Ferrari – the red-blooded purveyors of automotive horsepower, tarmac-burning speed and endurance racing glory – have just thrown down an audacious marker in the professional sailing world. Yesterday’s unveiling of the Ferrari Hypersail project, sees the Italian marque stepping into offshore sailing with a vision as bold as any Le Mans campaign.
And if you were expecting a safe, prestige-focused marketing play, think again. This isn’t a sponsorship badge on a mainsail. This is Ferrari building, from scratch, an incredible 100-foot foiling monohull – a flying ocean machine designed in collaboration with (who else but) Guillaume Verdier, steered conceptually by Italian offshore legend Giovanni Soldini, and backed by the full might of Maranello’s engineering brain trust.
They’re not here to play it safe. It looks like they're here to rewrite the rules.
Forget what you know about performance offshore maxi yachts. Hypersail is truly unlike anything that has come before.
At the heart of the project is a truly radical design.
Verdier’s concept centres on a 100-foot monohull that will fly on three points of contact: the first a central foil attached to the end of a canting keel, a second a foil on the rudder, and the third point alternating between two lateral foils.
It's a concept that strays from traditional thinking, much like Ferrari’s game-changing Hypercar programme did in endurance racing, winning three editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
That canting keel / foil combo is perhaps the most eyebrow-raising feature. It’s an audacious engineering statement that has never been tried before – although Soldini did pioneer the use of a non-canting central foil on the customised MOD 70 he previously campaigned.
Then there’s the mind-bogglingly tricky problem of controlling the boat’s flight in the open ocean. According to Soldini, that’s where Ferrari’s technical expertise comes in, with the yacht’s flight control systems drawing directly from Ferrari’s most advanced automotive tech – including flight control algorithms, aerodynamic modelling tools, and power management platforms. In fact, the company has already filed nine patents related to the yacht, with another six pending.
Aside from all of this jaw-dropping innovation, Hypersail is aiming for something even more ambitious and remarkable for an offshore high-performance yacht – complete energy independence.
You read that right. No diesel, no combustion engine, no backup generator humming below decks. Hypersail is being designed to sail under its own renewable power only – solar, wind, and kinetic energy all harvested and managed in real-time. That energy will power everything: flight control systems, keel and foil actuation, nav systems, onboard comms. Everything. Imagine the long-term trickle down effects for the marine industry if Ferrari can perfect such a system.
But what I find so compelling and exciting about Ferrari’s first venture into the world of high-performance open ocean yachting is that the company is unlikely to be doing this with hopes of making money from it. For me this feels more like the fulfilment of someone’s – presumably Soldini’s – dream. It all feels like a wonderful adventure to try to create something truly unique.
“Designing a yacht for offshore racing is perhaps the ultimate expression of endurance,” says Ferrari chairman John Elkann. “Hypersail pushes us to go beyond our boundaries.”
Soldini – a veteran of more than 30 years of solo and crewed ocean racing, including two solo round-the-world races – is a legend amongst sailing fans in Italy. He is known for his mix of swashbuckling flair and technical nous and is the project’s team principal and spiritual compass.
He’s no stranger to the bleeding edge, having overseen multiple boat development programmes throughout his storied career. Since 2013 his ocean racing projects have been backed by Elkann – heir to Fiat-founder Giovanni Agnelli and the CEO of the holding company that owns Ferrari.
“It’s an exciting challenge, backed by a truly unique team,” says Soldini. “Ferrari’s contribution is driving development of control technology that has never been seen before in offshore sailing. It’s about extreme performance, yes—but also maximum reliability.”
Although the boat is currently under construction in Italy and only slated to hit the water sometime in 2026, yesterday’s announcement of such an innovative project has set the sailing world alight.
Sailing, and particularly offshore racing, is evolving. The rise of foils, data-driven performance tools, and eco-conscious system design is reshaping the sport in ways not unlike what Formula 1 went through a decade ago. And just as Ferrari leveraged its racing pedigree to develop hybrid supercars and endurance dominators, they now see sailing as the next frontier.
However, Soldini is way too canny to give any indication of a launch date for such a ground-breakingly complex yacht.
"There are a thousand things to put together,” he said. “We'll definitely put the boat in the water in 2026 but I'm not making any commitments about what quarter. The boat will be launched next year and then we'll start a debugging phase which will hopefully last a short time," Soldini told reporters yesterday. "It's obvious that we have quite a defined [time] goal, but the project is so complex that making it public today doesn't seem very wise.”
Hypersail is no vanity project. It’s an R&D platform, a testbed for innovation, and, perhaps most importantly, a signal that the world of high-performance sailing has just gained a serious new player.
Many believed Ferrari would emerge as a partner for the Italian Luna Rossa America’s Cup challenger for AC38 in Naples. On the face of it that would have made some logical sense. But Elkann put paid to probing questions around the Cup in the most succinct and apposite fashion:
“(The) America's Cup is regulated and this boat is thought to go beyond rules," he said. "This project gives us the chance to experiment in new areas."
Just what Hypersail will ultimately be used for remains a closely guarded secret right now – although Soldini suggested a crew of between eight and 12 would be required to sail the boat.
Soldini and Elkann are both known to be fans at setting open ocean distance records. Under the umbrella of Maserati – another Elkann family-owned business – Soldini set benchmark times for the Golden Route from New York to San Francisco on a heavily modified VO70 monohull, and the Tea Route from Hong Kong to London on a customised MOD 70.
So maybe we will see Hypersail take a tilt at transocean records – and maybe even a round-the-world attempt? Once again, Soldini refused to be drawn.
"Before setting sport [competitive] targets, we want to finish what we're doing, developing the boat and bring it to sea. Then we'll see what we can and cannot do," he said.
With the boat under construction at an unnamed facility in Italy further information may be difficult to obtain. Hopefully, though, yesterday’s glitzy press conference will not mark the start of a prolonged news blackout running through to 2026 and the sailing world will get regular updates on how this amazing project is progressing.
The final word goes to the man who conceived this project.
"I believe the main goal of this project is to do something that has never been done before," Soldini says. "It's about taking a leap of faith and creating something truly innovative, without compromising on performance – quite the opposite in fact.
"And I can't wait to test it."
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