Daily Nautica met with Marco Malgara, owner and chairman of ICE Yachts, a fairly new brand in the Fast Cruising 50-80 foot sector, but whose roots go deep.

The Lombardy-based shipyard has some of the highest quality standards internationally, with a number of successful builds, and it aims to be identified as one of Italy’s, and the world’s, top businesses, consolidating a long line of Italian style tradition.

ICE Yachts is a fairly new brand but also has deep professional and identity roots. Can you tell us how and why the company came about?

Indeed, the ICE Yachts brand is “only” 11 years old and has built around sixty or so boats. But, in reality, ICE purchased the well-known CN Yacht 2000 shipyard, which had built another hundred and who in the mid-2000s was building boats up to 80 feet, giving more established companies like Swan a run for their money. The shipyard’s mission has become internationally known as a point of reference for custom and semi custom boats between 50 and 80 feet, and I must say that the commissions we are receiving from countries like Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Israel and America are leading us ever closer to our objective.

ICE came about through Marco Malgara’s desire to create a memorable and model product that, as a boat owner, he struggled to find. The “Fast Cruising” concept is interpreted by a number of different shipyards both in Italy and abroad: what is your functional interpretation to create loyal clients?

Let’s just say that as people who not only build boats, but use them, we try to work side by side with our owners advising them the best we can. In addition, we invest greatly both in research and development and after-sales, which is as important to ICE as sales are. With this work ethic, word of mouth has spread between boat owners, who recommend ICE to others.

Nowadays a shipyard cannot just “limit” itself to building beautiful boats, but must also supply a number of services. What do you offer to your clients?

We speak to our owners frequently and supply them with assistance and updates.

With a design like an 80-footer, does that come from your ideas or are guidelines suggested by the owners and you build them?

It depends, if an owner comes with their own innovative and interesting ideas, we take them into consideration and work on them together. For example, the 62 TARGA, a boat which started as a super custom, began like that, and then became a part of the ICE range.

What do you think is the most interesting development for materials and work on boats in terms of durability, reliability and lightness?

All of our products, hulls, decks and bulkheads are made using an epoxy resin infusion and quadriaxial fabrics that are custom made for us following specifications supplied by our technical department. All of this creates extremely robust vessels, together with being lightweight and compact. In ICE, we do an average of 15 infusions a month, and this allows us to work very well with this technology, seeing as we have a lot of experience using it.

In order to be fast, you need to also be light and, in order to enjoy a luxury cruise, you need reliability and durability. How do you reconcile it all?

It is a difficult mix. Now even racing boats have electric winches, air conditioning, desalinators and smart toilets. It is important to consider these weights already in the initial design, so as not to go outside of the waterline, and this job is now given by ICE to the American studio, Farr, and the Italian studio Felci. Instead, the design is curated in part by the in-house technical department, in part by Felci Yacht Design and in part by Micheletti + Partners, depending on the vessel.

How much can one of your vessels be customised?

I would say completely, always within the cannons of safety and good taste of course.

A 70-80 footer will certainly need 2-3 crew members to work alongside the owner. Are you able to train them and what would you suggest to a captain to best support one of your owners in technical terms and relations?

We provide direct support, meaning we work together for free, after the launch for 4 weeks with one of our technicians, helping the captain better manage the vessel.

Marco and Ingrid Malgara, owners of ICE Yachts

What do you concentrate your research and development on, seeing all the focus on environmental sustainability nowadays?

We believe that electrical engines are still not adequate for us but we are developing green systems, using low impact motors and we are careful to use as many recyclable materials as possible. We recently built a sailing catamaran certified as green class by Rina. I almost forgot, ICE Yachts builds the biggest catamarans in Italy.

What is your next launch?

On 23 February we will be launching an ICE 52 RS going to Japan.