The Italian Boat Makes and other "Weird and Wonderful"

jrudge

jrudge

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I know that most of us are Fairline / Princess / Sunseeker disposed when buying boats ( Queue Mapism, Mike F and Portofino to dispute this!) but there as so many boat makes out there.

I subscribe to some pretty broad searches on the boat selling sites and see all sorts.

I do wonder if YBW should run an article on life outside of the the Uk manufactures so people know what is what and who is who.

For example this morning

https://www.inautia.com/used-boat-2...=pushalertasBV-2018-03-21&utm_content=Anuncio


Now I have never heard of this manufacturer.

Looks nice, hi low platform, mid cabin, real dining table as opposed to something you used to find in a Wimpy bar ( showing my age) for E299k.

Now the boats could have all sorts of good or bad point - and the pics dont show the flybridge etc. but there is so much out there if you choose to look!
 
I agree (obviously!) - buying, keeping and then selling in the Med gives so many options for exploring other marques that would be hard to find (and then sell) in the UK. I'd never heard of DP until MapisM bought his, but clearly a top consideration for a superbly built Med boat.
 
There’s a lot of questions in J thread so best dealt seperately .

It’s only natural to be spoon fed our own brands ,I grew up with Sunseeker adds on the back of Sunday supliments and the financial section of said publication writing up Braithwaite bros various awards handed out with royal coat of arms on them .Having said that seen all the bond movies but never taken to Aston’s - went down the Porsche / Ferrari route a well trodden path - so subliminal advertising does it work - may be ? - I think it can .

Personally we got into the powerboat scene at v short notice having been requested to fill our ( what I thought was an investment berth ) with our own boat .
Wifer did all the ringing around ,icame home from work to find I was booked on the next morning flight to Bournemouth .On arival a SS rep picked me up a few hours later I shook hands with Mr B himself and 3 week later a boat was perched on our mooring along with a tuition skipper for the week .

Internet was in its infancy and realistically I don,t think I could not have bought a none Brit brand so easily and quickly.

Product wise inc then Sealine for me it all depends on the W to fit in the berth .So that narrowed it down ( scuse the pun :))
I think the last Earl’s Court on the water with toddler and pram with new baby in tow on a busy WE day we trudged round - ex rag n stick sold it after the 1 st born - happened to pass the SS floating display could have been a Porto 35 ? Can,t remember.
But what I do remember is the lady my stricken wife sit down in on of there boats to feed the baby and give us a cup of tea .
How considerate I thought .Boat was nice too and the sales guy - suggested it would be ideal for a family when the kids were bigger .
Funny how a few years later things turned out .
Just easy to buy Brit , no barriers .

Fast fwd a few years we were continually “ bombed “ by SS to go larger - free invites etc but wife liked what we had size wise and preferred any more cash to be tipped into property - so we kept hold of the SS for 9 happy uneventful years buying and restoring a property which we still have in Antibes - no regrets btw .

Then a guy approached me while I was sipping my evening Rose ( medicinal of course ) and made me an offer for my berth that I could not refuse +40% of what I paid for it .
So we bought another berth in La Napoule and plonked the SS in that .
It looked ridiculous too small - folks asked if we were visitors.

Of course man maths kicked in and after a few bone shaking ( Ok heaven throttle guys ) ride I managed to after a trip to Monaco marine to view a Riva 44 hull our of the water to convince a woman my wife about the technical apects of ride - re deep V , mid engines etc .
I also appealed to her accountant head that we should move away from outdrives interns of running costs service etc - she bought that argument looking at the maintenance file of the SS .

Italian boats .
We have been around a bit in the SS so saw a lot , of the “ weirded and wonderful “ mostly IT flagged one such example was an ITAMA 40 called JuneDay berthed near the ice cream shop in Cavalaire .
We used to sit with the kids on a bench and stare at it as we had our ice creams
Drop dead gorgeous Med boat - never saw it go out btw .
As time went by like most one tends to develop a list of things you want to improve on .Not dislike just could be better .
Stuff like 100% wool cream carpets and kids is a poor mix .
High gloss lacquered cherry - you wouldn’t have in your house
Tables that drop and thus are allways wobble .
Small bathing platform
Plus much more ++++

Back to U.K. brands by then ( Cica 2014 ) only 2 left — well a bigger boat was just a bigger dose of more of the same - hmm
The Riva 44 has the hull and drive train but not the accommodation and my guardian put me off ownership .
Up keep of the wood etc .
Tinternet going full tilt by now makes background re search and further info easy to get and contact with dealers remote better .
Utube - helps too imho .

I think you only live once and just went for it -
Re residuals and resale - don,t care - but As it’s turned out ( i was not to know ) I been offered 50% more than I paid for it and the berths had two 5 year lease extension s taking it to 2029 .
Antibes property market has held up past 10 years too so I don,t regret parking €€€ in that as opposed to all plastic .
I have to add the current crop of SS with there overly large imo glazing and top heaveyness is not our liking - but that’s just subjective me :)

Italian boats seem to be stylish less dating .
 
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jrudge said:
I know that most of us are Fairline / Princess / Sunseeker disposed when buying boats (Queue Mapism, Mike F and Portofino to dispute this!) but there as so many boat makes out there.
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Antago is another IT yard that doesn't exist anymore.
Based in Viareggio, in their not very long history (a dozen of years or so) they managed to earn a pretty good reputation.
In fact, I considered one of them during my search, the earlier model of the boat that is now grabbing your attention (no hilo platform, traditional cabins layout).
TBH, I expected the build quality to be closer than it actually is to top yards level, but it ain't bad either - say 7 to 8 out of 10.
Below you can see a promotional video of the particular boat I've seen, which is chartered in Sicily.
I believe that the f/b layout and size is similar to the newer model which you linked, though in the latter they got rid of the internal stair to accomodate a larger galley.

The idea of a "life outside of the UK" article is nice but tricky, because it's bound to become a book rather than an article...
Just to have a rough idea of what I mean, have a look at this webpage.
There isn't an EN version I'm afraid (and it's a bit of a Mickey Mouse website, anyway), but essentially it's the first page of an alphabetical listing of IT boatbuilders. It only stretches halfway to "C", and shows the first 200 out of 773 in total - go figure.
You can see "Antago Yachts" in the first column, btw.

All that said, actually here in the asylum more folks than just the three of us which you mention went for IT boats.
I can think of several Ferrettis and Azis, for instance...
 
MapisM said:
You mean those who look at the three and eventually go for FL, dontcha? :D
Click to expand...

No, discerning is not even bothering to look at the other 3 (let alone 773)!

To be honest, reading the many threads about your boat has been a bit of an eye opener. Whilst I think my boat has been pretty well lashed together, I will concede (begrudgingly) that there are boats out there that might have an edge over FL quality wise!

And it might surprise you that I've always had a soft spot for Apreamare's and would consider a small one (7.5m) as a retirement / villa day boat. I wouldn't rule out a Pershing on shafts either if only the interior was a bit more 'wife friendly'. And I've always had a soft spot for Colombo's (the frozen snot ones).
 
Blimey, either an Aprea or a Pershing? Sounds like oil and water, sort of... :)

Ref Colombo, ain't it amazing how celebrities can affect the popularity of a brand?
Not sure if you were aware of their boats before the famous photo of Lady D, but that definitely increased the brand awareness outside IT.
Same as Lake Como in general became even more popular after Clooney bought his villa - and also a Colombo 31 afterward, as I was told.
I always wondered why such increase in popularity didn't happen after I established my (admittedly a tad smaller...) holiday residence there - a dozen of years before my neighbor George, I hasten to add! :cool:

As an aside, the yard founder Giacomo Colombo had a sense of timing at least on par with his boatbuilding skills, if not even better: back in 2007, when they were building around 30 boats/year, he sold the business to Sarnico, whose plans included a further range development. Three years later, they weren't building new boats anymore... :(
 
MapisM said:
Blimey, either an Aprea or a Pershing? Sounds like oil and water, sort of... :)

Ref Colombo, ain't it amazing how celebrities can affect the popularity of a brand?
Not sure if you were aware of their boats before the famous photo of Lady D, but that definitely increased the brand awareness outside IT.
Same as Lake Como in general became even more popular after Clooney bought his villa - and also a Colombo 31 afterward, as I was told.
I always wondered why such increase in popularity didn't happen after I established my (admittedly a tad smaller...) holiday residence there - a dozen of years before my neighbor George, I hasten to add! :cool:

As an aside, the yard founder Giacomo Colombo had a sense of timing at least on par with his boatbuilding skills, if not even better: back in 2007, when they were building around 30 boats/year, he sold the business to Sarnico, whose plans included a further range development. Three years later, they weren't building new boats anymore... :(
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware of the Lady D or Clooney Colombo connections, I've just always thought they made pretty boats!

I guess these are the photos that you refer to...

20d0f6df0466773cea4df36325745e65


It's a very small Colombo. I wonder if was a T/T Jonikal?
 
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I must admit that I'd never heard of Ferretti before moving to the Med and it was only because the SWMBO kept badgering me to look at one parked next door to the Fairline we owned at the time that I bothered to look at the marque. Until then my boating world had revolved around the Big Four UK builders + Broom and I just didnt know a whole other boating world full of exotic names existed out there:D
 
A lot of people buy French boats but in that segment of the market I don't know why Rodman don't do better. Some of the range I am not keen on but the 1250 Sports Fisher is a 16 tonne wave smasher with full walk around. I like that particular model. I know they are Spanish but they make proper commercial stuff and if I was buying the typical French stuff I would look at them as a comparison
 
petem said:
I guess these are the photos that you refer to...
...
It's a very small Colombo. I wonder if was a T/T Jonikal?
Click to expand...
Yes and yes.
I believe the Colombo was a 21 footer, actually smallish even as a t/t, considering the mothership size.
Which was a Viareggio built Codecasa, btw.
"Discerning" is how you could have safely defined also Mr. Al Fayed, I reckon...
... in more ways than one! :encouragement:
 
I,can’t make out the name above the aft cabin window looks longer than 4 characters even if you add some L for the winglets on early Baia B ,s

Bow roller is wrong as Baia have pocket anchors
Air vents and glass frame don,t look consistent either .
Shear line is too straight Baia,s dip at the bow - normally
Early Baia s had square ish porthole s too
Guard rails are neither here or there as they can be retrofitted.

Not saying you are wrong as I don,t have a clue
Maybe one for PYB me thinks
 
MapisM said:
Just to have a rough idea of what I mean, have a look at this webpage.
There isn't an EN version I'm afraid (and it's a bit of a Mickey Mouse website, anyway), but essentially it's the first page of an alphabetical listing of IT boatbuilders. It only stretches halfway to "C", and shows the first 200 out of 773 in total - go figure.
Click to expand...

Amazing!

found my favourite Italcrafts, but also saw for the first time that there is a 15m Versilcraft Mystere. Pic of the "proper" Mystere was an odd one, with a few mistakes/additions. Should have something more original me thinks. Further, it's 40pc only built, should I believe that?

V.
 
vas said:
it's 40pc only built, should I believe that?
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Not a clue, V.
There's some interesting stuff in that website, but the original intent of building a sort of nautical Wikipedia (as the name of the web suggests) was a bit lost along the road, and occasionally I noticed some inconsistencies and mistakes here and there.
Mind, the 40pc might well be correct, for all I know... I just wouldn't take it as Gospel truth, though.
 
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