The Yacht of Records
A tale of Vinicio Mais ...
"One of the episodes that I enjoy most to tell ...
We are in 1988 I receive a phone call from Abarth for which at the time I was creating the graphics on various prototypes such as ECV / LC2 that participated in the world track championships. They ask me to decorate the Azimut Group luxury yacht anchored in the port of Viareggio and about to attempt the world record of Atlantic Crossing without refueling with at least one paying passenger on board, necessary to be able to homologate the record. The paying passenger would have been none other than the illustrious billionaire Winthrop Rockefeller who bought the boarding ticket for the symbolic sum of one dollar, while Cesare Fiorio was the skipper. Since on the occasion of a previous crossing the boat reached the finish line with the stickers half detached, they explain to me that it would be a question, to avoid this problem again, to create the Martini graphics and the written strictly in paint.
My answer is a firm no. I add a thousand reasons: I'm not in the mood to move from Turin, I don't feel like giving up my job and my family .... And then to put it all this type of work makes me think of all kinds of headaches and unexpected events!
So I go to the Abarth headquarters to reaffirm my decision in front of all the big shots of the company. They try to convince me in every way, honestly I'm sorry not to be able to please them but my final answer is always a firm no, I don't feel like it. At one point one of them pulls out a check and asks me to write about any amount.
"Go ahead, write down an amount you would agree to do the job for."
I hesitate again and again, then in order not to further dissatisfy them I write on impulse an amount that I consider exaggerated enough to make them finally give up. I return the check back and think: now they will finally give up! To my surprise, however, the check is signed on the spot without batting an eye and almost in the blink of an eye I am on my way to Viareggio with my collaborators to carry out the processing. The work will end with such great success that I will later receive written thanks from the Rossi di Montelera spouses who commissioned the work. "
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