How a shipyard that made sailing history dies

Perini Navi has been declared bankrupt. It ends badly for the Viareggio shipyard of maxi yachts you could maneuver yourself, with plants also in La Spezia and Turkey (and 100 employees).

PERINI NAVI, AN ICON OF MADE IN ITALY GENIUS

Perini Navi has been a truly great dream come true. That, by the brilliant Fabio Perini, of the sailing ship that maneuvers itself without a crew. Incredible to think that such an icon of Made in Italy genius has failed.

And to think that Perini Navi, established in 1983, was, until the 2008 crisis, one of the stars of Italian shipbuilding in the world. It was born from the genius of Lucchese Fabio Perini who, as a worker in the paper district, made a fortune by inventing modern machines to produce soft toilet paper.

What does the volcanic Perini come up with in the big sailboat business? Easy sailing applied to megayachts. How? The key to this are captive reel winches, a system of automatic winches, driven by electronically controlled electric motors, that make it possible to produce large boats that can be managed by a small crew.

THE BOAT OF ITALIAN VIPS LIKE BERLUSCONI

Success is overwhelming, from the 40-meter-long Felicity (now Clan VI) in 1983 to the 88-meter-long, three-masted Maltese Falcon (photo at top of article), passing byMorning Glory(morning erections in English) of 48 meters for the Berlusconi family, recently sold, not forgetting the Seven of 60 meters, for Ennio Doris of Mediolanum.

And again the Rupert Murdoch’sRosehearty (56 meters), then owner of Morning Glory, Massimo Moratti’s Camilla, the superboats of the sheikhs.

A SLOW, INEXORABLE DECLINE

Then, the crisis in 2008, from which the site never recovered. There is talk of 100 million in debt: the last bailout hypothesis had come up, a few months ago, thanks to the cash on hand from the stock market listing, it seemed that the Sanlorenzo shipyard had already made an offer to the Tabacchi family (famous for linking their name to the Safilo eyewear company) who owned the majority of Perini Navi. But it had all ended in black smoke.

Then top management had prepared a debt restructuring plan, which included the involvement of the Blue Sky investment fund (
with a 30 million injection)
, but that did not convince the judge, who decreed bankruptcy.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NOW

Now what? Lucchese bankruptcy trustee Franco Della Santa will assume the provisional exercise. Then on June 22, the verification of the company’s liability status will take place in court. It will take some time thereafter to figure out what will happen to the plants. In the meantime, the company’s current employees will be placed partly in the layoff fund and partly likely to continue working to complete the yard’s last orders, including the sailboat of Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle.

The only way for the brand to live is to go through a bankruptcy auction. Among the hot names are the Ferretti and Sanlorenzo shipyards, which had already expressed interest.

E.R.

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