The perfect storm

Over the past 35 years, I’ve been a huge fan of the Perini Navi fleet, having worked closely with the original team, spent many hours eating, drinking, sailing, laughing and relaxing with the Perini family and passionate legends like the late Giancarlo Ragnetti, Fabrizio Sgariglia, Burak Akgul, Bruce Brakenhoff, Franco Romani, Moreno di Giusto, Cristina Bernardini and Sara Gianola, many of whom are still active in the market today. I even had the privilege of sailing with many of their owners on sail trials and at the famous Perini Navi Cups in Sardinia.

Perhaps my favourite experience was being alongside the late Tom Perkins on the revolutionary Maltese Falcon, where he knew full well I had to get back to Porto Rotondo to catch my flight back to London, but as the conditions were so perfect, the sun was low and the sea was golden and the late afternoon breeze was optimal, he just kept sailing for another two hours. Essentially, I have many fond memories of this company and being part of what was a true superyacht com-munity, all driven with cool and sophisticated, almost obsessive, passion by the founder and visionary Fabio Perini.

Now as I reminisce, thinking how unique this brand was and how they all played a key part in the market – the team, the captains, the owners and many other stakeholders – all working and playing together on a fleet of yachts that were designed for their purpose, which wasn’t necessarily to sail, it’s hard to think of comparable shipyard DNA in our sector today. However, as I look at the situation today and the turbulence that the past ten years has delivered, with the disaster of Bayesian being perhaps the pinnacle of this Perini perfect storm, it’s very difficult to watch. I’d love the opportunity to sit down with Giovanni Constantino, who has picked up the Perini baton (batten) and is running with it, to discuss the real future and opportunity for Perini 2.0, as there is no reason why the original proposition of a comfortable, stable, efficient, environmentally conscious motor sailor should not be a success in today’s business climate. Essentially Perini Navi has been and perhaps always will be its own customer category and should never be compared to other products or brands.

Perini Navi deliveries since 2000 by LOA(m)

The delivery chart above, created by The Superyacht Agency Intelligence team, clearly demonstrates the decline of the business since 2017 when the business accepted outside investment from Fenix and implemented new senior management that perhaps had a different agenda that conflicted with the DNA of this great shipyard. The obsession with the busy and congested motoryacht categories and the latent demand for high-performance sailing yachts with hugely expensive rig specs completely disrupted the brand and conflicted with the Perini pedigree. Perinis weren’t meant to sail perfectly or compete with other members of the superyacht sailing fleet; they were their own class of sailing yachts.

During the following years, prior to the inevitable bankruptcy, we witnessed the dramatic demise of this once great innovator, a shipyard business that essentially built very attractive and solid, steel-hulled motoryachts with relatively simple rigs but with smart sail-handling systems that spent the majority of their lives motoring around the oceans, with their sail wardrobes being unveiled at the Buckets, and the Superyacht and Perini Navi Cups, which, let’s face it, only happened for a few days of the year. When you look closely at the final stages of the business calendar of this great brand, there were key moments in history that we feel damaged the business’s success: the exceptional award-winning project of Badis (ex-Sybaris), built in 2016, and the equally award-winning motoryacht Grace E built in 2014, both of which took their toll on the shipyard financially. There were other distractions at the time, but it was clear that things were not heading on the right course and Fabio Perini was looking to perhaps change personal tack.

Analysis of the delivery data from 2017 all the way through to the time of acquisition by the Italian Sea Group indicates an unhealthy shipyard with essentially some valuable shipyard real estate and a few dormant or distressed projects that were part of the bankruptcy fall-out. Not having access to the details of the deal or due diligence, it’s hard to comprehend the deal value, but as a brand with pedigree and with a valuable legacy, with shipyard real estate and a few orders, but more importantly a fleet of 60-plus yachts in operation, it’s easy to see why the likes of Sanlorenzo, the Italian Sea Group and others were circling the bankruptcy court.

Now back to the present day and the various media stories and social media commentary about the recorded litigations that have been announced. I can fully understand the motivation to sue or counter sue and the deep frustration that the Bayesian disaster must have generated for the current owner of the Perini brand, as this will no doubt have raised questions among many about sailing yacht stability. However, when you look at the heritage fleet of Perinis, their core success was built on solid, stable and very comfortable motor sailors that sat at anchor in beautiful locations, for the majority of their time afloat and covering hundreds of thousands of nautical miles at the hands of some great captains. When the company diverted its DNA into low-gross-tonnage sleek motoryachts, high-performance alu-minium-hulled sailing yachts with very expensive carbon rigs, the business changed and I feel that the market became confused and distracted.

Having sat on the flybridge deck and alongside many owners and captains sailing these original Perinis, I’m not sure it was all about performance. Yes, one 56-metre captain would like to beat another 56-metre captain in a regatta, based on tactics, but typically, this was all about having fun, being part of a family and enjoying the moment. When you witnessed a Perini sailing yacht start a Bucket Regatta a couple of hours earlier than a Wally or Southern Wind, you can imagine the competitive and frustrated owner asking the naval architect or designer alongside ‘Can we design one of these things to go faster’, where the eyes light up and the answer will always be yes, but will it still be a Perini pedigree, I’m just not sure.

We still await the full results of the investigation into the Bayesian disaster and whatever it says and whatever the real cause of the catastrophe, I do believe that the Perini Navi fleet can be reborn and if anyone can do it, it’s someone with passion, deep pockets and a vision, but it also needs the people who live and breathe the brand, like in their heyday, to reinvigorate the true meaning of owning a Perini Navi and what it’s like as an owner, captain and crew to be part of a unique superyacht family.

This article first appeared in The Superyacht Report: New Build Focus. With our open-source policy, it is available to all by following this link, so read and download the latest issue and any of our previous issues in our library.

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