ITALIAN JOB

The Sangermani-built ketch Sahib, built in the dolce vita of 1950s Italy, has just been given a five-year rebuild

- SAM HAMILTON

The ketch Sahib, built on the Ligurian coast by the boatbuilding Sangermani brothers Cesare and Piero, comes from a boatyard very close to the heart of Italian sailors, Sangermani, but before you can even understand the yard, you need to consider the era that her build was set in. This was Italy in the 1950s, undergoing an economic and cultural transformation so profound that it has since been referred to as a miracle. Today, we often refer to that period as the ‘dolce vita’ (sweet life) years, forgetting just what a change Italy underwent in the 50s and 60s.

Really, this is the era that invented modern Italy, establishing the styles, objects and ideas that are so well known to the world today: state TV was launched, and Italian cinema, with directors like Federico Fellino and Vittorio De Sica and stars like Sophia Loren, was in its heyday. It was a decade that started with the country’s first ever international fashion show (in 1951), today seen as genesis for the country’s ascendency to world fashion leaders. The country’s cuisine, thanks to likes of Elizabeth David, was becoming known internationally. In 1952, a little-known car maker called Ferrari won the Formula One Championship with Alberto Ascari at the wheel. They would go on to win more in more in F1 than any other marque that decade, launching the prancing horse into legend. This was the decade that saw the rise of the Vespa and Lambretta and the introduction of the FIAT 500, and while Ferrucio Lamborghini was still building tractors for the time being, the boating side was similarly catching up with the 20th century at great speed: Carlo Riva had just hit his stride building what would become the most famous motorboats ever built, on Lake Iseo. If the 20th century was an American invention, it must have seemed that Italy at least owned that decade.