Stepping into the 52 SUPER SERIES for the first time demands a certain kind of nerve, and Mauro Gestri's Vudu carries that quality into Porto Cervo with obvious conviction. The Italian entry may be new to this level of grand prix racing, but the squad has wasted no time in demonstrating its credentials, finishing second at the ORC World Championships in Sorrento just last month, ahead of the Rolex TP52 World Championship in Sardinia.
Gestri's own journey into serious sailing is a brief one. He committed to racing only a couple of years ago, yet the ambition driving the project is far from modest. Giovanni Sanfelice, who serves as both downwind trimmer and project manager, describes the Porto Cervo campaign as the logical next step for an owner who wants to understand, at first hand, what genuinely elite competition requires of a crew.
"This is just our second season," Sanfelice explains. "The owner had never raced before last year. So we're doing a good job step-by-step. He's understood what a TP52 really means, and now we want to show him what pure class racing looks like."
Vudu is a 2015 Azzurra, a hull that previously sailed under the names Patrice and Hooligan before being brought back from Australia. Its pedigree is not in doubt, though Sanfelice, who works with North Sails Rome, is frank about where the team's real focus must lie: crew cohesion above all else. The squad heads into race week without fixed performance targets, choosing instead to take an honest measure of themselves against the fleet they face.
"Our objective is to have a fun week and finish enthusiastic," he says. "The owner likes challenges. But we know it will be difficult. The boats here, the experience, the sailors, these are all super experienced. Our goal is to do our best on teamwork, measure ourselves against the best, and learn from the mistakes we make."
Sanfelice also believes the timing of Vudu's arrival on the circuit works in the team's favour. The 52 SUPER SERIES is in a period of growth, with new owners and fresh teams continuing to join, making this a more welcoming moment to enter than three years ago might have been. A positive week in Sardinia could make Valencia a realistic target later in the season. Before any of that, though, comes the racing itself, with some of the sharpest sailors in the world as the measure and a genuine chance for Vudu and her crew to discover exactly what they are made of.
