INTERVIEW Ingemar’s floating docks turn 45 years old

Since 1979, an Italian company has been enabling many boats to dock safely in Italy and around the world. Ingemar turns 45 this year, and its pontoons continue to crowd ports and marinas in the Mediterranean and beyond. We interviewed its founder, engineer Lorenzo Isalberti, on the occasion of this special occasion.

Forty-five years of pontoons at sea is not a few years. Your work began in 1979. What were the first ports to be equipped with your pontoons?

On closer inspection, I would say that Ingemar’s early years were mainly oriented toward planning and practical demonstration of the potential offered by new floating structures as opposed to traditional fixed ones, but, among our first major works I recall the Port of Trani in Puglia, the first Administration of an Italian municipality to use the leasing formula to transform a depressed urban area into a lively place appreciated by the city, and the Port of Palau in Sardinia where Ingemar installed the first mooring fingers for a public initiative.

What have been the milestones for Ingemar in his journey from 1979 to the present?

To summarize, we could say that we began our challenge in Milan, far from the water but close to the sea by passion, designing and promoting the first floating docks for the development of yachting. In retrospect, we were helped by rapidly changing times and customs and
Once our business grew, towards the end of the 1990s, we chose to equip ourselves with an autonomous factory and relocated production to Silea (Tv), near the Venetian Lagoon. From here, in just a few years, we designed and installed increasingly high-performance and appreciated pontoons and began to transfer our experiences on the production of floating breakwaters, which we gradually produced in larger and larger sizes, up to 10x20m and 185 T. weight. Ingemar meanwhile grew, and the need for a more adequate production resource suggested to us in the early 2000s to transfer production to Casale sul Sile (Tv), where we built a custom-made plant with space and equipment in line with the company’s growing needs. In recent years then we took a further step for development in foreign markets, signing exclusive licensing agreements in distant countries for de-localized production of the most imposing and difficult to move elements.

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How have docks changed over the years? Are there new materials, new technologies, new installation methods?

From the first pontoons to the current maxi breakwaters, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge: size, stability, capacity and safety are now essential parameters for the products we export all over the world. In addition, depending also on the international dimension, there has been a shift from standard configurations to customized designs that favor different material choices and anchoring systems depending on the legislative and environmental regulations of each host country. Over the years there have been several attempts, at the request of clients, to use alternative materials to the fine timbers of the decks, such as the new Wpc (wood plastic composite) composites, but with results of little appeal compared to the original. We have always used Fsc (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified eco-friendly timbers, and over the years we have made innovations and improvements to anti-corrosion processes, to the components of unsinkable concrete and polystyrene cores, to the special joints of floating modules to anchorages on deep water made with patented elastomers and Dynema® tops, to sliding systems on piles to make the floating landings go along with the tide levels, to the creation of special walking surfaces that let light filter through to the sea colonies on the seabed. Today in the R&D department, we complement the professional skills of our engineers with software systems for Cad-Cam design and for performance simulations that also consider from the outset the recyclability/reusability of components.

What are the new markets where boating is gaining importance? Where are the most important investments currently moving?

Currently, the Mediterranean basin is home to most of the world’s large yachts while small and medium-sized ones are distributed somewhat throughout Western countries and Australia. Further growth in the nautical sector, especially maxi-yachts and charters, is expected and thus the need for new infrastructure. Greece in particular has high potential because of its special natural resources. However, new marinas are increasingly difficult to build: naturally protected areas and disused commercial harbors have now been deployed, and new developments are struggling for economic and environmental reasons. Instead, we see great opportunities in the necessary refurbishment of many existing port facilities marked by time and obsolete in terms of construction types, facilities, and water space layouts. Important interventions are still planned in Middle Eastern countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, thanks to urban development that sees the berth as a necessary accompaniment to waterfront residences.

How has the system of ports and marinas in the Mediterranean changed over the years? How will it evolve in the future?

Starting from the Italian market, which is the one we have been frequenting for the longest time and where our facilities are present in a great number of marinas, we could say that from Ingemar’s origins to the present day we have participated in different phases in the development process of boating in the “Boot”. In the early years, for example, the interventions mainly involved the conversion of old Class IV marinas for recreational use, and later we instead moved to a phase that prioritized the construction of new marinas in areas outside populated areas. Over time, and after finding that in many cases separation from urban cores had proved counterproductive for the economies of the area, a more recent phase of reclamation, reconversion and redevelopment of “waterfronts,” old city landings and disused urban areas, has taken place. The trend in the near future seems to be to aggregate marinas into organized networks to enrich their offerings and to transform current ports into multi-activity facilities that will offer services for boating and water sports, as well as multiple leisure opportunities (commercial spaces, catering, hospitality, etc.). Precisely with a view to the enhancement and usability of spaces, Ingemar together with other companies and experts, launched in 2023 the Marina4all project sponsored by Confindustria Nautica, to foster accessibility and promote the concept of “comfort for all” in modern marinas.

What works are you most proud of? And what, on the other hand, have been the most complex to follow and accomplish?

Among the works I remember most fondly is definitely The Redeemer Floating Bridge made in 2002 in Venice. It was a huge intervention with a tight schedule and many constraints. Seeing that mass of people on the bridge, which has a development of 334 meters, was a very strong emotion. And here it is important to emphasize the flexibility of our products: the same bridge is in fact used, in different lengths, for other major city events throughout the year. But to tell the truth, there are countless important events that have seen Ingemar in the field: from the Porto Antico in Genoa, with a special color for the floating structures desired by the architect Renzo Piano, to the installations for the 2004 Athens Olympics and the docks for Sea City in Kuwait where we helped to fit out with floating docks 4 docks for a total of 33 km of piers and fingers for 2,700 berths. And again, I recall the installations for mega-yachts in Dubai Harbour, the fishing boat docks for Port Duqm in Oman, and 64 landings for military deployments in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which testify to our ability to diversify. In the Mediterranean we have contributed, among many others, to the new marinas in Porto Montenegro, Novigrad in Croatia, Lefkas in Greece, Hammamet in Tunisia; as well as in Italy, by way of example, to the ports of Loano, Castellammare di Stabia, Manfredonia and La Spezia.

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