Matteo Polli: the boats I design must sail well

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 episode, we take you on a tour of the history and news of Matteo Polli, one of the youngest and most talented designers in Italy.

An uncompromising talent

Matteo Polli is one of the youngest and most talented designers there is in Italy, he started from racing boats but now he has established himself in the world of “main- stream” sailing, including cruising, but always trying to maintain his own style. His mantra? Designing boats that work well under sail, trying to use the engine as little as possible. “My passion for boats began as a child when I started with the first sailing courses,” Matteo Polli tells us, “the passion for the physics of sailing came while attending the Nautical Institute in Trieste. I still remember the first GDV I read in ’96, there was Agnelli’s Stealth on the cover! Together with a small group of classmates we decided to go to study at Southampton, a university where many of the best sailboat designers in the world had graduated.” , Matteo Polli recalls. “After graduating in 2002 I started working for Strakel, participating in various projects including the then-president of the Council’s boat. After a few years of racing I landed at 2emmemarine, where with Maurizio Cossutti I collaborated on successful projects. The crisis at the end of the first decade of 2000 destroyed this small reality, and I was hired by Franco Corazza to go and create the rising star Italia Yachts. For about 8 years I held the role of project manager and principal designer until I decided to open my own studio and start designing for shipyards and private clients, primarily Cantiere del Pardo (the one of Grand Soleil) but also much more.” Thus sums up his career Matteo Polli, who within 20 years has become one of the world’s top designers.

Matteo Polli. A philosophy that fits the project

Not only racing boats, which still remain important in its history. “My philosophy changes from project to project, but what I try to do is to make boats that perform well under sail, and this applies to both racing and cruising boats. It’s not just something related to performance, but on the quality of sailing, on being able to be able to hoist the sails all the time with little or a lot of wind. It sounds trivial as a concept, but over the years I have seen so many boats that cannot meet this goal. It makes me want to sometimes go against the grain of what a part of the market is doing today: I don’t understand sometimes why a person should buy a sailboat if it is something that sailing cannot do. Sometimes the average user is not attracted by the sailing capabilities of the boat, those who want to try it out before buying the boat are perhaps few in number.”, this is Matteo Polli‘s stark opinion.

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A legendary boat

“My first real project was Italy 9.98,” Matteo Polli continued. “although before this model I designed two other boats that were very important to me together with Maurizio Cossutti the M37 and the M45 at the time of the 2emmemarine shipyard. The 37 in particular was the boat that allowed me to meet Giuseppe Giuffrè, owner of the legendary “Low Noise” and the one who believed in me by entrusting me with the design of the boat that later became the first of the Italia 9.98 series.” . A boat this one became practically legendary. “How not to remember Low Noise, which later became the IY998 Fuoriserie,” he recounts, “the first one I signed as principal designer. A boat that was born a bit like a bet. Peppino Giuffrè in 2012 wanted to change boat and asked me for a project. They were changing the regulations and I asked him for a year, to study the ORC news well. In the meantime I was working at Italia Yachts, and I presented the idea to Franco Corazza, but he was initially not convinced to do it because it was out of the shipyard’s Cruise range. I had meanwhile found another shipyard to make her, and when I told Franco at that point he started to change his mind. We started building her at Technomar in Fiumicino, and we made her there. When Corazza saw it he definitely changed his mind, the boat started to win, and it became to all intents and purposes an Italia Yachts model. From there the name Fuoriserie was born, just to differentiate it from the rest of the boats in the shipyard. True, the market is going toward beach houses, but there are also those who want boats that work well under sail. And this was also seen in Grand Soleil, with the new, bulky but fast Performance range, with many owners choosing it. Another significant boat was definitely also the1198 IY, but especially the Grand Soleil 44, which won 4 world championships and gave the possibility to really have fun even for pure cruisers, and this is my great satisfaction: an owner of a Grand Soleil 44 tells me “with this boat I always go sailing,” he is a French owner who has gone around the world with the 44. Then the 44 is the first model with Del Pardo, so it represents a new page in my career.” .

Giving volume to the boat without losing quality

“I also like to mention the boats made with thermoplastic resins with NL Composites, they opened a path that still goes on today and led to the birth of the GS Blue, the first one in thermoplastic resin mass-produced. An important experience for me, confronting new materials and a construction technique that is less impactful to the environment. We proved that it works, and the more time passes the more we have confirmation. Then of course the GS72, the largest one designed so far that is already in the water, the most complex and ambitious one.” Matteo concludes by reviewing his projects. He too, however, has had to contend with a market that is demanding ever-larger volume boats: “I made the GS52 which is 5 meters wide, but underneath it gets very narrow, the hull is flared, to keep a contained wetted surface that would ensure good glide with a reduced waterline width. It is my choice to give volume to the boat but without losing the sailing qualities. I also don’t like to enlarge the forward volumes of the bow too much, because in my opinion on Mediterranean cruising boats it is not a suitable choice. And then in this regard I have an idea: I would transform the Saloons, with many more true sea trials designed for users, it would be a nice revolution. It would be a way to give an extra dimension to the buyers. Then there will be those who will always choose convenience first, and that’s fine, however, customers would be much more aware.” . A Matteo Polli who concludes in an almost “visionary” way.

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1985. The sails of the future are being born. The GdV is in, with Lowell North

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