Welcome to the special “20th Anniversary” section of Top Yacht Design. Here we present to you, day by day, the best stories, yachts, characters we have covered in these 20 years of Top Yacht Design, from 2006 to the present day.
Taken from Top Yacht Design no. 23/2020 pp. 52-59.
Alejandro Bottino: performance, functionality and aesthetics
Lightness for performance and functionality combined with confident aesthetic choices. That’s the philosophy of this young Argentinean designer.
«AIways keep yield in your mind». The words of Argentinean designer Alejandro Bottino who can safely say he grew up around boats. «My father owned a yard in Bue-nos Aires. It was called the Aries Shipyard. It built cruising and racing craft. That’s where my passion was sparked». Once he had finished primary school, Alejandro Bottino went to technical naval boarding school and then on to read naval engineering at university in the Argentinean capital. Despite being just 45 years old, he has been lecturing in architecture for the last 19 years. «It is the best part of the design process. Because you are dealing with stability, with waterlines. So that is the springboard for designing a boat». Bottino is adamant that starting point must not be based solely on the latest design software, however. «You have to look, compare, study what is out there on the water. You can never just blindly trust what comes off the computer. You always have to have a second, personal vision. Of everything». Bottino was fortunate enough to enjoy a very up-close experience of the work of the big designers whose boats were built in the family yard. «Even German Frers designed boats built by the Aries Shipyard». Bottino’s debut came before he’d even turned 20 and was a 20′ sailing school boat.
The first in a series of designs that he did for the family yard with which he collaborated until 2000 when he began working with the internationally renowned Soto Acebal Naval Architects owned by Xavier Soto Acebal. «That was 15 years of working on very interesting, very diverse designs,» he smiles. Many were Solaris models, including the Solaris 44, the Solaris 37, and, of course, the Solaris 72. But also in there were racers of the likes of the IRC52 Lola and Wallys of the likes of the 100′ Alexia and the Wally 130. «All boats into which huge technical research was poured. Including a 172′ schooner we built in Uruguay». But finally the day came when Bottino decided to strike out on his own. The result is «a.bottino design+engineering» which is underpinned by a philosophy that is very simple to put into words but far more complex to put into action. A philosophy Alejandro Bottino sums up thus: «The more technologically advanced a boat is, the more you use the right materials for each specific function, the lighter the boat will be. So you can use that lightness to develop and create space for other elements». Bottino applies that rule of thumb in all of his work including with his collaborations Maxi Dolphin which he encountered through a friend. «At that very first meeting with the yard and its CEO Luca Botter, we realised that while I was developing a design, they were thinking of a similar boat. So the idea fit in perfectly with the Maxi Dolphin philosophy».
The result of that encounter is, of course, the Maxi Dolphin MD6zab (the ab standing for Alejandro Bottino, ed.’s note). «It’s very simple boat from the point of view of its equipment and plant, and doesn’t need a large crew. Most importantly, it is light. It also has something else I think is fundamental for any boat: the right ratio between exterior aesthetic and interior volumes. It is difficult for a boat with large living volumes to retain a sense of exterior aesthetic coherency. But that’s what I strive for in all my designs». Built entirely from sandwich lay-up carbon-epoxy fibre, vacuum-laminated with a Corecell core and post-cured at 6o° C in the yard’s 4om oven, the Maxi Dolphin MD62ab splashed in mid-September 2020 and will undergo a series of sea trials before being delivered to her owner who, as Bottino puts it, is the final judge.
«At the end of the day, the designer’s job is to meet the requirements of the person to whom the boat will belongwhich isn’t you. How successful a boat is, is all about how satisfied the owner is. Of course, sometimes, you have the problem of keeping in check requests so unusual that they will forever link a boat to a single owner. But that is a market issue. The important thing is to always listen to the owner. Including right now when everything is more difficult. But I am confident. I think people who were planning to get a boat, either new or pre-owned, will do so as soon as they can. Everyone wants to get moving, get out there. And people feel safe on a boat. I think this will prove a very positive time for the sector». Alejandro Bottino’s pre-Covid portfolio by the way included a 42 cruising cat with a very high tech feature. «I thought about a daysailer catamaran. Very simple but with a C foils that could generate 1,200 kg of lift at just to knots».
That said, those foils can’t really be compared with the foils of an IMOCA, for example, by which Bottino is fascinated. «It’s a class I find very interesting – all the top designers are working in it. Pushing research to the limits is very stimulating. Particularly regarding foils». Currently on Alejandro Bottino’s drawing board is a whole series of designs, ranging from an 80° more high performance take on the general concept of the Maxi Dolphin MD62ab to a 100° aluminium yacht, a gm daysailer and a 23m motoryacht. «Yield- that means performance, functionality and aesthetics,» concludes Alejandro Bottino. «If you manage to combine those four elements, you have a good chance that the result will be a successful boat».
by Emilio Martinelli
