A very special regatta has been staged every year since 2005. In fact, boats designed, built and sailed by university students from the various faculties of naval architecture in Italy and some foreign universities compete in the sea. The class rules of the regatta also stipulate that the boats must be built by students within the facilities of the
same universities in which they are enrolled.
The didactic-sports project, designed by architects Massimo Paperini and Paolo Procesi, has proven to be a revolutionary way of combining theory and practice, but also a fantastic showcase of nautical innovation. Indeed, the prototypes developed each year by the students often present radical solutions in light of the latest frontiers of yacht design, but also of the fundamental criteria of environmental sustainability. This is why the review of the boats competing in the
1001VELAcup represents an exceptional source of information for any sailor, particularly among racers, and for the yards in the industry.

Editors:
Massimo Paperini, founder of Studio Duck Design, has been designing more than 400 models of racing sailboats since 1975, which have won numerous national and international championships. Until 1990 he was a FIV (Italian Sailing Federation) consultant for rating rules at the Orc (Offshore Racing Congress) in London. For more than ten years he has been a lecturer on the Master’s degree in Yacht Design at the Milan Polytechnic.

Paolo Procesi, an architect, has been involved in boating since 1999 making his first self-built boats. In 2005 he participated in the Interior Yacht Design master’s program at the led in Rome; in the same year, together with Massimo Paperini, he designed the 1001VELAcup initiative. Since 2015 he has been working as a designer and interior designer in Rennes, France. He has taught at various institutes such as Quasar, IED, and Università degli Studi Roma Tre.