Sailing Illustrated: Replay of interview with sailing savant Luca Devoti
by Sail-World.com/nz 26 Feb 2019 15:29 PST
27 February 2019
Giles Scott racing his Devoti D-Fantastica Finn © Suntouched Sailboats
Recently labelled a monopoly boatbuilder by World Sailing' President, top European boatbuilder Luca Devoti is an Olympic Silver medalist in the Finn class (2000 Olympics), who gave his views, mainly on matters Olympic on the popular Sailing Illustrated "Tuesday with TFE" video show, hosted by Tom Ehman, on Tuesday afternoon.
Devoti earned the monopoly builder label, not because of some lucrative exclusive contract, but because for a long time he has built Finn dinghies to such a high standard, that no-one would seriously be trying to compete at Olympic level without a Devoti. In fact, at the last Olympics, all but one sailor had the latest model Devoti Finns and the sailor that didn't used a earlier model of Devoti.
Luca has a superb technical knowledge and vision for the sport having been involved in the Olympics as a competitor, and as part of the marine industry. He was also a leading light for the +39 Challenge in the 2007 America's Cup.
Recently he has lodged an anti-trust complaint with the Italian anti-trust authorities which has since been referred to the European anti-trust commission, who are in the initial stages of an investigation. The issue hinges around whether the building and supply of Olympic Equipment (classes) should be in the hands of a single builder, or allowed multiple licenced builders as used to be the standard for all the international classes some of which became Olympic.
He also has one of the entries in the trials for the Olympic One Person Dinghy being run by World Sailing.
In this interview, he expresses a lot of interesting views on the sport and directions it is - or should be taking.
Watch by clicking here