Portrait: How the Model Maker Group pursues yacht building excellence on a small scale

If you own a large yacht, in most cases you will also own a detailed model of it. For sailors, these are often half models, while the motorised fraction tends towards full models. Both are capable of generating great fascination. The full-scale replica may stand behind glass in the office and serve as a vehicle to mentally long for the time on board or to recall it; or the fine replica may rest on board behind glass with the purpose of becoming aware of the form that surrounds you.

Model making occupies an analogue niche. VR goggles are not yet enthroned on pedestals and under display cabinets to orbit the exterior in the metaverse. Shipyards and designers are taking this digital route in isolated cases or have had to switch to it during the coronavirus pandemic, but are primarily approaching customers with hyper-detailed materialisations of their ideal designs. Many are - like the majority of their role models will be later on - true globetrotters and travel well protected to trade fairs worldwide. Anyone who has visited a yacht show the day before or after will be familiar with the rectangular wooden or aluminium boxes that line the stands of the big players.

Model makers' order situation as an indicator for the big players

To a certain extent, the order situation of the model makers reflects that of the large yacht shipyards - and can provide indications of market developments. Giuseppe Capobianco, founder and CEO of the Model Maker Group (MMG), says: "We are seeing a decline in projects for very large yachts. There are fewer concepts and fewer 100-metre yachts are being built. In the 30/40 metre segment, on the other hand, there is a lot of movement." The Italians produce around 400 models per year, for shipyards such as Lürssen, Sunseeker, Baglietto or directly for owners. "There are medium-sized and small yachts that we produce in large numbers. There are significantly fewer of the large ones because they have a very long production time," reveals Capobianco.

Before their primarily emotional and commercial significance, maritime models had an extremely practical use. In boat and shipbuilding, they were used, mostly in the form of half-models, as a visualisation aid for designs. For the builder or designer and sometimes as a contractual basis for future owners. Hull halves were essential for assessing the feasibility or the lines. Touching, tracing with your fingers, viewing from every conceivable angle - the paper crack drawing in 2D prevented you from doing all that.

The focus was on the hulls, and usually only a few details were considered. It was all about the pure form. Nathanael Herreshoff was also an advocate and eager producer of miniature hulls. The US engineer known as the "Wizard of Bristol" is regarded as the greatest inventive genius of sailing and shipbuilding and experienced his most important creative phase at the end of the 19th century. The walls of museums and clubhouses such as those of the New York Yacht Club bear witness to this heyday.

Model Maker Group works with great attention to detail

The Model Maker Group works with far greater attention to detail and smaller scales. It is based in Itri, halfway between Rome and Naples and ten kilometres from the coast. Fittingly, the headquarters are located in Via degli Artigiani, the "street of craftsmen". A total area of 1900 square metres is spread over two locations not far from each other, where 33 people work in different production areas, just like in a shipyard.

Giuseppe Capobianco's bread and butter business is yachts between 50 and 70 metres, although the actual dimensions of the yachts and the scale of the models vary. Up to 18 metres are produced in 1:30, between 40 and 50 metres the scale is 1:50 so that the models do not become too "gigantic". At 70 to 100 metres, MMG scales down to 1:75 or 1:100. The prices then approach those for mid-range cars. The largest scale model of a yacht is a 4.40 metre long version of the 47 metre sailing catamaran "Artexplorer", which was created for the French pavilion at the Expo in Dubai.

As the 1:13 cat spent a total of six months in the show tank, the hulls were given antifouling coatings and everything had to be easy to dismantle, transport and assemble by the customer. "We created instructions for assembly and disassembly. For large orders, we help with handling, assembly or shipping," says Giuseppe Capobianco, pointing out the less obvious challenges of his large projects, some of which return to the MMG tables for refits or repairs. The largest order ever realised was based on the 300-metre cruiser "Ulyssia" and resulted in an approximately three-metre-long bonsai version of the Espen-Øino design for Meyer Werft.

The Norwegian Øino gave Capobianco its first order from the gigayacht world in the early 2000s: "An important event was the meeting with Espen Øino during the design of 'Octopus'. He called me to Antibes and asked me to build the model for 'Serene' (134 metres, Fincantieri). It was the heyday of the 100 metre plus yachts. We then moved to a new location and experienced our first major infrastructural developments."

Start with solid wood models and without plans

It all started in Capobianco's parents' house, where he began over 25 years ago with solid wood models for which he had no plans. He relied solely on his sense of observation. Capobianco recalls: "To become financially independent, I started building model ships at the age of 15, initially just for fun and then started selling them. I started with galleons, historical boats and similar things. It wasn't in a famous 'new economy' garage, but in the basement of our house."

One day, he met a yacht chandler who asked him to help him build a model. A lasting friendship was born. Through him, he was given the opportunity to build his first commercial model, a Technema 90, for Rizzardi Yachts, a shipyard very close to his home. The company moved from the basement at home to a garage of around 30 square metres, which housed a small CNC pantograph that Giuseppe Capobianco received as a graduation present from his grandmother. After his father had sent him to a master shipbuilder and a plasterer for a few years, he finally found success. Benetti's clientele expanded via the trade fair in Genoa, keeping his business busy to this day.

How the precise workpieces are created at the Model Maker Group

Today, hulls and superstructures are moulded from plastic blocks of different densities by five-axis CNC milling machines. The machines are fed with the same Rhino 3D data that is available to the shipyards, designers or engineers. This results in precise workpieces with anchor pockets, fairleads or window frames, which are sanded by hand and prepared for painting. The more details are taken into account, the more realistic the model appears and the more it deviates from the naive impression created by omitting or distorting the scale. Recently, the MMG milling machines have even produced parts for full-size yachts.

As-built models take pedantry to the extreme. They transfer the highest fidelity to scale to even the smallest items of equipment and require catalogues that list the details of all deck furniture, for example. The smallest cupboard, which was still a white object a few years ago, now has steel edges, a Calacatta marble top and wooden doors with a grain that resembles the original. When it comes to recreating entire fitness rooms in miniature, various 3D printers provide support. Then the fuselage flaps open by magic. "The most complicated models are those with electronics and moving parts," says MMG founder Giuseppe Capobianco, who is currently experimenting with NFC antennas. This makes it possible to control the lights in a certain room to switch on automatically when a door is opened at speed X, for example.

"Customers are often only made aware of complex solutions through our models, which in some cases encourage experimentation," says Capobianco happily. It can happen that the little ones anticipate the new developments of the big ones or trigger innovations.