A Classic Revisited
Realising the potential of a complex challenge, with the building of a 21st-century 1900s trawler, Rossi Navi proves it has a future in honouring the past
At the 2013 Monaco Yacht Show, Claudia Rossi, sales manager at Rossi Navi, the company founded by her father, talked about an exciting new challenge that the Viareggio-based shipbuilders had taken on. Despite being a fairly young yard with no experience building classic yachts, historical ones or replicas, its ambition was to create a spectacular reproduction of an early 1900s trawler. Two years on and that ambition has been dazzlingly realised.
The result is MY Taransay, which was delivered in April. She came about thanks to an unusual commission from her new German owner, driven by a love for a restored 1930s yacht, Ocean Glory. This 26.4m beauty, designed by the famed Scottish architects GL Watson, initially prompted a search for an original trawler to restore, but such jewels are hard to find. Instead, the decision was taken to work with an experienced sailor and create something unique from scratch. For this, Marco Santoro, the captain of Ocean Glory, was brought on board the project, keeping a tangible link to the vessel that inspired it.
As Centurion discovered when invited on to the finished article recently, the collaboration has been a successful one. Rossi Navi has risen to the task, creating the exterior lines of a classic yacht with a steel hull and aluminium superstructure, while packing state-of-the-art technology inside. The complexity of the construction is to be admired, as is the intriguing use for the faux funnel that while aesthetically in keeping with spirit of tradition also serves a very modern practical purpose: it acts as a storing space for the robotic arm that launches and retrieves the two onboard tenders.
Credit must go to the workforce at Rossi Navi – in cooperation with fellow countrymen at the firm STB Italia – which has managed to develop and engineer the parts to fit the many requests of the owner while matching a difficult historical brief. In fact, such were the demands, the planned length of the yacht – 36m – was exceeded by 2.55m.
Within this, Taransay accommodates ten guests in five cabins, with a full- beam master suite by Genoa-based Studio Tassin. Modern comforts abound on a yacht that marks history.
