Tag: Professionalism

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Exclusive interview with Fulvio Montaldo for Super Yacht 24

Cantieri Sestri: Sailing Towards Excellence

The time has come to lower the sails on the refit season within specialized shipyards. The Sestri Naval Shipyards are a choice of excellence, even with the final touches to the boats that are eager to return to the sea.
In an exclusive interview granted to SUPER YACHT 24, Fulvio Montaldo, the owner, reflects on the pleasure of another year of successes and shares ambitious future plans.

In the Heart of Numbers

The expertise of the Sestri Naval Shipyards has been tested on almost a hundred boats in the current year. This significant number includes about twenty yachts that approach or exceed 24 meters in length. Despite successfully completing two 50-meter megayachts (immense challenges), Montaldo reveals a preference for working on a larger number of boats, even if they are of smaller dimensions.

A Clientele Without Borders

Among boats ranging from 24 to 40 meters, about 60% of the clients come from beyond the borders. Owners from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States constitute a significant portion of the international clientele. Although the Russian market has experienced some notable turbulence, the shipyard maintains a well-diversified customer portfolio. Among them stands out Nave Va, a Corsican company that manages a fleet of commercial vessels with long annual navigation times.

Unstoppable Growth Amid Challenges

Even amidst challenging circumstances, the Sestri Naval Shipyards are poised to grow. With an in-house team of about 15 employees, they regularly collaborate with specialized external teams. On some occasions, there have been as many as fifty workers on the shipyard. Despite limited space, both on land and at sea, Montaldo expresses the hope of having more spacious facilities.

Sailing Towards the Future

The shipyard’s development strategy revolves around service quality and investments in infrastructure. The autumn will mark the beginning of the renovation works for the workshops, internal carpentry, refreshment areas, and the warehouse. This represents the second phase of the development plan, initiated with the acquisition of a 300-ton travel lift last year. This new asset has allowed the shipyards to work on large vessels, complementing the already operational dry dock.
The Genoa-based shipyard proudly holds three certifications – environmental, quality, and workplace safety – because excellence begins with respect for workers and the environment. This too is love and passion.

Charting the Future of Refits

Looking more prospectively at the refit sector, Montaldo maintains an optimistic outlook for the future.
While the growth of the global fleet is a positive signal, the owner of the shipyards “firmly believes that professionalism will be the true differentiator”.
With over three decades of experience in the industry, Montaldo knows that sometimes, to maintain excellence, it’s worth surpassing customer expectations and, on occasion, regretfully turning down certain projects.

As the Sestri Naval Shipyards sail towards the future, their commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction remains a cornerstone.
This steadfast commitment has brought them to the forefront of the shipbuilding industry.

Cantieri Sestri Barche a Vela America
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OUR HISTORY – THE SUCCESS PATH OF THE SESTRI SHIPYARD

There is a soul, made of passion, continuity, commitment and professionalism behind the history of Sestri Shipyards. The Sestri’s engine and mind has the name of Fulvio Montaldo, who in 28 years of activity has transformed a shipyard devoted mainly to the demolition of work boats in barrels and tugs, in an efficient, advanced and highly specialized Naval Shipyards of today’s Cantieri Sestri. A structure capable of working at the highest levels and with the best professionalism, both on ancient sailing ships as well as on modern motorboats or complexes of service boats.

 

Immagini Cantieri di Sestri (Genova, ottobre 2014)
Photo © Francesco Rastrelli protected by copyright

Since 1989 Montaldo, with the help of its staff, has succeeded in developing, expanding and modernizing the Shipyard. He pursued the quality by hiring and preparing more skilled craftsmen (not forgetting the fact that she was losing the long tradition of Ligurian welder and shipwrights). It has created tradition continuity, with the constant support of young people to the most experienced; connecting the yard into a top-notch network, tightening solid agreements with professional studios design, suppliers and industry leaders.

The development process has also gone by a continuous enlargement and modernization of the structures. The first major innovation was the modernization of the fishing yard that allowed to move even 40 meters boats in half day, against the three of a time. Since 1995, the evolution of the self-propelled hydraulic trucks saw a progressive arrival of new vehicles, up to the latest acquisitions of 40-tons, the 300-meter modular and the 25-meter models, advancing the shipyard transformation and his ability to work on large yacht and hulls.

 

Thanks to shipyard’s strategy to allocate every year 50% of maintenance revenue and above all to the technological upgrading of the means of work, with the goal of replacing them every five years, today, the Sestri’s Shipyard occupy an area of 22,000 square meters divided into 13,800 sea area and 8,200 land, including warehouses, workshops, car parks, offices and open spaces. The latest innovation is the Service Center building, built in the 2015, as nerve center, with accommodation, gym, meeting rooms for employees and transit crews (equipped with solar plants that support much of the energy needs).

All together, permit to our shipyard to offers a complete and advanced range of services and unique facilities to our clients throughout the Liguria seaside station, that makes it one of the safest area in the entire gulf of Genoa, ensuring safety, reliability and high quality services to all ship-owners and commanders.

Over the years the Montaldo’s satisfaction have come from finishing assignments on prestigious boats that have made the history of yachting. First of all, probably the shooner America, perfect replication of the 1851 winner’s of what was called the Hundred Genoa Cup, today’s America’s Cup. ( http://www.nauticareport.it/public/america1.pdf).

After that Vagabunda, a wonderful Goletta, 35 meters long with furnishings, furniture and original paintings of the ‘700, whose in restoration during eight months of solid work. Also the beautiful Sea Home, a Swedish shuttle service from 1919, whose restoration was born in collaboration with the Milanese Architect Matteo Picchio ( www.matteopicchio.com).

Many other boats have passed from here and others are still in the pipeline: With the handling of about 250 boats all year round, the Sestri ShipYard have now consolidated a strong Yacht Restoration reputation and certainty of having advanced structures, know-how and super skilled workers able to perfectly face any type of work for our clients.