ADESSO VELA

Now it´s your turn on Adesso Vela Mr Montefusco

Adesso Vela: Sandro we wanted to have a chat with you as a sailor and sail-maker. Let´s start with Sandro as a sportsman: even if you would need a book to tell us all your experiences, how would you summarize your sailing CV in few lines? Which is the most important achievement up to now?

Sandro: My first boar was a flying junior on which me and my brother Paolo had been sailing until we became 18; on that little boat we won a world and one Italian Junior championship. In that same year (1978) we purchased our first boat.
We had been sailing on that till the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992 and in those years we won I thinks 6 Italian championships, one European, two of the Mediterranean and we ended up second and third at the European and second at a world championship. Our biggest regret is having failed at the two Olympics, especially Seoul 88 when we were well trained and fast; always in 1988 we finished second at the European and third at the world championship. Unfortunately a naïve and disputable mistake made us going cupsize and ranking seventh.
I tried the Olympics in Athens in 2004 together with Stefano Rizzi on a Tornado.
Also in this case due to a lack of time we didn’t manage to get a good ranking.
As you might have understood it was thanks to my fixation with the Olympics that I started with the bigger boats. I wasn´t that young anymore and I never did it full time: indeed I still preferred to race in those classes where you understand the ranking right at the arrival line!
I achieved good national ranking also on meteor, ufo, asso, platu 25,melges 24,J 24 and some European good ranking also on IMS.

AV: let´s get straight to your main occupation now, which is the sail-making. How did you start it off? How did you develop thru these years? And on which product line do you invest the most?

SM: I started producing sails in 1981…with a friend I opened up a surf shop with a laboratory to fix the sails. Shortly after the shop disappeared and we concentrated on the sailing business: at the beginning we produced only surf sails, then those for the 470 and eventually also for bigger boats. In the first years we had only a 50 m2 room in the city centre of Lecce and therefore I would profit of the square opposite to the shop to make and open up the bigger sails. At that time we used to hang the card “I´ll be back soon” every time that “scirocco” was blowing and we would go surfing to Porto Cesareo.
After 4 years with Paolo and Daniela we moved to a bigger venue of 200 m2 and after 4 years from that we moved to the premises where we are now. Producing sails for the races and developing and researching on the newest materials and technique is the most time consuming part: especially now the change from paneled to box sails (which foresees the development of the structure of the sail and not only its form) requires the double amount of work.

AV: You work mostly in the Italian market even if you proved in more than one occasion to be able to compete with North Sails - see Platu 25, M 30 and many other monotypes: what is the secret to develop a sail for the one design class?

SM: North is surely a big group which counts on a team of sailors and sail makers who can design, test and develop the best cut for the sails of various type of boats. Nevertheless also a smaller sail-shop can reach similar results working on one or more classes depending on the quantity and capacity of its team. This happened for those classes we were pleased to work for.

AV : Sandro as you know we are in love with the Melges products and we can´t wait to understand a bit more of the newborn M20. What is the plan of the Montefusco sail shop for the Melges 20, 24 and 32 in 2009?

SM: Don´t tell me about it: the M24 has been my favourit class for the great sensations and the driving feeling which remind me of pleasures of my past! Unfortunately I was forced to stop before the worlds last year hoping I could still put together the same team as sherekan. As for the M32 I must say I am very happy with the development of the sails for this first season; the last 2 stops of the circuit were satisfying we ended second once with only one point of difference from the first and the second time with equal ranking. This proves a good speed with various wind conditions. These results make me look with optimism to the next season which will be very challenging and will be crowned with the worlds in porto Cervo.
Now I am just waiting to test the M20 and I think I will soon belong to this class ; I already got in contacts with Melges Europe and since I believe the smaller the boats are the more fun they are...

AV : Now one unpleasant question...many say that the results that you had on the M24 (national champion, vice EU champion and among the top teams in many races) are due to your great sailing talent. In other words many say that you are the only one that wins with your sails. What would you say about it?

SM: I would say that this a big lie that keeps on repeating itself since I was producing the sails for the 470 (maybe back then it was a bit more true…)…It is proved by the fact that with the paltu25 we won the circuit and the national championship; the following year also Matteo Ivaldi and Paolo Cian used my sails…and do you know what was the result? The first won the Italian championship and the second the world while I was always behind. Enough?
AV: For people of our age, your and Paolo´s name are strongly connected to the 470: for many years you ruled this class locally and internationally. Do you think there´s a similar sailing approach also on the M24? What do you think about this?

SM: No I don´t think there´s a similarity. On the 470 the weight of the crew must be even to that of the boat and requires a different sailing approach compared to that on a M24. But among all the keelboats that I have used, it is for sure the one that gets closer to the dinghy.

AV : This year you were driving the GP 42 Airis on which you also used your sails. You won the bet with 2 victories and great speed; the braveness of your choices (for the boat and the sails) has been rewarded. We want your opinion on the season and how it will develop.

SM: Yes both Roberto Monti (Airis owner) and Cesare Bressan (team manager) have been confident and brave in betting on myself as well as on Felci. After 2 seasons on the Melges they decided they wanted to face new challenges on the GP with the same team with the addition of some new crew members. I am thankful to Umberto who picked the project and facilitated our duty. And here again the same as we said before for the monotypes: we started the project with real good quality sails which were the result of the expertise gathered on boats of similar dimensions and with the help of two great trimmers (Nello Pavoni and Enrico Zennaro). The results were more than satisfying. I am proud to confirm that Airis is the best settled Gp in the fleet : in Puerto Calero we were really fast with any wind condition. We are only disappointed for this season about the number of participants to the various stops. The GP fleet counts now roughly 15 boats across Europe and the same happened in Spain.


AV: What were the major difficulties in designing and making the sails for such a competitive class? Will Airis be racing in 2009?

SM: we had great issues as you could see from the results. If you belong to a strong team and you have a fast boat than things get easier.

AV: you belonged to the Luna Rossa team in the past. If you would receive again an invitation would Sandro Montefusco consider to take part again to the America´s Cup or would he be only an enterpreneur?


SM : after my experience with Luna Rossa I received various phone calls but the cup requires full time dedication for at least 3 years and this overlaps my role as sailor and sail maker. Aukland was a fantastic experience but it also ended there. I think that type of life doesn't suit me: the daily training routine takes the fun of sailing away!

AV: Your kids are approaching the sailing world. Are they ready to follow the traces of the great Montefusco brothers?


SM : among the three of them only Nicolò is sailing on the optimist without great results but also without a great commitment. And I do believe it is right that he does that at his age. Maybe later on if he´s willing to commit more he will find my full support. The other two are busy with tennis and athletics: important is just to do sport