FlyingNikka by Roberto Lacorte in flight

In Giornale della Vela we host the article of the owner of FlyingNikka Roberto Lacorte, in which he explains why the time was ripe for a 19m maxi wheel. The piece is part of the Fish Against Birds service, or traditional boats against flying boats, published on Giornale della Vela di Luglio on newsstands and digitally.

“Because I decided to change the rules of the game… by flying”

Many have asked me. Was this time for the FlyingNikka release? Were the times ripe for a foiled 19m maxi to take on open sea regattas? Yes, it was. At least for me. After the experience of flying AC75s in the America’s Cup, data came out, technologies that can support a project like ours. A project that aspires to combine flight and sailing with new goals and is not limited to coastal road racing, but also – and above all – offshore. It could have been done, we did.

Someone turned their nose up. “But how about regattas in compensated time? Is it possible to compare FlyingNikka with traditional boats?“. It’s easy to say: the boat will have its own rating, or rather its own calculation system, because otherwise there would be unacceptable deviations in displacement hulls.

ORC has conducted a study on the performance of the boat in various conditions, in collaboration with the FlyingNikka design team: based on this data, a certificate has been issued that takes into account the different characteristics of the boat, creating an exclusive algorithm, in order not to cancel the comparison with traditional boats without folding.

Think about it. It’s a bit like when the keelboats arrived, the trope, which opened a new scenario. Or as it happened in the case of DSS (Dynamic Stability System, the horizontal attachments for improving the righting moment of the boat, as well as for the favorable slight upward thrust, the so-called lifting, ed). Innovative vessels require innovative assessment systems.

In a first phase of “running-in”, however, in agreement with RORC and ORC the algorithm will be extremely prudent: a boat like FlyingNikka in terms of compensation races will be at a huge disadvantage. Also because our focus is not on winning offset time: FlyingNikka was born to break records in real-time long navigations.

The boat represents the application of new technologies in offshore sailing. A pass, a break, a challenge, call it what you will. Both in terms of design and management. Many say, superficially in my opinion, that it is easy to win at FlyingNikka.

To them I answer: it is not so. Accepting such a challenge is already difficult in itself, starting from the conception of the project. We could have built a huge boat, like Skorpios (the 43m Maxi built by Nautor’s Swan, ed.), to secure regatta wins in real time. But no. With a boat that is less than half the length of the Scorpio and that costs less than a Maxi 72, thanks to the help of technologies you can achieve amazing results.

But you have to earn them. There are conditions in which the FlyingNikka is very difficult to fly: in extremely light wind, for example, or in rough seas. Nice challenge, don’t you think? If we wanted to keep it simple, we would have built a 40m offset to win in real time while staying in our ‘comfort zone’.

But what’s the fun? With FlyingNikka, on the other hand, even if we don’t win, we have a lot of fun, because I wish everyone could get on a boat like that. Get off the edge you’re shivering. Sailing, after all, is also that. It is to enjoy a fun navigation: traditional, and not.

I close with the answer to another question that many have asked me: “What is the future of FlyingNikka?“. There are two. That of developing the boat and racing offshore in the Mediterranean, because learning how to use the FlyingNikka takes hours and hours of flying. And then, at the same time, there is the desire to satisfy the requests of owners who want to build a boat similar to ours and to launch a new category managed by a “box rule”, such as the Maxi 72. A spectacular, extremely – fun lesson. to live and see, above all criticism.

Fair winds and good flying to all!

Roberto Lacorte *

Roberto Lacorte

* Roberto Lacorte was born in Pisa in 1968. In 2003 he founded, together with his brother Andrea, the pharmaceutical company Pharmanutra. As a youth he took up sailing, in 1987 he entered the world of sailing with Comet 28 Race. Then a Vismara 34, a 47 and the SuperNikka, the Vismara Mills 62. Now he is the owner of the Maxi who drives away the FlyingNikka, the first Mini Maxi in the history of the high seas.

Photos of Roberto Lacorte’s FlyingNikka flying a Mini Maxi are by Fabio Taccola

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