VSY - Viareggio Super Yachts

6 June 2018

I had the rare opportunity to accompany friends Arnold and Kate Schmeidler at the invitation of a well-known Lucchese lawyer, to a private visit to the huge boatbuilding area of Viareggio. Having been owners of several boats over many years, Kate and Arnold are experienced sailors out of Connecticut and Long Island, near New York and have a natural interest in anything maritime.

For me, it is another world, having only experienced a couple of trips on cross-channel and Isle of Wight ferries!

In an age of economic austerity for most people and a world sharply, and increasingly divided, between rich and poor, I felt a little out of place looking around boats and yachts that were built specifically, for only the very rich.

Having said that, I can admire the skill, craftsmanship and attention to detail that is needed to design, create, build and style something exceptional, like a Ferrari or a Rolls-Royce, the stuff of dreams. World famous companies such as Perini Navi, San Lorenzo and Benetti have for decades built super yachts, personalised for individual customers. The boat building business is a major employer and continues to be a large part of the local economy.  

Taking the example of Benetti, a great tradition of Italian ship and boat building has been centred at Viareggio. Benetti was founded in 1873, when Lorenzo Benetti (1844-1914) bought the Darsena Luca shipyard, where he built wooden commercial trading vessels and fishing boats destined for the Mediterranean. Wealthy residents in the area interested in boats such as Giacomo Puccini would have been very familiar with the new business, even as potential customers.

The Benetti family continued ownership through difficult periods such as WWII and later spilt the Fratelli Benetti company into yacht and commercial boat building. Nowadays ownership is divided into several individual partnerships with yards in nearby Livorno and Fano on the Adriatic coast.

Glancing at the impressive website www.vsy.it, a thoroughly modern approach is now part of the philosophy behind the building of these exceptional vessels. At huge expense, the owner of one of these super-yachts purchases a bespoke, detailed and ‘minutely custom-designed’ luxury product.       

What is immediately obvious, to even the most un-informed observer such as myself, is the care and attention given to every step of construction: from the state-of-the-art technology and engineering; to the latest damage limitation and consideration given to the environment and marine ecology and an Italian culture and sense of luxury and style ‘imbued with beauty since the time of the Renaissance’.

As guests, we were greeted with a professionalism by several experienced and highly knowledgeable managerial sales staff, in the understanding that we were not potential billionaire customers. Being allowed to walk carefully on an owner’s personally bespoke yacht, albeit still under construction, was a rare treat. The yards were a hive of activity and much larger than I could imagine from regular trips to the Viareggio coastline. The industrialisation of the area appears to have little impact on the town, although I imagine the extent is far more impressive when viewed from the sea.

Normal life resumed after such an interesting day, with a pleasant and simple seafood-pasta meal nearby along the coast.

Yet I still felt a little disturbed, by the thought and vision of the continuing and growing difference in equality in a world, where so few have so much to spend on unnecessary, some may even say “vulgar extravagancies”, whilst so many in the world still have so little.