100 years of yacht building: Campanella to Mondomarine

As Italian yacht builder Mondomarine celebrates its 100-year anniversary, we take a look back at the yard's stunning past – as well as its present superyacht launches and promising future.

Mondomarine yachts are built at the historic Campanella Caniteri Navali S.p.A. shipyard in Savona, which has been active in vessel repair and construction since 1915. In the beginning, the company employed about 50 people - mostly highly skilled mechanics, welders and carpenters.

By 1943, the company began working with the Italian Navy, specifically on landing craft, troop-transporting ships and refitting the war fleet. Pictured above is the steamship Maria-Cristina at the yard in 1941.

After the end of the conflict of WWII, the Cantieri Campanella shipyard was one of the biggest players in the renewal of the Italian merchant fleet. In order to work on these large craft, the yard was granted permission to expand northwest, gaining two new slips and warehouses.

In the 1950s, the facility flourished, launching fuel barges for the Argentinian Ministry of Public Works. The yard also reconstructed motor yacht Altina from Venice, which began the yard's "naval surgery" operations.

In 1960, Campanella launched its first tug boat. The 850hp yacht was built for a Livorno company Ghezzani, and thus the yacht was named Giuseppe Ghezzani.

The 1960s proved to be a legendary time for the builder, with multiple barges, motor vessels, large fishing boats, floating cranes and a yacht named Oceanico built and delivered between 1960 and 1963 alone.

In 1963, the company changed its name to Campanella Cantieri Navali S.p.A. and continued to repair 180 to 200 ships per year, many of which flew foreign flags. In 1964, the yard won a bid to build boats for the Interior Ministry, building fireboats and the ilk for Italian ports.

In 1966, Campanella received an order to design and build three 1,800hp tugboats with German VOITH cycloidal propellers for a company in Genoa. This was a huge milestone, marking the first-ever tugboats to be built with VOITH propellers. India was launched first, followed by Istria, pictured above, and Panama in 1968. These yachts were 29 metres LOA, 8.5 metres wide and could tow a whopping 23 tons and travel at 12.5 knot top speed, with excellent stability to boot.

The 1970s proved a time of change for the yard. While Campanella still delivered tugboats, landing craft and received an order for seven fireboats, the mid-1970s ushered in the yard's modernity.

In 1973 and 1974, Campanella signed contracts on nine new motor yachts. By the end of the seventies, building yachts was the yard's core business, fitting in alongside refits and repairs of large yachts.

One milestone of this era included motor yacht Mohamedia, pictured above, built for Arab magnate Adnan Khasshogi. Her clean lines and innovative layout stands the test of time.

In the mid-1990s, the shipyard completed a number of 30 metre planing hull yachts in aluminium, a material that the yard – now operating as Mondomarine – continues to specialise in today. This gave birth to a series of yachts ranging from 40 to 50 meters, representing the core of the production and the future of the yard.

Along with these semi-displacement aluminium yachts was a series of steel displacement yachts, which is best represented by the 50 metre explorer yacht Tribú, launched in 2007.

A true adventuring yacht, Tribú has travelled around the world many times. She is pictured above in the remote Beagle Channel. Designed by Luca Dini with interiors from Studio Lissoni, she was the first yacht to be awarded with RINA's with the Green Star certification.

In 2013, Mondomarine launched 40.97 metre yacht Nameless. The Italian builder cemented its standing in the superyacht arena with this beautiful yacht, which features exterior styling by Cor D. Rover and interiors by Luca Dini.

Mondomarine's 41 metre Namesless bridges tradition and innovation, representing the best of the yard's history and its modern design updates and the latest technology.

Mondomarine collaborated for the first time with Enrico Gobbi of Team For Design on the M57, seeking to fill a void in its lineup. Their brief to Gobbi was to design a 60 metre yacht with a displacement hull that had sleek and sporty lines paired with comfortable interiors.

The result is the Mondomarine M57 Eidos, which is primed to have excellent performance and long-range capabilities thanks to naval architecture by Italy’s Giuseppe Arrabito.

Compare Mondomarine's iconic explorer yacht Tribú and this newer concept for the M57 Explorer, and you can see how fast this yard is progressing in less than a decade. While the former still holds her own, the new Mondo M57 brings further luxury amenities to its explorer offerings.

Note the forward deck hot tub, swimming pool with waterfall and plentiful deck spaces for entertaining, to name a few. Yet the M57 Explorer still lives up to her name, offering an impressive range and seakindly performance.

In collaboration with Italy's Luca Vallebona of SF Yachts, Mondomarine has introduce its bold new SF line, with the SF60, pictured above, and the new Mondoarine SF40. Get a chance to climb on board the Mondomarine SF40 when she makes her debut at the Monaco Yacht Show 2015.

The 42.33 metre yacht features design inside and out by Luca Vallebona of SF Yachts. The aluminium, semi-displacement yacht boasts clean lines and even proportions and is a modern take on the traditional raised pilothouse superyacht. See for yourself this September in Monaco.

While Mondomarine's SF line might look quite different from the first barges and tug boats launched by Campanella Cantieri Navali, the strong Italian heritage mined from 100 years of boatbuilding history is evident.