Spadolini designs across four decades

Yacht designer Tommaso Spadolini celebrates 40 years in business this year.

He has collaborated with some of the largest Italian builders on yachts including M/Y Fortuna, M/Y Numptia and M/Y Gipsy, winning some of the industry’s top honors.

Based in Florence, Italy, Spadolini started designing yachts in 1978 after a career at sea. That experience forms the backbone of his functional design, according to a company statement.

He began his career in the design office of his father, the famous architect Pierluigi Spadolini. In 1959, his father was nominated to the first Italian chair of industrial design, and since the early ‘60s collaborated with Cantieri di Pisa designing its entire range, including the benchmark Akhir series.

“For me, yachts have always been, and still are, my choice in applied design,” Tommaso Spadolini said in a statement marking his anniversary. “Here, I can bring to bear the accumulation of all our family’s knowhow.”

He created his first independent designs in the early 1980s for Barberis, and started his cooperation with Canados. The first Canados 70, launched in 1984, exemplified Spadolini’s work: that design must include strong functional elements. More than 100 Canados 70s were built between 1984 and 1992.

In 1992, Spadolini was selected to design M/Y Fortuna, the Spanish royal yacht. Launched in 2000 at 43m, the hull was designed by Donald Blunt’s American design studio. It reached a top speed of 74.8 knots.

From his offices in Florence, Spadolini alternated work on custom projects for international yards (interior design for Luca Bassani’s first two Wally 80s and for Bao Bab, the first motor yacht for Camper & Nicholson) and designing production yachts.

Several custom projects followed in the early 2000s: the Baglietto 138 RC for Roberto Cavalli, launched in 2004, followed by Nina J in 2005. Both are examples of the wide-body concept, a full beam conceptual configuration without side decks that increases interior volume. RC and Nina J were forerunners of this concept.

He also designed Aslec, the 46m built by Rossinavi and launched in 2012; the 70m Numptia, also built by Rossinavi, launched in 2011 and winner of the 2012 World Superyacht Awards; Gipsy, a 35m planning hull built by the Genoa based Otam yard. Launched in 2016, Gipsy won the World Superyacht Awards in 2017, along with the Showboats Design Awards in the “Best Naval Architecture” category with the Umberto Tagliavini designed hull.

Last year, Studio Spadolini signed with Rosetti Superyacht to design an entire line, from 50m-85m.

This summer, the launch of the new yacht designed for Roberto Cavalli is planned, along with a 102-foot yacht, built by CCN for an American couple, who appointed Spadolini for interior design.

Even today, every Tommaso Spadolini project is born from a hand-drawn design. “For me, this is the only way to convey the emotional content of an idea, its soul.” he said. “To define the design of a yacht in a word: the only lines are the essential lines.”