Vittorio Malingri (Milan, May 19, 1961) is a navigator, seaman and Italian boat designer.
He was the first Italian to participate in the Vendée-Globe and is considered a “Master of the Sea” by a generation of lovers of adventure and offshore sailing. He lives between Umbria, Italy and Ionian Greece and has four children.
Biography
Born into the Trade
Son of Franco Malingri, a volcanic designer, and grandson of Doi, an Italian trailblazer in modern ocean sailing, Vittorio was born in Milan and is the oldest of three brothers: Enrico and Francesco.
Since childhood, reading authors such as Salgari, Verne and Dumas, along with his very athletic family that always involved Vittorio and his brothers by entrusting them responsibility, inspired his dream of exploring the world and living a life dedicated to great adventure and in contact with nature.
Vittorio has been navigating the Mediterranean since he was 5 years old on the legendary CS&RB, the boat Doi and Franco sailed in the first 1973 edition of Whitbread, a round-the-world race with a crew. While still just a boy, he helped them in their final preparations and watched them set off: feeling at the same time thrilled yet disappointed at having to remain on land. He promised himself that, one day, he would be better than them, and he started saving his money for his first boat.
At 16 years old, Vittorio set off with his entire family for a round-the-world cruise, which, for the others, lasted two years while, for Vittorio, “it still isn’t over.”
Early Achievements
In 1980, he began designing and building the successful Moana Series.
When he was just 20 years old, he was the first to organize a sailing center in Cayo Largo del Sur, Cuba. Other future protagonists in Italian ocean sailing also worked with him there, such as Giovanni Soldini.
After Cuba, he went to the Bahamas–for two years–where he did charters and worked in nautical tourism. Meanwhile, on his brief trips back to Italy, he began building the boat he had been putting money aside for since he was a boy: a Moana 33’ that he called the Huck Finn after Tom Sawyer’s friend who lived free as the wind on the banks of the Mississippi River.
In 1988, he signed up to take part in the Ostar, the single-handed Trans-Atlantic race: the first of his dreams. He qualified and set off for England with his friend Luca and Anna, a girl he had just met. Unfortunately, during a storm, the boat capsized on the Spanish coast just outside the Strait of Gibraltar. The boat was beached, damaged by the rocky cliffs, but intact. After a tumultuous haul up the slopes of a hill, he got his boat repaired, but not in time to get to Plymouth for the start of the race.
Vittorio and Anna got married and Manuele was born.
While on land, Vittorio lived with his family in Valdichiascio, a small farm near Gubbio, Umbria (Italy) which became his “land base.”
The Everest of the Seas
In 1989, he set off with his wife and son, who was just a few months old, to sail around the world. In the Caribbean, he happened to hear an announcement for the Vendée Globe, a round-the-world, single-handed regatta with no stopovers and no assistance, and Vittorio turned his bow around and headed home, sold the boat and with the money he had managed to scrape together, in 1991, designed and began building the Moana 60, the first 60’ Italian Open. With the close support of his family and friends, and thanks also to his father’s economic backing, he finished the boat in the family boatyard.
Meanwhile, Nico was born, his second son.
In 1992, Vittorio set off on the Europe 1 Star (formerly the Ostar). Immediately afterwards, he was the first Italian to participate in the Vendée-Globe, “The Everest of the Seas.” Unfortunately, he was forced to a halt when his rudder broke 1,700 miles from Cape Horn, just as he was getting ready to take 4th place. After attempting several times to advance toward Cape Horn and finish the race, he decided to withdraw and head for Tahiti, navigating a 2,600 mile against the wind in the South Pacific, without a rudder.
Upon his return to Italy, he used his boat as a sailing school to earn the money he needed annually to take part in the regattas. He also designed a Minitransat, along with Andrea Romanelli, which was then manufactured as a series.
In 1995, he set a monohull sailing record at the Roma x2 regatta, again with the Moana 60.
In 1996, he had the third time in his class at the Europe 1 Star. Vittorio had a budget of 60 million lire compared to the 2.5 billion lire of his rivals, but he was heading up the fleet until just a few miles from the finish.
