News
(edited by Paolo Lodigiani)
| Newsletter |
We too, since last February, have a newsletter. We send it via e-mail to customers, friends and sympathisers. It isn’t a revival of “L’approdo”, the old bulletin we used to send by post, highly appreciated by our readers, but a bit too demanding to write and prepare (luckily you can still find some extracts in the Articles section, though); the present newsletter is a nimbler and more concise report aiming at informing in real time of all the news and activities of B.C.A. - Demco. We think at it as an effective way to improve the dialogue with you, and we would like it to be a reciprocal exchange: we gladly welcome feedback and comments. If they come accompanied by an order, even better! But this is not what we aim to…not only, at least: we are interested in your observations, suggestions, even criticisms. We will take everything in consideration. We have sent the first newsletter to the addresses we had in our inbox, and to those we knew from the orders received. If you are not in the mailing list and you want to receive it, just send us your address and we will arrange for you to be included in the future ones. To make sure you won’t miss a word, we have put the newsletter online, just below. We apologize with our foreign readers but the newsletter is at the moment only in Italian as many of the news concern our Italian clients. We shall translate just those news which can be of interest for our international readers.
Issue N.6 February 2012
Issue N.5 May 2011
Issue N.4 July 2009
Issue N.3 July 2008
Issue N.2 April 2008
Issue N.1 February 2008
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| Carlo Sciarrelli at the Civico Museo del Mare of Trieste |
On October 5, 2007, one year after great boat designer Carlo Sciarrelli’s death, the Civico Museo del Mare of Trieste has inaugurated an exhibition dedicated to him. The idea came from a group of friends and fans who wanted to pay him a tribute. The city council picked up the initiative and promoted it, and the public is responding well. The exhibition includes several models of his best-known boats, together with unpublished documents, photographs, a selection original plans and also some of his personal belongings: his favourite books, working tools, as well as an autograph list of all of his plans with stars indicating the ones he considered best. Furthermore, there are screenings of interesting footages (among them the RAI film “La barca di Dio” – “God’s Boat”, and the Lectio Magistralis he gave on the occasion of the awarding of his honorary degree), in which Sciarrelli speaks of his boats with the clear-sightedness, enthusiasm and originality that so characterised him. The exhibition, set up by Comunicarte from Trieste, will be open until December 2, 2007. We can provide to anyone interested the catalogue, a fine illustrated book containing a complete overview of Sciarrelli’s work with many photos, boat plans and contributions by Guglielmo Danelon, Enrico Buschi, Paolo Lodigiani, Davide Battistin and Federico Lenardon.
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| A Boat for University, designed by Matteo Costa |
On September 21 through 23, 2007, the regatta “Mille e una vela per l’università” (“One Thousand and One Sails for University”) was held in the waters of Porto Santo Stefano, in Argentario. The initiative was born as a challenge put forward by the Università degli Studi Roma3. More than one year ago a group of its students was asked to build a wooden skiff, 4.60 meters long, suitable for a crew of two persons (a boy and a girl). The proposal was then extended to students of other universities, and rating rules were fixed. Six universities picked up the gauntlet: among them the Industrial Design faculty, of the Politecnico di Milano, that constructed two boats, Techne and Polis. Both keels were designed by Matteo Costa, whom our clients will remember for co-designing many of B.C.A. - Demco Kit latest plans. Matteo himself, working with other students, built one of the two boats. Also the crew, a boy and a girl, was chosen among the university students. Matteo’s boat, a double trapeze skiff built partly in cold molded, partly with Stitch&Tape technique, was launched a week before the regatta, and proved extremely fast, and both Milanese boats dominated the race in Porto Santo Stefano. Combining duty with pleasure, Matteo later produced as his doctoral thesis the designing and building of the boat, as well as the boat itself, put in display for students and teachers to admire. Useless to say, Matteo got his degree with full marks.
Congratulations to Matteo, then! And to all who worked with him to this achievement (a special mention goes to the two helmsmen, Adriano Guarnieri and Davide Lupo Conti). Also, an applause must be dedicated to the teachers of Roma3 and Politecnico, who understood the educational value of such an initiative.
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| Yacht Design Masters |
We are delighted to announce the publication of our latest book, “Maestri dello Yacht Design” (Yacht Design Masters). We warmly recommend it for several reasons:
- the book collects essays and articles by Gian Marco Borea d’Olmo, the founder of the Venturieri, great seaman and admirer of nautical culture, deceased in 2000, a true friend who always followed our activities with favour and enthusiasm. This book is also a tribute to his memory and also to that of Carlo Sciarrelli, to whom I dedicated a chapter of the book.
- The book is a mine of information about great designers of old. It may not be a fully complete study, as some of the big names are missing, but it does offer a vast picture of nautical design history. The great figures are always portrayed in their human dimension: not only their work, but also their lives are told in the straight-forward, colloquial style that Gian Marco Borea used to convey his infinite nautical knowledge to his pupils and friends “venturieri”.
- We have added several new illustrations. In particular, a series of color photos by Paolo Maccione.
- A number of friends have given their support and contribution. Notably, the members of the association “I Venturieri” who first had the idea for the book, and constantly work for keeping alive the memory of Gian Marco Borea. The book was presented on the occasion of the Venice Boat Show in march 2007 at the stand of the association (visit their website www.venturieri.it).
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| Boats in Mythology |
“La barca nel mito” (Boats in Mythology) was our main publication of 2006. The book is the result of a long and enthusiastic, still ongoing research onto different themes related to the culture of the sea. We hope that similar books will follow. Critics’ reception was very good: published in June 2006, the book has received influential, favourable reviews from the main newspapers and was short-listed for two literary awards. It sells well in the bookshops where it is available, whereas our habitual customers who order books online have largely ignored it. Maybe you are more interested in the technical rather than cultural aspects of boats. If this is the case, we condemn it: we strongly believe that boat is culture as well as technique. Reading about mythological seamanship may not help you to build a more solid or faster craft, but it is a good way to keep thinking about boats and adds an additional fascination to the joys of sailing.
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| New Plans and New Competition |
Many and of many different kinds are the new plans proposed in recent years. A series of different-shaped and sized canoes, two trimarans, some modern cabin cruiser, five brand new motorboats and more. We can now proudly claim that our catalogue offers a choice of plans that equals that of the major international designers who deal with amateur boat-building, for quality and quantity. And it will be even more so when we will have completed the “under construction” plans. And we want to keep expanding and improving it. On the other hand, this sector has become, thanks to the internet and the appearance of new competitors on the Italian market, more and more challenging: we do miss the status of monopolist we used to have (only in Italy, of course), but at the same time the awakening of a new interest in self-building can only make us happy, and proud to have largely contributed to it with our activities.
In 2007 and 2008 we carried on expanding the range of products in our catalogue: some plans that in 2006 were labelled as “study plans” have now been completed and are available in their final versions. In particular, we would like to mention two boats that seem to enjoy the approval of our clients: the TRICKY FIVE, fast, extremely simple, 5 meters trimaran, and the DRIADE, a small rowing boat for those who want to approach the joys of rowing with an uncomplicated boat.
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| Plans and Kits |
We are now offering you the chance to buy kits, or even the already built boats, together with our plans. We are starting up collaborations with some building yards. We will soon put up a page on our website with all the necessary information.
We already have an agreement with the Roman yard Manferdini-Atzeni along with the plans for our pilot-boats VILA 570, 620 and 650 (which have been very successful, so far) you can buy the kits to build them yourself, or the professionally-built boats, equipped with motor, if so requested. While the website page is still under construction, for more information you can contact us through this website: (www.manferdini-atzeni.it)
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Our collaboration with the yard
Tecno-Legno-Yacht continues. We are very pleased to see its interest and support for the amateur boat-building sector. Many of you ask where to buy kits for our boats or the partially or fully-built boats.
Tecno Legno-Yachts
is where to find them, together with passion and expertise (www.tecno-legno-yacht.com)
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| News From Our Friends |
As always, we dedicate a part of our newsletter to the activities of colleagues and friends who collaborate with us or share our passion for boats. For the sake of brevity we will only provide the coordinates for who is interested to find more information. Please forgive us if we are forgetting to mention something you have reported to us: if it is the case, tell us and we will amend as soon as possible.
Considering our passion for the culture of the sea, we are glad to mention the opening of a section, within the websi www.ilmarinaio.com (formerly called www.nautistore.it ) , dedicated to nautical publishing, in which you can find reviews and comments on books about sailing and boats. You can also order the books online. The page is edited by Simone Perotti, a brilliant and creative writer as well as a boat and sea-lover. In his extraordinary novel “Stojan Decu, l’altro uomo” (Stojan Decu, the Other Man), the main character is also, among his many identities, a boat-builder. Recently Simone has published a new novel, “L’estate del disincanto”, a sea adventure about two boys sailing in a traditional boat in the war period. It would be difficult to write about these books in brief: our suggestion is to read it or, at least, a taste of it on the author’s website www.simoneperotti.it .
The ASDEC (Associazione Scafi d’Epoca e Classici – Association Historic and Classic Boats) has turned 20 in 2007. As always, it offers an appealing list of events and rallies, available, together with interesting news, at
www.asdec.it
Several books concerning seafaring life are top be found on the backlist of Iperborea, Milanese publisher specialised in Northern European and specifically Scandinavian literature. We particularly want to point out the work of Björn Larsson, excellent sailor and boat-lover: among his books, “Il cerchio celtico” (“The Celtic Ring” published in English by Seafarer Books), “La saggezza del mare” (“Cape Wrath to Finisterre (Armchair Traveller)” Haus Publishing Ltd.), “Il porto dei destini incrociati”. Afterwords for these books are all by Paolo Lodigiani.
Among recent Iperborea publications with seafaring related themes, we would like to signal “L’idrografo” by Dutch author Allard Schröder (original title “De Hydrograaf”, published in Holland by De Bezige Bij). More information at
www.iperborea.com
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