The famend Cantieri di Pisa historic Italian shipyard, based in 1945 in Pisa, Tuscany, started as a manufacturing and restore facility for small boats, earlier than rising to larger-scale manufacturing, from which its popularity grew. It was purchased by at present’s proprietor Enrico Gennasio in 2021, after a interval of closure.
The brand new period of Cantieri di Pisa has been marked by strong development and passionate aspirations below Gennasio’s possession, Marco Massabò’s day-to-day management and final 12 months’s appointment of Antonio Luxardo – co-founder of Optima Design – as Chief Designer.
This new chapter has commenced with the introduction of a brand new vary of motoryachts with three sequence mixing conventional components that respectfully nod to Cantieri di Pisa heritage, with modern touches. The Pisa yard continues to vow the best high quality of builds, aided by the abundance of high quality marine suppliers within the neighborhood.
Inform us about your background, the way you ventured into the shipyard enterprise by buying Cantieri di Pisa in 2021, and your instructions since then.
Enrico Gennasio: We’ve a robust industrial background since my essential enterprise is Lombardy-based Alfagomma Group, which operates globally within the manufacturing of built-in techniques for industrial and hydraulic fluids, employs shut to five,000 individuals and has had a presence within the Asia Pacific Rim since 1989.
It’s a bunch with a really robust engineering background due to the excessive expertise required within the sector. Alfagomma is vertically built-in, concerned not solely in product analysis and improvement but additionally within the improvement, design, analysis and manufacturing of equipment and gear. As we assemble our personal equipment for processing, we maintain our technological improvements confidential. Our buyer base contains key gamers with high-content expertise within the oil and gasoline, mining, delivery, shipbuilding and defence sectors.
Linking a robust industrial background and a really long-held ardour for motorboats – being a ship proprietor since I used to be 19 – I used to be given the chance to accumulate Cantieri di Pisa. I noticed this shipyard enterprise from an proprietor’s perspective, with a number of aesthetics wanted however typically inadequate technical content material within the manufacturing.
As my essential enterprise is an built-in one the place subcontracting is non-existent, I seemed additional than Cantieri di Pisa and noticed that an excessive amount of of the boating trade depends on subcontracting. From my standpoint, this will result in dropping a grip on the progress of a model’s manufacturing and manufactured product expertise.
For instance, the primary boat we designed and have began to fabricate – the quick 80 Veloce – is a completely carbon-fibre boat, which was an train in expertise, from the development of the moulds in-house for the hull to the superstructure and each piece of the composite materials. That’s the route we need to go for – we need to be in charge of our expertise and subsequently of our high quality and future.
After I acquired the shipyard, Cantieri di Pisa had a incredible model picture because of an excellent historical past, iconic title and merchandise. Nonetheless, it was sitting idle for just a few years. To attract a parallel, once you don’t play tennis for 3 years, irrespective of how good you had been earlier than, you should begin once more and shake the rust out.
So, we determined to begin in a robust means by specializing in refit, prioritising Cantieri di Pisa boats. Over 740 items had been produced traditionally, so we labored on presenting the perfect refit centre for the prevailing fleet. We’ve already accomplished fairly just a few refits of Cantieri di Pisa boats. It was a very good ‘warm-up train’ for the crew and perfect timing for us to fine-tune our organisation.
We’ve made nice achievements over the previous three years, and we obtained very encouraging testimonials from happy clients. The truth is, our shipyard has extra requests than it will possibly deal with, and we’re actively three further services. At the moment, we’ve got 50,000sqm of services together with a 600m-long quay outfitted with a 300-tonne journey carry and a 20-tonne crane.
Concurrently, we began to design the new-generation Cantieri di Pisa vary, which we displayed on the Cannes Yachting Competition and Monaco Yacht Present in September 2024.
Throughout the Cannes Yachting Competition, the imaginative and prescient projected by Cantieri di Pisa actually stood out as a ‘comeback’, with the presentation of 9 new tasks. Some requested whether or not this may be overly bold. How would you reply?
Marco Massabò: We’re blissful to listen to that, as that is the results of an extended perseverance, understanding all of the sources, shipyard staff and subcontractors mobilised. You possibly can think about the stress concerned; a number of fine-tuning is required.
Lots of ardour can be wanted, you breathe with the shipyard and possibly after three years of due diligence, we’ve assessed the issues on the shipyard, with manpower, the power and suppliers, and we’ve improved these areas. We all know managing 9 upcoming fashions is a big goal, however we’ll handle it step-by-step and are concentrating on the smaller fashions first.
For my part, we will begin to focus and manufacture inside the 30-50m vary – to a most of 58m – in Cantieri de Pisa’s shipyard, and for the 60-100m vary, outdoors of Pisa however nonetheless in Italy. With our different fashions just like the 38m and the 48m yachts, made in metal, with a superstructure in composite or aluminium, we will discover such experience not solely in Italy but additionally within the Netherlands and in Germany.
I think about that within the case of a 90m yacht, an order of, say, €120 million, it will take eight months to a 12 months to signal a contract for us, as we’re new to this type of superyacht construct. We do have a robust partnership with megayacht builder, the T. Mariotti shipyard, and we’d totally assess such a mission with them as a advisor.
You spoke of the growth of manufacturing services, the historic Polaris and Saturno strains, and the sale of Cantieri di Pisa Customized Division’s first explorer. You additionally unveiled a 3rd line: Akhir, the beforehand profitable vary, now “redesigned to fulfill the wants of contemporary house owners whereas staying true to the model’s historic legacy.” Are these areas progressing effectively?
Marco Massabò: Cantieri di Pisa had three present product strains traditionally linked to names derived from astrology: Polaris, Saturno and Akhir.
The Polaris line, a reputation inherited from the distinguished legendary yacht of the dolce vita period, started in 1961 with a 13.2m cruiser, which turned the Tremendous Polaris in 1964 with the introduction of a flybridge. The brand new Polaris sequence contains yachts of 38m and 48m, extending to the 60m Tremendous Polaris and even bigger sizes.
The journey started with the 48m steel-hulled voyager with a displacement hull that includes EHPH (Eco Excessive Energy Hull) wave-piercing expertise for long-range cruising and low gas consumption, and an aluminium and carbon superstructure.
With this new mannequin, the intention was to protect the shipyard’s DNA by coming into a brand new voyager-explorer phase, which boasts totally different proportions and volumes however nonetheless maintains the shipyard’s stylistic options such because the ribbon home windows, the actual design of the air intakes, and the facility.
The second line, Saturno, is extra conventional, derived from a reinterpretation of the strains of the Nineteen Sixties fashions, by which the very beneficiant stern, typical of the earlier fashions, has been retained. The principle function of this line is the connection between the seashore membership, the primary deck and the higher deck immediately from a transverse exterior staircase with out passing by the inside.
The third line is devoted to Cantieri di Pisa’s most well-known line of yachts, the Akhir, together with the 44m fully in carbon-fibre.
How did you resolve to ask architect and designer Antonio Luxardo – co-founder of Optima Design – to collaborate with Cantieri di Pisa as Chief Designer?
Enrico Gennasio: Throughout the first three years of my possession, I spoke with various naval architects and designers, and he was the one which appeared most convincing to have the ability to deal with what we want throughout design for a complete mission.
Design is vital as a result of we’re concerned in luxurious objects with attractive shapes. But design goes past aesthetics, it’s the full idea for every mission. Antonio is positioned like no different to grasp the complete DNA of the shipyard and oversee all new tasks of the shipyard, or else he wouldn’t have been capable of current 9 new fashions.
You talked about heritage, because the shipyard celebrates its eightieth anniversary in 2025. How will you stay devoted to its DNA whereas evolving into a brand new period?
Enrico Gennasio: We’ve vital archives and drawings, since its beginning in 1945, to not point out the residing testimonials of boats nonetheless working for the reason that shipyard’s launch.
It’s crucial to determine what had been the explanations for the success of the legacy merchandise of Cantieri di Pisa. Traces just like the Akhir had been very good in design and high quality, with excessive efficiency. These yacht traits have to be the frequent denominator of Cantieri di Pisa’s technique for the long run.
Within the case of the Akhir line, although, it’s definitely difficult to modernise such an iconic product: we should evolve the legacy tasks to present necessities of homeowners with out dropping their distinguished fashion that at all times stood out from others within the trade.
We don’t need to ever be a mass- or serial-production shipyard. We need to have a restricted variety of hulls produced yearly, taking note of these basic factors which can be typically not in a product made in excessive numbers. We can not confuse yachts of one of these dimension with one thing just like the automotive manufacturing course of, as an illustration.
We additionally need to keep the pliability of personalisation that boat house owners may naturally require. These particular factors are completely underestimated and disregarded by some producers.
At this second, buyer care and after-sales help are just about unknown within the trade, not less than on the Italian producers’ facet. You probably have a assure situation, they don’t even have the services to unravel the issue. The very fact we do refits and need to keep this service exemplify a shipyard that’s capable of be an issue solver.
It shouldn’t be attainable to purchase a US$15-20 million yacht, after which for those who face an issue, the producer doesn’t step in to assist clear up an issue they created. But that is the case within the trade proper now.
I’ve seen corporations by which their authorized division receives extra consideration and sources than, say, the technical or R&D division. That is clearly an indication of illness. Our motto is we endeavour to take a constructive strategy to any drawback which will come up, and we stand alongside our yacht house owners to assist with any issues.
How was the suggestions from the Cannes and Monaco reveals, and the place will you proceed your roadshows from 2025 to develop internationally?
Enrico Gennasio: I’m extraordinarily optimistic in regards to the final result of those two reveals for our firm. We’ll proceed our roadshows, displaying our merchandise and capabilities between the US, the Center East and the Asia-Pacific in 2025. There is no such thing as a stress: we plan, crawl and stroll. We’re fascinated about any dialog and potential contract wherever on this planet.
At a later stage, we’ll strategy chosen markets in a considerable method, to arrange native constructions. We will think about a supplier community, as an illustration. All we want is to have an organisation that may stand behind our merchandise.
This text was first seen on yachtstyle.co.
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