IT GROWS ON YOU
Naval engineer Valerio Rivellini is the rare yacht designer who has seen his singular concept become reality. Most dream boats never move beyond the drawing board, because they’re too wild or impractical to go into production. But Rivellini and his namesake business, Studio Tecnico Rivellini, are based in Italy (Naples, specifically), where extreme designs are embraced as often as they’re dismissed. He’s also a friend of Rosario Mercuri, a co-owner of Sea Engineering Group, which builds boats under the Blue Ice and Blu Martin brands. “I was on a sailboat two summers ago and was talking to Rosario about how nice it would be to double the space on the boat,” recalls Rivellini. “That was the starting point. We decided to create a completely innovative boat at the cutting edge of design and technology.”
The boat that he designed and Sea Engineering Group built is Evo 43. It features an expandable cockpit which increases the deck space by 40 per cent to 25sqm. “We decided to put the expanding deck sections at the rear of the boat, rather than in the centre,” says Rivellini. “After all, that’s where all the fun happens.” The deck does more than just expand. At the stern, a section can be raised to provide a stairway to a high dock or dropped into the water to serve as a swim platform with steps leading up to the deck.
“I grew up watching Star Wars and Batman,” says Rivellini. “I love stealth jets and Lamborghini cars. I heard the Evo 43 called ‘Darth Vader’s boat’ many times, so I imagine all those things inspired me on some level.” Evo 43 has a base price of about US$600,000 (S$842,000).
