The return of Leopard Shipyards, at the helm Italian entrepreneurs

A great return, that of an historic Tuscan brand, which will be led by a team of Italian entrepreneurs who have always played an active role in the sector and who present its new ambitious project to the market. The objective is to combine the heritage of an historic trade mark, already leader in the nautical world, with the vision and the enthusiasm of the new owners.

The reborn Leopard Shipyards will base their new identity on the considerable background of technical and business knowledge in the superyacht world, the entrepreneurial spirit of the professionals at the head of the project and the strategic position of the historic shipyard, situated in Pisa.

Leopard Shipyards, in its production site of 5000 sq.m covered building and 7.500 sq.m yards equipped with travel lift and private harbour, will build and market boats and recreational crafts up to 55 meters.

Leopard Shipyards return to the market thanks to the will of a entrepreneurs’ group with a long lasting experience in yachting, who have decided to bring a great name in the international nautical industry back to life.

An important strength point of this new project is, in fact, the involvement of Italian professionals and entrepreneurs of the sector bonded by a deep professional and personal confidence and who share the awareness of having to relaunch on the market a brand of great value and glorious past,
with a background of technical skills and know-how in the shipbuilding, engineering and nautical design industry.

The Tuscan shipyard gets inspiration - renovating it - from that who was the historic Picchiotti e Figli shipyard, founded in 1907 and subsequently renamed, in 1935, with the trade mark Cantiere Navale Arno (Arno Sea Naval Shipyard).
Destroyed during the Second World War, it was completely rebuilt by the Picchiotti family in the post-war period and used to build 3 minesweepers commissioned by the Americans, until, at the beginning of the 70s, the production of recreational crafts was given the go-ahead. In this shipyard, the first Leopard was launched in 1973 followed by many others, which formed the numerous fleet of recreational crafts up to 46 meters which still navigate all the seas of the world.

Michele Parini, chairman of the board, introduces this ambitious project in this way: “Leopard Shipyards come from the idea of the multiciplity of action, for a 360 degree nautical sector. As a shipyard, if I build a boat, I also have to own the means, the structures and the operative efficiency in order to follow it during its entire life cycle. The multi-purpose production site of Leopard Shipyards, which also serve as a 
winter storage and refit besides providing ordinary services, can ensure an overall customer satisfaction.
In addition, nowadays, a shipyard does not need to focus only on a unique project, but it can expand the scope of its activities on different fronts. For this reason Leopard Shipyards are developed on the one hand with the need to enhance a historic brand,  recovering that which has always been the “trade mark” of Leopard recreational crafts, on the other hand it has to offer a new line to the market which uses conceptual and innovative building parameters”.

The production structure of Leopard Shipyards is situated in Pisa, along the Navicelli channel, the original headquarters of Arno Shipyards and where Leopard was born, it counts 5000 sq.m covered building and 7.500 sq.m yards equipped with travel lift and private harbour. In its interior, today, 15 people are already operating to whose work is added that of skilled labourers linked to outsourcing companies part of the productive chain of the local area of Pisa, re-known all over the world for quality and know-how.

Leopard Shipyards Company will develop two own recreational crafts lines:

The line Recreational Crafts, which will comprehend two different series, both branded Leopard:
the HISTORY series, alluminium boats from 28 to 38 meters, designed by Paolo Giordano which will be a real evolution of those which were Leopard boats, under which we’ll find the same family feeling of fast and performing crafts of the historic trade mark.
The CLASSIC series, displacement or semi-displacement yachts entirely CUSTOM of 45 and 44 meters thought for those shipowners who search uniqueness and a superior product quality and that will be born from the pencil of a world-famous architect whose name is still top secret.

The EVOLUTION by Leopard line comprises fibreglass crafts from 16 to 24 meters, which will set out original solutions and innovative technologies which today have not yet been adopted in the nautical industry.
The first model of the Evolution series, the 6.0 – which will make its world debut next autumn – was born by an original and agressive concept: it is a 20 meters overall hull length yacht for 5 meters beam and 6,5 meters in height and it will be motorized with powerful outboard engines.
“Certainly it is a world first – Michele Parini says. If we think of such an impressive yacht, of almost 30 tons, powered by outboard engines we can immediately understand the innovative entity of the project, which is unique in the world. This model will then be the trailblazer of a greater model, of 75/80 feet”. 
 
Alongside the outboard version, the hull will have the possibility to have another two types of engine: IPS and straight shaft engine. All the solutions will not modify the layout of the area dedicated to the guests which will remain the same, with three very spacious cabins,  2,15 meters ceiling height, a large lounge and extremely enjoyable exterior areas starting from the flybridge, “a real parade ground”, concludes Parini.

Besides the production of the Leopard lines, the Shipyard builds and will build also boats for the Fire-fighting corps and other crafts for port operations.

In the Leopard shipyard areas the reffiting activity will not lack. In fact also ordinary and extrordinary maintenance interventions on yachts and superyachts will be performed with the objective to meet the required deadlines, mantaining the highest quality standards.

Leopard Shipyards re-enters the nautical world to re-launch the historic brand and present a new range of recreational crafts which will conquer the brand passionates and not only, so as to ensure continuity to the shipyard’s Dna, but also open itself to new market possibilities and opportunities, thanks to a wide and varied innovative offer.