The Maxi dream
Italian entrepreneur Vittorio Moretti’s 36m sailing yacht, Viriella, is well known on the Maxi circuit, but like most yachtsmen of his generation, he worked his way through a succession of much smaller boats before becoming a superyacht owner.…
Italian entrepreneur Vittorio Moretti’s 36m sailing yacht, Viriella, is well known on the Maxi circuit, but like most yachtsmen of his generation, he worked his way through a succession of much smaller boats before becoming a superyacht owner.
Having already turned 40 when, somewhat bored by the beach during a family holiday in Forte dei Marmi on Italy’s Tuscan coast, Moretti decided to sign up for a beginners’ sailing course at the local yacht club. Soon after he acquired a 20-foot Flying Dutchman and sailing became a regular pastime on Lake Iseo near his home or during summer holidays by the sea. The Flying Dutchman is a fast but skittish racing dinghy that is prone to spilling its two-man crew if the centreboard is not properly handled. This presented a problem for Moretti who was a weak swimmer, so he decided to look for a more stable boat with a fixed keel.
The search took him to the late Ettore Santarelli, who specialised in designing and building one-design sailboats in composites. Moretti bought a 10m prototype from Santarelli, which he raced in events such as the famous Centomiglia on Lake Iseo, the longest regatta not held at sea. But it was seeing Raul Gardini’s Moro di Venezia racing in Sardinia in the early 1980s that really inspired Moretti and led to his next project: 22m Carmen di Bellavista, designed by Bruce Farr, to compete on the ICAYA circuit.
“The Maxi regattas in Sardinia provide some of the best racing in the world,” Moretti enthuses. “Watching boats like Moro di Venezia and Longobarda with a full set of sails and a Mistral was an awesome sight.”
"I particularly wanted to experiment with new materials such as carbon fibre, Kevlar and Nomex in the days before pre-pregs to improve performance.” – Vittorio Moretti
Moretti set up his own boatyard, Maxi Dolphin, to build Carmen out of carbon and Kevlar with an Airex core. Weighing in at 22 tons, she couldn’t keep up with the heavier and more powerful Maxis on the race circuit, but Moretti’s fascination with new materials was a natural extension of his core construction business. He had pioneered the use of prefabricated concrete in the late 1960s, a process that demanded ingenuity as opposed to improvisation and the ability to anticipate potential problems – a mindset that served him well in his parallel career as a boatbuilder.
“I started boatbuilding not as a business, but for the fun of it,” he recalls. “It was easier back then when the economy was doing well. I particularly wanted to experiment with new materials such as carbon fibre, Kevlar and Nomex in the days before pre-pregs to improve performance.”
Other yachts quickly followed. In 1995 Maxi Dolphin built the carbon fibre hull of Genie of the Lamp, the groundbreaking 24m Wally sloop designed by German Frers. Then in 2001, in time for his 60th birthday, Moretti upgraded to 36m Viriella, a racer-cruiser also designed by Frers with a lifting keel that made its debut at the Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo the same year. Taking a leaf out of the Wally handbook, the yacht was developed to make handling the yacht as easy as possible with a reduced crew in cruise mode.
“Luca Bassani changed everything with Genie and really opened my eyes,” says Moretti. “The coach roof of Viriella, for example, was originally much lower, so I had it raised by 80cm and moved the engine room under the main salon, which provided the space for a dining room and a larger galley. She came out heavier than planned, but was more comfortable and is still a beautiful looking boat on the water.”
Read the full article in Issue 8 of The Superyacht Owner.
Vittorio Moretti at his office in Erbusco, near Brescia in Italy
Having already turned 40 when, somewhat bored by the beach during a family holiday in Forte dei Marmi on Italy’s Tuscan coast, Moretti decided to sign up for a beginners’ sailing course at the local yacht club. Soon after he acquired a 20-foot Flying Dutchman and sailing became a regular pastime on Lake Iseo near his home or during summer holidays by the sea. The Flying Dutchman is a fast but skittish racing dinghy that is prone to spilling its two-man crew if the centreboard is not properly handled. This presented a problem for Moretti who was a weak swimmer, so he decided to look for a more stable boat with a fixed keel.
The search took him to the late Ettore Santarelli, who specialised in designing and building one-design sailboats in composites. Moretti bought a 10m prototype from Santarelli, which he raced in events such as the famous Centomiglia on Lake Iseo, the longest regatta not held at sea. But it was seeing Raul Gardini’s Moro di Venezia racing in Sardinia in the early 1980s that really inspired Moretti and led to his next project: 22m Carmen di Bellavista, designed by Bruce Farr, to compete on the ICAYA circuit.
“The Maxi regattas in Sardinia provide some of the best racing in the world,” Moretti enthuses. “Watching boats like Moro di Venezia and Longobarda with a full set of sails and a Mistral was an awesome sight.”
Moretti’s own yacht, 36m Viriella
"I particularly wanted to experiment with new materials such as carbon fibre, Kevlar and Nomex in the days before pre-pregs to improve performance.” – Vittorio Moretti
Moretti set up his own boatyard, Maxi Dolphin, to build Carmen out of carbon and Kevlar with an Airex core. Weighing in at 22 tons, she couldn’t keep up with the heavier and more powerful Maxis on the race circuit, but Moretti’s fascination with new materials was a natural extension of his core construction business. He had pioneered the use of prefabricated concrete in the late 1960s, a process that demanded ingenuity as opposed to improvisation and the ability to anticipate potential problems – a mindset that served him well in his parallel career as a boatbuilder.
“I started boatbuilding not as a business, but for the fun of it,” he recalls. “It was easier back then when the economy was doing well. I particularly wanted to experiment with new materials such as carbon fibre, Kevlar and Nomex in the days before pre-pregs to improve performance.”
The latest yacht to leave the Maxi Dolphin yard is Nomade IV, reputedly the “fastest 100-foot cruiser in the world”
Other yachts quickly followed. In 1995 Maxi Dolphin built the carbon fibre hull of Genie of the Lamp, the groundbreaking 24m Wally sloop designed by German Frers. Then in 2001, in time for his 60th birthday, Moretti upgraded to 36m Viriella, a racer-cruiser also designed by Frers with a lifting keel that made its debut at the Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo the same year. Taking a leaf out of the Wally handbook, the yacht was developed to make handling the yacht as easy as possible with a reduced crew in cruise mode.
“Luca Bassani changed everything with Genie and really opened my eyes,” says Moretti. “The coach roof of Viriella, for example, was originally much lower, so I had it raised by 80cm and moved the engine room under the main salon, which provided the space for a dining room and a larger galley. She came out heavier than planned, but was more comfortable and is still a beautiful looking boat on the water.”
Read the full article in Issue 8 of The Superyacht Owner.
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