april 21, 2011 . Work Progress . Vor

After having manufactured the two main moulds for the hull and deck – we are talking about a 70-feet boat, hence moulds about 25 m long and 8 meters wide - we moved to the productive: we have put the deck on to the hull and extract the boat from the mold.

But the boat will leave Persico’s plant finished and ready to be put in the sea, in June. Thanks to our know-how in terms of machining, to Mark Somerville’s expertise and the optimized technologies to provide advanced solutions in a short time- says Marcello Persico - although we started off with the production processes with a couple of months of delay compared to competing boat yards, we have already caught up. We hope that such speed will be a good omen even for those who will sail the endless paths of the sea on this boat”.

october 2010 . Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority appoints Persico to build VOR yacht

[Source: Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority] Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) has appointed leading global manufacturing firm, PERSICO S.p.A., to build its state-of-the-art racing yacht for Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team to participate in the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race, widely considered the ‘Everest of Sailing’.

PERSICO of Bergamo, Italy was appointed following a competitive tender exercise involving local and international suppliers from the UAE, Europe and the Far East.

The yacht build has already commenced in PERSICO’s dedicated manufacturing facility in Northern Italy, in tandem with works in progress by Farr Yacht Design (USA) - one of the world’s foremost racing-yacht design teams - which is responsible for final design geometry.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing expects to take delivery of its cutting-edge Volvo Open 70 yacht in June 2011, for the final training push before the Volvo Ocean Race 2011/12 sets sail on its nine-month, 39,000 mile journey in October from Alicante, Spain.

“This is becoming a truly international project,” said HE Mubarak Al Muhairi, Director General, ADTA, which lead-manages the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team. “We are intent in tapping on the best minds and resources the yachting industry can offer to press forward our Volvo Ocean Race ambitions.”

PERSICO has close to two decades experience in the manufacturing of competitive racing yachts, having been behind a number of America’s Cup entrants from Moro di Venezia in 1992 up to Luna Rossa in 2007, which qualified for the event’s semi-finals. The company has also developed RC44 yachts for world-renowned sailor, Russell Coutts.

“We believe PERSICO has the right credentials in terms of manufacturing experience, product innovation and its ability to deliver a highly competitive integrated build solution, so as to be a key enabler of our Volvo Ocean Race ambitions,” explained Al Muhairi.

 

Being led by PERSICO’s Operations Manager, Mark Somerville, who has been involved with the manufacture of five Volvo Ocean Race yachts and 10 America’s Cup entries, the build will take approximately 45,000 man hours.

“Over the next eight months, under ADTA’s supervision, the team will be involved in every step of the manufacturing process as we continually refine and enhance our Volvo Open 70. Getting it right can mean the difference between first and last,” said Ian Walker, team skipper of the 11-strong Abu Dhabi crew hoping to stake its claim in one of the world’s toughest, most extreme sporting challenges.

Meanwhile, plans are also being progressed with Abu Dhabi stakeholders for the UAE capital’s New Year 2012 hosting of the Volvo Ocean Race prior to the yachting fleet embarking on to its third leg to Sanya, China. The emirate will be the first Middle East stopover in the event’s 37-year history.

“We are determined to make our port stopover the best in race history and the race highlight as befits our three-pronged involvement. We are making Volvo Ocean Race history on three levels - we are the event’s first destination partner, the only Middle East organisation to enter the race and the first Middle East host port,” said Al Muhairi.

 

june 17, 2010 . Future Fibres comes on board with the Persico Group

The first group specializing in the production of Sailing Yachts — moulds, rigging, boats, carbon masts — has been created. Mould engineering expert Persico S.p.A. has joined composite rigging specialist Future Fibres in a new venture, Future Fibres Spars Division.

-      Persico S.p.A. has 40 years of experience in moulds, composites and engineering for the automotive, rotational moulding, aerospace and nautical sectors. The Persico Marine Division specializes in the production of custom and racing sailing yachts, from engineering to moulds and boats. In order to achieve the highest production standards for high-performance composite racing yachts, like those used in the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race, Persico has invested in plant and machinery that take advantage of the exceptional mechanical properties of composites: its vacuum plant and post-curing oven can produce large-size components with highly resistant laminates. Furthermore, to give the greatest precision to shapes, profiles, models and moulds, and to dramatically reduce production time, the company uses sophisticated numerical control machinery: the production site has about 15 machines up to 25 x 7 x 3 m in size. To ensure the most advanced technology, Persico has invested in highly specialized staff with America’s Cup credentials, including Mark Somerville.

We should not forget Persico S.p.A.’s first composite model of excellence completed for the 2007 America’s Cup: the company built the two Luna Rossa yachts (ITA 86 and ITA 94). This was Persico’s first key step in developing its yacht design and construction know-how, which can now be used on other nautical projects, such as Russell Coutts’ RC44.

-       Future Fibres: Future Fibres' inherently safe and simple wound fibre construction method has revolutionised the rigging industry. Today the company continues to lead the market, as the world's largest composite rigging manufacturer, with more experience and sea miles than the rest of the competition put together. The company´s continued success is built on a commitment to technical excellence and research and development in a rapidly developing high technology sector

Marcello Persico:

“Future Fibres has already proven they have the knowledge, technical skills, drive and determination to shape a market. Their commitment to technical excellence, quality and service is wholly in line with our philosophy.”

Tom Hutchinson:

“We wanted a technical partner that could bring in new ideas from outside the marine industry, and Persico brings a wealth of experience and know-how from the automotive and aerospace world.”

Thanks to a highly qualified team and shared know-how, the Persico Marine Division and Future Fibres enter the high-end marine market ready to take on a new challenge.

-     The newly formed venture, Future Fibres Spars Division, boasts a 50 metre autoclave  in a new plant in Valencia, Spain. Future Spars has spent the past six months attracting some of the most well-known names in the nautical business, including: David Barnaby, Tim Meldrum and Mark Webster, supported by, Dave Hurley and Bruce Thompson.     

During the summer, Future Fibres Spars Division will produce its first carbon spar for a team participating in an international grand prix race: an Open60, ordered by Mikegolding.

march 2010 . More productivity for composites

"In the past years, composite materials have experienced a great evolution that has lead them to spread to several application departments, first of all in ship building and automotive- says Marcello Persico, Managing Director for Persico Marine Division. Starting from the know-how, gained in over 35 years of activity of our Automotive,  Rotomolding, Marine and Engineering divisions;  in our in-house research and development department we have developed innovative technologies, aimed at increasing productivity of parts in composite material. For instance, we have patented an aluminium mould for the construction of masts in carbon. The mould is made of two halves and includes an oil heating and cooling circuit: thermal control has always been one of our strengths. To develop this process we initiated a collaboration with SP (Gurit’s nautical division) that has supplied us with a special composite material based on carbon fibre. Once the carbon had been laminated inside the mould, the mould is then closed, heated and brought to pressure with the presence of a pressure bag inside it. At the end of the cycle, the piece is extracted and it features great dimensional accuracy and a perfect surface finish. The great advantage of this procedure is that it allows us to position all the carbon layers simultaneously together increasing productivity and saving time, as with conventional methods this is very time consuming. Consequently, there is a single compaction process, a single heating process and in only two days it is possible to obtain a finished mast without using autoclave. For our first experiment, we constructed a mast that has been  judged by an expert of the America’s Cup, so that he could evaluate the results: he confirmed with NDT (non destructive testing) the perfect compaction of the material. At this point we have manufactured a mast for a Mumm 30: even in terms of coupling accuracy and functionality this is comparable to other ‘traditional’ masts."