In April 2021, the Venice City Council decided to redesign the grounds in Sant’Elena, the southeastern part of Venice where the famous ‘Cantiere Celli’ was once located. Even though the shipyard had not been active for years, this brought a definitive end to one of the most reputable shipyards in Venice.
A year later, not far from the place where she was born, we found ‘Ça Foscolo’ in a shed. She was built by Cantiere Celli in 1969 but clearly had been very neglected. All woodwork had been treated incorrectly, giving her an ugly ‘plastic’ appearance. We felt sad for the possible loss of such beauty. So we decided to buy her and transported her to the Netherlands.
In 2022 we started an extensive renovation that took approximately one year. While renovating, we wondered what it would be like if she was built today. And so our journey towards the building of a contemporary version of the Venetian Watertaxi began. We asked the young Italian talent Simone Quintavalle to design her. Hull number one has been produced and number 2 is underway as well. Legion Boats, our in-house sales organization, will start taking orders in March 2023.
Subscribe to the Legion Boats newsletter to stay tuned! We shall only build a few so it’s limited availability makes it even more special.