 , practically a Mini, and I left for the West in mid-November, at the age of 58, against the wind … with the insane purpose of reaching the Caribbean or dying with dignity, doing so.”

“Aren’t you dead?”

“Evidently not. In fact, I started living again, I came out of the depression that had suddenly seized me and, although I only made it as far as Gibraltar (alone?), I got to know all the bars in the Balearics and on the Spanish coast and their waitresses. The best two months of my life. At the newspaper, at which I kept a blog/travelogue, they dubbed me “the biggest waffler in the Mediterranean.” They were right. In my life I have always attempted the impossible in every field. Sometimes I succeeded, many others not. But … who cares? That’s who I am.”

“In fact, you don’t seem to be ashamed of anything.”

“I was a poor, sad, shy, ill-tempered child … a real pain in the ass … then, suddenly I found myself in the audience of Jimi Hendrix’s concert, in Milan, at the Piper in 1977 … it changed my life. And I liked the new life better … and here I am, more than half a century later … the same.”

“What about the Vampa?”

“I love it, it’s fast and maneuverable, a love. I love it tenderly and get reciprocated, I think.”

“In conclusion, do you want to give a message to potential customers of your courses?”

“Okay. They last for a week. They are a concentrated ‘hands-on’ school of sailing and creativity. You live together, sail together, learn together. Two courses for the price of one…sorry my publicist soul returned…ahahah…do you want coffee?”

“Yes thank you…very last question…how much is a week with you on the Vampa?”

“I don’t know yet, my consultant is doing the very complicated calculations that I don’t understand. Sooner or later he will tell me a figure. I’m going to open a dedicated Facebook page now and put all the news there. Stay tuned!… ah… by the way… say hi to Luca and Tommaso a lot… I haven’t seen them in a while…”

I say goodbye to him and leave along the pier. I have the distinct impression that those who will take his course, at the very least, will not be bored.

Armando Frustalupi

Creative Sailing, to get info

Would you like to get info about Lele Panzeri’s Creative Sailing courses. You can email him directly at gabriomauriziopanzeri@gmail.com