B
ambino! That was pretty much the only comprehensible
word, to this English-only correspondent, that Guido del
Carlo spoke during my visit to his Viareggio boatyard, but
luckily we were accompanied by Enrico Zaccagni – yachting
historian and experienced restoration project manager – who expertly
translated for us. Guido’s exclamation, I learned, referred to himself
when he first started working at the yard, in school holidays and at
weekends, at the age of just eight!
The yard was founded in 1963 by Guido’s father Francesco, who
had previously worked as a shipwright at a much bigger local yard,
Codecasa. Initially his focus was on building new wooden fishing boats
but once Guido became established at the yard around 30 years ago,
he was keen to move in the direction of classic yacht restoration.
Francesco was still working at the yard right up until the day before
he died, at the age of 87, two years ago. The business is now in the
hands of Guido and his brother Marco (who looks after the commercial
work and manages the slipway) while Guido’s son Adriano, aged
24, works there too.
This haven of wooden boatbuilding lies amid a number of high-
profile superyacht builders such as Perini Navi, Benetti, Azimut and
Overmarine. Some 5,500 people – about 10% of the town’s population- build and repair boats in Viareggio, with just 11 of those employed on
del Carlo’s particularly interesting projects.
Perhaps the most high-profile restoration carried out by the yard
was to the Fife ketch Eilean, in 2006, for watch company and classic
Nestled among superyacht
builders in Viareggio is a
haven of wooden craft
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIGEL SHARPFLAIR
AND
CARE
YARD VISIT
CANTIERE FRANCESCO
DEL CARLO