Tagliapietra limousine

The Tagliapietra boatyard in Venice is responsible for the custom 9.9m, 10-person limousine tender for the 115m classic motoryacht Issham Al Baher. While the shipyard – a family-run company on the island of Guidecca that specialises in the construction and restoration of the city’s classic water taxis – has not released the cost of the build due to the confidential nature of the project, potential investors are advised it is in the same price range as a Riva Super. “We are very pleased with the boat,” said yard director Andrea Tagliapietra during my visit to the yard. “However, the most important thing is that the owner’s representative is really happy with it.”


Constructed of cold-moulded mahogany planks built over a foam male mould with maple corking on deck and 20 coats of clear varnish, the vessel revealed some novel features designed to improve the hull’s sea kindliness, such as the markedly rounded keel at the forward apex of the V shape. Tagliapietra explained the rationale behind the design:

“Because a lot of the weight is placed aft but the owner is seated forward, a traditional hull form was not the ideal solution,” he began. “The hull needs to get up on the plane quickly and because of its long narrow shape and weight distribution, we could only achieve that by modifying the underbody. So we moved the planing pressure point aft to the almost flat stern section and introduced a rounded keel forward that provides additional buoyancy and avoids uncomfortable slamming.”


During the test drive, the hull performed exactly as described above by rising smoothly to the plane at 200 rpm powered by twin Volvo Penta 190hp duoprop engines, and maintaining a horizontal trim in the choppy cross sea of the lagoon with none of the discomfort associated with a traditional deep-V hull in such conditions. Buoyancy and dynamic lift have been optimised to provide excellent trim with one or a full complement of guests.


The tender is equipped with air-conditioning and heating systems, one refrigerator to serve the cabin and one to serve the aft cockpit, and three electric sun roofs. High-quality leather upholstery is used for the interior furniture and easy boarding is provided by fold-away boarding ladders on each side of the cockpit with retractable handrails, while an hydraulic retractable passarelle is installed aft. The helm station is provided with a foldable driving step to ensure optimal visibility for different drivers and a collapsible windshield offers the required height reduction for lifting operations and storage on board. The yard also built a custom cradle to properly store the boat on the deck of the mothership with lifting lugs for easy balancing.

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