Considering that the cork wedge is currently one of the hottest shoe silhouettes among fashion customers, it is fitting, in a manner of speaking, that the Ferragamo family now has a new ties to Sardinia, and this time it is Swans—Nautor Swan yachts.

Page 1 of 2 » Next

Salvatore Ferragamo formed the family’s first ties to the island of Sardinia off the west coast of Italy in the 1930s. The talented, visionary craftsman, who was born near Naples in 1899 and emigrated to the United States in 1914, had already achieved fame and recognition as the “Shoemaker to the Stars” in Hollywood when he returned to his native country and settled in Florence in 1927.

With World War II looming and amid a shortage in luxury materials, the innovative Salvatore took a block of Sardinian cork and created the now-famous cork-wedge sandal. Considering that the cork wedge is currently one of the hottest shoe silhouettes among fashion customers, it is fitting, in a manner of speaking, that the Ferragamo family now has a new ties to Sardinia, and this time it is Swans—Nautor Swan yachts.

Leonardo Ferragamo, Nautor Swan’s chairman, led the 114 competing Swan yachts around the Sardinian archipelago in the Rolex Swan Cup on September 11, 2006. Leonardo and his crew competed in the Swan 601 class in the Cuordileone (Lionheart), while younger brother Massimo and his crew sailed the Bellicosa (Goddess of War), a Swan 45 that inched past his brother to victory the 2005 World Champion Swan Cup in Key West.

This time, at the 2006 Rolex Cup, Leonardo has upgraded to his new 601 — competing in the Swan 601 Class means he won’t have to compete against his younger brother at this Cup.

As we left the posh Yacht Club Costa Smeralda aboard a graceful new Swan 801 to shadow the first race of 2006 Rolex Swan Cup, I stowed my camera and sat down next to a quiet, tanned, dignified-looking gentleman who appeared to have great patience with—and no interest in—the thrill-seekers sharing the cockpit with him. He is Heinz Rahm-Schmidt, the owner of the very first Swan, the Tarantella I. Heinz, as he prefers to be called, came to Sardinia to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Nautor Swan and watch his beloved Tarantella I compete in the Rolex Swan Cup—its 100th race.

He has been racing for 70 of his 86 years, and he sighs as he tells me that this is “the first time for me to stay on shore.” He agreed to tell me about his experiences with his beloved Swans as we watched the competition.

The Old Man and the Swans

The legend of Nautor Swan began not so long ago, in 1966, when Pekka Koskenkylä, a former paper-bag salesman from an area of Finland that had a 300-year history of boatbuilding, came up with the idea of mass-producing a line of fiberglass sailboats.

He approached his friend Heinz with schematic drawings of his Swan 36 and implored him to order one. When Heinz told Koskenkylä he was not searching for a new boat—especially one as small as this one, the entrepreneur simply re-pitched his proposal to another prospect—Heinz’s wife.

That evening Heinz found Koskenkylä pitching the idea to his family, and with their approval he agreed to buy the first Swan. “I took a great risk of course,” Heinz notes, “but when I learned it was being designed by Sparkman & Stephens from New York, the best at that time, I agreed to do it.”

Even though Heinz had ordered the first Swan, his boat was not the first of the now-legendary yachts to be delivered. In addition to production delays, Heinz’s boat was too large to fit down the road to the port, so the trees on one side of the street had to be cut down.

Afterward the trailer broke, and the local blacksmith and villagers pitched in to help repair it and transport the boat to the launch site. Dave Johnson, whose Swan 36 was delivered first, had a great deal of success racing in the British Isles, which launched Nautor Swan’s reputation as a manufacturer of high-performance racing yachts.

“The Tarantella I launched on July 14, 1967,” Heinz recalls. Koskenkylä and his men were on board for the maiden voyage to make sure everything worked as it should, and they made adjustments on the spot. “In spite of all the difficulties that appeared to be due to [Koskenkylä’s] lack of sailing experience, he managed to achieve a very high quality of build in a short time,”

Heinz wrote in Historien om Swanen Tarantella (History of the Swan Tarantella). “This was due to his capacity of spreading his enthusiasm to his team of skilled workers. The outstanding joinery skills were evident in the impeccable wooden interiors of the yachts.”

Finally, amid the various adjustments required for the firstborn of the brand, Koskenkylä suggested that Heinz sell his boat and buy a new 37—he did so and found the Tarantella II to be “a dream to race.”

Heinz has since purchased another Swan, the Tarantella III. But on August 1, 2006, Heinz, his son Leif, and grandson Henrik competed in the Nautor Swan’s Anniversary Regatta in Turku, aboard the refitted Tarantella I—and they won! “An old Swan can compete—and win—against all its younger competitors,” says Heinz proudly.

Celebrating 40 Years of Innovation

Leonardo Ferragamo purchased the Nautor Group with a handful of investors, including Massimo and their sister Fulvia, in 1998, and at the 40th anniversary “Swan Is Passion Party” Pekka Koskenkylä, Nautor Swan’s founder, acknowledged Leonardo’s visionary leadership in a sentimental speech.

“The history of Swan can be divided into three parts,” he noted. “The first five years there was plenty of vision but no money; the second five years there was plenty of money but no vision; and now . . . I really appreciate what Ferragamo has done.”

Page 1 of 2 » Next

Next article » Check Please

Previous article « IRS Incentives are Boosting Plane Sales