At the end of 2001 Hannes was approached by Matteo Nicolini, a professional Offshore Italian racer who proposed to design a very quick mono in carbon fibre.

With his brother, Luca, they entered an agreement to build a craft that could be used for pleasure and racing together, but would also be competitive under the ‘new’ rules for ‘Endurance’ in the Sport Category for the ‘02 season.

Ostia, Gaeta, Napoli

Nicolini was late producing the boat and it was a rush to get to their first race in Gaeta, near Rome.  They went straight into the race without any testing. About one mile down the course, the transmission seized due to Nicolini failing to put oil in the transmission boxes. Not a good start to the season. The next race was due to be in Naples.  They arrived early and had some time to test, so Matteo decided to take his girlfriend over to Capri for a pleasure trip.

Unfortunately, no filters has been mounted on the engine water intake, they picked up a plastic bag and an engine overheated and seized, ruining their chances for the race the next day.

Ostia was the next event and it turned out to be third time lucky. Weather conditions were favourable and the team achieved their first win of the season.