Pedrazzini boats are characterised by a razor-sharp hull and a classic, hand-crafted aesthetic
PEDRAZZINI
A LEGACY AT SEA
A mid-century classic on the shores of Lake Zurich
It all started with grandfather Augusto’s skill with wood — and little has changed over the past century, says Claudio
Pedrazzini, the third generation of the Pedrazzini family to make exclusive wooden boats on the shores of Lake Zurich. The
Swiss boat-maker employs 16 people to coax and cajole mighty wooden beams to form the contours of only six to eight boat
hulls a year. A single boat takes over half a year to complete and the connoisseurs who buy them are often willing to wait a
year or two before their vessel is ready. The company could build more, but wants its vessels to be seen as “rare ambassadors”
of a classic style.
Augusto Pedrazzini left northern Italy in 1906, a young boat maker in search of work in neighbouring Switzerland.
Augusto’s skill with wood, which he had learned as a young apprentice building boats on Lake Como, soon landed him a
job at one of the local small shipyards on Lake Zurich. There he worked for several years, crafting rowboats and fishing
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CONTACT
www.pedrazziniboat.com
C. Pedrazzini
Yacht- und Bootswerft
Seestrasse 59-61
CH-8806 Bäch
Switzerland
[email protected]
Pedrazzini boats are made of mahogany, which has just the right firmness and texture
boats for local customers and saving for his dream — to one
day build his own. In 1914, he opened a store in Wollishofen
with a branch in Lucerne. By the 1920s, the Pedrazzini name
had become synonymous with high-quality craftsmanship,
and Augusto was running two boatyards. The small suburb
of Baech on Lake Zurich is the site where, now in its third
generation, the Pedrazzini family carries on the tradition
Augusto inspired a century ago at C. Pedrazzini, Yacht und
Bootswerft.
What started as rowboats and fishing boats soon gave way
to the motorized age. In 1928, Augusto won the first Zurich
Outboard Regatta, soon after Pedrazzini had begun producing
what would one day become the mainstay of the business. The
memory of that victory must surely have thrilled Augusto’s son,
Ferruccio who, as a student, built a touring boat that became a
major sensation at the 1939 Swiss National Fair.
But before Ferruccio’s ideas could inspire the boats
Pedrazzini is known for today, World War Two threatened
to shut down the boatyard. During that time, the company
mainly built rowboats and sailboats. “My grandfather had to
reduce his staff to one employee and close one of the yards,”
recalls the 51-year-old Claudio. “But after the war, things really
picked up. They produced a variety of boats, but then they
really started to specialise.”
To revive the business in the 1950s, Augusto took it in
new directions, including building racing shells which he
sold as far away as Russia, and small passenger ships. One
30-passenger vessel still shuttles visitors along the shores of
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Lake Lucerne today. At the same time, Ferruccio set about
designing a boat that would appeal to the traditional taste of
an exclusive clientele, but also bring a youthful wind to the
company. He introduced the Capri Deluxe, a classic runabout
with an inboard motor, which became the basis for their current
line. His three-seater, outboard Super-Leggera, with its sporty,
nimble look, was also very popular in the 1950s and ’60s.
Today’s 7.5-metre-long Capri, with a sundeck and seating
for up to five people, is imbued with a nostalgia for midcentury modernism. Since the 1950s, Pedrazzini has produced
more than 1,500 runabouts, and narrowed its design to three
basic models — the Capri, a classic; the Vivale, sleek and fast;
and the Special, which even has a two-person berth. “We like
to think of the Porsche 911,” says Ferruccio’s son, Claudio.
“You can always recognise the basic form, even if small things
change, like size or length.” The customer can decide on
certain details, such as special electronics or leather upholstery,
as in a car.
Although the company no longer builds bespoke boats,
Claudio remains involved at every level — down to choosing
the mahogany wood from which a boat is made. “First we buy
the tree. We have it cut to order in a special way and lay it on
its side to dry. Mahogany is the most beautiful wood. It has
almost no knots; it is not too hard, not too soft, and is robust
in the water. Then we cut out all the pieces for constructing
the boat,” he says. The boats are highly varnished. To achieve
their glossy exterior and protect them against sun, salt and
water, they are painted with 20 coats of clear lacquer.
Beneath this marriage of Italian design and Swiss quality
is a high-performance motorboat. Its razor-sharp hull carves
easily even through choppy water, lifting the boat just off
the surface for an effortless hydroplaning experience. This is
the real secret beneath the beauty — not only are the boats
elegant, they also produce an exhilarating ride. “The boat is
kind of a sport activity people undertake in their free time, not
just something for motoring leisurely around the lake,” says
Claudio. A V-8 engine is at the heart of that sensation. The
Capri reaches speeds of 36kn, the Vivale 40kn and the Special
40kn. While most customers are men, Claudio says there are
plenty of female enthusiasts, too.
Pedrazzini’s recipe for success is not a closely guarded
secret — passed on through generations, the company yearly
shares its know-how with several apprentices who learn the
art of hand-crafting boat hulls from woods. Those skills have
a broader application than just ships, as the apprentices
often go on to build small planes, racing cars and other
products that require precision and skill. Claudio’s own son
has also just completed an apprenticeship at the boatyard,
putting the family’s boating legacy on course for a fourth
generation.
Pedrazzini today is a third-generation family-run company that sticks
to a tradition of hand-crafting and of producing a limited number
of boats in a year. At the same time, it progresses with the times by
incorporating new technology and accessories into its wooden boats
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