- ISA Yachts

Tender Ashore in sTyle ❖ BeneTTi’s ClAssiC supreme 132 ❖ summer ChArTer in The med
The
Largest
Yachts
launched in the past year
On Board
Oceanco’s
Transcendent
Nirvana
New Owners
Give New Life
to a Sailing
Superyacht
YACHTS INTERNATIONAL | 3
ISA
Comes
to
Amerıca
E
Two old friends join to establish a beachhead
on US shores for the Italian builder.
Story
Jill Bobrow
PhotoS
Paolo Zitti
Ed SackS, a trim, diStinguiShEd gEntlEman of
a certain age with a tidy white beard and a twinkle in his eyes that
transcends his laugh lines, is a raconteur with a host of good stories
to tell. italian yachtbuilder marcello maggi, with expressive eyebrows and an untamed mane of more pepper than salt, is a lanky,
debonair italian who speaks enthusiastically and gesticulates when
making a point. The pair seems like a trans-atlantic version of the
“odd couple.” in fact, they are longtime friends who have shared
some significant personal and professional history. Their paths have
converged again; Sacks is helping maggi create a u.S. presence for
international Shipyards ancona (iSa)—a move the pair hopes will
make it easier for the italian builder to better service its existing
american clients and prospect for new ones.
Sacks is the consummate american businessman and yachtsman.
he is a renaissance man who has had an active career ranging from
finance and hedge funds to a multinational fortune 500 company that
produced fibers, resins and plastics. he has an equally lively home life.
in his family mix he counts 13 sons and daughters and 21 grandchildren. Sacks’ first venture into yachting was when he bought Wayne
huizenga’s Sun Dream as a starter boat to cruise in the Bahamas, while
simultaneously building a new 157-foot (47.8-meter) yacht at the
crn shipyard in ancona, italy. The yacht, Azzurra, was designed by
the late gerhard gilgenast with a classic interior by Paola Smith. at
4 | AUGUST
94
| August2013
2013
the time of the build, Sacks sent three of his sons to ancona to work in
the shipyard for the summer, and he made numerous trips there until
the yacht was launched in 1988. his boys were residing in the nearby
village of numana with his project manager, michael Philpot, at a villa
that happened to have a small basketball court.
a young marcello maggi, who hailed from the village and worked
at crn, would come over to shoot hoops with Sacks’ sons, and
thus the family friendship began.
in the yachting world, Sacks is most celebrated for having started
The Sacks group in 1985. for historical perspective, Sacks launches
into a story of an encounter he had with a friend, the late charles
Ed Sacks (left) and Marcello Maggi are banking on their longstanding personal and professional relationship to open American eyes to ISA’s Italian style.
Evans—a movie producer and founder of Evan-Picone—who,
along with Huey Long, owned the famous maxi racing sailboat
Ondine VIII. Evans was walking down the docks at the Hall of Fame
Marina in Fort Lauderdale and saw Sacks’ boat parked next to his.
Sacks’ yacht was clean, the crew was all wearing the same uniforms
and everything was ship shape, whereas on his boat, the crew was
wearing T-shirts, the lines were all helter-skelter and the yacht was
in general disarray. He quipped to Sacks about the discrepancy in
their yachts’ appearances.
“I told Evans, ‘I’ll send my guys over to help you get your boat
in order,’” Sacks says.
Sacks claims that moment was one of the early formalizations of
professional yacht management. The Sacks Group not only dealt
with yacht management, but also crew and charter management.
“Almost everyone who stumbled upon SE 17th Street from the
mid-eighties to the mid-nineties was eventually employed at TSG,”
he says. “Bob Saxon, Terry Hines, Richard and Carole Manto, John
Ciullo, Jennifer Saia, David Darwent, Bertrand Petton, Jim Sacks
and others.”
At its peak, TSG employed more than 20 people. Among other
innovations, Sacks says, “We employed three young ladies whose
sole function was to read The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Fortune
Yachts
YACHTSInternatIonal
INTERNATIONAL| 95
|5
and forward information extolling the virtues of chartering to both
the CEOs and COOs of the Fortune 500 companies.”
In 1991, Sacks sold Azzurra and moved on to other pursuits.
He purchased Julie Andrews’ house in Malibu, California, and as
commuting to Fort Lauderdale became untenable, he sold each
section of TSG to the division heads for $1 each. He eventually
departed California, selling his house to Mohamed al Fayed, owner
of Harrods in London, and, after a stint in the Hamptons, moved
back east to Jupiter, Florida.
“My yachting career took a back seat to other interests—family,
charities, foundations, etc.,” Sacks says.
Maggi studied economics in college, but always had a passion
for yachts. He grew up boating with his father, and jumped at the
chance to moonlight at CRN cleaning boats. He has a clear memory of looking up at a hulking big hull in the yacht yard shed and
marveling at it. The boat was Azzurra.
Maggi worked his way from boat cleaner to the head of the refit
department at CRN. In 2001, at
35, he and his colleagues, Gianluca
‘We are among
Fenucci, Antonio Longobardi,
the youngest
Daniele Sochi, along with an
shipyards,
investor, established International
Shipyards Ancona. Then in 2006,
but we are
ISA became a Yachting Investors
competing
Group company, a London-based
fund set up to invest in the superamong the
yacht sector.
most honorable
“We were growing pretty fast and
the business needed some induslegacy builders.’
trial planning. We needed some
guidance on making the business operate at a higher level, while
preserving the skills of the artisans we have here,” Maggi says.
Maggi reminisces about how, when he first started ISA, he had to
go to lengths to convince new workers and employees to join them
at their new shipyard.
“I would talk to various foremen and got them to agree, but then
I had to go home with them for dinner and convince their wives,”
he says.
Clearly ISA is a family affair. Maggi says what sets ISA apart is
that it is one of the few shipyards where the founders are actively
working at the yard on a day-to-day basis. From modest beginnings
to the sophisticated powerhouse it is now, ISA and Maggi remain
very humble. Maggi recalls an early meeting with one of his first
clients, the sheikh of Bahrain. Maggi and Gianluca Fenucci were
sitting in their office with the sheikh’s representative, an emir, and
designer Terence Disdale. They politely asked if anyone would like
a coffee. The emir requested not a coffee, but a cappuccino. In those
days, the now ubiquitous automatic Italian espresso machine did
not exist at ISA. Fenucci jumped up and said he would bring one
right away. He ran down the stairs, jumped on his scooter dressed
in his coat and tie, and dashed to a café to get some steamed milk.
2
96| AUGUST
| August2013
2013
He was on his way back with his thermos in his hand when a truck
nearly ran him over. He braked hard, hit a curb, fell off the scooter,
tore his jacket, but did not drop the thermos. He ran back to the
office, a bit disheveled, and delivered the cappuccino. Maggi laughs
and says the scene could have been in a Blues Brothers film.
ISA now can serve cappuccinos, lattes, macchiatos—you name it.
Also, in its relatively short 12-year history, ISA has delivered 28
yachts and currently has four under construction. Three of the four
are from repeat clients. The yard builds yachts both in fiberglass
and steel in the 98- to 230-foot (30- to 70-meter) range, but is
developing new lines and has an eye toward expansion to have the
capability to build yachts even up to 328 feet (100 meters).
“We are among the youngest shipyards,” he says, “but we are competing among the most honorable legacy builders.”
Sacks pipes in: “When I went to the yard last month, I was
incredibly impressed with the technological innovations, efficiency,
emphasis on safety and significant advances in the construction
process. ISA has, in its brief history, become a world-class shipyard.”
Under the new arrangement, Sacks, who carries the title of
President, North American Operations, will increase ISA’s visibility
in the United States by working with the brokerage community and
facilitating ease of communication with the ISA shipyard.
“I am not a broker,” he notes emphatically. “My objective is not to
sell boats, but to assist the established brokers with their efforts in
selling ISA construction.”
The new ISA Fort Lauderdale office is in Portside Center on the
17th Street Causeway, in the company of a veritable who’s-who in
yachting. Perhaps someone should install a basketball court in the
parking lot. You never know who is going to show up and what
may come of it. ■
For more information: (954) 616-8252; isayachts.com