G Magazine: protagonists Soldini, Pedote and the great skippers

Legend has it that with the expression sea wolf – aboard the ancient sailing ships – we wanted to identify the oldest sailor, but also the most skilled and courageous. The most experienced. Perhaps the expression comes from the fact that the catfish is a fish that truly exists in the Northern seas. In short, someone who takes a lot from the character and appearance of the wolf-animal and who unites strength and determination. Lupi di mare is the title – very apt – for the issue of G dedicated to sailing on newsstands with Gazzetta dello Sport. A long journey (72 pages) among the most famous regattas and the most famous characters of Italian sailing. Starting with the front man of the Italian solitary sailors par excellence, Giovanni Soldini, one who crossed the Atlantic more than 25 years ago to invent a “profession” that hardly existed in Italy yet. After that trip and from Soldini’s first successes around the world, many other sailors from our home arrived. Today Italy has a “school” of ocean men, men ready to leave their moorings in pursuit of their dreams. Like Giancarlo Pedote, who abandoned his degree in philosophy and his windsurfing on the beaches of Tuscany to move to France and climb the Vendée Globe, the Everest of sailing. Round the world without stop and without assistance that Pedote finished in 8th place in the last edition. Never any Italian like him. And on the basis of that “success” Giancarlo has already left and is already imagining the next challenge in 2024.

Games and America’s Cup

—

A crucial year for all world sailing: there are also the Paris Games (the venue for the next sailing Olympics will be Marseille) above all the America’s Cup, which returns to Europe for the third time since 1851! And still in Spain, after Valencia, the flying boats go to the discovery of Barcelona. We hear little about Luna Rossa and the other teams entered in the 37th edition, but all are working to try to win the oldest sailing trophy. While Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti are already planning the hunt for the Olympic encore … Stories of men and sailors, even reconverted. Like Ivica Kostelic who follows in the footsteps of another great ski, Lasse Kjus. Ivica tells us how he decided to convert himself into an ocean navigator. Stories, passions, but also big dreams: boats, holidays, the most iconic regattas. Few things, like the grandeur of the sea, are connected to the adventure and dream of the human being. That in front of the sea he may feel small and alone, but also immensely inspired.