Filippi boat ready for 2013 Parmigiani Spirit Award winner

This eight goes to Cook's rowing club, the University of London Boat Club women's crew and in the style of Filippi the boat is a blend of tradition, modernity and technological innovation. Its purpose is to help that club improve its own rowing performances and to encourage new students of that university to take up the sport and, hopefully, follow in James’ footsteps.

Filippi can be found in small Italian sea-side town of Donorotico in the Tuscany region. The blue and white factory sits on an unassuming road behind a blue fence. From the street one would never guess that this factory produces some of the most renowned boats in the sport of rowing. But once inside, the staggering amount of technology quickly puts to bed any doubts.

The history of Filippi is the story of a family business that dates back to 1980 when Lido Filippi founded “Filippi Lido SRL.” Filippi began by constructing wooden rowing boats. His warehouse of 200 square meters has since given way to a factory of 3,000 square meters and the original wood boats have been replaced by the familiar and unmistakable “white boats.”

This growth was realised by Lido and more recently by his son David. David spent his formative years helping to construct Filippi boats and learning about every aspect of the factory. Attention to detail and dedication to the search for precision has allowed Filippi to grow to a record production of 1,100 boats in 2013.

It was in this successful year that Filippi joined forces with World Rowing and Parmigiani Fleurier to offer the first Parmigiani Spirit Award, the award that recognises a university rower that has embodied the values of rowing.

“We built the eight for the women’s team at the University of London Boat Club. This gift was made possible by the generosity of James Cook, an athlete who embodies the spirit of rowing and by the Swiss Watch company Parmigiani Fleurier," says David Filippi.  Parmigiani, like Filippi Lido SRL in its boats, has always paid great attention to detail, precision and elegance in its timepieces.”

Attention to detail, precision and elegance are values that have been at the core of Filippi’s business. Behind the blue fence the factory has fashioned technological innovation that has helped to advance the boat building business worldwide.

Development Engineering Manager Alessandro Placido explains the complex process of building a Filippi boat: "The planning and design of a Filippi boat is based on the study of fluid dynamics in existing boats. To start with the study of the hull is essential to begin the construction. Once this study is complete we start thinking of all of the changes that can be made, taking into account that athletes are moving in the boats. Everything must be done according to their physiology.”

Over the past two decades, Filippi has collaborated with several academic institutions, commissioning studies on various aspects of fluid dynamics of boats, rowing boat simulators and the movement of athletes in boats, to name a few. These studies began in 1996 when Filippi commissioned a study of the hydronic models of rowing boats at INSEAN (National Institute for Naval Architecture). In 2003 Filippi worked with Politecnico di Milano, Department of Applied Mathematics (MOX) in the development of software to study the movement of athletes in Olympic rowing boats. They also looked at the dynamics of the boat in the water and a system of capturing the motion of the athlete using static video in the boat.

These, and other studies, helped Filippi determine the shape of the mold to make, optimising the design for every type of athlete
"The strengths that allow Filippi boats to continue to get faster are the stability of pitch and roll, the comfort and the ergonomics," says David Filippi. "These are all elements that allow the athlete, who is the true engine of the boat, to be in the best possible position to perform at his or her full potential.”

In another innovative development Filippi worked with the Region of Tuscany to create a quality system certification which enables the traceability of all materials that are used to build the boats. Pacido explains: “When you build a boat you begin the system of quality control that monitors all the material used by the craftsmen involved. Each step is countersigned by the technician who supervised the construction, up to the moment when the boat leaves the factory to reach the customer.”

It is as if Filippi draws a map of the boat, identifying precisely what materials are located in each region. Should there be a flaw in the material, or should the boat have problems, they can quickly identify what material was used, what other boats it is in and how to fix the problem.

Filippi also uses technology to reduce waste. “The traceability also allows us to monitor the consumption of material and especially the use of the correct quantities of raw materials,” says Placido.

The Filippi factory of nearly 70 employees helps breathe life into the small town of Donorotico. David Filippi’s dedication and hard work combined with family tradition and technological innovation has created a product he is proud to say is “Made in Italy.”

David Filippi aspires to aid the development of rowing in every corner of the earth and his commitment to the production and dissemination of boats has already made incredible strides in the realisation of this endeavour.  
 

Interview thanks to Claudio Tranquilli