The tenth edition of the ‘Tra Legno e Acqua’ (Between Wood and Water) conference, which ended on Saturday 25 January 2025 at the splendid neo-Gothic style residence that houses the Ville Ponti Congress Centre in Varese, reconfirmed the interest in the themes linked to the preservation of the historical naval heritage. The congress was organised by the Fondazione Officine dell’Acqua and theAVEV (Associazione Vele d’Epoca Verbano), chaired by Paolo Sivelli from Piacenza. The participants, who came from many regions of Italy, were able to attend about ten qualified lectures, moderated by Pierre Ley and historian Giovanni Panella. The important female presence in terms of numbers among the speakers was an opportunity to present a world, such as that of restoration and the professions related to it, which today manages to be an expression of talent and professionalism beyond gender. Institutional greetings were delivered by manager Anna Deligios representing Mauro Vitiello, President of the Varese Chamber of Commerce, Federico Visconti, President of the Fondazione Comunitaria del Varesotto, Marco Feller ‘past president’ of the Sesto Calende Angera Rotary Club. The Navy was represented by Lieutenant Commander Alessandro Carpitella, Second Lieutenant Aurora Esposito, and First Lieutenant Boatswain Michele Renna. The event was held with the contributionof the Lombardy Region, Cantiere Ernesto Riva di Como, Veleria Zaoli, which produced the canvas sailing folders with the conference kit for participants, Agricole Gussalli Beretta, Studio Giallo, Cromatura Cassanese and Fondazione Comunitaria del Varesotto onlus.
‘Women In Boatbuilding’, Nelson’s Victory and the Amerigo Vespucci’s round-the-world voyage
The first speaker of the day was the shipbuilder and influencer Gaia Brojanigo who, to define her profession as a shipwright, abandoned the masculine English term ‘boatbuilder’ or ‘shipwright’ in favour of the feminine version ‘mistress of the ax’. As the Italian Director of the Women in Boatbuilding association, she talked about how the association recently managed to get the most women enrolled in the shipwrights’ course at the Lyme Regis school in England, and how they are working in Italy in this traditional boating sector.
Padua-born naval architect and shipwright Leonardo Bortolami narrated ‘The Big Repair’, one of the most extensive and complex conservation operations ever carried out on board HMS Victory, flagship of the British navy and iconic first class vessel of 1765 chosen byAdmiral Nelson to lead the fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar. A team of 18 people, led by Bortolami himself, will work on Portsmouth for the next 10 years, with a budget of £45 million, while maintaining public accessibility (300,000 visitors per year) to one of the world’s most important and priceless pieces of maritime history.
There was great interest in the report by 26-year-old Second Lieutenant Aurora Esposito, who disembarked last November in Phuket, Thailand, after 4 years and a total of 40,000 nautical miles travelled aboard theAmerigo Vespucci, where she held the position of Route Officer and Public Affairs Officer. She was given the task of recounting the circumnavigation, which began on 1 July 2023 and is still in progress, of the most beautiful school ship in the world, a veritable floating embassy of Italy, with which she has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and sailed into the Pacific Ocean. The report was preceded by an unexpected surprise. In fact, the captain of the Amerigo Vespucci, Captain Giuseppe Lai, addressed a video message to all conference participants, which was made on board while sailing in the Arabian Sea. An honour appreciated by the entire audience and greeted by great applause.
the restoration of the fai ‘velarca’ and the fibas 2025 calendar
After an introduction on the activities of the FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano) given by the Area Manager Lombardy Prealpina Giuliano Francesco Galli, the engineer and naval architect Carlo Bertorello gave a talk on the Velarca, the houseboat designed by the Milanese BBPR Studio in 1959 by adding a living volume on the hull of a 1911 Larian gondola. It was a special place where Fiammetta and Emilio Norsa welcomed great personalities of Italian culture. Donated to FAI by Aldo and Maria Luisa Norsa, it was restored by Cantiere Ernesto Riva of Lake Como with major reconstruction, recovery and functional adaptation. Francesco Foppiano, yacht designer and university lecturer, presented the long list of over 60 events organised during 2025 by the more than 30 associations federated to the FIBaS, the Italian Federation of Historical Boats.
lake boats, the latin sail intangible heritage and the 100th anniversary of the ‘new help of God
Naval and Nautical Design researchers Giulia Zappia and Claudia Tacchella presented the volume ‘Ancilla & Santa Teresa. Quaderni di Restauro Nautico e Design ‘ (Notebooks of Nautical Restoration and Design), a publication that is part of the Nautical Heritage research strand of the University of Genoa, which has developed strategies and methods for the valorisation and preservation of the nautical heritage. The notebooks, in particular, deal with the two cases of the above-mentioned lake boats on display at the Officine dell’Acqua in Laveno Mombello, giving practical evidence to the theoretical study. The ultimate goal is to leave a trace of the boats, built by the Cantiere Taroni, analysed so as to preserve their history and memory beyond their life cycle. Davide Gnola, director of the Maritime Museum of Cesenatico, illustrated the candidature for inclusion in the UNESCO representative list of the intangible heritage constituted by the Vela Latina and Vela al Terzo of the Mediterranean. The process, launched in 2019 by Croatia, will hopefully be favourably received later this year. While Latin Sail continues to be widespread throughout the Mediterranean, ‘al terzo’ sailing is present in the Adriatic, where it is being studied, rediscovered and used as a vehicle for promoting tourism.
Lastly, Gian Renzo Traversaro of theAssociazione Amici del Leudo di Sestri Levante (Sestri Levante’sLeudo Association ), which rigs and sails the Nuovo Aiuto di Dio (New Help of God), a 15-metre-long Ligurian lateen-sail leudo built by Muzio ‘Cappetta’ and launched in 1925. In celebrating the centenary of this historic working boat, Traversaro described its types and functions, origins and types (leudo vinacciere, formaggiaio, surairo), technical characteristics (the accentuated bolzone, the inclination of the mast, the removability of the bowsprit), sailing manoeuvres, the decline and disappearance of leudi, and the rescue of the Nuovo Aiuto di Dio (New Aid of God), a precious and unique testimony to a past that no longer exists.
OnSunday 26 January, those attending the conference took part free of charge in a visit to the Officine dell’Acqua in Laveno Mombello, the structure now used as a meeting centre for naval traditions and a museum of historical boats, also home to the Master Wood courses dedicated to wooden hull restoration techniques, recently recognised by a regional resolution as a ‘Museum Collection’ by the Lombardy Region.