Tilli Antonelli
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Tilli Antonelli (Attilio Antonelli; born
Russi Russi ( rgn, Ròss) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ravenna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about east of Bologna and about southwest of Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the P ...
, 27 September 1955) is an Italian entrepreneur and yacht manufacturer. In 1981 he founded Cantiere Navale dell'Adriatico, located in the nautical business cluster of
Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...
, region of Italy. In 1985 he founded both the shipyard and the brand Pershing who become part of
Ferretti Group Ferretti S.p.A. (trading as Ferretti Group) is an Italian multinational shipbuilding company headquartered in Forlì which specialises in the design, construction and sale of luxury motor yachts. Its products are sold under the brands Ferretti ...
in 1998. He was president of Itama from 2004 until 2009. In 2010 he founded WIDER, a nautical company born as a
spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...
yacht manufacturer, after he left his former position. In May 2014 he was nominated member of UCINA's managing board.


Biography

As a youth he developed a strong passion for sailing and became a skipper. He took part in important sail boat
Regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...
s and through this met the Italian entrepreneur Raul Gardini, connected with the world of sailing yachts who had pushed for
Il Moro di Venezia Il Moro Challenge was a 1992 Italian America's Cup team headed by industrialist Raul Gardini. The team won the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup but failed to win the 28th America's Cup. Early years International America’s Cup Class boats (IACC) were a ...
, the Italian yacht challenger at the 1992
America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...
. In 1973 he became part of Raul Gardini's crew on a 45' yacht called "Naif", designed by Dick Carter, who was skipper and designer of Yachts that went on to win the '65 and '69 editions of the Fastnet Race, a 608-
nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...
offshore race between yachts that started on the coast of Great Britain in 1925 and takes its name from the Fastnet Rock located south-west of the coast of Ireland. In the same year Antonelli participated in the
Admiral's Cup The Admiral's Cup was an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing. The Admiral's Cup regatta was started in 1957 and was normally a biennial event (occurring in odd-numbe ...
. In February 1976 he left for Marblehead, at the request of Gardini to follow the construction of masts and sails for the first
Il Moro di Venezia Il Moro Challenge was a 1992 Italian America's Cup team headed by industrialist Raul Gardini. The team won the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup but failed to win the 28th America's Cup. Early years International America’s Cup Class boats (IACC) were a ...
. In 1977 he came back to Europe to take part for the first time in the Fastnet Race. In 1978 he became a professional sailmaker, manufacturing and personally testing the sails at sea, and teaching yacht owners how to use them. He worked for two international sail makers in Liguria: Hood Sails in Sanremo and then in Rapallo for Horizon, that went on to become North Sails Italia. In 1979 he took part in the ill-fated edition of the Fastnet Race, in which an unexpected storm lost one hundred and five vessels, resulting in the largest rescue operation to ever take place in peacetime until that moment. In 1980 he returned to Ravenna, where he received an offer to work as Works Manager in a sailing boat manufacturer in Fano. Before accepting the offer he completed his racing commitments by competing in the World Championship selections, in the One Tonner Class.


Entrepreneurial beginnings

In June 1980 he moved to Fano and worked at the MSA Cantieri del Sole shipyard. After a few months of work Antonelli suggested to two co-workers that they open their own shipyard, found a client to finance him, and obtained a deposit of 20 million Lire to build a custom yacht. With that money the three founded Cantiere Navale dell'Adriatico in 1981. In November of that year he met Stefania Vagnini and after one week of courtship asked her to become his wife. On 14 February 1982, Valentine's Day, he married Stefania, with whom he had three children, Camilla, Nicola and Ludovico. A few months later he launched his first vessel, a motorsailer. During the sea trials of the yacht he stopped in the
Isole Tremiti The Isole Tremiti, also called "Isole Diomedee" (Diomedes' Islands, from Greek ''Diomèdee'', Διομήδεες) are an archipelago in the Adriatic Sea, north of the Gargano Peninsula. They constitute a ''"comune"'' of Italy's Province of Foggia ...
, where he met
Lucio Dalla Lucio Dalla (; 4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards. Dalla was the composer of " Caruso" (1986), a song dedicated to Italian opera tenor Enrico Caruso, and ...
. The famous Italian singer-songwriter liked the yacht and he ordered one for himself with the name "Catarro", that become the second yacht produced by the shipyard.


Birth of Pershing

Together with the yacht designer Fulvio De Simoni, the idea was born to create a range of large sport cruisers (also known as Open Yachts) that would be comfortable, aggressive, and avant-garde. With this new philosophy the
shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
embarked upon an evolution that would lead to Pershing yachts (now a
Ferretti Group Ferretti S.p.A. (trading as Ferretti Group) is an Italian multinational shipbuilding company headquartered in Forlì which specialises in the design, construction and sale of luxury motor yachts. Its products are sold under the brands Ferretti ...
brand), inspired by the United States army General
John J. Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Wes ...
, a hero of the First World War. In 1985 the first model was launched, the Pershing 45', one of the first performance open Boats to have three cabins and three
heads A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may no ...
. The vessel had one of the first hydraulic passarelles something that is found on every modern yacht today. In 1992 the Pershing 70' was launched. It was the largest open yacht in composite material ever to be built at the time. One model was equipped with a 4000 hp gas turbine that allowed the vessel to reach speeds of 60 Knots. But one of the greatest styling features that later also became common in the automobile industry was the side windows framed by a fiberglass arch designed to allow the roof to slide back to a concealed position. This replaced the traditional metal frames. In 2000 the shipyard reached another milestone in its fleet, the Pershing 88', that stood out from the crowd with its audacious metallic paintwork. The forward garage was also a first for yachting, housing a
tender Tender may refer to: Entertainment Film * ''Illegal Tender'' (2007), a film directed by Franc. Reyes * ''Tender'' (2012), a short film by Liz Tomkins * ''Tender'' (2019), a short film by Darryl Jones and Anthony Lucido * ''Tender'' (2019), a sh ...
and a jet ski. In 2006 the model went out of production, becoming a collector's item of
limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...
. At the beginning of the 90s Pershing looked to new markets and expanded to the US, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Far East. In 1998 it became part of
Ferretti Group Ferretti S.p.A. (trading as Ferretti Group) is an Italian multinational shipbuilding company headquartered in Forlì which specialises in the design, construction and sale of luxury motor yachts. Its products are sold under the brands Ferretti ...
, a world leading holding company in the yachting industry. Antonelli stayed on as President of the company. In 2004 Antonelli was also made president of Itama, a brand that he managed together with Pershing until 2009. In 2010, when the yachting industry was in major recession due to the global financial crisis, an investment fund offered to buy the Pershing brand, but Ferretti Group had no intention of selling, believing it to be of strategic importance to recover from the crisis. It was following this decision that on 3 March of that same year Antonelli resigned.


WIDER shipyard

One day in spring 2010 he returned home with an idea, met with his family around a sheet of paper, and on it he drew the overhead view of the hull of a yacht, then immediately after two wings that emerge from the central
cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...
, doubling the dimensions of each side. He believed that it was time to reconsider the space available on a yacht with a view to offering greater comfort to owners. A few months later he founded the WIDER shipyard, named to give a clear indication of the idea that started the project. On 14 April 2011, at the Porto Carlo Riva in Rapallo, the first model, named WIDER 42', was presented. The first yacht in the world with a cockpit that could extend laterally. It became necessary to find a name for a new category of yacht: "the WIDER cockpit". In 2014 WIDER had two production facilities in Italy (in the region of
Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...
, in Ancona and Castelvecchio di Monte Porzio PU. The shipyard has an international coverage and develops avant-garde yacht projects. WIDER has made its corporate mission to continually push the boundaries of yachting.


Notes


External links


WIDER YACHTS

UCINA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonelli, Tilli 1955 births Italian businesspeople Living people Italian company founders