Emanuele Rossi and the “refined” motor catamarans

A tribute to the companies and people who have made Barche a Motore great over these 35 years allowing it to be born, grow, and become great up to this historic anniversary. In these articles the great excellences of boating tell their stories and reveal their projects, making an important contribution to the knowledge of this world, which allows us all to go to sea, in all forms and contexts.

Emanuele Rossi. The designer of trendy catamarans

He also brought his refined design to motor catamarans with the Makai Yachts line.

There is an Italian designer who has designed in his career almost always boats “out of the chorus,” choosing a personal and refined style. Because it’s fine to pander to market logics, but first of all he wants to give a very precise identity to his boats. We are talking about Emanuele Rossi, father of ERYDs, active on both the sailing and powerboat fronts. His boats can be recognized by aesthetic and technical choices that set them apart from the rest of the market. “The passion for the sea goes back to when I was just a child, I was fascinated by lancet fishing and experiencing the sea,” Emanuele Rossi tells us.

“So my adventure started with powerboats, fishing boats, I liked the Grand Banks, and it was also the glorious era of offshore. The idea of the boat object has always fascinated me though, just on the level of the interaction between hull and boat. I remember when I was 8 years old on a house boat vacation, spending hours towing a small toy catamaran behind the house boat, and I was fascinated by watching the wake of this little floating hull. “Little by little it became almost an ‘obsessive’ thing, on the bench at age 12 I was drawing boats and pissing off the janitors,” Emanuele tells us. “I enrolled, after graduating from classical school, in naval design in La Spezia, in those days it was still a closed number, a tough faculty, which has now become Nautical Engineering. At the same time as sailing regattas, which I continued to do and did until beyond 2012, I graduated, with a thesis on hulls and regatta regulations. A friend of mine who was in Marseille mentioned my name to Gilles Vaton, a designer who at that time was already far ahead in the world of maxi sailing. And that’s how it all started,” Rossi continues.

“For Gilles Vaton I collaborated on many projects, also very important ones, until I decided to take the plunge: theEryd as a studio was born in 2005, at the same time as theEryd 30 sailboat, the first boat signed only by me, which was made precisely with the intention of making me known. A render came out in the Journal of Sailing and a client asked me for her before the first hull was even completed. From there a few years would come the motor ones as well, closing the circle with my passion as a child that did not begin with sailing.

The first powerboat was theExpression 29 also with Gilles Vaton, the first one by my own signature is the Makaicatamaran,” adds Emanuele, who then also told us about what his philosophy is as a powerboat designer. “My design philosophy has actually changed over the years; I started out with a minimalist philosophy. Over time I have softened on certain things, preferring choices that are more functional and less of a style exercise. If I had to summarize today my design philosophy is to be “contextual,” that is, to know how to meet the customer’s demands in the needs that are asked of you, as long as however you stay within what I recognize as a beautiful object, something that we Italians know well, and that is also performant Then you have to know how to read the market, if you are making a trawler you are making a trawler, no use inventing to revolutionize a successful concept. Maybe I’m more of a custom boat designer, because I like to strive to always look for something more, even if it means putting myself in difficult situations.”

And what is the ideal boat of a designer like Emanuele Rossi? “My ideal power boat, honestly is a Super stable catamaran, spacious, in relation to the length you have much more privacy, on a 37 like the Makai you have two separate cabins, important cruising speeds and often higher than a monohull with the same consumption. The only obstacle with motor catamarans is perhaps aesthetics, because as a designer it is not easy to make them look good, and this is an exercise that I am very interested in and I think I have developed with the Makai cat. The Makai M37 is a catamaran, but it almost doesn’t look like one.” Finally, one last topic, which is also very current in the world of designers and not just yards, the electric. “In all honesty 5 years ago I would have said no to electric, if only because of a weight issue because batteries weigh so much and have little range. Now things have changed and improved, the time is more mature, although it depends on the context. For powerboats I also see hybrids as good: you go into the roadstead in electric quietly, but then if you need thrust and autonomy you have classic propulsion.” Word from a trendy designer.