Designer portrait: Enrico Gobbi is a jack-of-all-trades in the yacht industry
We meet Enrico Gobbi in his studio in Mestre, very close to Venice. "Team for Design - Enrico Gobbi" is written on the doorbell of the creative address with its industrial charm. It's a hot and humid day, but the atmosphere in the office, which is located in part of a renovated former coal shed, is cool, calm and relaxed. Just as the temperature inside contrasts with the temperature outside, the modern, all-white interior contrasts with the harsh industrial history of the building and its harsh harbour work environment. The office has a nautical feel to it: the long, narrow building is located directly on the canal and resembles the hull of a ship. The working areas of the designers and project managers are located on the "lower deck", while the captain, Gobbi himself, works in a closed office on the "upper deck". Everything is spotlessly clean and in immaculate condition.
This also applies to Enrico Gobbi. The son of a tailor and stylist, he is fit and slim and appears completely unaffected by the oppressive heat outside. He is dressed in a collarless white shirt and khaki-coloured trousers that are rolled up at the ankle just enough to show off his finely crafted Italian leather shoes. He leads us into the conference room, a bright loft opposite his office, where shelves are lined with fabric and marble samples to help owners decide on the interior of their yacht. As we settle down, Enrico Gobbi tells us that the studio will soon double in size by expanding into a room next door.
As the yachts we design are getting bigger and bigger, larger and larger groups of decision-makers are coming to us. A conference room with six seats is simply no longer enough."
Learned to appreciate beautiful things
"I believe that two things have shaped my aesthetic vision," Gobbi begins his story. "Firstly, the fact that I grew up in Venice. I could open the windows and was surrounded by beauty. This city is very special! Secondly, my parents taught me to appreciate beautiful things, not necessarily luxurious things, but things that are beautiful. In addition, I come from a family with many extremely creative people. Although my father is almost eighty years old, he still works as a tailor and stylist, mainly for the Moncler brand. I am an only child and he would have liked me to follow in his footsteps. But I always wanted to be an architect and my parents have fully supported me."
Whilst studying architecture at the University of Venice, Gobbi became interested in boats. "Boats had always been a subject for me, but I had never seriously studied them before," he recalls. "I started to teach myself and read everything I could find in Italian trade journals on the subject of yacht design. I wrote my thesis on the conversion of a Costa Crociere cruise ship into a yacht. Frustrated by the lack of specialised design schools in Italy, Gobbi moved to California to continue his studies and completed a course in yacht design.
Enrico Gobbi found his first mentor in Venice
At this point, he already had a degree in architecture, supplemented by a course in yacht design, but the Italian designer is certain that his true education began with his first job. "After I came from the States, I went straight to Nuvolari-Lenard in Venice and said: 'I want to work here, just let me come to the office, you don't even have to pay me'," Enrico Gobbi recalls with a laugh. He found his first mentor in Carlo Nuvolari.
I owe him a lot because he taught me everything - including how to deal with customers."
In just two years, Gobbi worked his way up from dedicated apprentice to office manager and three years later he felt the time had come to start his own business: "It was a big risk because I didn't have a single customer, but through a friend I first booked a mini stand at the Dubai Boat Show, where I exhibited a 40-metre concept." It was there that Gobbi made another important connection, this time with Peter Zuber, the Austrian owner of Dreamline and Dominator Yachts.
"Peter is something of a talent scout in the yachting world. He has a large network and he knows the industry as well as many owners and potential customers. Peter recommended me wherever he could," says Enrico Gobbi about the man he also calls a father figure. "He really helped me a lot and openly shared his network. Peter also put me in touch with the customer for the 40-metre project."
Larger projects: Yachts that look like a sports car
This project was the starting signal for "Team for Design - Enrico Gobbi" and since then Gobbi has not been looking in the rear-view mirror. Dominator, Dreamline and ISA Yachts were and are important clients of the studio, but perhaps the closest working relationship is with Rossinavi. One of the most significant collaborations between Gobbi and the shipyard from Viareggio was the 63-metre "Utopia IV". "The owner said: 'I want a yacht that looks like a 63-metre-long car that I can dock at the jetty in front of my house and spontaneously take to the Bahamas. Would you be prepared to design such a boat for me?", recalls Gobbi. "I replied that a yacht in coupé format was every designer's dream."
"In my mind, I often imagine yachts that resemble sports cars. Yachts that look like larger Mercedes SLs, Aston Martins or even Jaguar E-Types with their long bonnets and continuous, clear window lines. "Utopia IV" was the start of a new look for larger but sporty yachts with long, slim foredecks reminiscent of the bonnets of classic sports cars. Today, our customers are asking us for ever larger projects that continue to be inspired by automotive design," says Gobbi.
Rossinavi shipyard is one of the most important partners
Enrico Gobbi and Rossinavi worked together on a total of fifteen yachts, sometimes on the interior and exterior design, such as the 70-metre "Polestar" (ex-"Polaris", issue 2/22), the 49-metre "EIV", the 48.50-metre "Prince Shark" or the 65-metre "Resiliance" (issue 1/23). Sometimes Gobbi and his creative team only designed the exterior, as with the 49-metre "Flying Dagger", and sometimes only the interior, as with the 50-metre "Piacere". It is not surprising that Enrico Gobbi and Rossinavi COO Federico Rossi have developed a close relationship over the years. "Federico and I sometimes have intense discussions about details, but we understand each other and he supports and promotes our work in every way. Our exterior style is fixed and defined, but we are more flexible with the interiors, where we can adapt to the client's style," says Gobbi.
It is not surprising that Federico Rossi and Enrico Gobbi work closely together, but it is extremely interesting to hear that their working relationship goes beyond the yachting business and also encompasses more artistic aspects. In the lobby of the "Team for Design - Enrico Gobbi" studio, some of the marble and glass sculptures that have emerged from the creative partnership between Gobbi and Rossi are on display: "Federico is my equal partner in the art projects; I do the creative part and he encourages me and liaises with the yacht owners. The Carrara marble pieces are moulded in Verona, while for the glass art I work with one of the last real master glassblowers in Murano. I can only come to his studio about once a month, but it's my passion and I enjoy working beyond the limits of the demanding material."
A studio for unique designs
Although production models such as the GT line that Gobbi designed for ISA Yachts have been very successful, he says that his studio is moving away from this type of yacht building. "What I don't like about production models is that they are all very similar, if not the same. It's good for business and I make money from the licence fees, but I don't find the projects very satisfying. I want to design yachts that are unique. Like an architect who builds unique villas for his clients, not two houses that are the same. We are an atelier," says Gobbi, referring to the fact that he is both an architect and the son of a stylist. "Our owners are happy because they know that we only realise a few really important projects."
At the last Monaco Yacht Show, a number of new projects were announced by "Team for Design - Enrico Gobbi": a 68-metre yacht for Tankoa, a 50-metre project for Rossinavi, a 78-metre yacht under construction at Turquoise and an 80-metre yacht that ISA Yachts is currently building on a speculative basis. Two further projects are also in the negotiation stage with shipyards.
A sailing yacht is still missing from Enrico Gobbi's creative collection
You would think that Enrico Gobbi is creatively busy with yachts and art. Far from it, the likeable designer has a third mainstay: "I have a second company, Enrico Gobbi Architetto. Here I concentrate on architectural projects, mostly houses and villas for clients for whom I have already designed a yacht," he reveals and continues: "My most important project in this sector was for the client of 'Polaris'. He fell in love with a plot of land on the Tuscan coast and built a property for his family and guests. That was a three-year commission for me and ten other architects I work with. Another important project we are currently working on is a villa on Lake Bled in Slovenia with a 20 metre long underground pool covered in Sicis mosaic."
Despite all his creativity, is there anything Gobbi has not yet tried? "I would like to design a sailing yacht," he says. And catamarans? "I have to admit that I'm not really attracted to catamarans. A lot of my inspiration comes from automotive design, and a catamaran with its two hulls and empty space in the centre is too far from an elegant line. I don't think I could design a cat that looks good."
For Enrico Gobbi, designing beautiful things is a vital force that takes him far beyond the design of yachts: "As an architect, I learnt that a sense of proportion is behind everything. Proportions and lines with tension that create dynamism - whether I'm working on yachts, houses or sculptures." The restless search for beauty has always served Enrico Gobbi well.
