Ate, the sustainable boat of Team Metis Vela Unipd, wins the 17th edition of the 1001VELAcup Challenge Trophy in Trieste

The boat of the Mètis Vela group of the University of Padua, Ate, won the 2024 edition of the 1001VELAcup Challenge Trophy, held from 25 to 29 September.

Now in its seventeenth edition, this year it was held in the waters of Trieste at the Yacht Club Adriaco, with the support of Fondazione CRTrieste, Promoturismo and Northern Light Composite, and featured the University of Padua and Trieste, the University of Karlsruhe (Germany), and new participants Munich and Kiel (Germany) and La Spezia, for a total of 9 competing boats.

Ate, made up of 75% green materials, was led by the students of Team Carlo Moretti helmsman and Leone Tuci bowman, who, with commitment and team spirit, managed to steer Ate to victory, even overtaking the University of Trieste’s boats Lina Rossa and Dedalo, which earned second and third place respectively.

In a genuine spirit of fair play and international collaboration, the Mètis Vela Unipd team then took a significant initiative, helping the team from the University of Karlsruhe (Germany), without a crew for the competition, by making available students Gabriele Cuman and Giacomo Maria Schioppo. Queste azioni sottolineano the importance of solidarity and cooperation in the academic and sporting worlds, the core values of the 1001VELAcup, a regatta conceived by architects Massimo Paperini and Paolo Procesi with the aim of creating an opportunity for healthy competition on an international scale between sailing boats designed, built and driven by university students.

In addition to its success in the main competition, the University of Padua also won the Paolo Padova Trophya regatta with crews composed of professors and students from the respective universities. The crew from Padua was formed by Professor Andrea Lazzaretto, project leader, and students Carlo Moretti and Andrea Dottori.

The originality of the event and of the 1001VELAcup project is linked to its extraordinary ability to merge different fields such as design, training and innovation, called upon to cooperate in order to respond to the important challenges of sustainability and the blue economy. La commistione perfetta tra didattica e sport permette infatti non solo ai team di sfidarsi in gara, ma anche di dialogare e interagire nell’ambito della ricerca e della progettazione navale, in un confronto diretto tra colleghi-studenti che diventa di fatto This perfect blend of education and sport not only allows teams to challenge each other in the competition, but also to dialogue and interact in the field of research and naval design, in a direct confrontation between student-colleagues that actually becomes cultural exchange and networking.. Durante i pomeriggi della competizione, infatti, si sono tenute diverse During the competition afternoons, in fact, several conferences were held as part of the training programme ‘Innovation in the design of racing boats’.. Tra i temi trattati, particolare rilevanza hanno avuto la Among the topics covered, particular emphasis was placed on sustainability in yacht design, innovative materials for sports yachting, and state-of-the-art technologies.

Special mension to all the other Paduan students who made a decisive contribution to the boats’ success: team leader Marco Pitteri, logistics and administration managers Andrea Dragonetti, Pietro Salata and Tommaso Zanon, shipbuilders and designers Luigi Giacomelli, Giovanni Antonio Lorenzi, Leonardo Rensi, Alberto Pinato, Mattia Gaggiato, Leonardo Lupi, Caterina Pretato, Irene Ferro, Lorenzo Renna, Alberto Caracciolo, Giovanni Ciprian, Milo Tolando, and electronics engineers Luca Galeazzo, Pietro Galiazzo and Nicolas Ferraresso.

For more information and updates on Metis Vela Unipd, we invite you to follow them on their website and Instagram, and to attend the presentation of the student project, which will take place in October.