1996. My name is Vallicelli, I invent boats

Welcome to the special section “GdV 5th Years.” We are introducing you, day by day, An article from the archives of the Journal of Sailing, starting in 1975. A word of advice, get in the habit of starting your day with the most exciting sailing stories-it will be like being on a boat even if you are ashore.

Vallicelli’s Winds

Taken from the 1996 Journal of Sailing, Year 22, No. 01, February, pp. 48/51.

In 1975, four 18-year-old friends founded the first Italian design studio, which, after 20 years, is one of the most famous in the world. The story of the Vallicelli studio that designed Azzurra and dozens of history-making boats.

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Born almost as a joke, Studio Vallicelli completed its first 20 years in business. In fact, it was 1975 when a gang of friends, some an architecture student, some an engineering student, enjoyed racing together. Patrizia Ferri, Andrea Vallicelli, Nicola Sironi and Vittorio Mariani, all just over 18, spent their free time designing boats and designing and cutting sails. On the occasion of the Half Ton Cup to be held the following year in Trieste, Andrea Vallicelli got the idea to “jump in” and make a boat for that regatta. From the imagination and passion of four young men, the first Ziggurat was thus born, and shortly thereafter that group of friends would form the first Studio Vallicelli company.

In addition to building boats designed for racing, the new studio immediately and simultaneously found itself involved in mass production as well. It was precisely during the construction of the Ziggurat that a strong bond was established with Carlo Alberto Tiberio, one of the partners in the Artmare shipyard, which produces a cruising boat called the Cat 34. After asking Andrea Vallicelli to design a bulb for this boat, he decided to put the Cat 38, a one-tonner serial production boat designed by Studio Vallicelli, then called Gattone, into production. The beginning of the activity, immediately directed toward the production of racing and cruising boats, like a premonitory sign would characterize the next twenty years of work, during which Studio Vallicelli produced more than one hundred and thirty designs of sailboats from 22 to 105 feet, both racing and cruising. Twenty-three of them went into mass production. All this is just to say that in twenty years a total of about a thousand units signed Vallicelli have been launched (an average of four boats per month).

Over the years, the team has formed around it a network of external collaborators specialized in studies in naval tank, aerohydrodynamic studies with computer simulation tools and in research on advanced materials to structural engineering, which added to the specialization and professionalism of the members of the studio (currently formed by Andrea Vallicelli, Vittorio Mariani, Alessandro Nazareth, Stefano Orlando and Adriano Ciai) allows to follow and develop the entire design phase in every aspect down to the smallest detail, from naval architecture to plant engineering, from interior design to aesthetic solutions. Working on both racing and cruising boats, Studio Vallicelli has been able to accrue over time a long experience in shipyards of all kinds, which has led to consider the assistance provided to the builder a normal continuation of the design phase. The strong involvement in the racing sector has allowed for in-depth studies on advanced construction technologies and numerous experiments on tank models, acquiring a wealth of data that are continuously processed, optimized and used for the design of cruising boats as well.

Here is a brief history of the projects that have characterized the Roman firm’s 20 years of activity:

1975 ZIGGURAT – Vallicelli’s first design. A 3.7-ton half tonner, for the time a medium-light displacement boat inspired by the IOR hulls of Doug Peterson and Dick Carter. After the ’76 Half Ton Cup it became a production boat.

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1976 VOLPE HUNTING – The first ULDB designed in Italy, with an angled hull and built of marine plywood. In 1992 it won first place at Antigua Race Week. From the same year is the Cat 38 (the Big Cat), built as standard by the Artmare shipyard.

1977 ARGENTOVIVO – After the Half Ton Cup result, the Three Quarter Tonner was born for the owners Trionfi and Vigliani, who would place second at the world championship in La Rochelle. First success abroad.

1978 NONNO GIGI – From the request for a quiet 12-meter cruising boat by Florentine Giorgio Tantussi, a racing boat with a wide stern, rigged to 7/8 was born.

1979 BRAVA Pasquale Landolfi’s first Brava was designed, built in aluminum by Minneford of New York.

1980 TOWING WIRE – Born from an evolution of Brava, armed at 7/8, won the One Ton Cup in Naples.

1981 – GEMINI Now internationally recognized, Studio Vallicelli began its relationship with the Navy.

1982 AZZURRA – One of the most important adventures of Italian sailing. According to Vittorio Mariani the fastest hull in the 1983 America’s Cup. She is chosen as the hare boat by Dennis Conner.

1983 ENTEPRISE – The first 50′ designed by the firm for a French owner. Built in aluminum with composite deck, she won the 1987 World 50′.

1984 COMET 12 – A boat that is also successful abroad. Begins the long collaboration with Comar, the largest shipyard producing series hulls in Italy.

1985 SPRINGBOK – The first boat designed for an American. At the same time another 50′, Sirena, the first composite boat built in Turkey for Cuneyt Cankurtan, is being processed.

1986 DIOSCURA-Designed for Carlo Perrone, it is an elegant oneoff built of wood and conceived according to the cruise-ship philosophy.

1987 ULDB 65 – The largest production boat designed by Studio Vallicelli. Constructed in sandwich with vinylester resins. Fast and ideal for cruising, she won the 1992 Grand Regatta of Columbus.

1988 BRANCALEON – A carbon Three Quarter Tonner with a nomex core. Very fast, it relaunched Studio Vallicelli in the IOR world. That same year, the Koala Sesto was also designed for Pierluigi Spadolini.

1989 LA CARDINALA – Boat designed solely for cruising, 71 feet long by forty tons displacement. Built of wood, she is the first large cruiser designed by the firm.

1990 GENESIS – The last boat designed for Comar, still extremely modern and innovative. Fractional, with self-tacking jib; according to the firm one of the most beautiful hulls they designed.

1991 FETCH – A wooden 73′ built by De Cesari, a shipyard with which Studio Vallicelli has built more than twenty boats.

1992 STRADIVARIA – A Free class that allows the studio to continue the ULDB research begun with Caccia alla Volpe. Built in carbon for Garda regulation, she wins four editions of the Centomiglia. She weighs 2.5 tons for 12.70 meters in length and is a fractional with masthead spinnaker.

1993 ORSA MAGGIORE – The 93-foot ketch designed for the Navy, made of composite by the Tencara shipyard.

1994 ESTE 39 – Building on the success of the Este 35, which in 1992 won all the regattas in which it participated, the collaboration with Cantieri Navali D’Este continued with the design of the 39-footer. An IMS cruise-regatta boat.

1995 OPEN 55 – The Gaia Legend, born on the evolution of the Stradivaria and which won the Barcolana the day after the launch.

As for the future, the sloop Mia, a 75′ cruising sloop with a special interior layout showing two guest cabins with paired beds amidships, will be launched. Also under construction is another cruising and charter maxi, a 32-meter fiberglass ketch to be launched in 1997. In late ’95 and mid ’96 two boats destined for mass production will be ready: theOceano 54 and the Sovereign 54, respectively. A futuristic 40-meter sloop was also designed for a famous as well as important Italian shipowner accustomed to original, large boats. Parallel to the sailboat design activity, Studio Vallicelli began to follow the field of military ships and motor yachts.

by Andrea Falcon

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