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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.
Cantieri di Pisa, big plans for the future under the sign of a unique tradition in the nautical scene. The stars to follow? Akhir.
One can be a young novice sailor, or an experienced sailor with many miles behind him, there is however a name that cannot but echo in the memory of motor boating lovers: Akhir. Star of the Eridanus constellation but, above all, name of a boat that has indelibly marked the history of this world, theAkhir 16: Cantieri di Pisa, 1970, signed by Pier Luigi Spadolini. The history of the Tuscan builders is long, important and winding. Starting point 1945, in Limite sull’Arno (in 1956 the production site moved to the Darsena Pisana along the Navicelli Canal where it still is today), point of arrival, today, and to be exact 2021 when the ownership passed to Enrico Gennasio, President together with his brother of Alfagomma (first European company and among the first worldwide realities in the “fluid handling” sector). Hence the reorganization and relaunch. “We took a company in great difficulty,” Marco Massabò, CEO of Cantieri di Pisa, tells us, “and got it back on track. With numbers that are now more than positive. An operation of great value to us, of course, but also to our entire territory, to which we have always been strongly linked.” The facility at the Navicelli now occupies more than 50,000 square meters of floor space, with a 300-ton travel lift and 600 meters of equipped dock, all used for production but also for refits (a Perrini Navi 43 and a Feadship 41 were the latest to be delivered). Thirty are the direct employees, 300 is the induced labor force.
The legacy to be collected is not the easiest one, that of a brand with more than 720 yachts produced and, above all, which has always been linked to the idea of quality, of the highest quality. Chief designer is Antonio Luxardo, three ranges already announced that, it is easy to imagine, echo the names of the first Cantieri di Pisa: Polaris, the first of which will be a 48-meter, a steel and aluminum “voyager” with interiors by Parisotto + Formenton; Saturno, a collection that will range from 38 to 90 meters in length and whose first model to arrive will be the 56, with interiors made by m2atelier; the Akhir, of course, and the first will be a 44 made with hull and superstructure in carbon fiber composite worked in vacuum infusion while the interiors will be taken care of by Pulina Exclusive Interiors. Under construction at the moment are the 80 Veloce, with its fate already sealed in its name (a 25-meter, 60-knot, three Man, 2000-hp all-carbon yacht) and the first unit in the Custom range, a 40-meter with a steel hull and aluminum and composite superstructure spanning four decks, scheduled for delivery in February 2027. The luxury cruise ship building giant, T. Mariotti, was also recently made official as the industrial partner for the 60- to 90-meter hulls. All ongoing projects are different from each other, marked by great stylistic originality, but always in full respect of the brand identity…
The best way to understand the legacy value of a name like Cantieri di Pisa is to go back to talk aboutAkhir and Pier Luigi Spadolini. Here we are helped by Tiziano Giannessi, head of the Technical Department and the perfect character to narrate both the new and the old course of Cantieri di Pisa: “He was the right man at the right time, in the right place. He created a boat, and then an unmistakable style. A ‘Pisa’ you recognized and still recognize from any distance you look at it.” What were the styles that made him unique? “. In general terms, first of all simplification, clean lines. And then elements like the shark nose of the hood, the black side strips, the disappearance of the round portholes, the wind sleeves. Elements that then evolved over time, over the years, but still created the stylistic archetype of Cantieri di Pisa. Even later, for example since 2007, in the era of Carlo Galeazzi with his five models from the 90′ up to the flagship ‘153, this style has been taken up and updated in an egregious way.” It is interesting to point out that Pier Luigi Spadolini, one of the noble names of Italian architecture, a great lover of both sailing and motor boating, when he began to collaborate with the Shipyard was first a lecturer in Milan and then the holder of the chair of Product Design in Florence, certainly not of Yacht Design (by the way, non-existent at that time), and before devoting himself to a boat “of his own” he had contributed to the design of some elements of the Jupiters and Polaris. Coming from product design allowed him to have a freer, and certainly innovative, vision. In an interview with Mondo Barca in 1990 he stated, “Having done industrial design for so many years gave me a great deal of experience in dealing with materials, according to their possibilities, according to the production perspective. This has had a considerable influence in shipbuilding. The function of the architect should not be decorative, as unfortunately used today, but a relationship between technology and form.”
And, to the question of whether the many technical constraints faced in making a boat, complex object-navigating home, with so many design links between inside and outside, were limitations for a designer, Spadolini replied, “No indeed. For me, boat technology is just a big maturing element, if there were no constraints the design would be much more difficult. Following certain technologies is penalizing but also rewarding because you have to meet certain parameters, so you have to solve a problem. That’s the real sense, because the technique like the construction technology (wood, glass, aluminum) of the hull, the weights that tune the interplay of the architecture and the interior spaces, added together have a very strong virtual push.” And that of construction technology is “a constant ‘obsession’ for Pisa Shipyards”… “The basic values that to tell our brand today? – Marco Massabò answers me again – research and development, without any doubt. For us, for example, weight containment is an obsession. Just think of the 40-meter boat we have under construction, a boat made of steel, aluminum and carbon, in which the entire wheelhouse is made. We save every pound we can, and especially where it counts, which is at the top. We work to get to the millimeter definition of the plates, to reduce offsets and grout work. Every little detail counts, on every one of our boats. The goal is not so much an extra knot of speed, but the concept of efficiency.” The ultimate goal, then, is not just so many volumes, so many “plans” on which to build boats… “The market, of course, is going in that direction, and you have to be able to go along with it. At the same time, Cantieri di Pisa has always been and always will be a different brand; it would be useless to ape what others do. Ours are evolved shipowners, who want something different, the best.”
And to tell how attention to detail and quality has always been the common thread of the “Pisa” we are helped again by Tiziano Giannessi: “Everything was made in-house, or for local companies that worked only for Cantieri di Pisa. They were boats that cost 20 or even 30 percent more than the competition, and there was a reason why. You only had to go into the engine room to see that, for the cleanliness and organization of the facilities according to principles that are now well-established, but back then were science fiction. The aft garage, then, was completely lined with Teak, looking more like a spa than a technical room. And again, furniture was fitted rough on board and then painted. This was because the typical finish at the shipyard was pickled and acetate teak, a technique that everyone later copied. It was a peculiar and time-consuming process that depended heavily on the operator’s hand. Doing it on board eventually produced something absolutely homogeneous, made by a single craftsman. The choice and workmanship of materials was manic, another example: the head of band on the bulwark was “parellato,” not butt-jointed or dovetailed, to try to hide discontinuities.” The materials, techniques and designers change, but the philosophy, that of the best, that of the Pisa Shipyards, remains the same. Waiting, with great anticipation, for the new Akhir.
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