Luca Devoti talks yachting with Lars Grael - Video interview

Luca Devoti speaks with Lars Grael about world sailing © Luca Devoti

Luca Devoti once skippered America's Cup campaigns and won Olympic medals, now he is campaigning to join the World Sailing Board, as a Vice-President. As part of his bid, he is interviewing high profile sailors from around the world and getting their views on what they believe should be the future of the sport. For the benefit of the sport and young sailors, he shares these views in this interview series

Lars Grael, chats to Luca Devoti about his personal life and experiences as one of Brazil's top sailors and a member of the Grael sailing dynasty.

In this interview he explains Project Grael, a sailing school with the objective of democratizing young people's access to the practice of sailing and, thus, contributing to the social transformation in the lives of its beneficiaries.

Lars Grael is a ten-time Brazilian and five-time South American champion in the Tornado catamaran in which he won two bronze medals in the 1988 and 1996 Olympics.

In September 1998, Grael was involved in a serious training accident when he was hit by a coach boat and had a leg amputated. Grael then gradually began to take a role to promote the sport in politics.

Sail-World: As well as being a top sailor in the Finn class, and now a coach, Luca Devoti is best known for his founding of Devoti Boats - one of the top dinghy builders in the world. He was recently accused by World Sailing of having a monopoly in the Finn class because all but one sailor competing in the 2016 Olympics went and ordered the latest Finn from Devoti Boats. That one sailor put his faith in one of the previous model of Devoti's.

Luca Devoti also put together the +39 Challenge for the 2007 America's Cup, one of three Italian challengers in the event.

Italian born, Luca speaks six languages and lives with his family in Valencia, Spain. In addition to his sailing skills and contributions to the sport at many levels, Luca is also a very good journalist and able to easily relate to sailors at all levels through shared experience. His contacts and networks at all levels of the sport are extensive.

This series of interviews offer some fascinating insights into the shared experiences of two top sailors - even though they have competed in quite different areas of the sport.

You can read Luca's background and other sailing contribution and thoughts at devotiluca.com