New Fairline partnership Italian yacht designer Alberto Mancini

petem

petem

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Hot on the heels of the Squadron 53 news earlier in the week, Fairline have this morning announced that all future models will be designed by the Alberto Mancini studio (http://www.amyachtdesign.com). Those on the ball will realise that he's an Italian!

Vripack will undertake the naval engineering.

Some of you may ask why Fairline have made this decision.

1) This is a fresh start for the company and they wish future designs to be truly world class.
2) Fairline no longer have the scale to build up their own design team and outsourcing this work gives them the ability to flex design effort as required.
3) Bernard Olensinski now has an exclusive contract with Princess.

Andy Pope along with the rest of the management team will ensure that future designs will contain plenty Fairline DNA. Along with some other forumites, I've seen some of the new designs and not only are they awesome, but they are unmistakably Fairline.

Not that my opinion counts for much, but I think this is a really exciting and smart move.

Full press release and a teaser of things to come here: http://www.fairline.com/en/news/fairline-yachts-secures-its-design-future

Pete
 
Speaking as someone who will probably never be able to afford a new Fairline.... It sounds like a good idea and hopefully create great British boats with Italian flair.
 
As someone who owns an Italian Designed British Built boat (with V drives ;)), I think this is excellent news. It shows the new owners are heading in a new and exciting direction, I can't wait to see what they produce.
Good luck to them.
 
When I was at the Singapore boat show a lot of the customers were looking at Princess specifically because they were British designed and built. It's worth pointing out that sports boats (Princess V and Fairline Targa) tend not to be popular due to the intense heat and need for shade / air conditioning. They were looking at Flybridge models.

Henry :)
 
petem said:
Bernard Olensinski now has an exclusive contract with Princess.
Click to expand...
I missed that, since when? I'm not sure to understand such move, anyway.
With all due respect for what Olesinski did, that sounds like betting on folks with a bright future behind them.
Here, I said that...
...'Scuse me now, running for cover while I can! :)
 
MapisM said:
I missed that, since when? I'm not sure to understand such move, anyway.
With all due respect for what Olesinski did, that sounds like betting on folks with a bright future behind them.
Here, I said that...
...'Scuse me now, running for cover while I can! :)
Click to expand...

Since two years if not more. Still I think they are doing an excellent job for Princess taking over all the design.
With Fairline it was more on the hull shape, and then consulting on the rest as far as I know.

Henry both Princess and Fairline have not build British boat since ages (mid nineties). Sunseeker did the same since ever but they where always open on this, hence the name.
The Fairline 62 Squadron launched in 1991 was the stepping stone in changing this with Princess following very slowly. I think the first clever move was the V series, with the 39 and 52 launched in Southampton 1995.

As far as I know you do not need the following in the UK;
- Extended flybridge to cover it in shade
- a lot of glass surfaces to have light
- hard top covered flybridges
- sunpads (how many days you have sun in the UK for a year 50-25?)
etc etc

As far as out sourcing Italian designers go, and since you are very knowledgeable in cars.
I remind about Aston Martin gamble on this in the 60s when they launched the DB5 which was also made by the Coach Builder from Milan Touring Superleggera.
We know how that went a couple decades later. Possibly there most iconic car to date.

Sure I would like for Fairline to build pure British boats like Broom or some of the smaller Pearl, but the brand has since ages moved away from this with the last attempt being the 43 Phantom AC.
Unfortunately an unsuccessful attempt for them, things might have changed if it was.

But it is cool to buy convertibles and use them in the rain I guess. :P
 
Smart move ,very smart move .
1- to distance new Fl from the past dare I say it design mistakes that did not sell
2- to NOT regurgitate what did not work for the past few years
3- finally they - the Italians are associated with the best design,s in the automotive world and in my view boat /super yacht world -but then ,iam biased :)

You know what thanks to Pete M relaying this info --- I,am starting to think there just might be some momentum buliding up at new FL --each decision made public so far seems the right one .
Well done to new FL team
 
PowerYachtBlog said:
Henry both Princess and Fairline have not build British boat since ages (mid nineties).


As far as I know you do not need the following in the UK;
- Extended flybridge to cover it in shade
- a lot of glass surfaces to have light
- hard top covered flybridges
- sunpads (how many days you have sun in the UK for a year 50-25?)
etc etc
Click to expand...

Plymouth and Oundle are still very much British and will remain so regardless of the EU vote.

By British build and designed I don't mean designed for use in the UK.

Henry :)
 
I was seeing Alberto cv, and is very interesting.
http://www.amyachtdesign.com/

Here is some important notes.

Magnum which he took over from Pininfarina. He updated the 50 Bestia now 51, 70, and also the 100 which is still waiting for an owner.
Otam also doing the 100 for them, still no owner for this. The most Italian Magnum especially for the newer models. Otam was also fitter of most 90s Magnum sold in Italy in the past.
Dominator (the incarnation of the original Mochi yachts after Ferretti took over the name in 2000) he took over from Nuvolari Lenard, and I like the direction he went with these
And some Overmarine Mangusta models outside of the sport hard top line which is taken care by Stefano Righini of Azimut and Falcon Yachts fame

Thats an impressive CV in my book. Especially the first Magnum which is a legend in its own right. Will be interesting to see what AM can do for Fairline.
 
henryf said:
Plymouth and Oundle are still very much British and will remain so regardless of the EU vote.

By British build and designed I don't mean designed for use in the UK.

Henry :)
Click to expand...

See that is why you get it all wrong in my book. When you do not breathe the Med you can never understand it to the full.
Same when a builder in the Med (Italian) tries to build a boat for Scandinavian countries they can never get it right.
Same when an Italian boat builder Ferretti Group bought Bertram (one of the best Sportfishing brand since ever), gave it to Zuccon (one of the best long standing Italian designers) to make American sport fishers etc etc

Anyways I can go on forever, building boats is a very regional sea location orientated much more then one could think.

It is useless waving the British flag when the design is not an inspiration of the pleasure boating in the land. Think the classic Fairey Huntsman, no?
The only builders doing this is Broom, and Haines and may be some other that I forgot.

Do you see any inspiration of the old Marine Projects 32 in the new Princess's? Or a Princess 415 or 35?
Would be interesting if you could answer this question.
 
I don't know the design house in question and will admit to having been slightly side-tracked just now when I saw that one of their designs was the Baglietto 44 Monokini... Anyway, having added to my knowledge of swimsuit design, what I would say is that I think it is a really strong statement in distinguishing F/L to move away from the perception that their naval architecture is just the same as Princess, so that buyers will be making a choice of boat not just of interior design.
 
Portofino said:
Smart move ,very smart move .
1- to distance new Fl from the past dare I say it design mistakes that did not sell
2- to NOT regurgitate what did not work for the past few years
3- finally they - the Italians are associated with the best design,s in the automotive world and in my view boat /super yacht world -but then ,iam biased :)

You know what thanks to Pete M relaying this info --- I,am starting to think there just might be some momentum buliding up at new FL --each decision made public so far seems the right one .
Well done to new FL team
Click to expand...

Thanks Portofino, I hope I've bought a little more info beyond the press release.
 
I think this is a great move by Fairline. IMHO Fairline's recent designs have lacked a strong brand identity and if Mancini can give them that plus a dash of Italian style that could give them some real differentiation from Sunseeker and Princess. Also the tie up with Vripack gives them access to superyacht naval engineering knowledge which should produce some well engineered hulls. Lets hope that Fairline have got the wherewithal to take advantage of these new connections and bring a range of new models to market in fairly short order
 
Agreed.
While I understand the emphasis on design, in some respects I'm even more curious to see what the partnership with Vripack will bring to the table.
Anyway, best wishes to anyone involved! :encouragement:
 
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