“We want to give people back what we have been lucky enough to receive in abundance”. Riccardo Cao thus tells the feeling that inspired him and the other two founders of Sailover, Carlo Marongiu and Stefano Malcangi. A long family tradition, years of competitions at sea and above all the desire to share the passion for sailing with all those who have always wanted to travel with the wind, without having a chance.

“There is a gap between mass tourism and the privilege of yacht ownership. We just decided to fill it up”, explains Cao. Research, technology, and complex and efficient logistics: from the first three bases in the southern Sardinian (Cagliari, Capitana and Teulada) today Sailover opens to all Italian coasts, launching a franchise that replicates its model in 45 nautical bases.

From a few hours to several days along the environmental miracle of our coasts: the novices of sailing meet the skipper for the pre-boarding briefing, learning the rudiments of navigation. The winds, the currents, the spaces and the secrets of the boat. Then it’s the open sea, and sailing turns into an opportunity to deal with the themes of coastal erosion, rising temperatures, to get to know the area through fauna and flora, to collect the plastic that floats on the surface.

Sustainability begins with Sailover One, the yacht designed and put into production explicitly for this charter services, using technologies that minimize the production of waste materials. In fact, the construction does not involve the use of molds, a factor that allows for the displacement of production and the reduction of transport from the construction site to the place of launch, an extremely polluting process. The consumption of hydrocarbons is constantly monitored: during the 120 services provided in 2020, 65 liters of diesel were consumed, just 0.6 liters per trip.

“We only use fuel for essential maneuvers. We have long discussed the possibility of installing an electric engine in our boats, but together with our nautical engineers we have come to the conclusion that the technology is not yet ready for this step. Batteries would end up polluting more than the excellent diesel engines available today. Of course, we will be the first to adopt the electric system when the time is right. In the meantime, we listen to the wind, we sail only when it is he who tells us”, says Cao.