1989. Neapolitan Pasquale Landolfi’s ‘boundless love for the Brava.

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.

My Bravadoes

Taken from the 1989 Journal of Sailing, Year 15, No. 07, August, pp. 46-49.

Interview with Pasquale Landolfi, one of the wonderful examples of boundless passion for sailing and racing. He has just won one of the most important regattas in the world, the One Ton Cup, and his history is linked to his legendary boats, the Brava, known all over the world.

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A Neapolitan of great character, Pasquale Landolfi is one of the “historic” owners of international offshore sailing. His legendary Brava series has competed on seas all over the world, often succeeding, as at the last One Ton Cup or the 1983 Fastnet regatta, in win. That is why his boats are an important arrival point for all sailors, whether they are called Paul Cayard, the most famous of his helmsmen, or Paolo Massarini, the best of his bowmen. At the Journal of Sailing, Landolfi told his story; those in the IOR who want to win, open your ears wide.

Neapolitan, just sixty years old, one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, both, carried very naturally. Shiny white hair, very strong profile, infrequent but thunderous smile. This is, from the outside at least, Pasquale Landolfi, the owner of the Brava, a first class and three one-tonners that have made the history of national and international offshore sailing in the last decade. The latest Brava won a few weeks between the One Ton Cup, the most difficult of Ior’s offshore races, then, a few days later, Landolfi decided to withdraw his boat from selection for the Italian team for theAdmiral’s Cup. It was a sensational gesture, which, however, did not surprise too much those who know Pasquale Landolfi well, a man who between extraordinary victories and rocambolic decisions is certainly accustomed to surprise and, therefore, to make people talk about him. Brava is a name known all over the world, one that bowmen and grinders in Auckland, Cowes and San Francisco remember very well from reading it on the stern in the distinctive gold lettering (yes, sheets of real pure gold) on the deep blue hull during some regatta when Brava, as is often the case, gears up in fifth gear and plants her opponents in the stern. Brava is feared, because she wants to win at all costs, because she always has the lightest mast, the finest sails, the fittest helmsman. This is the spirit of its owner who loves, in the after-race, to gather his crews in the best restaurants in the area for gargantuan meals (the appetite of rough sailors is well known) and excellent and plentiful drinks during which he does most of the talking, telling about what he saw in the regatta without sparing sharp jokes and sarcastic judgments on everyone present. Then Pasquale (another peculiarity: the obligatory “you” for all boat mates) transforms; in the boat he goes silent smoking dozens of cigarettes nervously chewing the filter and stringing his caps on his head. Well, ashore he returns the “boss” and reappropriates, as he told us himself, of course in a restaurant, with a very effective definition, the “human and psychological coordination of the crew.” This is his role because, as he likes to recall quoting one of his many sailing friends, “in a boat you don’t win if you don’t love each other.” And at the court of “King Pasquale” people love or perhaps hate each other very much, strong feelings certainly circulate, nothing to do with the aseptic relationships that one often has with other top Italian boat owners.

Landolfi ‘s only trouble is that it is so easy to talk about him, to recount the almost endless sailing anecdote, that it becomes very difficult to stop; the memories flow and still we have not written that without him, although no one knows it, the legendary Azzurra of 1983, the one of the first participation in the America’s Cup, would not have existed since it was Landolfipersonally who bought the 12-meter Enterprise from the Americans effectively starting the adventure. Without him and his boats, Andrea Vallicelli (who signed the first three Brava boats) would not have become one of the world’s best-known nautical designers so quickly. And the list could still go on. Before I let him have the floor, now that he has ordered his favorite white and, without conviction, a squash blossom flan, I must necessarily add that Pasquale Landolfi is one of Montedison‘s top executives (and certainly its president Raul Gardini will remember that in 1980 during team selections for the Sardinia Cup, Brava centered the result, as opposed to his Blue Moor), he has a wife, Januaria, who is Brava’s biggest fan, two daughters who turn the heads of many sailors, Gloria and Marina, has a degree in chemistry, and played water polo in the big leagues.

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Sailing Newspaper – How does your passion for sailing begin?
Landolfi – It is recent. Although I must point out that the passion for the sea for someone who was born in Castellammare di Stabia and lived his entire youth in Rivafiorita on the Gulf of Naples is absolutely inevitable.

Sailing Newspaper – So it was not immediately sailing…
Landolfi – In a way, yes. My father had a gozzo, and I used to steal sheets from my mother and mount them on the oars for the first few sailings. I can hear her, “There’s a shortage of sheets here!” and she would blame the maid.

Sailing Newspaper – Water polo…
Landolfi – I made my major league debut with Canottieri Napoli in 1955. Mine was a game of great movement, center court. Then I made a team of my own at Circolo Nautico Stabia, where my grandfather had been president for a long time. We played in Serie B, and the battle cry “Stabia, Stabia” is still in my heart.

Sailing Newspaper – Congratulations!
Landolfi – Thank you. But I’m going back to sailing, don’t worry. Although the next installment is from 1978, so there are over twenty years in between.

Sailing Newspaper – I’m ready.
Landolfi – In 1978 with my friend Raffaele Santoro I bought a Canados Three Quarter, we called it Strangeness.

Sailing Newspaper – In fact it was a rather odd pair of owners.
Landolfi – Yeah, I admit it was. I wanted to go hard, he wanted to cruise. It lasted two years, then during the Anzio-Ponza-Anzio we found ourselves leading the pack with 35 knots of wind in the stern and a sheet got stuck. I, who was at the helm, yelled to cut it, he replied that “nothing was cut.” I went ashore determined to make my own boat.

Sailing Newspaper – An important decision.
Landolfi – In fact, I inquired and found out that the best designer at the time was Doug Peterson from California. I contacted him, just a step away from signing the contract, I had doubts. I, who was the last to arrive, what service would I get? So I ran to Sardinia to watch the Italian selectionsfor the Admiral’s Cup. I fell in love with Nonno Gigi, a fractional second class who despite failing to qualify made waves.

Sailing Newspaper – Grandpa Gigi was drawn by Andrea Vallicelli.
Landolfi – I introduced myself on a platform: excuse me, are you architect Vallicelli? The answer came naturally nose high, a little snooty. But I was not discouraged. A month later I dragged Vallicelli and his collaborator Nicola Sironi to England to watch the Admiral’s Cup. I had decided, I was going to do a Vallicelli, but I wanted the best, the best yard, the best helmsman, the best sails. I wanted a winning boat.

Sailing Newspaper – All this entrusted to a group of Roman boys, the Vallicelli group, undoubtedly very talented but inexperienced.
Landolfi – I played the Vallicelli card with knowledge. They were ambitious, they wanted to emerge, and I knew he would give me all the assistance for that that Peterson certainly could not.

Sailing Newspaper – The boat was indeed built in the best shipyard of the time, that of Minneford in the United States. And the name was chosen, splendid, simple and effective: Brava.
Landolfi – Also a bit presumptuous perhaps. The other two names I was undecided on were “Ubi Major” and “Ipso Facto,” then I chose Brava also because, I admit, there was a sponsorship from Fiat that was launching in the United States, where the boat was being born, a car with this name. The sponsorship then didn’t go through but the name remained, and I don’t regret it at all.

Sailing Newspaper – The boat made its debut at the 1980 Alassio regattas, becoming immediately famous worldwide because of an overboard immortalized in a historic photograph. At the helm was one John Marshall.
Landolfi – All true. Overboating is part of the game, we caught one again this year in Genoa during the Italian championships with Francesco De Angelis at the helm, but there were no photographers and no one knew. Marshall was one of the best helmsmen I ever had, one who taught the whole crew the ABCs of sailing at a high level, but he certainly lacked victories in Olympic classes.

Sailing Newspaper – After Marshall it was a procession of familiar names aboard, Tom Blackaller, Gary Weisman, Paul Cayard, John Bertrand. Who the best?
Landolfi – Today it is certainly Paul Cayard. He is also young, I think he will remain the best for a long time to come; he is meticulous, he has drive, ambition. And I pride myself on being one of those who helped launch him by giving him the helm of the Brava in 1985 at the One Ton Cup, when he was still little more than an unknown.

Sailing Newspaper – Super-Cayard then.
Landolfi – Yes, but not just him. Relative to the times, Marshall is very close to Cayard. Then also Gary Weisman, who raced on my boats perhaps more than any other. Of him I remember an amazing glide in Sardinia with the Brava One Ton that Morri and Para built for me. Faster than light, faster than first class.

Journal of Sailing – You are also credited, among other things, with having left many Italian helmsmen behind. Of paying them like professionals, pampering them, fighting with them. What’s your idea of that?
Landolfi – That they have become aware of their means, that they are much improved after their America’s Cup experiences.

Journal of Sailing – Very diplomatic. But let’s go into detail. Mauro Pelaschier was not yet the helmsman of Azzurra in 1982, but he was already the one of Brava.
Landolfi – Mauro has extraordinary insight; his limitation is that he is not a “test pilot,” he has to get on a boat that is already tuned.

Sailing Newspaper – The best Italian then who is it?
Landolfi – Perfection would probably be had with Francesco De Angelis at the helm and Tommaso Chieffi at the tactician, but I know it is unattainable.

Sailing Newspaper – Francis…
Landolfi – What can I say about the coxswain with whom I won the One Ton Cup last May besides that he is good?

Sailing Newspaper-Maybe he’s not exactly assertive.
Landolfi – True, but in the boat it manages to be just enough.

Sailing Newspaper – Tommaso…
Landolfi – Never had the honor of having him on board, although in 1987 we were very close to finishing. I am an admirer of his and recognize that he is probably the most talented of the Italian helmsmen, however, he has to mature (and in part he is doing so) to transform himself from a cocky boy to
a man aware of his means.

Sailing Newspaper – Settled. And of his brother Enrico, the revelation helmsman of the year aboard
Aria, what do you think?
Landolfi – Good, but he has a long way ahead to catch up with his opponents and anyway I find him better as a tactician, especially paired with his brother.

Sailing Newspaper – We come to the victory of the One Ton Cup in Naples. It seems like a dream, almost
that it was worth waiting so many years to finally reach it on your doorstep, with the two offshore races even brushing right up against the old Rivafiorita building.
Landolfi – The One Ton Cup was my goal, within my reach. And with good organization and good sailors I achieved it.

Sailing Newspaper – Yeah, but after the triumph there was the surprising decision not to participate in the Admiral’s Cup selections.
Landolfi – I believe, after winning the Italian championships with four first places and the One Ton Cup, that I have achieved some rights; I realize that the rules of the selections already written could not be changed, but I honestly believe that I did not have to prove anything anymore.

Sailing Newspaper – Your next boat?
Landolfi – A one-tonner for sure, but don’t ask me anything else, because I haven’t decided anything yet. The Admiral’s Cup, where I’ve been cheering for Italy, has given me some pointers.

Sailing Newspaper – One final question, who will win the America’s Cup?
Landolfi – Gardini, and Montedison, sure.

Did anyone doubt the answer?

by Luca Bontempelli

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