Showing posts with label Classics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classics. Show all posts

September 21, 2016

Classics - Posillipo Technema 52 (1986 - 1992)

It is always a challenge to make the Classic post!  Do you choose the top selling model, or the one which changed the industry and gave a new step to the name it represented.  For the Posillipo Technema 52 launched at Genoa boat show in 1986 it was both! 
The 52 was one of Posillipo's most popular models, and twenty years over its stop in production it represented the Technema look of the future selling 27 units World wide, in a not so long at the time five year production run.  Interesting numbers when one notes that the Technema 52 was also one of the most expensive production fiberglass build flybridge motor yachts in its size, costing when launched in 1986 at 700.000 US$ ex factory.  To put this cost into perspective a whooping 20% more then a Riva 50 Super America HP.  Interestingly the Posillipo Technema 52 will sell more then its Riva competitor, reason being the much space it offered in all areas, three double cabins versus two, and its spacious unique at the time twin level saloon.  Fair play the Posillipo was also about a meter bigger, and featured bigger engines.
Posillipo and its then designer Zuccon created the new age with the Technema 52 a motor yacht which was already in the future in the mid eighties, and was inspirational to nowadays modern looks.  Giovanni Zuccon started his yacht designer career with Posillipo in 1978 with the Technema 65 (68) and ended his collaboration with the South Rome builder twenty one years later with a 65 Technema second series he designed in 1999, named as 63 in project stage and launched in 2003. 
A decade later to its launch it could easily be said the Technema 52 reinvented yachting in 1986 with its outside profile different and very modern, looking from the future to everything else, yet elegant and sleek. Soft curves appeared on every corner and its split level main deck house while looking modern helped expand interior spaces without looking heavy on the length. The hull also brought a unique design with the wing chine giving a unique distinctive in the future powerful look.  It is no strange that Posillipo never stopped using the unique winged Technema hull from that day onward in the models which followed the 52.  
Giovanni Zuccon was also thinking views from the inside to the outside in the Technema 52 and the profile windows serving the lower part of the saloon could offer that to guest just by sitting on the couch. The technical part also had a deeper study see large air intakes integrated in the main deck just before the window, which could not be seen unless you are looking at the Technema 52 from the front. 
In the end the Technema 52 is as much about Posillipo as it is about the genius that Giovanni Zuccon was showing at the time and will show more of into the future. For example in that same year Posillipo also launched his designed Technema 83, which also featured a fore deck C-shape settee arrangement, with other designers and builders catching with this from 2002 onward.  
Zuccon will eventually join Ferretti in 1990, which interesting to know offered the bigger competition to the Possillipo Technema 52 with it's then Ferretti 52 Altura S, selling in high fifty plus numbers at a same time and date production run, and a less expensive price tag.             
Specification:
LOA - 16.46 m (54ft)
Beam - 4.75 m
Draft - 1.19 m ex props
Displacement - 17 t unloaded, 23 t loaded
Fuel Capacity - 2850 l standard, up to 3300 l option
Water Capacity - 670 l
Accommodation - six berths in three double cabins, crew cabin forward
Engines - 2 x MAN 630hp, 680hp, GM 550hp, 635hp, 735hp
Propulsion - direct line shaft
Speeds - 30 knots max with Man 680hp
Hull Shape - modified Vee with spray rails and fifteen degrees deadrise aft
Project - Giovanni Zuccon
Variations - radar arch mast with twin or single arms, 1991 last four hulls named as Technema 16.90, a wide body version was also offered but never produced
Production Run - 1986 till 1992
Builds - 27 (last four hulls from 24 to 27 where called 16.90)
Developments - 1995 Posillipo 60 Technema, and 1996 55 Technema are both extended developments of the 52
What Is Awesome
+ Modern top deck design
+ Winged Technema Hull
+ Split level saloon with view windows 
What Looks Dated
Aft deck open bulkhead
Radar arch
COMPETITOR - Ferretti 52 Altura S produced from 1987 till 1992
* Please note that some Specifications are not from official sources and may not be accurate

June 21, 2013

Classics - Bertram 54 (1981 - 2001)

Picking a classic is always hard, and this becomes near to impossible when you mention a company like Bertram.  The company Dick Bertram created, made waves in 1960 its start, thanks to the Ray Hunt designed 31 model.  In those years Bertram and Hunt invented the Deep Vee hull, and also created production boat building as it is known today.
One can easily say that most of the models Bertram build up until the nineties can be regarded as classics nowadays. Still the 54 is one of Bertram's most iconic and admired models.  In the people's mind the 54 is challenged only with the smaller and more affordable 31 sold in over 1800 units in its various versions for a production run lasting 23 years.
David Napier designed every Bertram from 1972 till 1998, with his first design being the 28 which was very much an inspiration to the Ray Hunt 31 which started the company. Born as a 53 project, for the Bertram 54 Napier set the trends in the sport-fish category creating the modern era of the genre, but also in yachts over fifty feet.  Important note that since its launch the 54 is highly regarded as one of the most sea worthy yachts of its size and class even today thirty years plus after its launch. Considering that any sport-fish has to be a good ride that is high testament to the status the 54 has among this genre aficionados.
For the Bertram 54, designer David Napier followed what he started with the 46 a decade earlier with a modified Vee shaped hull featuring a deep entry and lowering itself to a medium aft dead rise of seventeen degrees.  Napier and Bertram again made school and while the Hunt deep design was revolutionary in the 1960's, the 46 from Napier invented a more cruising approach to the Vee shape ideal suited for high cruise speeds and larger yachts of over fifteen meters and around the thirty knots range.
Accommodation wise the Bertram 54 was offered with three interior layouts all having three double cabins, and two or three heads. In a long term production run many make up changes were made over the years both inside and outside, with the most notable modernized fix coming in 1997 from Italian design firm Studio Faggioni.
The Bertram 54 had a production run of twenty years from 1981 till 2001, with the last decade being a start and stop situation build due to the luxury tax of 1993, and the negative effect this had on the North American boating industry in the period and the aftermath it left after.   
Specifications: 
LOA - 16.46 m (54ft)
Beam - 5.16 m
Draft - 1.57 m
Displacement - 35 t
Fuel Capacity - 4500 l
Water Capacity - 950 l
Accommodation - Three different layouts. 6 berths in 3 double cabins, two or three heads version
Engines - 2 x GM 850hp, Cats 1400
Propulsion - direct line shaft
Speeds - 37 knots max with the later builds equipped with Cats 1400hp units
Hull Shape - modified Vee shape with forward 45 degrees entrance, and 17 deadrise aft
Project - David Napier hull and design, 1997 Studio Faggioni interior and exterior make up changes
Variations - forward windscreen option was possible in early models, later versions 1985 onward had no central pillar in side windows and produced in one peace, in 1997 studio Faggioni also changed the interiors and softened the design around the corners of the topside.  The 1997 version is referred as the second series by the followers of the 54.
Production Run - 1981 to 2001
Builds - over 135 
Developments - 1990 Bertram 60, and 2002 570 both use the David Napier hull of the 54 with some modifications.  570 had a complete new topside designed by Zuccon and renewed engine position.
What Is Awesome
+ Broken Shear-line
+ Flybridge and main saloon size
+ Hull Lines
What Looks Dated
Small aft deck for a 16/17 meter recent sportfishing yacht
Square profile windows, especially the two parts of earlier models
COMPETITOR - Hatteras 52 Convertible produced from 1983 till 1990.
* Please note that some Specifications are not from official sources and may not be accurate