Here’s what the 100′ Ferrari Hypersail will be like.
“Hypersail is a new challenge that takes us beyond our boundaries and broadens our technological horizons. Taking Ferrari from the land to the sea and the sky is something extraordinary. This is a project that is becoming reality, this is a dream that is about to come true. This is what Ferrari does best when there are impossible things, when passion is combined with expertise, when we all work together and not as individuals, but as a collective”. John Elkann, president of Ferrari, opened the presentation of the latest adventure of the Prancing Horse with these words.
Innovation, Performance and Efficiency
Ferrari’s new adventure is not on land but is an adventure that will have the sea, or rather the oceans, as its field of action. The Ferrari project in sailing was recently presented at the Ferrari Style Center in Maranello: Ferrari Hypersail. It will be a monohull equipped with foils and is currently under construction in an Italian shipyard that has not been made public for confidentiality reasons but which persistent rumors give in the Tuscan nautical hub.
Giovanni Soldini Team Principal
The Ferrari Hypersail project (which in its name and the colour that appears in the logo, ‘Modena yellow’, pays homage to the Maranello-based company’s Hypercars, protagonists of the world of endurance racing) sees Giovanni Soldini in the role of Team Principal, who John Elkann once again defined as: “A fundamental pillar of this project both for his experience as a sailor and for his unrivalled experience in the development and construction of boats”.
Something Never Seen Before
“Together,” explained Giovanni Soldini, referring to John Elkann, “we have done 3 or 4 transoceanic regattas. We have also done the TransPac and therefore many adventures. But here in some way we are taking a new path that concerns the future and that is very different from what has been done before. Because it comes from an empty table and therefore we were able to imagine something that has never been done and that will travel completely new paths for everyone. And we do it by putting together the best that can be found, the maximum skills that we could put together. So on one side Ferrari with all its desire to innovate, its competence, its ability and a very large design studio and a group of designers with whom we have created a team that is travelling a new path.”
Project by Guillaume Verdier
The new monohull, 30 metres long, 20 metres wide and equipped with a 40-metre mast (the shrouds are equipped with two outriggers), is designed by the team of Frenchman Guillaume Verdier, already designer of Emirates Team New Zealand, winner of the America’s Cup, and is equipped with a very complex appendage plan that includes two T-shaped lateral foils equipped with flaps and a T-shaped rudder with mobile appendages (elevator): two elements already present on the AC75s of the last two editions of the America’s Cup. The novelty is represented by a 9.5-metre deep canting keel also equipped with mobile appendages.
Open Innovation and Technology Transfer
Ferrari Hypersail was born under the banner of Open Innovation and the two Ferrari engineers involved in the project (there are 20 Ferrari technicians working on Hypersail), engineers Matteo Lanzavecchia and Marco Ribigini, illustrated how research in the field of aerodynamic systems, energy efficiency, power management and loads have been transferred from the company’s sports cars to the new vessel to guarantee performance and safety. A vessel that, although similar to those competing in the America’s Cup, unlike these will not have to face the sea on a route close to land and in regattas that are only held in certain wind conditions, but will have to face the oceans and everything the sea has in store for those who sail them. Also, the conditions that are faced in a round-the-world race. Because this is also what the Ferrari Hypersail programs talk about.
Energy autonomy
And to tackle a round-the-world trip, the issue of energy autonomy is crucial, given that on board the Ferrari Hypersail there is no endothermic engine, no diesel generator. All the energy needed for navigation, from that for the management and maneuvering of the submerged appendages, to that for the computers and on-board instruments will be energy from renewable sources. And therefore solar panels, hydrogenerators and wind systems. A choice that will in any case require the intervention of the crew (Soldini has hypothesized a crew of 8 to 12 people once the amount of energy available and also the amount of energy actually necessary for the various navigations has been verified) to integrate an absolutely “clean” energy production.
“We are truly taking a new path!”
“I can only be super honored to have been involved in this real space mission” concluded Giovani Soldini. “Especially to work also with Matteo (Lanzavecchia, ed.) and Marco (Ribigini, ed.) and all the others who teach us so many things every day and without whom it would have been simply impossible to even imagine something like this. Because we are really taking a new path and that is what excites me the most”. The appointment is therefore for 2026 for the launch and then, it is already planned, a long period of tests and trials so that Giovanni Soldini can then launch Ferrari Hypersail on all the seas of the world.
Emilio Martinelli
