Respect the Name

With the industry thriving in recent years, it will always come that some will give a try in resurrecting names of the past.  Yet sometimes when these brands return, it seems some of the buyers just bought a name without really understanding what it was all about.  A case in point would be Cantieri di Pisa, who actually just saved itself as they updated the Akhir line project. 

At the 2024 Cannes boat show Cantieri di Pisa presented an upcoming Akhir 44 project, as designed by Antonio Luxardo.  This new 44 meter project brings respect to the classic Akhir line as designed by Pier Luigi Spadolini from the seventies to the nineties.  Cantieri di Pisa was saved with this direction, as at first the current Enrico Gennasio ownership showed three Akhir projects from 33 to 42 meters in 2023, as designed by French born German residing Etienne Salome.  However innovative these super yachts looked, they had nothing what an Akhir or a Cantieri di Pisa is about, not in the present and in the future.

If you start looking at the evolution of the semi-custom produced yachts the Spadolini designed Cantieri di Pisa Akhir stand out as one of the most important in introducing a clean, lean, and sporty design into medium to large motor yachts and super yachts, with this coming full circle when the S versions arrived in 1986 first with the 22 S model.

Before designing an Akhir any designer should actually look at the series history from the Spadolini era to the recent Galeazzi designs, from the debut in 1972 with the 16.60 to the following 36 models which came till 2012 and the large 153.

In Italy, USA, and UK, the three pillars of motor boating history there is a few sleeping brands with potential to come back.  But if someone buys them without understanding the past to bring them to the present and into the future, then probably it is better to make a new brand entirely. 

Buying a classic important boat or yacht name is all about its roots, and if one would not follow this simple rule, it is like Ferrari waking up tomorrow and making off-road vehicles rather then high end sports cars.