Creating, building, transforming… the history of Vismara plate 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 discovery of Alessandro Vismara Yachting, a brand that has helped to always create boats that are out of the box, innovative and able to break the mold.

From lake to seawater

Alessandro Vismara has shaped the history of Italian sailing, first in racing by winning national and world titles with his innovative boats, then “giving the cruiser the right to sail as well as the racers,” thanks to his Vismara Marine. A company that has been able to create yachts that are always at the forefront of design and construction: unique and recognizable cruising boats to give the experienced owner “a better way to go to sea.”

A unique sea story that starts far away… “It all started with dinghies on Lake Como,” says Alessandro Vismara, “and from there the desire to sail at sea. I followed my heart and went to Southampton for courses in Naval Architecture. While there, I had an epiphany: to provide clear scientific answers to yacht design.

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2002. Renzo Piano’s strange, incredible boat

That was in the 1980s, when this business was a matter of experience and feeling, I began to design racing yachts with a scientific approach, winning international regattas and world championships.
In 1987 we designed and built a very innovative 3/4-ton racing yacht made entirely of carbon fiber. This was many years before carbon fiber was generally accepted in the yachting world, and the end result was an extremely lightweight yacht that required much less sail area than its competitors.

The boat, called Gen Mar, was the first of a new generation: lightness as opposed to traditional weight. Just three days after the launching ceremony, we won the Italian Championship and then stood on the podium at the World Championships that season.

With the momentum of success dragging us along, we have gone on to produce some legendary and winning boats such as the 1992 Vismara V40 Ims Pistrice, which continues to win regattas to this day, and its sister boat Querida , launched in 1996 and built to sail for one month of the year and then race the rest.

She won the Sardinia Cup in her first season and later, in 2001, stood on the top step of the podium at the Giraglia.

Then there are some truly spectacular and unique yachts such as the “Mono-maran” Junoplano, an 18-meter ULDB from 1996 with a 60-degree canting keel and a rotating carbon-fiber wing mast with no stays, and the timeless 60-foot Kirribilli designed in collaboration with the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano.”

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Vismara. Following passion is the secret

In the mid-1990s a further realization: to bring, through the application of scientific design and integrated technology, the performance of racing yachts to the cruising world.

“Just because you don’t race doesn’t mean you don’t want to sail well, efficiently and fast. After ten years then, I took the next step to offer full service by creating a brand that integrated research, construction and after-sales service: Vismara Marine. Not forgetting that in 1990 I became dealer of Baltic Yachts for the Mediterranean. This collaboration with one of the most iconic and technologically innovative builders in the industry has allowed me to create some of the most beautiful and high performance composite yachts that ply the oceans.

I have always tried to follow my passion and search for the best solutions to develop new technologies and new approaches, always staying close to the market. Our goal is to lead, not follow. In the 1980s, individual designers worked as a single design studio. In the 1990s, we were among the first design studios to understand that the design office also had to take full responsibility for the end result, so Vismara Yacht Design became a “general contractor,” selling not only the design, but also the boat and sometimes the management.

In the 2000s we became more dedicated to the Vismara brand and the desire to build a reputation for designing and manufacturing full-service yachts. We closed Vismara Yacht Design and moved our design team into a new group-Vismara Marine Group. This was a combination of three companies that were involved in design, construction, and associated services. In 2007 we were able to bring everything together with the creation of Vismara Marine at the Viareggio shipyard.”

Today Alessandro Vismara is AV Yachting, a reality that takes the best of the history of unomo that has made the history of sailing italy and is composed of people, professionals and companies united by one great value: passion and culture in their work; they are the Artisans of the Sea.

The desire to get around a big table, together with the owner, all on an equal footing and with their own wealth of knowledge and experience, to kick off a new seafaring adventure. The goal is clear: to research, ideate, innovate and create unique and unrepeatable yachts. “We will never stop exploring, and the end of our quest will be to arrive at the starting point, and be aware of our value, for the first time.”

• 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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