Everyone in the lagoon June 18-23: the Venice Boat Show is on!

The Venice Boat Show will be held in the spaces of the Arsenal from June 18 to 23. Symbolic is the choice, as a location, of the “shipyard” where the ships that ensured the power of the Serenissima Republic throughout the navigable world were born. An early example of an industry with roots in the 1500s, when the need for ships was daily.

HERE THE VENICE BOAT SHOW WEBSITE

“The Boat Show is a big bet that we are working on with the utmost commitment and the premises are positive – is the comment of Mayor Luigi Brugnaro – The important thing will be to have fun and promote opportunities to meet: we are interested in the city giving a signal of awakening and making peace with the sea, our Adriatic Sea, which must have its own voice. I am sure it will be a wonderful exhibition: we will have the passage of the National Aerobatic Patrol of the Frecce Tricolori on opening day and then events for all age groups. In the exhibition spaces, we will promote an international competition for boat studies and designs, explain the restoration of ships, there will be the opportunity to try rowing Venetian style, see the Mose operations center, organize meetings on hybrid engines and the latest technologies, culinary competitions, initiatives for children to whom will be dedicated a visit to the submarine Dandolo and the Naval Museum, concerts and shows that will also contaminate Forte Marghera and the entire Mainland.”

The initiative was presented by Fabrizio D’Oria, Coordinator of the Boat Show Technical Secretariat, who outlined the “state of the art” of the ongoing work. Boats from leading Italian and foreign shipyards will be displayed along the docks of the Arsenal, and accessories, engine systems and equipment will be located inside the Tese. A unique setting that modern exhibition halls cannot reproduce. The Arsenal will be opened to the city through the Ships Pavilion, a section of the Naval Historical Museum of the Navy, allowing access from the monumental entrance. It will also be a first contact with navigation through the unprecedented “on the water” course.

“Our Boat Show addresses a catchment area that has its center of gravity shifted eastward, toward customers who very often do not reach other European shows. It is an important opportunity for the entire Italian pleasure boatbuilding industry, and I say this by emphasizing that we do not want to compete with any other boat show,” the mayor pointed out. “Moreover, Venice is the city where transit on the same days, to visit the Art Biennale, the world’s greatest collectors, who are often also owners of important boats. This, too, contributes to an unbeatable scenario. Finally, we want to be a reference for the many important production realities of the Adriatic.”

Special attention will be paid to the composite world of Venetian shipbuilding, with its different attitudes and vocations. Along with the traditional wooden boats, typical of the lagoon, the means of civilian and military law enforcement agencies including some ships will also be on display, testifying to the great collaboration that has been established with all the authorities and in particular with the Navy in the figure of Admiral Andrea Romani who said, “We have supported this project from its initial stages. The Navy is fully committed to pursuing this initiative that will allow the enhancement of the ancient Arsenal in a perspective related to the activities of the nautical sector and, more generally, to the activities of the sea, respecting its history and connotation as a symbolic place of Venice and seafaring. During the days of the Salone, our Naval Base will be open to the public and the offer of the Naval Museum will be expanded by making the submarine Dandolo visitable thanks to the collaboration with Vela and Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.”

Among the presentation speeches was that of lawyer Alberto Galassi, CEO of the Ferretti Group, one of the first to believe in Venice as an exhibition venue: “If there is one place in Italy that can compete with Monte Carlo for standing and environment this is Venice. I have believed in it for a long time, last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our group here and we come back for the presentation of our new products. I have suggested that our competitors also participate.”

In the logo of the Venice Boat Show there is a reference to the lion of the Serenissima Republic and the V of Venice: if St. Mark’s was the political heart, Rialto the commercial soul, the Arsenal was not only the military site and water gate of the city, but symbolized the Western garrison of our culture and Europe.

In this regard, there will be numerous collateral initiatives that in various halls and spaces of the Arsenal will keep the cultural content of the event high. Inside Spazio Incontri will begin on Wednesday, June 19, with a conference on design in which designer Carlo Nuvolari, Luca Bassani, inventor of the Wally Yacht brand, and Professor Carlo Fei, professor in Fashion Management at Luiss University in Rome, have already confirmed their participation. Says Carlo Nuvolari, “There is a new luxury of going by sea, a vision closer to passion and emotion. One of its best manifestations is arriving by sea in Venice, as travelers of past centuries did, remaining enchanted by the embrace of the monumental entrance.” Visitors to the boat show will also be able to arrive by sea with their boats, mooring at one of the various marinas that have collaborated to create this initiative. Design will not be the only theme: the environment, fishing, tourism and fishing, safety and navigation will be discussed with the collaboration of CNR- ISMAR, Tethis, Coast Guard, Assonautica.

“We will be there to support the initiative,” says Rear Admiral Piero Pellizzari of the Veneto Maritime Directorate and the Venice Port Authority, “central to developing all aspects related to recreational boating. Our people and experience are at
provision particularly with regard to regulations and safety of navigation.”

One of the collateral initiatives is the competition “Venice Boat Show: International Call for Selection of Boat Projects, ” launched by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia with the Municipality of Venice and Vela Spa. The selected works, chosen from more than seventy participants, will be exhibited inside Tesa 113 of the Arsenal, where a series of cultural activities related to design and nautical culture will also take place with various guests.

“The Boat Show,” Mayor Brugnaro concluded, “is already funded for the next three years. We must believe in it and make the greatest possible contribution to its success because it represents an opportunity for the future of the new generations. I thank all the people who are working day and night to realize this important event: the City of Venice, Vela Spa and all the investee companies involved, the city institutions, the associations, the oarsmen. And I thank, on behalf of the city, Alberto Galassi, CEO of Ferretti Group, one of the largest Italian industrial groups, who strongly believed in this project. I believe it is a duty for the country that Venice can give a future of life, work and prosperity to the whole Adriatic.”