Yachts&Gentlemen. Great boats and great men who have written sailing history

The YACHTS&GENTLEMEN photography exhibition, set in the cloister of Palazzo Borromeo d'Adda in via Manzoni 41 in Milan, tells the story of some great boats and their owners who have made their mark in the memory of enthusiasts in the industry and beyond. The initiative, created and organized by the MonteNapoleone Association, is part of the calendar of events for MonteNapoleone Yacht Club & Unique, scheduled from May 16th to the 22nd under the patronage of the Comune di Milano. The exhibition title YACHTS & GENTLEMEN aims to describe the close relationship between owner, designer and builder, which leads to great results, to the timeless products that write the story.
The ship that many remember, the one that made the general public aware of the sea’s pleasures, is Aristotle Onassis’ Christina, frequented by the world’s most powerful people. If Christina was the epitome of worldliness, other yachts take the spotlight for innovation and the ideas they developed. Like Adnan Khashoggi’s Nabila, designed by Bannenberg or Gianni Agnelli’s Stealth, a boat designed by German Frers, which marked a boundary between the old way of going to sea, and the new, of style, technology and speed. In addition to famous men, there are also little-known ship owners in the sailing world, such as the New York art dealer Arnold Glimcher – the first to earn more than a million dollars for the sale of a work by a living artist with Jasper Johns’ Three Flags – owner of Ghost designed by Luca Brenta and Lorenzo Argento. Dimensions have played an important role in a craze for growth that made these yachts difficult to sail, to the point that there are those who, despite having been close to the maximum limit, have chosen to reduce the size to feel closer to the sea. The largest currently sailing yacht is Azzam: 180 meters with 94,000 installed horsepower. Its aesthetic line was designed by Milan-based Nauta Yachts.
The majority of the exhibition’s photographs are by Carlo Borlenghi, a photographer known around the world for his taste and his ability to capture moments and atmospheres. The exhibition is curated by the journalist and expert nautical writer Antonio Vettese. 

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