Vittorio Malingri

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.

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 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.

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.

In 2003, he and Giovanni set off again in the Transat Jacques Vabre, but after an excellent start and three days in first place, they were forced to withdraw after their main hull broke in open sea 170 miles from Portugal.

After his experience on the TIM trimaran, Vittorio became fascinated by multihull sailing and, already back in 2000, along with the other guys on the team, began tossing around the idea of setting an Atlantic record on a small, beach catamaran.

In April 2008, with the backing of Citroen and Audemars Piguet, Vittorio took on the Atlantic on a liveaboard catamaran called the Royal Oak, going from Dakar, Senegal to Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadalupe.

After a three-year break on land, during which his last daughter Mila was born with his current partner Valentina, Vittorio went back to running an ocean sailing school.