Yacht Design

On the occasion of the 20th birthday of the Specializing Master in Yacht Design, we interviewed 20 alumni of the first MYD editions who have distinguished themselves in the world yachting scene. Here is our interview with Marco Foti, student of the III edition of the Specializing Master and today Project & Sales Manager of the Yacht division of the Sanlorenzo shipyard with headquarters in Ameglia (SP) and Viareggio.

Discover his path!

1. Can you tell us “who you are”, what do you do today and what role within the company / reality where you work?

My name is Marco Foti, I’m Project & Sales Manager of the Yacht division of Sanlorenzo shipyard, based in Ameglia (SP) and Viareggio. I deal both with sales to direct customers and through dealers, with particular reference to the Middle East, Greece, Russia, Balkans and UK areas. My role as “technical sales” Project Manager also includes the management of customizations and technical configurations of our yachts (Sanlorenzo builds only full “custom” yachts) organizing meetings with customers, delivery and cost control of the order.

2. What was the role of training, and in particular of the Specializing Master in Yacht Design at the Politecnico di Milano, to get to where you are today?

I took part in the MYD of the Polytechnic of Milan in 2004, immediately after my five-year degree in Mechanical Engineering, at Politecnico di Milano, that I graduated in December 2003.
Being born and raised in Sicily, 50m from the sea in front of the wonderful Aeolian Islands, since I was a child boats have always been my passion, thanks also to my father, and I grew up with the desire to turn it into my dream job. The MYD has been for me the perfect link between the university environment and the world of work in this field, very challenging but equally rewarding and satisfying. All the notions I learned at MYD have been extremely useful since the very first day of my internship at the Sessa Marine shipyard in Bergamo, which I begun in the second half of 2004. From then on it has always been a crescendo of experiences, learning and, with great commitment and dedication, great personal gratification.

3. An important moment or a memory from your experience at the Specializing Master?

Concerning “important moments”, all the experiences in the classroom and in the shipyard with the various “top players” of the nautical world such as Vallicelli, Felci, Musio Sale, Bertorello, Ivana Porfiri, Wally Yacht remain indelible in my memory. The funniest anecdote: in that year the MYD class was composed of practically all “sailors”, while the only “motorists” were, in addition to myself, Francesca Darmian, Chiara Grugni and Eleonora Berneri. It was therefore extremely easy and immediate to form our working “team” nicknamed, to be precise, “the Engineers”, with whom we then carried out the MYD thesis project of a very sporty 60 knot boat…obviously with three engines!

4. The first word that comes to mind when thinking about the Specializing Master.

SPRINGBOARD.

5. What advice would you give to a young person who dreams of becoming a yacht designer / undertaking this training course?

I may be against the tide, but the first piece of advice I would give is “extracurricular”: try to get involved in the sea! Anyhow, even with a small dinghy of two and a half meters, or a gozzetto rowing or a small sailboat: the “life on board” is absolutely the best “theory” that you can have and that will always carry you when it is time to design any detail of a boat, whether technical or aesthetic. In addition to this, the great strength of MYD is that, unlike the classic university faculties (e.g. naval engineering) where the activity is decidedly unbalanced on the theory side, here we deal much more with the “practical” part, thanks to the direct B2B interaction with great professionals of the nautical sector that, in Italy, has no equal in the world.

On the occasion of the 20th birthday of the Specializing Master in Yacht Design, we interviewed 20 alumni of the first MYD editions who have distinguished themselves in the world yachting scene. Here is our interview with Marijana Radovic student of the III edition of the Specializing Master and today Co-founder / m2atelier.

1. Can you tell us “who you are”, what do you do today and with what role within the company / reality where you work?

It takes a life to answer that question. I can tell you for sure that Marijana Radovic is a designer, architect, mum, wife, daughter, sister and a friend to many of my dear friends. My first professional choices started in Serbia and my career enfolded in Milan after precious experience in many other locations Rome, Geneva, Athens, London. From my Master onwards I have been always involved in Yachts Design and more.
Thanks to diverse environments and significant experiences in the field, I mastered project management, which allowed me to oversee the projects at 360 degrees.
In 2006 I founded a design studio STANDBY, initially based in Belgrade and Athens; then soon after, in 2009, I moved back to Milan, which I identified as a perfect location to continue my yacht design journey and research in the field, along with the residential and other architectural projects.
Together with architect Marco Bonelli, I founded the international architecture studio m2atelier based in Milan, which has the essence in a multidisciplinary approach and continuous research of space potential, proportions, and materials, with an eye for details that distinguish our design.

2. What was the role of training, and in particular of the Master in Yacht Design of the Politecnico di Milano, to be where you are today?

It was fundamental. The architectural background was a good base; however, I entered the Yachting world during this master. I learned a lot since the course was quite intense, and at the same time, it opened the doors to important studios, and from there, the rest was on me.

3. An important moment or an anecdote from your experience at the Master.

I loved everything about the Master. I was also lucky to meet people who remained my friends. I remember very well that I was the first foreign student in the class, and that was when the Master was entirely in Italian. During the day, I studied and attended the classes, and my nights were dedicated to my 3 dictionaries that helped me follow the courses. I had to be 8 hours constantly focused on hearing and understanding the professors lecturing in Italian otherwise I risked of missing the whole lecture. After 3 days of studies, the professor asked me if I understood everything, and I answered, “yes” (which was maybe my mistake:). From then, no one ever asked me the same thing again assuming that I understood everything, so I had to move forward with intense learning of Italian language, along with Italian nautical language and the courses. That hard work paid off, and I am very satisfied today with what I had then accomplished in just one year.

4. The first word that comes to your mind when thinking about the Master.

Experience. Working on projects that were real challenges. My colleagues. And the way I lived my life during the studies. All felt and became my new family. We spent time together working a lot and also travelling a lot which was organized by Politecnico.

5. What suggestion would you give to a young person who dreams of becoming a yacht designer / undertaking this training course?
Master studies are the best way to gain knowledge and dive into the nautical world in a short intense period. I warmly recommend the Politecnico Master in Yacht Design to all people dreaming of becoming a yacht designer.

During my internship, I had the honor to work, with my tutor, on Riva projects for the feasibility of some interior spaces and for crew accommodation plan according to with Register rules. My principal tasks during this stage are the revision of general plans and modify interior layouts. I studied the synergy between the structures, systems and interior furniture, which certainly contributed to greatly enrich my cultural baggage, having the possibility to participate in meetings between the technical office and suppliers too. Having an Architecture background got during my five years at the Master degree, it wasn’t so easy to start in this field, but thanks to this Master I had the opportunity to come in touch with this company and get the basic know-how to undertake this journey. Special thanks to my tutor and some nice colleagues that taught me a lot about furniture components, structures, systems and all the design process necessary to reach the goal.

From the very first day, I was thrown into the production area with the task of monitoring the feasibility of the interior and exterior arrangement on board aiming to achieve the goals the CRN had established with the customers.
With my tutor, the industrial engineering specialist, I am actually working all day on board of every boat the shipyard is building. I can’t spoil you anything, but each of them is a real masterpiece!
MYD has provided me with the right technical and soft skills that have allowed me to understand the problems related to the project that we have on board, I also learned how to operate within this new context, how to share information within a team and I also developed the ability to deal with issues under the pressure of deadlines set.
Working in a shipyard like CRN has shown me and it has given me the right tools to build a full custom yacht. Here, I have the opportunity to improve my technical knowledge, my problem-solving skills and, by working on board, I had the possibility to cooperate with every supplier and to better understand how the interior space should be designed, considering both aesthetics and feasibility. During this fundamental period, I’m learning to solve smaller issues finding quickly an effective solution if something goes wrong during the construction.

I am part of the design team and am involved in several projects currently developed by the studio. Familiarization with programs like Maxsurf, Rhino, Autocad and focus on specific steps of the yacht design process are some of the skills I developed during the master which are helping me being effective in my daily work. Being a member of a small design studio gives me the opportunity to follow up with various steps and have a better overview of the whole design process, from concept design stage till finalizing the technical drawings for the shipyard.

During my internship experience, I have been working on the new Maori yacht 54ft Hardtop version inter or layout. While working on this project I was able to use the theoretical knowledge MYD gave me and to combining it with the Marketing needs of the work life.
Besides this, customization has also a really big role in this studio. So, new layout arrangements, additional details or material changes are done according to the customers need and taste. The opportunity to analyze the theoretical information and to apply them in the real work, the representation of different ideas and design and the visits in the shipyard to supervise the production process, helped me a lot during the internship to follow and understand how a shipyard workflow is organized.