Special regulations for racing sailing and the Italian flag secured for Team Ferrari
The Hypersail will not only compete in Naples next year with the Italian flag, but will also represent an important precedent for all racing boats.
The bureaucratic challenge that could have seen Ferrari's new racing monohull sail under the French flag has been overcome: an amendment to the Sport Decree, approved by the Chamber of Deputies, has introduced a new regulatory framework that will allow the "Ferrari Hypersail," a project led by sailor Giovanni Soldini, to fly the Italian flag. The news, reported by The messenger, represents an important precedent for the entire racing sailing sector.
The "Hypersail" project, a 100-foot foiling monohull designed by Guillaume Verdier, is a high-tech prototype that doesn't fall under traditional certification procedures for pleasure craft. This very technical specificity risked forcing the Maranello team to turn to a foreign registry, a move that would have a strong symbolic impact especially in a year, 2026, when Italy will host the America's Cup for the first time in Naples.
The reason for this anomaly lies in the fact that France, thanks to a set of European regulations, tax breaks and a particularly streamlined bureaucracy, has historically been able to attract the registration of the majority of racing boats and the Italian teams have often found themselves having to deal with these differences, then choosing the French flag for reasons of practicality and convenience.
To address this situation, the amendment to the Sports Decree, currently under consideration in the Senate, addresses this issue with a series of new rules designed to incentivize the registration of racing boats in Italy. Specifically, the rule: simplifies the process by allowing a prototype like the "Hypersail" to obtain the Italian flag even without the European Certificate (EC) for recreational craft; registration in Italy ensures that tax revenues, including VAT and property taxes, remain in the country, avoiding economic loss; and facilitates reinstatement in the Italian register, thanks to a simplified registration regime, for racing boats registered abroad who wish to do so.
The initiative, in addition to ensuring that one of the most well-known symbols of Made in Italy competes under the national flag, aims to strengthen Italian racing sailing as a whole, offering a concrete alternative to foreign registers and supporting the country's sporting and technological excellence with concrete actions.
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