FLOATING MASTERPIECE

FLOATING MASTERPIECE

Rossinavi combines the beauty of the oceans in complete perfection

BY MIRJAM DEBORA MARSCHALL & NADINE PELZER

(Published in The Produktkulturmagazin issue 4 2017)

Superyachts dominate the oceans of this planet with their exuberant luxury, fascinate with their aura and their jaunty elegance keeps one breathless. Just a handful of prestigious manufacturers know this precious trade and are able to give birth to mesmerising designs of the superlative. One of them is Rossinavi. Behind the name lies the story of the Tuscan yacht manufacturer who is one of the world’s leading builders of custom superyachts. Since its foundation in 1980, it has always been a family owned and managed company building itself a strong reputation of quality and innovation, as well as designing and producing state of the art. This is all that Rossinavi is: A proud family of shipbuilders committed to quality and excellence, who develop themselves anew with each new yacht while expanding the horizon of the most luxury possible. The ingredients, what makes Rossinavi one of the most desired brands in the world of bespoke upscale yachts and why family ties are the essential tool thereby, are elucidated by COO Federico Rossi.  

Mr Rossi, you once said that you are natural born boat makers. Why is that?

In my opinion, there are three types of people. Those who choose the studies that allow them to pursue a particular profession. Those who study something and then decide to pursue a profession that has nothing to do with their education. And then there are the ones like us, the Rossis.  We are all born boat makers. My father, my uncle and I started working in the shipyards from a very young age. Our fortune has been to know every type of boat very well. At the beginning, the Rossi brothers were producing work and fishing boats, and then only yachts for third parties. This experience has permitted us to learn technologies from other parties and competences coming from different nautical environments. You might be aware that in Italy, it is still quite common to see families in which work has been passed on from one generation to the next. Therefore, there are families that have always practiced a profession. In my case, the Rossis have been ship makers forever. I could not even imagine identifying myself with another profession. When I was a child, I was completely compelled by my father shaping metals. The entire family is involved because this world belongs to us. I feel like I am part of only this kind of dimension.

Each boat you make is unique and everything is designed from scratch. What does your design process look like?

Our design process always departs from our vision. Please remember that we produce fully customised yachts, meaning that our zero point is our client. We make his/her sketch, develop his/her will adding our vision, know-how and competences to create an object that is unique and recognisable while floating. During our design process, we collaborate only with high-level designers. Together, we create a receipt made of their ideas of proportions, lines and visions and our technical and operative experiences.

How does Rossinavi bring the Italian style to the ship? How can it be seen in the character of each boat?

The answer to this question is quite simple.  We are Italians, the Italian style is in our DNA. Moreover, as already mentioned, we collaborate with the best Italian designers: Gobbi, De Simoni, Spadolini and many others.  Our will has never been to give our boats a specific brand sign: We create boats for our customers, not for ourselves. We follow the rule of beauty.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. How do you remain faithful to Aristotle’s principle for each new project and its challenges? 

We identify ourselves with this principle and with our firm, which is our family. We are used to building boats. We have always done it and every time we do it, we add something new, but always in a stable and well-done way. Aristotle’s principle is the essence of what is our habit to provide to our customers: Excellence.

Aesthetics have to come second, safety and strength first. Is this approach exactly what differentiates you from other boat makers? 

We sincerely do not presume to be the only ones following this policy. Nonetheless, this approach obviously sets our firm among the best shipyards in the world.

In today’s world, mass production is common practice. However, Rossinavi is one of the few boat makers in the world where almost all parts of a yacht are handmade. Why is it so important to you to create each single part yourself?

For us, creating every single part of our yachts is the tool to realise a sense of possession in our customers and their identification in their boat. There are many cases in which the addition of many parts brings the result. Our case is something different: The combination of passion and identification increases the final value of the object, creating an irreplaceable and pure Rossinavi yacht.

Does the number of delivered boats rise in proportion to the growing circle of customers able to afford a Rossinavi yacht?

No, not really. Even if the request of our full custom boats is growing, we decided to keep the delivery to two boats per year. To be frank, this year we delivered three boats. But this is a real exception for us. Our overall production capacity is six boats at the same time on different production stages. However, the number of deliveries per year is still two.

The delivery time for a Rossinavi yacht is around four years. What is the most important part of creating a yacht, enabling you to stay ahead of time from a design and technology point of view?

We are always several steps ahead of the others, and please let me set out the reasons for this. But first of all, precision. In order to produce 70-metre boats, we require four years, whilst for a 50-metre yacht it is only two years. Given that, it is necessary to understand not only the production period, but also the time that passes from the creation of the idea of the yacht to the actual building process. In our case, this takes place over just two years. Mass-produced and semi-custom boats have different time frames. Once they are at the end of series, 8 years have passed from the creation of the idea. For this reason, we are always in advance against mass producers.

Does your dreamboat already exist? If so, what does it look like?

Not yet. We are still developing my dreamboat.

When you think back over 10 years of the company’s emotional journey, which memory makes your heart beat faster?

The memory that still makes by heart beat faster is when we decided to create our own commercial brand. At the beginning, what scared me was finding people who had trust in our qualities and finding customers that were ready to spend between 30 and 100 million to buy a Rossinavi yacht. The fear was immediately thrown off when we sold our first two yachts of 54 and 70 metres. Since then, we have always delivered two boats per year, which is a satisfying result for us.

What will we see from Rossinavi in the next few years?

In the near future, there are two projects that make us very proud. The first one is a fast displacement yacht, completely created for the Caribbean Sea and for Florida waters in particular. The second project is the complete opposite to the first one. We are speaking about a pure luxury yacht with exploration boat figures: Diesel-electric motor, ice class, cruise speed and Rolls-Royce podded propulsion.

rossinavi.com

FEDERICO ROSSI

Federico Rossi has been Rossinavi’s COO since 2010. He started working for his family’s company when he was 18 years old as a metal carpenter, later moving to project management for yacht construction and finally into top management. Federico also is involved in several R&D projects for product innovation. 

Picture credit © Wioletta Kowalska


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