Stefano Nava, the Italian designer for Doyle Sails.

Doyle Sails operates with an extensive, international design team that consists of highly qualified sailors who bring their own knowledge and experience to the team. One of the key designers that work with several lofts around the world is New Zealand based Italian, Stefano Nava.

Stefano grew up in Eupilio, a small picturesque village in the North of Italy close to Lake Como, before moving to Genova at 18 years old to study Naval Architecture at the University of Genova. His love for sailing began early when he started sailing with his family in Croatia aboard their cruising yacht. From there took the opportunity to join a Croatian sailing team on their Volvo 60 as they took part in various coastal and offshore races including the Middle Sea Race and the ARC (Atlantic Crossing).

After graduating from the University of Genova, Stefano continued to search for every opportunity to further his sailing career, so when presented with the opportunity to carry out a PhD in Computational Fluid-Dynamics applied to sails aerodynamics at the University of Auckland.

During his time at Auckland University, Stefano received a call from the design team at Doyle Sails looking for students to help with the operation and development of the FSI tools. After sitting next to some of the best sailors and designers in the world that form part of the Doyle Sails team analysing countless results, Stefano began designing his first sails.