2020. At 10 knots in the Atlantic we were making spaghetti.

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.

At 10 knots in the Atlantic we were making spaghetti.

Taken from the 2020 Journal of Sailing, Year 46, No. 03, April, pp. 68-75.

Aldo Fumagalli tells how he achieved his life’s dream. How he crossed the Atlantic and won the legendary ARC rally with a real sailor’s trimaran. Credit to a stable boat, crew and a strategic choice of sails.

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Aldo Fumagalli had a dream of crossing the Ocean 20 years ago, and after 20 years he made it, participating in the ARC Plus Atlantic rally with a real sailor’s trimaran. And he also won it. Credit to a stable boat, crew and a strategic choice of sails.

“I will always remember that, when I was 40, I told my friends, ‘By 60 I will have made the Atlantic.’ I barely made it.” Speaking is Aldo Fumagalli, an electronics engineer and successful entrepreneur (he is the former owner of the well-known home appliance brand Candy), born in 1959 and a great sailing enthusiast. With his trimaran Neel 47 Minimole won late last year the ARC Plus, the 3,000-mile transatlantic from Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) to Rodney Bay (Saint Lucia) with a stopover in Mindelo (Cape Verde). His success was a “good first:” Aldo was on his first ocean crossing and the boat was brand new.

The first steps of this adventure

But beware, of miles on his back, the Monzese Fumagalli already had quite a few: “I started many, many years ago, as a charterer. With friends we used to rent boats for our vacations: as we got richer (laughs, ed.) the cruises got longer and we could afford to sail even outside the Mediterranean, to exotic places like the Caribbean and the Seychelles. I also happened to be paid to do boat transfers, for example we took a 12-meter Giorgetti and Magrini from Venice to Elba Island.” Lots of cruising, very little racing: “Just a little activity on First 21.7s on Lake Como, at Circolo Vela Bellano.”

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The right boat and crew

Years go by and Aldo feels ready to “give it a go” in the Atlantic. To do this requires the right boat, and he, who has never owned one, began a painstaking search: “I am an engineer who used to make washing machines, so I needed to inform myself and know in detail how things work. I was looking for a boat that could combine speed and comfort, and I wanted it to be a multihull: after a tour of various boat shows I settled on the Neel 47.” A special boat, very few Italians choose a trimaran: “it has important spaces, it has a raised cabin on the deck and the cockpit is in fact a ‘veranda’ on the sea. What amazed me about this boat is its stability. Just think that in the Atlantic, while we were traveling at 10 knots, we were sitting on the deck eating spaghetti on a perfectly set table with glass glasses!” Because speed is fine, but comfort while cruising must not be compromised: Aldo will also use the boat with his family, not for nothing did he name it Minimole, which means “little mole” in English. Talpina is the way he affectionately calls his wife. The La Rochelle shipyard delivered the boat to Fumagalli on Sept. 15, less than two months before the start of the regatta from the Canary Islands. “Shortly before, on Aug. 29, I had been diagnosed with a serious heart problem, so I had to undergo an operation for a triple bypass. The day before going under the knife I was desperate to find a skipper who could transfer the boat from France to the Canaries. Fortunately, I found Patrick Phelipon.” Phelipon is a well-known name: born in 1953, a lifelong Italian in the “clique” of Cino Ricci, who went to “fish” for him in France, where the sailor already boasted an enviable pedigree (he was aboard the Pen Duick VI Tabarly’s first Whitbread-the crewed round-the-world race in stages-in 1973). Patrick’s resume includes Admiral’s Cup, Fastnet Race, Half Ton Cup, Quarter Ton Cup, Mini Ton Cup: he also successfully designed many boats, legendary was Effraie, the Cat Boat-rigged mini tonner that won the first Mini Ton Cup. “Patrick knows the boats perfectly and was the person I was looking for,” Fumagalli continued. “Anyway, my post-surgery rehabilitation lasted less than expected and I was able to take part in the transfer from France to Portugal and then to the Canary Islands.” Phelipon was the only graft in a well-rehearsed crew: along with Aldo, his friends Marco Corno (skipper), Marco Biraghi, Marco Tausel, and Carlo Pozzi (doctor: on this transatlantic, embarking a doctor is a must) participated in the ARC Plus.

Modifications to cope with the ocean

“Neel is a serious shipyard but obviously the boat, as soon as it was delivered to us, needed some modifications, and in this Phelipon’s experience was crucial: we replaced the mainsail sheet fixed point with a trolleyable system, installed barber everywhere on board so that all the runners are in the cockpit. When sailing on the high seas, the less you move on deck, the better. In this regard, it should be mentioned that in the Atlantic, the very long wave can reach six meters in height, making it very difficult to climb the mast if needed. To avert this, Patrick made modifications at the head to have triple redundancy of the main halyards. The latter were reinforced with special sheathing and a gear hoist at the masthead. You can’t imagine what springy stresses ocean waves subject the halyards to: they pull up your bow, bring the boat down on plane, and then brake it. And in fact we had two breakages: the gennaker halyard and the Parasailor halyard.”

Minimole’s secret weapon

Mark this name, Parasailor. According to Aldo, it was this type of sailing that determined the success of Minimole. This is a carrier sail that uses principles derived from light aviation. Invented in Germany, it consists of a symmetrical spinnaker-type sail (not tangoned) and an opening at the point of maximum air pressure, behind which a box wing (paraglider-type) is installed. The wing is able to vent excess pressure, and the wing provides a fixed 45-degree tow. The result is a sail that, in addition to providing good aft speed performance, reduces the risk of overhang and oversteer, is easy to handle, strongly stabilizes the boat, and allows the autopilot to be used safely. “At first my friends were all against buying the Parasailor, but the 285 sq. m. prototype I had sent from Germany eventually convinced everyone. Although the first tests were not satisfactory, with the sail refusing and swaying in light winds, we learned how to use it (Patrick still wanted to install a double bow thruster to stabilize both arms) and it allowed us to sail flush aft, even going half a knot more VMG than our opponents. This was our real secret weapon in the regatta.”

In my opinion we can win it

Initially, Fumagalli and his crew did not set out for ARC Plus with particular ambitions. “After the first two days of sailing, Patrick approached me and said, ‘Aldo, in my opinion we can even win this regatta.’ From there the spark and desire to be competitive was sparked. On the one hand we enjoyed it great, thanks to the space and comfort offered by the boat, and on the other hand we took the competition seriously. The crew answered to Patrick’s orders-there is no democracy on the boat (laughs, ed.)-and everyone had clearly defined roles. Discipline, on board, is key: there should be no prevarication and above all, each crew member must know the boat inside out; in training, any mistakes and emergencies must be simulated to understand how best to deal with them. For my part, I was put in charge of the stove, and a vocation for technology made me the weather manager: every day, comfortably seated in the square, we assessed the changing conditions on the 60-inch TV screen. I relied on forecasting programs such as Predict Wind.”

Minimole’s strategic choices

Minimole finishes first among multihulls and in real first place on the first leg (850 miles from the Canary Islands to Mindelo), in four days, twelve hours and 35 minutes. The second and more challenging sailing to the Caribbean is approached with greater awareness of one’s potential. Speaking now is skipper Marco Corno: “We set off with full mainsail and genoa, in the middle of the line, we are first, acceleration awaits us under the island of Sao Antao. I decide, wrongly, to wait to give gennaker, they pass us: we give gennaker. The course takes us too far ashore, we gybe with gennaker and 30 knots, the sheet shackle opens on the gybe… Phew! We have to haul down, what a rage, we were very fast with the small gennaker. I realize we are suffering from stress, and the boys need to calm down. We started too much at 1000 and I decide to continue without risk and only with genoa. We lose positions and are slow in crossing the cone of shadow that the island of Sao Antao makes for us. With the wind forecast and the positions of our opponents, which we receive every four hours, we start to strategize: the forecast tells us to go south, but our opponents stay on the shorter line and to the north. The decision is simple; Minimole should be the one furthest south of the leading group but without overdoing it by continuing control over the flotilla sailing north. Also for this leg we decide to helm as much as possible by taking turns. By helming with wave we gain that half knot that makes all the difference in such a long race. The wind is stable between 15 and 20 knots and variable direction between 80 and 120 degrees. We started on Thursday and on Sunday we are finally second. Aldo Fumagalli sets up a computer-based mixed system of competitors’ routes and forecasts. He is an engineer and it shows.”. Monday Minimole takes the lead of the fleet and nothing will be able to undermine it until the arrival in Saint Lucia, again first in real and compensated. On December 3, Aldo Fumagalli and his crew crossed the finish line two hours and 43 minutes ahead of the Stadtship 54 Aluaka of Davide Zerbinati (we told you about Davide’s ARC adventure in last February’s issue). Tells Aldo, “With Davide, a good feeling was created, I have to thank his mom who at the start of the regatta provided us with the yeast for the bread we were missing! We reciprocated with two kilos of frozen vegetables!”

Take away everything but my boat

Aldo ‘s account gives us back the image of an adventurous vacation among friends, peaceful despite a few unforeseen events that on a boat you always have to take into account: “Like when the engine left us, during the transfer to the Canary Islands: the installer made a mistake in siphoning the inboard and water entered ‘seizing’ it. In Las Palmas we found ourselves having to moor a 9-meter wide trimaran under sail, in high winds. Patrick made the maneuver as if nothing had happened-great!” Or as when “under sail we were
blew a water pipe (the supply pipe on the internal freshwater distribution circuit just past the tank) and we spent hours ‘roughing it’….” And now? “We definitely had a wonderful experience and one to repeat, in fact I have already signed up for the 2020 ARC. Navigating Minimole I learned about it, appreciating it, evaluating its merits (many) and flaws (few). Do you know what the world of appliances I come from and the world of boats have in common? The passion and the bond that is created with the object. Minimole really feels it is mine. Take everything away from me but not my boat.”

by Eugenio Ruocco

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