MOANA60 A PIECE OF ITALIAN MARITIME HISTORY
OCEAN, IN MAORI “MOANA”
Moana is the name that Franco Malingri has given to all the boats created and launched by his shipyard.
Designed and built by Franco and Vittorio Malingri in 1991, and constructed at the Cooperativa Nautica di Fano shipyard, Moana 60 was the first Italian 60-foot open. In 1992, Vittorio Malingri started with the Europe 1 Star (formerly OSTAR), and then went on to the Vendée Globe, the solo round-the-world race, non-stop, without assistance, rounding the three capes: Good Hope, Leeuwin, and Cape Horn!
Unfortunately, a rudder failure stopped him 1,700 miles from Cape Horn while he was about to take 4th place. After several attempts to continue toward Cape Horn and finish the race, he decided to retire and head towards Tahiti. It was a 2,600-mile upwind navigation in the South Pacific, without a rudder.
Still aboard “Moana 60”, in 1995, he set the record for monohulls in the Roma x 2.
In 1996, he finished third in class at the Europe 1 Star: Vittorio had a budget of 60 million lire compared to the 2.5 billion lire of his competitors, but he dominated the fleet until just a few miles from the finish.
He repeated the same placement at the Québec-Saint Malo that year. In this last race, he welcomed aboard a very young and petite English girl for her first ocean race. After this experience, we would all witness the rise of Hellen McArthur, the greatest solo sailor of the modern era.
In 1997, Moana was entrusted to a young man from Cervia: Simone Bianchetti, protégé of skipper Cino Ricci, for a series of ocean races including the “Bule-Dakar” and the “Ostar,” now the “Route du Rhum,” finishing 26th. Simone Bianchetti later became the first Italian to complete the Vendée Globe aboard another Open 60: “aquarelle.com.” Unfortunately, he passed away on a sad day at the end of June 2003.
From 1998 to 2004, Moana continued to sail and compete in the most challenging races of the Ionian, Adriatic, and Tyrrhenian Seas.
From 2004 to 2011, ownership passed to a group, the “Team Moana 60.” After a year-long restoration, the “first Italian open” participated in numerous offshore races, including the prestigious “Rolex Middle Sea Race,” and overseas in the “Grenada Sailing Festival” and “Antigua Sailing Week.” During this time, there were four Atlantic crossings from east to west and vice versa.
Since the spring of 2012… the history is recent! Moana and her loyal crew have been sailing along the coasts of the Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean Seas. The “Moana60 Spirit of Sailing” association was created with the aim of transmitting and promoting the philosophy of sailing.
Moana, with the new owners, immediately began to sail.
On July 2, 2012, from the San Marco Basin in Venice’s Grand Canal, it set sail toward the Turkish capital, Istanbul (formerly Byzantium, then Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Empire); it reached the Northern Ionian Islands: green Corfu, the largest and richest in unspoiled bays Cephalonia, legendary Ithaca, and mysterious Zakynthos. It entered the spectacular Corinthian Gulf and encountered the Cycladic Islands: Mykonos, Tinos, Syros. It sailed up the Aegean Sea to face a new strait: the Dardanelles, with the Sea of Marmara, before finally reaching Istanbul on the morning of July 18.
In the same season, Moana60, accompanied by a fantastic Meltemi, sailed through the Aegean Sea along the Sporades, Cyclades, Dodecanese, and Ionian Seas.
Now, Moana60, waiting for the “Great Voyage,” has settled down a bit; in the meantime, it sails peacefully along the enchanted coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.
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