Classic_Boat_2016-10

CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2016 27

MARCEL BICH

However, he was also a father dedicated to the daily
life of his household, despite the heavy responsibility of
his rapidly growing companies, which soon steered
towards other disposable classics such as the cigarette
lighter and razor. Some rites he would give up for
nothing, such as the meals at the family table and his
summer holidays in the south of France, on the Provence
coasts with his wife and his numerous children.
Yachting came into Bich’s life in the mid-1950s, and
15 years later he made the headlines of the international
press during the America’s Cup races in Newport, Rhode
Island, USA. But first our story starts in Paris, or more
exactly in Neuilly-sur-Seine in a peaceful and well-to-do
district. It happened that by chance, a short walk from
Bich’s apartment in Rue de Chézy, the Rue Soyer was
home to the kind of workshop not often to be found in
such places. It is there that Frantz Liuzzi built a small
range of speedboats that won countless victories in races
as well as a long list of speed world records. Let’s
imagine how Neuilly was at the time, its large trees and
avenues, its old buildings and some rare modern
apartments (sometimes with even two bathrooms!), its
mansions then surrounded by vast parks which the
developers had yet to take advantage of. Lining the quiet
pavements would have been a scattering of popular cars,
doing nothing to disturb the provincial, almost rural
peace – a noble Delahaye or a shiny Jaguar between a
4CV Renault and a modest Simca, perhaps. In 1957,
fewer than 20 per cent of French households owned a
car. And far fewer owned motorboats, a real luxury with
the war having ended only 12 years before.

We do not know the exact circumstances of Marcel

Bich’s first meeting with Frantz Luizzi in his small works

of the Rue Soyer where he designed fine, cold-moulded

wooden hulls, known to be light, strong and very fast. It

is likely that the maker of the ballpoint pen that bears his

name will have found it particularly fascinating to attend

the construction of fast boats just next to his home,

feeding his keen attitude towards any technical process.

A STYLE BETWEEN DIOR AND GORDINI

A year after buying Luizzi’s smaller model France-Craft

in 1956, Bich indulged himself with the brand-new

Laurence II, a fast runabout of 20ft (6.1m) that he

named after his wife. Liuzzi made slight variations to

each hull he built so that every client could consider

his boat unique even if its model name was part of a

production catalogue.

Laurence II is a model MYCCA, named after the

exclusive Motor Yacht Club of Côte d’Azur. By the

1930s, the club was one of the most renowned on the

French Riviera, a place where gentlemen drivers liked to

race fiercely on sunny Sundays at the wheel of their

luxury speedboats. Laurence II, powered by a BPM V6

Atlantic, is close to the lines of the Star model but in a

sportier form. Bich did not attend any events in these

society circles. He much preferred the more peaceful

nature of the coasts of the Var in the days when Saint-

Tropez was still an obscure fishing port. When Roger

Vadim chose Saint-Tropez to shoot And God Created

Woman in 1956, he created two legends at once:

Saint-Tropez’s reincarnation as a summer playground for

Above: powering

past Savoie, built

in 1914, on Lake

Geneva

Liuzzi’s boatyard

presents the

France-Craft, 1950