Vertical elegance

VERTICAL ELEGANCE

by Paola Bertelli - ph. courtesy by ICM Bertazzoni

An on-board lift is now a must-have luxury. Bertazzoni Lift Marine and ICM LIFT Marine are an established team that constantly take on new technology and design challenges, providing unique, versatile solutions, developed and built entirely in-house

Patinated bronze and glass panels laminated with a delicate fabric for the lift on the 75-metre yacht Kenshō by Tecnomar. The build involved 22 project revisions and was twelve months in development. Obsessive attention to detail is evident throughout

©Christopher Scholey

Watching the F1 Grand prix in Monaco with that parade of yachts moored close by and realising that many of them are fitted with at least one of our lifts and dumb waiters gives us great satisfaction”, says Massimo Bezzi, CEO of ICM LIFT Marine. “We’ve worked on over 200 yachts now”, says Gianluca Bertazzoni, CEO of Bertazzoni Lift Marine. “This year alone we’ve seen the launch or delivery of 15 yachts, all from the most important yards, from Benetti, our long-standing client, to Sanlorenzo, Baglietto, Ferretti Group, Rossinavi, Codecasa and The Italian Sea Group. They are the results that prove the popularity of the solutions we’re able to offer”.

Bertazzoni and ICM have created a successful team in an exclusive market niche – they design, build and install lift systems on yachts and superyachts. Systems, mostly custom, that have now become a distillation of design and technology and are often one of the model’s on-board wow factors. Customisability, flexibility and research and development form the basis of the offer they provide for owners, designers and yards. Every commission has something unique that imposes new technical solutions rather than special processes for

©Christopher Scholey

There are no limits to the lift types designed and constructed by ICM Lift Marine and Bertazzoni Lift Marine, be they square, round, built to fit aespecially narrow shafts, even around 1x1 metre as in the photo to side, or large lifts with a considerable scenic impact. Bottom, Massimo Bezzi

surfaces or significant changes during the build. “We recently concluded an agreement for an innovative pop-up lift. The owner wants the cabin to emerge out onto the fly deck, eliminating the structure normally required to give it stability. It’s a challenge – we have to design a new system from scratch, with new support and anchoring mechanisms that are compatible with this reduced space”, says Bezzi. The creation of a lift for the Kenshō, the magnificent 75-metre craft by Tecnomar that was named Motor Yacht of the Year at the World Superyacht Awards 2023 was also a complex project. The work involved 22 design revisions, twelve months of design and some obsessive attention to detail. Made in aged bronze with laminated glass panels and a delicate fabric interior it resembles, as was the intention of interior designer Jouin Manku, a fascinating lantern moving between the decks. “Our strength, what makes us stand out in the market, is that we always manage to find solutions that reflect the owners’ wishes, solutions that you won’t find elsewhere”, says Bertazzoni.

A source of pride for both is the work carried out for Ice, a 90-metre yacht by Lürssen launched in 2005, originally without a lift but featuring an

unusually-shaped stair well, rounded at the back and flat in front. Last year the owner decided to have a lift installed. “Many found it an impossible task, but we succeeded”, says Bezzi. “We had to design the lift to fit the shape of the stair well”. Another complex task was marrying the loads and anchor points to an already-existing structure and staircase. The final result is a spectacular, perfectly integrated steel and glass lift. Building lifts on board yachts is a complex process, with installation taking around five times as long as it would in a building. Bertazzoni and ICM produce everything in-house, and when the job is complete they handle training of the yacht engineers. Service, however, is the domain of Vertec Marine, a brand founded by Bertazzoni and ICM. It’s available 24/7, provided by a network of technicians operating from strategic yachting hubs and capable of intervening in a few hours anywhere in the world to repair and maintain on-board lifts. “We offer more than an all-round service. We design, build, instal and maintain...and if required we’ll even dismantle the lift!” It may sound like a joke, but in fact it’s not unusual for the company to be called upon to make radical changes to the lift technology and design. www.icmlift.com www.bertazzoniascensori.com

(left), CEO of ICM LIFT Marine and Gianluca Bertazzoni (right), CEO of Bertazzoni Lift Marine