By JULIE ASH
As work at the Mascalzone Latino base continues well into the night, little Andrea Onorato is getting restless waiting for her parents - both of whom work for Italy's newest Louis Vuitton Cup entrant.
The 13-month-old daughter of Mascalzone Latino founder and skipper Vincenzo Onorato is obviously the apple
of her father's eye although on this occasion Onorato is a little bemused by the fact his daughter is wearing a pair of Team New Zealand pants.
"Look at this, she is wearing another team's clothes," he laughs sweeping her into his arms. "That can't be good."
The shipping billionaire, his wife Lara Ciribi, who works as communications manager for the team, and the rest of his Italian syndicate are gearing up for their first shot at the Holy Grail of sailing - the America's Cup.
With a team of around 80, a budget of about $70 million and the only one-boat campaign* in the event, Onorato is under no illusion as to how tough it will be for his team made up of entirely Italian sailors.
"It is a young team our team and a low-budget team. We are here as first participants to make an experience," he admits freely through his thick Italian accent. "I just hope to do everything our way and to do things well. All the other challengers are so strong."
Despite his wealth, Onorato opted not to bankroll the campaign on his own. Instead the syndicate's main sponsor is Italian telecommunications company TIM. "It is useless to compete in just one America's Cup," explains Onorato. "You have to try and try and try and learn and try again."
Onorato's office at the Mascalzone Latino base is, ironically, smack bang in between OneWorld and Oracle BMW Racing - both of whose budgets are double that of Mascalzone Latino.
"Big budgets go with experience - now we don't have any experience in the America's Cup but that is okay. The first step in this game is having the passion," he says.
Despite the fact he is an accomplished helmsman, Onorato will not steer the boat in the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series which starts on October 1. Instead he will hand the job to Paolo Cian - one of the best Italian helmsmen in match-racing.
"I am not good in match-racing," he laughs. "I will be on the boat but will be the old man in the backyard. I will work, I will grind. At 45-years-old that is not easy. It is very hard."
For Onorato, Ciribi and Andrea, home in Italy is the island of Elba, off the northwest coast, which they say looks very much like Waiheke Island. "Elba is very green, there are many beaches. It is so unbelievable to find a place that looks like your own home so far away," he says.
Born in Naples, Onorato has lived on the island for more than 20 years.
"I went there with my parents when I was a little kid and really loved it."
As a child Onorato, who is the youngest of four by some 20 years, wasn't interested in other sports - just sailing.
"I was sailing when I was a kid on my father's sailboat. That is the source from where my passion for sailing comes from," says Onorato, who was born into his father Achille's company Moby Lines - a passenger and cargo ferry company.
Despite his background, getting the time to sail must have proved tricky. From the age of 5, Onorato attended a school in Naples run by priests. He didn't finish there until he was 18.
"The priests were very serious and strict," he says. "We had three or four hours of religion a week and we used to pray every afternoon. It was a place you hated when you were in there but appreciated what you learned later on."
Once his school days were over, Onorato got his maritime economics degree and started work in the family shipping business. He is now head of the company, making him a fourth-generation shipowner following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather who was also a shipowner.
Moby Lines now includes a fleet of 17 passenger ships and freighters as well as two cruise ferries. "For me and my family, our job is to be shipowners so we are at sea for work and business and we are at sea for pleasure," he says.
Moby Lines' shipping business between Sardinia, Corsica, Elba Island and neighbouring countries has increased dramatically and in 1999 Onorato was made an honorary citizen of Olbia for his contribution to the development of Sardinian ferry connections.
However, four years earlier the business almost ran aground after Onorato went head to head with the French Government over nuclear testing in the Pacific. When Onorato collected more than 12,000 signatures in 48 hours in a national appeal to stop the French nuclear tests in Mururoa Atoll, the French Government was not impressed.
In retaliation they tried to stop Onorato's ships from entering French waters. Says Onorato with a shrug, "We had a little problem with the French Government but we soon sorted it out. I feel strongly against nuclear testing - why don't they do the testing in their own capital instead if it is so safe?"
But that was seven years ago, and it seems unlikely Onorato feels strongly enough to make waves over French challenger Le Defi Areva, whose major sponsor is French nuclear power company Areva.
Onorato's interest in competitive sailing began when he was a child tinkering around with small yachts. In 1970 he began racing and in 1976 bought his first 6m yacht.
In the following years he won the Mediterranean Championships in 1984, the Zegna trophy and finished second in the Quarter Ton Cup of Bayona in 1990.
Then, in 1993-94 Onorato formed the Mascalzone Latino sailing team.
As he points out: "Mascalzone Latino is one of the few teams - maybe the only team - that was not born for the America's Cup. We have been sailing for nearly 10 years."
Which is not to say that the Mascalzone Latino Challenge is not up to the job. Since its introduction the team has won numerous titles including the 2000 IMS World Championships and the Mumm 30 World Championships - both of which encouraged Onorato into pursuing his dream of forming a challenge for the America's Cup.
"I love sailing and the America's Cup was one of the races I have always dreamed of doing," he says. "I think every sailor dreams of doing the America's Cup."
It was through the Mascalzone Latino sailing team that Onorato met his second wife Lara Ciribi, a former Italian gymnast who excelled in every sport she turned her hand to. "It is quite a funny story," he says with a grin a mile wide. "She was working for a television station and she had to interview me and it just went from there," he laughs.
The pair married five years ago and Ciribi soon began working as communications manager for the sailing team.
"I love working here," she says. "It was very hard to get here [Auckland] but it is a dream to be here.
"It is my job to find the sponsors and organise the media side of if it. Now I just hope I can be the 17th man on the boat - just one time."
Sixteen people are on board the yachts during racing but a 17th person is allowed on board as a spectator.
Back home in Italy, Onorato and Ciribi live in Milan during the week where Onorato keeps an eye on Moby Lines and Ciribi works in the Mascalzone Latino office there.
The trip from the island to Milan is an hour-long ride by ferry - on a Moby Lines ship, of course - followed by a drive of 3-4 hours but the pair make the journey gladly together.
"We both hate Milan," says Ciribi. "It is foggy, cold and very, very busy. But we have to go there to work. Vincenzo hates spending too much time there. He is not happy if he is not sailing."
Onorato has two children from his previous marriage - 16-year-old Achille and 13-year-old Alessandra - but unfortunately neither is keen on sailing.
"I am really sorry about that, really, really sorry about that," he says sincerely. "They like football - something that I really hate. When I am not managing my shipping company I am sailing. I don't like any other sports but sailing. I love to read books though."
He also likes to write books and has had four novels published. But when asked what they are about, Onorato struggles to describe them.
Are they love stories? "No"
Are they about sailing? "No"
Are they about your life? "No"
Are they about your family? "No"
Are they about someone else's life? "No"
"It is very hard to describe them," he says. "You start with something and it just goes from there. You learn something about life."
Onorato is anything but lost for words when asked what he adores about sailing. "It is beautiful. I don't know of anything more beautiful than sailing," he says wide-eyed. "Picture today, a 16-knot breeze, the set was beautiful, sunny, a little wind, racing on an America's Cup yacht - I can't imagine anything better."
Vincenzo Onorato, Mascalzone Latino Challenge (Italy)
Role: President and skipper
Nationality: Italian
Age: 45
Family: Wife Lara, children Achille (16), Alessandro (13) and Andrea (13 months)
The founder and skipper of Italy's second America's Cup challenger is a novelist, billionaire shipowner and anti-nuclear protester who took on the French Government over testing at Mururoa Atoll, writes Julie Ash.
Cup career: First-time challenger
Sailing history:
1978 - Naples Championship
1979 - Mattino International Sailing Week
1980 - Tre Golfi Half-Ton race
1984 - Mediterranean Championship; Tolone-San Remo Regatta
1989 - Quantreau Trophy
1990 - Zegna Trophy
1997 - Overall Giraglia
1999 - Youkon Cup, US
2000 - IMS World Championship; Mumm 30 World Championship
2001 - Youkon Cup, US; Primo Cup, Mumm 30 Monte Carlo; Mumm 30 Italian Championship; Copa del Rey, Palma Mallor
* Like Mascalzone, the French syndicate Le Defi Areva has only one new boat (FRA-69) but it is also using an updated yacht (FRA-79) from the last Louis Vuitton Cup. Each of the other syndicates has built two new boats (the maximum allowed) for this regatta.
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
By JULIE ASH
As work at the Mascalzone Latino base continues well into the night, little Andrea Onorato is getting restless waiting for her parents - both of whom work for Italy's newest Louis Vuitton Cup entrant.
The 13-month-old daughter of Mascalzone Latino founder and skipper Vincenzo Onorato is obviously the apple
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