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A Fresh Wave - Spinta Studio

WORDS: PAUL JOSEPH | IMAGES: SPINTA STUDIO

In an industry still dominated by a small handful of big names, Spinta Studio are promising a fresh wave of ideas. Led by naval architect Vittorio Papa, the yacht design company is driven by a philosophy that balances function and aesthetic.

Anyone with a love for sailing can usually trace their passion back to a particular moment in time. For Vittorio Papa, it was the early throes of childhood, and what would become a life-defining gift from his grandfather. “I wasn’t even five when he gave me an Optimist sailing dinghy,” Papa recalls. “I was born into a family of seafarers, and spent my childhood summers sailing around Ischia, in the Bay of Naples.”

By the time he had finished his studies, Papa was a professional sailor and racer, and his focus had already begun to sharpen. He completed maritime courses in Naples and at the University of Southampton – the latter considered the world’s best school for yacht design - and set his sights on high performance sailing boats.

In early 2013, just months after finishing his course in Southampton, Papa got his big break by landing a role at Hoek Design in Holland. Here, he was put in charge of performance analysis based on ‘computational fluid dynamics and velocity prediction programmes’.

Over the next four years, Papa worked on a number of ground-breaking projects, among them the WallyNano MKII (2016), 152ft ketch Elfje, 128ft Atalante, 50m ketch Meraki, and J-Class yachts Topaz and Svea. He also became the designated Naval Architect for J-Class Svea (2019) which continues to compete and race, while receiving widespread acclaim for its fusion of 1930s design and cutting-edge technology. It was then agreed that Papa would head to Mallorca – the hub of the Mediterranean Superyacht scene – while continuing to work for Hoek. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

During his spell working remotely for Hoek, Papa would become more hands-on than ever. Collaborations with the likes of Italian carbon boat builder Mylius Yachts led to successful launches, including the ground-breaking Mylius 60 Canting Keel, Cippa Lippa X, while he continued to be closely involved with J-Class yachts.

With opportunities landing on his desk, the idea of going it alone began to crystallise. In 2019, he made the jump and Spinta Studio was born. After bringing on board a couple of talented recruits – Gianandrea Fiorillo and Lucio De Rubertis – Papa and his new team set about the biggest challenge of his career so far.

Those early months of Spinta required Papa, now 36, to call upon all the resilience he’d learned over the years – from moving overseas to study and work as a young man to the hard knocks of competitive racing. His philosophy has been shaped by years of being around yachts: racing them, working on them, and simply observing them. He has come to believe that human-centred design is the only truly authentic approach, and is determined to make this the cornerstone of Spinta.

“I’m fascinated by the theory and the science involved in making a boat faster,” he says. Vittorio has his own racing experience to fall back on, holding a Silver Medal of Honor from Italian Sailing for his racing career in 420 and 470 Classes.

“While sailing, I observe all the design aspects and the relationship between features and performance. I gradually developed an intuition for how shifting design parameters affects performance.”

A handful of early design explorations commissioned by experienced owners brought him into contact with Baltic Yachts and Southern Wind Shipyard. The positive feedback from builders and suppliers came as an endorsement to Papa’s vision on yacht design.

“I was always sure we could offer a valid alternative to the long established design houses,” he says. The typical profile of a Superyacht owner is moving to people who may have never even owned a boat before. They’re younger, fresh-minded, and have often made their money in the last ten years.”

According to Papa, whereas previously clients would come to a designer with preconceived ideas, nowadays they’re more likely to approach you with a blank canvas. He believes this demographic shift is driving innovation for the next generation of designs.

The imperative to discard conventional ideas is never more relevant than when talking about the environment – a subject Papa thinks about deeply. “The environment is our playground,” he says. “Without an attractive bay to anchor or a stretch of sea to cross, our job will cease to exist. So, like every field that relies on mother nature, we need to work out how to preserve it.”

“Whether ultimately it’s diesel electric engines, recyclable battery cells, wind technology, or anything else that ends up being our great saviour, one thing’s for sure – we’re going to need to accept serious compromise if we want to make a relevant impact.”

For their part, Spinta Studio is in the process of studying a 100% recyclable, human-treated wood as a potential sustainable construction material for boats, especially the high performance ones. In terms of propulsion, he’s exploring a recent technology that allows the safe storage and transformation of hydrogen onboard to produce green electric energy using hydrogen fuel cells.

So with big ideas bubbling away, prospective clients and age on his side, is there a chance Spinta could end up being a huge name in the industry in 20 or 30 years?

“If we make it work it’ll be a lot sooner than 20 years, and if we don’t, we’ll realise soon enough,” he responds with sureness. “There are a lot of excellent designers around who’ve been doing this for a long time, and it won’t be easy to raise the bar. Right now though, it’s just a huge and exciting challenge, and we’re going to give it our best shot.”

Papa and Spinta Studio are just one of many young, talented designers offering a new look into design - a positive and exciting addition to our continually evolving industry.