2001. Bruno Abbate: a life of a primatist

Welcome to the special section “BAM 35 Years.” We are presenting “cult” articles from the Motor Boats archive, starting in 1990. A journey through time among stories unobtainable today, even in the great sea of the internet! A dive into the world of epic moments in motor boating. We begin with one of the stories we were most passionate about.

A life of a primatist

From Boats by Motor 2001, No. 7, August, pp. 46-49.

Bruno Abbate, the youngest of the great Guido’s sons, celebrates his first 50 years of life and work this year. In fact, his debut on the construction site occurred within 2 hours of his birth.

Bruno Abbate belongs to one of those families that have in their DNA strong components of genius, but also of unruliness. People bursting with vitality, both physical and psychic, rich in ingenuity and heart. Sometimes unpredictable, never trivial. And for this reason fascinating. The patriarch, the founder of this dynasty of Larian boat builders was Dad Guido. A man who from nothing quickly made a name for himself in the sophisticated world of powerboat racing, thanks to some insights that, as much as one does not want to indulge in rhetoric, one must define with the adjective they deserve: simply brilliant. Just mentioning them is enough for Bruno to get heated: “My father was a forerunner, one of the great pioneers of modern boating. He was the first to build a ‘three-point’ racer in Europe and was the first to mount surface propellers. It makes me laugh when historians attribute their invention to Sonny Levi. In our museum we have a boat built by my father in 1947 with surface propellers. At that time Sonny Levi was not yet involved in boats.” Bruno has a real cult for Dad Guido. In addition to admiration, the great affection of a son who grew up alongside his father in life and work shines through. He happily tells us about it in the representative office of his Grandola e Uniti boatyard, always friendly, always helpful. Before we dive into the pleasant chat, we cannot help but notice the striking location of the construction site, among high cliffs and alpine vegetation, along the mountain road leading from Menaggio to Porlezza and Lugano. Second contrast, the office furnished with important furniture such as the large square crystal meeting table and leather chairs and other much more personal items such as cups, trophies, posters and family photos and even a large stuffed hammerhead shark. But nothing is more informal than Bruno and makes you feel comfortable.

Power Boats: When did you get into the boat business?
Bruno Abbate: I was born at 7 p.m., and at 9 a.m., that is, two hours later, because Mario Verga was in the shipyard about to leave for a race, I was propped up as a good luck charm on his racer, the Laura I. This is to say that my first cradle was a boat and from that moment boats became my life (ed. note: Mario Verga was the powerboat champion for whom Abbate built the first “three-pointer”).

Have you always worked with your father?
“Both my older brothers and I started working with Dad. When fiberglass began to impose itself in 1964, Tullio, the oldest, who had immediately believed in the potential of the new material, after some discussion with Dad, who remained tied to wood, left and opened his own shipyard. I, of course, given my age. I was 13, stayed with my father and Chicco (brother Carlo).”

Were you already working at that age?
“Since our school days all three of us brothers have devoted every spare hour to the construction site. I remember getting out of school at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and as soon as we got outside we would walk to the construction site. We would help the workers with a few chores, do cleaning, anything, like turning the mahogany planks that were on Mother’s terrace drying, which was an operation that had to be done every day. We liked the work, it was our passion, our blood. We always worked alongside my father, until, in 1976. he retired and left the business to me and my brother Carlo.”

You were only 25, weren’t you a little young to be running a boatyard?
“In the common sense of the word, yes, I was young, but I was already mature in experience. And the experience served me well, because Chicco and I had to start from scratch. It was necessary to reprogram all production, to restructure the Porlezza site, where, for that matter, there was nothing left, not even a mold.”

How come? What had happened?
“It is a story that few people know. In the 1970s, boating had entered a crisis. There was a shortage of gasoline, there were alternate Sundays without cars, and there was a heavy social contestation that certainly did not favor the trade of consumer goods deemed luxury like pleasure boats. A very difficult time for all of us. My father found some good customers in the South, mainly in Puglia and Campania, people who were sea-savvy, who liked fast boats, but who also had many needs. Nowadays I would quietly call them pain in the ass and tell them to go to hell. But in those days you couldn’t be so difficult. It was either accept the work that was there or close down and put several families out on the street. To accommodate their every whim we even moved the construction site. But now, with a cool mind, I can tell you now that it was a fantastic school for fairing development. And not just the hulls. For transmissions, for surface propellers, for the problem of boat and engine reliability. Going to sea is a very different thing than being on a lake. There are much more complex navigational and safety problems, as is obvious. Having learned how to solve them live allowed us to gain the wealth of experience that we later harnessed and that made us successful right away.”

When did you first begin to reap satisfaction?
“Practically from the very beginning, from the first boat we put into production, the Primatist 23′, which was an outstanding boat, so much so that we sold 700 of them! Then we made the 34′ and in 1980, with the profits we built the first thousand meters of shed here in Grandola.”

It is not easy to have such success out of the blue…
“It must be said that we were not exactly strangers. My father’s reputation as a builder was still alive.”

Primatist success, however, received a big boost after your offshore victories. Right?
“In fact, the publicity derived from winning the European Class 1 title benefited our yard greatly. After 1987 there was a real boom in sales.”

Were you favored by a major sponsor like Gancia?
“Vittorio Vallarino Gancia has been much more than an important sponsor for me. He was above all a friend. An immediate liking was born between us. He had seen in Corriere della Sera a picture of my Primatist 30′, which by the way was named Carola, after his son’s wife. He had liked it and phoned me to order one. Later I made him a 34′ and then one day, it was 1985, he came to the Genoa Boat Show and told me that he was planning to sponsor a class 1 hull for the European Offshore European Championships-the real offshore, the one with monohulls-and that he wanted one of my boats and me as a pilot. We went to eat together with his trustee Filippo Crosa and never spoke of the subject again. After a month, having no more news I phoned Crosa and asked him if Vittorio Gancia’s about the offshore championship had been a joke. Crosa was astonished: “How! Isn’t the boat ready yet? Look, when Vittorio Gancia says he wants something, you can consider the deal done. There is no need for a contract.” Thus came four exhilarating years of sporting success and, above all, for the name of the shipyard, which had its definitive consecration. Then, with the advent of catamarans this golden age came to an end. I, to tell the truth, was thinking of building one to continue racing, but Vittorio Gancia convinced me to retire. It was another world. “Rather,” he told me, “let’s think of something to entertain our friends. And so the Primatist Trophy was born, a great motorboating kermesse, but also a party among friends. Every year we come up with something different to entertain them, and when you think that 11 years have passed since the first edition in 1991, it means that we succeed. The components of success are simple and they always work. My father always told me, “Women, watches and motors!” He thinks about it for a while and then continues, “What clocks have to do with it, I never understood. I promised myself I would ask him, until one day he left without explaining it to me.”

What plans have you made to take advantage of this golden moment in the Italian boat market?
“The first thing we should do is to find new facilities to build large boats, for which, by the way, we have a high demand. This is a big issue, also for sentimental reasons that are valuable to me. We are attached to our land and are fond of our people. We cannot expand here, we lack space. We would have to relocate. Difficult decision. For the rest, we will just complete the production range; for example, we have a 40′ under construction that fills a gap between the 36′ and 43′. It will be ready next year.”

What do you think are the secrets of your success?
“The secret is only one. That I, a designer and builder, am someone who goes to sea a lot and I do nothing but try to build boats according to my way of going to sea, that is, with an eye always on the greatest possible safety, without forgetting performance. Today our boats do 36 to 45 knots, depending on the type of motorization, and I’m not saying in any kind of sea, because the sea has taught me that when it’s angry it’s better to stay in port. However, we can deal with really sustained seas in perfect peace of mind. So, comfort, performance and technology. I think I make a very good product, as a quality and as a price. Of course it’s an elite, highly sought-after product.”

It is just what is pulling the most right now.
“It is also a forced choice on our part. With the size of company we have, we certainly could not seek quantity, only quality. We managed to get it and offer it. That’s why they seek us out and appreciate us. Boats like ours have few rivals, both in terms of line and features.”

Racing, a family passion

Among the Abbate family’s common characteristics was a passion for powerboat racing, passed on by direct route from Guido to his sons. Guido was first and foremost a great racing boat builder. Between 1949 and 1953 his racers won everything there was to win. All the strongest racers of the time lined up in Porlezza to have a boat made. Three names out of all: Mario Verga, Ezio Selva and Achille Castoldi. Guido himself participated and won many races. In his palmarès is a long series of victories in the Cento Miglia del Lario, the classic of endurance races. The champion’s baton from his father’s hands was picked up by Tullio, the eldest son. “I did not have much time to devote to racing,” Bruno says with some regret, ” I always turned all my efforts to production. This hard necessity did not, however, prevent him from winning a European title in the S5 (5000 cc sport) inshore class, practically on his racing debut, and then winning the much more prestigious Class 1 offshore title in 1987, a title accompanied in the same year by victory in the Italian championship and the Mediterranean Trophy. A triumph both as a racer and as a builder, since the victorious boat was a Primatist 46′ sport. Then began racing Guidino, Bruno‘s eldest son, who had already showcased his natural talent by winning the Class 3 offshore championship at only 19 years of age. Unfortunately, an automobile accident snatched him the following year from the life that smiled on him and the many plans his father placed in him. Bruno’s current sporting interests are related to DAC the F1 racing team that has won 5 world titles with Guido Cappellini in the last 8 years. II relationship with the world champion was born out of the passion of Guidino who had known Cappellini (another Guido, the name of destiny) becoming a great fan. A form of collaboration ensued, with first DAC providing the technology for young Abbate ‘s offshore racing debut and then Primatist taking responsibility for the organizational and managerial side of DAC‘s production of racing behemoths, after a successful first collaborative experience in 1996 that resulted in the world inboard speed record. A relationship similar to that which exists between FIAT (Primatist/Abbate) and Ferrari (DAC/Cappellini). Advanced technology and research for the development of DACs are exploited by Primatist on a practical level as an application of innovative solutions.

by Riccardo Magrini