Cariboni, history of an Italian excellence. From home winery to the elite of world sailing

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Sailing, the great excellences of the sailing world tell their stories and reveal their projects. In this column, discover all the companies and people who have made important contributions to the multifaceted world of sailing, which enables us all to go to sea in all forms and contexts.

In this installment, we take you on a tour of Cariboni, a company that has helped revolutionize the world of sailing, racing, and the America’s Cup with its hydraulic systems.

Cariboni, or the history of modern sailing

Gianni Cariboni has always set his work on a few cardinal principles: “During the design phase, always take a proactive approach and listen to everyone, because someone else’s idea might offer you a new and unexpected perspective (a teaching from his mentor Giulio Cesare Carcano, ed.).” Another motto of his is, “Equipment in a boat works best when it’s on the verge of giving way…but it doesn’t give way.” And finally, “Sailing should be a pleasure, not a compulsion.”

His career, which began in the basement of his home-it sounds like an “American way of life” story, but it’s all true-has led him to be recognized worldwide as the foremost expert on hydraulic and hydraulic systems applied to sailboats. For forty-one years, more precisely since 1984, Cariboni srl has been developing, designing and producing technological solutions whose primary goal is to simplify sailing. For this reason, Cariboni, together with his close friend Luca Bassani (founder of Wally), is considered one of the pioneers of easy sailing. He was the first to develop the canting keel on “normal” boats, invented the double-speed cylinder for mainsail adjustment (the famous Magic Trim), built the first laminated carbon mast in Europe, the first mast-jack integrated into a mast… The list of his innovations is very, very long.

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The America’s Cup and Cariboni

The Cariboni name is inextricably linked to the America’s Cup. Although few people know that the company debuted in the America’s Cup as early as 1987 (the second Azzurra mounted a special boom inspired by the leaf spring suspension of trains, which distributed the load points according to a composite philosophy that was cutting-edge for the time), it is widely acknowledged, however, that no team racing for the “Old Pitcher” can do without Cariboni for all the handling mechanisms aboard the flying AC75s: from systems for handling the foil booms to hydraulics and hydraulics.

This is a remarkable achievement, considering that this sector has traditionally been dominated by Anglo-Saxon companies.

Among the teams using Cariboni’s collaboration is, of course, the “Italian national sailing team,” Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. This partnership between Patrizio Bertelli’s syndicate and the Ronco Briantino (MB)-based company–now about 30 employees, a turnover of about 9 million–dates back to Luna Rossa’s very first Cup campaign.

In 1998, designer Germán Frers, who was working with Cariboni on the Wally 88 Tiketitan, presented him with a technical problem concerning the cylinders that would act on Luna Rossa’s upper spreaders on the mast. Out of this challenge came special cylinders that were later adopted on all boats participating in the Cup. For the AC75 with which Luna Rossa competed in the last Cup in Barcelona, Cariboni supplied not only the “standard” components for all teams, but also the handling systems for the sail functions, cylinders, manifolds and specific mechanisms.

Not just Cup for Cariboni…

Not just America’s Cup. You need only go to Cariboni’s website and scroll through the “Projects” section to see the amount of boats (well known and lesser known, custom and production) that mount its systems aimed at easy sailing. Among the latest “cruiser” models, for example, are the Solaris 111 Cefea (33.77 m boat) on board of which the Lombard company has supplied all the hydraulic system and cylinders for the management of all sailing functions: on the 80′ series boats of the Aquileia shipyard, on the other hand, they have supplied systems and Magic Trim.

The Maxi Dolphin, custom boats that come to life in Franciacorta, mount Cariboni cylinders and systems, as, moreover, do the very Italian ICE Yachts. it is very easy that on the “maxi” sizes you will find a component “made in Ronco Briantino”: Southern Wind, Persico, the list is endless. But beware, not only gigabars use Cariboni systems: for example, the Neo 430 and its lifting keel handling cylinder, the Nautor Swan 55 and 58 with mast handling cylinders, the Mills 41 (lifting keel, hydraulic system) come to mind.

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Cariboni’s latest news

Cariboni’s latest “sensational” jobs include Giovanni Soldini’s newly unveiled Ferrari flying supermonoship and Lindsay Owen-Jones’s new Magic Carpet ᵉ: aboard the 30-meter craft built by Persico Marine to a design by Guillaume Verdier, the Ronco Briantino-based company did all the hydraulics, keel movements (canting and telescoping), rudder blades and hydraulic furler.

• At this link, all the mythical stories from the 50 years of the Sailing Newspaper

50 years of the GdV: an opportunity not to be missed. Also for your brand

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Il Giornale della Vela is organizing the largest communication campaign in its history, which will reach a total audience of 2,000,000 “sea lovers” interested in the world of sailing.

How? Deploying all its communication channels: magazine (paper+digital), websites, E-mail marketing, social (facebook/instagram). The certainty is that 2 million interested people will be reached to whom you can tell your company’s story.

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Why you’d better embark with us
The Newspaper of Sailing proposes that all companies interested in the boating target audience tell their story, just as the GdV tells its own. Don’t worry, our journalists are on hand to help you produce attractive and effective text and images to reach two million “sea lovers.”

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