The Blobs are Here! Run for Your Lives
I really hate to say “I told you so” but… in April 1985, in this very column I wrote a piece called “Yacht Styling: The Squares Versus the Rounds,” expressing my excitement over a trace of roundness creeping into Italian yacht styling. That story ended with the statement, “If I know the Italians, they will carry their newly discovered roundness to the extreme and, soon, the boats will look like Crayolas left out in the sun too long or, perhaps, a well-used candle. After this happens, you can rest assured that sharp creases will be back again.” Then in February 1987, I did a piece called “The Blobs Are Coming,” noting that roundness had established a firm foothold in the Italian yacht industry. A lot has happened since those two pieces were written.
Blobs Engulf an Industry
Though blobist styling was gaining a foothold in 1987, I can now tell you that it has completely engulfed the Italian boat industry and, yes, it has been carried to the extreme. Once again, your Spectator hasn’t failed to keep you informed of the latest trends and make accurate predictions about the future.
Another quote from that article, “When you get into extreme blobism, auto and yacht designers have a problem: There is only a certain number of ways you can style a blob. Let’s face it a blob is a blob -- be it an amoeba, a blob of whipped cream, tar, automobile or yacht. How can you differentiate between one amoeba and another? You can’t. They all look alike. They have no character. They are nondescript.”
Genoa Boat Show 1992: In the Boat Show (October) issue of “Yacht Premiere” magazine, there is the following statement: “The styling of boats… has undergone a gradual evolution from the classic form of the sixties to the increasingly more streamlined and aggressive lines of today… The only factor that differentiates one from the other is a slight variation of a small feature peculiar to each different yard.” I can tell you the “small feature peculiar to each different yard” is usually a radar arch or reasonable facsimile thereof. As most Italian boats have progressed towards the look of a floating éclair of well used soap, only radar arches provide some visual relief. In fact, radar arches have come into their own as true art seagoing sculptures gracing nondescript pods.
Arch Rivals
A walk through the floating show at Genoa will give you the impression that builders are aggressively trying to “out arch” one another. Every possible iteration of the radar arch is present: There are staid arches, back laid arches, never should have been made arches. There are old arches, bold arches, scrolled arches and fold arches. There are galling arches, appalling arches and falling arches. There are asymmetrical arches. There are fore and aft arches, daft arches and go-fast arches.
There are fake arches, snake arches and layer cake arches. There are pagoda arches. There are round arches, mound arches, sound arches and astound arches. There are massive arches and passive arches. There are apex arches and rated “X” arches. There are plumb arches, dumb arches and chewing gum arches. There are fort arches and can’t support arches. There are mellow arches, Jell-O arches and McDonald's yellow arches. Do you get the idea?
Many of these arches, as I said, are true works of art. In fact, I think Genoa should sponsor a radar arch museum, tracing the gestation of the radar arch from a simple plank on two sticks to the surrealistic creations of today. Arch aficionados would walk through the hallowed halls speaking in whispers: “Look there! It’s a 1972 Caliari from his twisted pipe period.”
Boats in Need of Liposuction
The fact is, however, that boats in Italy have gotten so wedgie, so zoomo, so teardrop shaped, so globular that they have nearly reached their “endpoint.” There is nothing inherently wrong with curves and roundness mind you. I love curves and, in fact, I’d say that 15% of the round designs in Genoa were truly beautiful, inspiring creations. The other 85%, however, are bland, uninspiring and unimaginative, appearing to be round merely for the sake of being round the “Hey Guido, lop off that corner” school of design. These are the boats that are destined to become the leisure suits of the marine industry. Many transoms now look like a fat lady’s butt (in some cases, if the hull is not so fair, complete with cellulite bumps).
That done, where do we go from here? Well, after this extreme blobist period, the only way to go is… backwards. Back to classic, creative design and truly interesting shapes. Do you doubt me? Have I ever steered you wrong? Example: Over the past few years some American boats have been shown in Genoa. Up until this year, most of these boats looked like Troglodyte floating monuments amongst the swoopy Italian craft. But you know what? THIS YEAR THEY LOOKED GOOD!
A refreshing change, a crisp reminder of times past. In fact, the start of an Italian retro movement is well underway. Baglietto, one of the foremost yacht builders in Italy and creators of some of the most leading edge motoryachts in existence presently is building a Sixties style 33 meter yacht named “Bluefin” resplendent in hard corners throughout the superstructure. Baglietto, however, has gone even further. Let me introduce you to “Morgan,” a 26 meter (85 foot) motorboat straight out of the Thirties (she’s named “Morgan” in tribute to the New York banker and yachtsman J.P. Morgan). “Morgan” is being built for the young owner of Baglietto and is a neat boat resembling in many respects the original Midnight Laces we did 14 years ago.
Yes, it has all happened just as I predicted almost eight years ago. Over the past eight years your “Spectator’s” predictions have been documented to be correct 99.4% of the time. You’ll have to excuse me now. I've got some heavy duty gloating to do!
(Reprinted with permission of Regina Fexas.)
If you would like to read more of Tom's pearls of wisdom, tune in next Friday -- "Fexas Friday."
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Tom Fexas (1941-2006) was one of the most influential yacht designers of the last quarter of the 20th century. With the narrow Wall Street commuters that were built in the 1920s and '30s always on the back of his mind, he wanted to design boats that were at once fast, comfortable, seaworthy and economical to operate. Over the years, he and his firm designed over 1,000 yachts for some of the most prestigious boat builders in the world, including Choey Lee, Palmer Johnson, Grand Banks, Mikelson Yachts, Burger, Abeking & Rasmussen and many others.
Even though toward the end of his career he only designed megayachts and superyachts, including the remarkably influential PJ "Time" in 1987, he is best remembered for his first major vessel in 1978 -- Midnight Lace -- which became a series of 44-52-footers. They were light, narrow, and fast with relatively small engines. He was also influential in the boating community because of the monthly column he wrote for Power and Motoryacht, which began in its very first issue in January 1985.