VIAREGGIO. Mourning in the nautical world: he passed away at the age of 96, Piero Picchiotti, one of the great protagonists of Tuscan and national shipbuilding. Already the owner of the Arno shipyard in Pisa which also marketed the Leopard brand (a brand which then passed to Seven Stars), Piero Picchiotti was the heir to a long and glorious dynasty of shipbuilders, which began as far back as 1600, in the Limite shipyards on the Arno, a few kilometers from Empoli, before expanding to Viareggio and Pisa, becoming synonymous with great pleasure boating.
The origins
The first testimonies regarding the Picchiotti family date back to that era: it was then that some Spaniards found accommodation in Limite sull’Arno and there, on the left bank of the river, they began to build boats. Legend has it that their constant banging on wood gave rise to their nickname, which, as often happens in Tuscany, soon turned into a real surname. In 1935 the “Giuseppe Picchiotti & Figli” shipyard was transformed into the “Cantieri Navale Arno” by Raffaello, Alessandro, Lorenzo and Nello Picchiotti. In Limite sull’Arno, the Arno Shipyard and the Picchiotti Shipyard, associated not far from each other, collaborated to deal with numerous orders from Italian ministries and foreign governments. Throughout the war period, the famous MAS BP came out of the Picchiotti factories, in addition to boats for the Royal Navy. However, at the end of the war, Limite sull’Arno was reduced to a mass of ruins: during their retreat, the Germans set fire to the construction site and the factories were completely destroyed. The Picchiotti family did not lose heart and, armed with their usual determination, faced the reconstruction. Following the technology used to build three minesweepers, commissioned by the American government, in the 1960s he began pleasure boating, into which the experience of the shipwrights and carpenters who had collaborated with the shipyard during its life was poured. growth.
The beginning of a new era
From the first wooden Leopard, born in 1973, a long list of boats followed, until, on 2 August 1984, the first fiberglass Leopard was launched. Piero Picchiotti was one of the main protagonists of that long season. Having begun his profession in Limite, Piero followed his uncle Nicodemo to the Viareggio shipyard, where he experienced the transformation of naval construction from mercantile purposes to excavations exclusively for pleasure. Thanks to this epochal new production, Piero Picchiotti had the opportunity to approach a very famous clientele, boats for Gianni Agnelli and Alberto di Liegi, from Riva to Moratti to Innocenti, to the point of becoming a highly respected consultant for many shipowners from all over the world. Together with his cousin Filippo, who died in 2012, he took care of the management of the shipyards which, particularly between the fifties and seventies, experienced the period of maximum splendor with the production of highly successful yachts. Like the Giglio and the Giannutri, two of the most popular models on the market. Then, with the nautical sector unable to emerge from the crisis, the Picchiotti shipyards were forced to close. And the brand was subsequently taken over by the Perini group, the Lucca giant which in the meantime had appeared on the Darsena ports. Piero Picchiotti lived in the Migliarina neighborhood in Viareggio. Leave your children Paul And Anna Mariaas well as grandchildren.
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