Colombo Romance 32, the Classic Boat of the “dolce vita” of the late 1990s (9.72m)

Columbo Romance 32 | 9.72 m

The trend, thinking about the
Classic Boats
, is often to focus on boats produced between the late 1960s and the second half of the 1980s. Yet the 1990s also produced great boats, designs that, being now over 25 years old, can easily fall into this category. In this regard, let’s take a look today at the Colombo Romance 32, a little gem from 1997, a 9.72-meter capable of combining the country’s shipbuilding tradition with the great innovations of the end of the last century in the best possible way.

Project

With the Colombo Romance 32, one is faced with a design that can best express the triumph of the country’s traditional shipbuilding, revised and hybridized in a modern key. With the creation of the Romance 32 (9.72 x 3.05 m, sleeps 2), in fact, Colombo is able to bring to life a boat that knows how to revive the charm of the typical wooden speedboat of the 1960s thanks to an ingenious construction technique: the combination of thick layers of mahogany laminate with fiberglass, both in the molds of the deadrise and the deck.

Indeed, the Romance 32 boasts fine mahogany workmanship, yet combined with the ease of maintenance of a fiberglass hull. Its lines thus evoke the classic lines of the ‘dolce vita’ days, with clean, sleek curves and the classic recessed aft sundeck.

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Columbo Romance 32 – Spaces on Board

As classic as few of its contemporaries, the Romance 32 has an unmistakably “1960s” profile, with a strong forward momentum, recovered for two-thirds of the hull by a large recessed cockpit, separated from the deck by a simple windshield protecting the wheelhouse.

Here they immediately find room for two armchairs, one serving the helmsman, on the starboard side, and one on the opposite broadside. Between the two, central and bulkheaded, is access to the below deck, while toward the stern, a full-beam sofa concludes this space, followed aft by a single large 3-seater sundeck.

Beautiful and practical is the convertible canopy, which shelters the entire cockpit and disappears into a special compartment in the back of the aft sofa. Although this is a day trip boat, below deck we appreciate the presence of a small toilet room and a double berth ideal for a siesta. Beneath this romantic, retro look, however, lies a hull with strong marine qualities, capable of nimbly exceeding 36 knots.

Technical Specs

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