A French family sailing expedition that has logged 135,000 nautical miles over 25 years has just re-engined its boat with a Nanni N4.80, opening a new chapter in one of the longest-running environmental education voyages at sea.
The TOPtoTOP expedition, led by Dario and his family aboard the sailboat Pachamama, set out in 1999 with an audacious goal: sail the Seven Seas to reach the Seven Summits, the highest peak on every continent, using only sailing, cycling and climbing. What began as a world-record attempt has become something else entirely.
An educational mission, essentially. In 25 years the family has visited more than 100 countries and spoken with over 200,000 students, from major cities to some of the most isolated communities on Earth.
"Sharing your experience with children means investing in the future."
The approach is deliberately non-alarmist. In Greenland, schoolchildren talk about melting ice. In Polynesia, the conversation turns to rising seas. TOPtoTOP does not push a single narrative; instead it connects these stories and lets students draw their own conclusions.
Pachamama carries meaning even in its name, Inca for "Mother Earth". Built for extreme conditions and long stretches without support, the boat doubles as a scientific research platform, gathering microplastic samples and environmental DNA, and as a floating classroom at each port of call.
Reliability has mattered as much as ambition. The boat's original Nanni 5.280 HE, built on a Kubota engine, ran for 8,000 hours across those 135,000 nautical miles. Dario's family chose Nanni for its mechanical simplicity and the strength of its international distribution network, qualities that matter when anchored somewhere with no advanced diagnostic tools on hand.
Since October, Pachamama has been running a Nanni N4.80, fitted with support from NOGVA, Nanni's official distributor in Norway.
The road ahead is ambitious. TOPtoTOP plans to link the Arctic to the Antarctic within two years, attempt Antarctica's highest peak, meet another 150,000 students, and take part again in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, an event well known to New Zealand sailors given the strong Kiwi presence in trans-Tasman ocean racing circles.
A new circumnavigation began in May 2026, with fresh footage planned for a follow-up to the documentary Home is the Ocean.
For Nanni, the partnership is as much about values as horsepower. It means backing a project that treats reliable propulsion as the quiet enabler of something much larger.
