Master craftsman


Giuliano Luzzatto talks to Federico Nardi, co-owner of the Cantiere Navale dell’Argentario in Tuscany, arguably the world’s most famous restorers of fine classic yachts and also the shipyard that in the early 1990s started the classics movement itself


In Italy there is a very special shipyard for the restoration of classic yachts, one where Olin Stephens and Doug Peterson felt completely at home and where important owners, such as the patron of Luna Rossa, Patrizio Bertelli, keep and maintain the many vintage boats they collect and aboard which they participate in all the world’s premier classic yacht regattas. It is located in the southern part of


Tuscany, in beautiful Porto Santo Stefano, a place known for its seafaring vocation on the Argentario promontory which con- nects the mainland with a small mountain- ous island, reaching up some 600m above sea level. In the distant past Argentario


44 SEAHORSE


was indeed an island but over the centuries the sea currents created an isthmus that today connects it with the mainland. In the 1990s it was this boatyard, which


takes its name from the promontory where it is located, that started the whole modern classic yacht movement with their first wonderful restorations. Since the end of the 1700s the mainte-


nance and repair of the local fishing fleet were entrusted to the caulkers living in Santo Stefano, with their centuries of artisan practices operating as best they could on the beaches around the village. Then in 1845 a small basin was built for


the caulkers, carpenters and shipwrights. It was only in the 1930s that a slipway was added, but it was still a public area with- out a real owner, where everyone could independently build or just work on boats. The modern yard was established in


1945, with the town still in ruins from bombing during the recent war, because torpedoes for submarines were produced in Santo Stefano and were also tested in the adjacent torpedo testing area called Siluripedio. There are photos taken from aboard the same bombers that show these dramatic moments, with clusters of bombs


falling right on the shipyard itself. At the end of WWII the town’s work-


force returned to civilian life by repairing the many damaged fishing boats and con- structing new vessels for the needs of the local fleet. Today in the yard’s offices many half models of these boats are still dis- played… But these models were not trinkets to satisfy an owner’s vanity – the boat- builders’ actual work started from the reali- sation of a half model, not from a drawing. With the development of the leisure


market in the years that followed, in 1957 the Cantiere Navale dell’Argentario reor- ganised its operation and its activities turned increasingly to the pleasure craft sector. It was a slow start, however, and while in the 1960s they made a series of Laurent Giles hulls which were presented at the Genoa Boat Show in the 1970s, little similar work followed. The skilled artisans of Argentario continued to ply their trade working on traditional craft, mainly fish- ing boats. Little appeared likely to change. But change things did… Patrizio Bertelli


himself started the ball rolling, unwittingly launching a whole new industry when in 1996 he approached his friend Federico Nardi to propose a restoration of his


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