Fabio Buzzi: FB Design (Italy)
“There’s a continuous fight – you always have to accept a compromise between a beautiful, fast line and efficiency from the engineering point of view,”said Fabio Buzzi, founder and owner of Italian FB Design. “Bring those together and you’re winning.”
Winning is certainly something he knows how to do: boats made by FB Design have broken no less than 56 world speed records during its 55 years of activity. More, this year’s record was set reaching 277km on water with a 1,300hp, 16l engine with Buzzi, as usual, at the helm.
What has this to do with developing more prosaic ‘working’ boats? “There’s no other yard that has the same experience of designing for these kinds of speeds,” said Buzzi. Therefore while the carbon fibre shape of the FB Record Breaker is a little out of this world, the yard’s range of patrol, interception and rescue craft have also been based on pushing a variety of vessels to the limit. “We prove a design will perform by racing it,” he explained.
However, there’s another reason for his continued involvement with on water speed – obsession.“I started racing at 16 years old, and I’ve been doing it every year, ever since,” he admitted.
It’s no surprise then that his fast craft begin with a design speed of 50 knots and reach up to around 85 knots, and include the narrow entry Stab range which enhances its stability and planing surface by two RIB-like collars around the rear. The range has a worldwide following: the 11.5m SF version, for example, has found favour in Mongla Port Authority in Bangladesh, the Italian Guardia di Finanza, Ecuador’s Coast Guard, Rwanda’s Defence Forces and more.
However, it’s not that easy to keep a vessel both stable and safe at these kinds of speeds so “a lot of advanced technology goes into the design and build”. He added:“I’m not a naval architect, I’m a mechanical engineer.” So, it’s unsurprising he takes an engineering approach to resolving problems. Ten years or so ago he was pouring over laminate’s issues when he came up with the answer: use internal stringers to keep the shape and control the core injection pressure at multiple points.
More recently, he’s invested in fully computerised milling machines, scaled from those that can take on engines and transmission to the very large which can create mould forms and prototypes out of polyurethane.
As a result “when people have to build something really new and very fast, they come to us” he explained. “The special forces in particular want proven experience, they don’t want to be the guinea pig. And we design expressly for their specific, physical missions.”
By Stevie Knight
