![]() ![]() Subsequent waves of occupying Celts and Romans were equally nautically minded. Today there are 56 UNESCO-listed submerged archaeological sites across the Swiss Alps that remain waterlogged witnesses to this alpine maritime culture. ![]() These and other ancient Bronze Age “pallafite cultures” occupied Switzerland from 5000 to 500 BCE and relied heavily on boats. Despite being landlocked, the area has a nautical tradition dating back thousands of years, to an era when Neolithic peoples lived in stilt-houses at the edges of lakes and rivers all through Central Europe. Unlike Italy’s modern history of yacht building, with its 1950s Portofino glamour, 1980s superyacht excess in Viareggio or the Italian-lakes cool of Riva and other runabout makers, Switzerland’s shipbuilding narrative is more subdued, but it’s no less historical. (The company is characteristically mum and says it has no record of such an event.) Back then, Bäch was known for its farms, mostly fruit and nut orchards with voluminous cherry, walnut and plum trees stretching down the meadows past half-timbered homes to the lakeshore.Īlessandro Pedrazzini (left) and his father, Claudio, from the fourth and third generations, respectively, of the family business. The commander in chief-who frequently cruised around Cape Cod on the presidential yacht Honey Fitz-was evidently eager to test-drive a Pedrazzini. In the early 1960s, it was rumored that the yard was visited by an off-duty John F. Pedrazzini is located in the village of Bäch, just over the line in Canton Schwyz. The company produces no more than six vessels per year, each requiring over 4,000 hours of labor. In Pedrazzini’s words, they’re “bespoke,” which is why a basic shell of these classics starts in the six-figure range. (The exact number is a trade secret.) As their name suggests, the boats feature understated hints of Italian design. Pedrazzini’s runabouts are forged of mahogany and swathed with 20-plus coats of lacquer.
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