Exclusive interview: Why is Ferrari building a sailing yacht?

So – Ferrari is building a flying yacht. When the luxury carmaker unveiled plans to build Ferrari Hypersail – a 30.5-metre net-zero foiling yacht designed to operate on renewable energy – it raised a series of questions. Who is leading the project? What technology will drive it? And, perhaps most importantly, why is Ferrari venturing into the world of yachting? BOAT sat down with the Hypersail team to learn more…

It's been two weeks since Ferrari caused a stir with its latest announcement and it’s clear the dust has hardly settled. "We don't know what's going to happen," says Ferrari Hypersail CTO Matteo Lanzavecchia. "This is something that's never been done before. We're about to find out if this idea that we have on paper will work in the real world."

The automobile manufacturer has leaped into the world of yacht construction with Ferrari Hypersail, a 30.5-metre foiler (also known as a "flying yacht") that will operate on renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and kinetic. It's no mean feat – and no wonder that such an ambitious project is being hailed as a "new chapter" in the company's history.

But these aren't completely unfamiliar waters for Ferrari. For one, the automobile giant has a long-standing partnership with Riva, one of seven yacht builders under Italian brand Ferretti Group. This decades-long pairing has produced a lucrative Formula One sponsorship and a limited-edition collection of speedboats known as the Riva Ferrari 32. 

Around 40 units were built in the 1990s – slick, racing-red and capable of 54-knot speeds – and displayed the raw power and design potential that could arise from fusing the nautical and automobile industries.

Now experimenting with yacht construction (and project management), Ferrari reasserts that "an exchange of ideas" between the two industries is crucial to the success of the project. "Ferrari is known for high performance and record-breaking racing. The Ferrari Hypersail felt like a natural extension of those ideals," explains Marco Guglielmo Ribigni, project team leader. "[And] the yachting industry – like the automobile industry – is filled with passionate people, which has been integral to our progress."

The nautical expertise for Ferrari Hypersail comes from Giovanni Soldini (a multi award-winning sailor and team principal) and Guillaume Verdier, a French naval architect known for his work on the "high-performance" Persico sailer Magic Carpet e and the world's largest sailing catamaran, ArtExplorer. 

Energy and ideas have been "flying around", Ribigni says, with nine patents linked to the project already filed and another six "currently being drafted". While Ferrari cannot disclose details at this stage, several patents relate to the yacht's self-sufficient and sustainable design – including a unique new system to harvest kinetic energy.

"A regular fuel combustion engine for a similarly sized sailing yacht burns more than 2000 litres of fuel during a five-day transatlantic race," explains Lanzavecchi. "This is not a practical solution."

So, what is? Ferrari have drawn on its experience with hybrid sportscars LaFerrari and SF90 to design a high-voltage, rechargeable electric battery that will allow the Ferrari Hypersail to maintain performance in less-than-ideal conditions. 

The less practical (but incredibly cool) part comes with solar panelling, a wind turbine and this elusive kinetic energy system, which will allow the Ferrari Hypersail to generate its own energy while underway, theoretically extending the yacht's range for thousands of miles.

"We're never seen a yacht that can fly and also stay in the water for this long. Even the America's Cup boats come out of the water every night," adds Soldini. Launch is scheduled for 2026, after which the yacht will be subjected to rigorous sea trials to see if the technology performs as expected. The plan becomes hazy after this point, though Soldini admits that the expectation is to "compete in a big, transatlantic ocean race."

The team laughs when I ask if there are any other challenges on the horizon. "The renewable energy is not even the worst part," explains Lanzavecchia. "This three-point foiling design is very new – and very complex."

Foils are wing-like structures placed beneath the hull of a yacht. The faster the yacht goes, the more lift is generated through these wings, until the hull is propelled completely outside the water. The world's largest foiling yacht, Baltic Yachts' 33.8-metre Raven, is supported by two T-shaped foils. Ferrari Hypersail will have three. The addition of an innovative "canting keel" will provide support for one of the foils, able to be rotated (or "canted") to either side of the hull for additional stability when rocking or turning.

 "This three-point structure would be fine as it is – if we were flying on flat water," explains Lanzavecchia. "But as we are dealing with the ocean, there are added complications. That's why we have created a dedicated algorithm, which comes from our Ferrari automobiles, to keep the dynamic control of the flight stable. Maintaining this stability in rough conditions is our great challenge."

There's a high probability that this extra foil will cost Ferrari in performance, though the team appears unfazed when this is pointed out.

"This is an experimental project. We're building a big technological laboratory, where the yacht and its equipment are being pushed to the extreme," says Ribigni. "We have some preliminary performance criteria sketched out with Giovanni [Soldini]. And if we meet our expectations either in terms of speed, stability or sustainability, we'll be happy."

With so much "yet to be seen", why is Ferrari doing this? The team confesses that Ferrari Hypersail is likely to be a one-off project – a testing ground, as Ribigni says – that will help Ferrari fine-tune its current product offerings.

"We are pushing a lot of know-how into this boat, and many of these learnings will be taken back into the automotive world," explains Ribigni. "The major learnings will be minimising fuel consumption, experimenting with aerodynamics and refining our electric motors."

Whatever happens, the yachting world will be watching closely. This research has the potential to positively impact the future of yacht design – and with their ambition, passion and technological expertise, the Ferrari Hypersail team have all the components to create a truly ground-breaking product.