Note: This is the second installment of a series of articles on the making of the Lazzara LSX 92. If you missed our September issue, you can read the previous article online at yachtsmagazinegroup.com.
Story Cecile Gauert Photos Galen Burow and staff
The project that brought us to the Tampa yard is the LSX 92, which the Lazzara team gave itself 10 months to create, build and debut at the 2008 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS). As if this was not enough of a challenge, the Lazzaras also embarked on the major project of building a brand new and spectacular boat show display. Rich Lazzara showed us the 40’ by 90’ barge and the skeleton of a complex steel and glass two-story structure that was to top it. Except for the specially treated hurricane-resistant glass—an engineering marvel in itself—, most everything else was being done in-house.
The two projects are part of a well thought-out plan to make Lazzara evolve as a brand. Brand-buiding is not such an easy task when Lazzara Yachts, a three-generation family boat building business, only launches about 20 yachts a year. “Our industry is in a unique position in that we have so few units and opportunities to create a brand, unlike luxury car makers who have so many models and sell so many cars,” said President Dick Lazzara. The LSX 75—the first boat to use multiple Volvo Penta IPS drives—was a great step in the right direction, but to continue on that path the builder’s next step had to be equally bold, and it is.
The LSX 92 is not only much larger than the LSX 75, it also integrates many innovations, including the next generation of IPS used in a quadruple configuration, a worldwide first. The design required developing new processes and new products, including new kinds of paint, fiberglass, stringers, stabilizers and adhesives, all of it in what Rich Lazzara dubbed “a hyper compressed” 10-month build period. What makes this herculean effort even conceivable is that 85 to 90 percent of this model is pre-engineered, said Lazzara’s Fabrizio Loi, who leads the research and development team.
By June, renderings, scale models, a sizeable hull plug and full-size scale models of the interior and flybridge, showed the new LSX 92 to be quite an impressive step forward for the builder and for the open yacht category in general. Among the yacht’s new features are a terrace off the master stateroom, a first in this size vessel, and a small but very real flybridge with a completely new graphite top, anchored on but one side to seemingly hover over the deck.
By late August, it became obvious that the 40 or so craftsmen assigned to the project had not been idle, but there was still much to do, and a mere 60 days to go before the yacht’s debut at FLIBS. A couple of days behind schedule due to recent bad weather, the deckhouse plug was tightly wrapped mummy-style in fiberglass. In a matter of days, the giant mass of pugent resin would be towed outdoors, flipped over and extracted from the mold, one single piece of fiberglass for the yacht’s entire supertructure, including the flybridge. The plug foreshadowed the scale of the yacht as it would appear to people standing on the yacht’s forward deck and revealed amazing curves and contours.
In a separate hall, the yet to be painted hull (a sparkly pearly white) by now was right side up, and workers were prepping the base for the interior module, which was being finished a few feet away, complete with neatly installed cables and wiring bundles. Some of the finish was already here; berths and cabinets already in place. In one week, a crane would lift the entire piece and place it carefully inside the hull, ontop of the frame members and soft-mound rubber doughnuts that provide a layer of insulation.
Due to the size of the hull windows, located very close to the waterline for optimal views from the lower deck accommodations, the Lazzara engineering team has devised steel reinforcements, which workers were now covering with strips of fiberglass, applied lengthwise for additional strength. On the very after part of the hull was the amazingly small engine room that would accommodate four IPS 2 units, which designers at Volvo Penta and Lazzara have projected to produce a 30+ knot speed. The compact and fuel-efficient IPS drives were not there yet. Instead, a mockup in plywood (held together with rubber bands) had been set atop one of four sizeable rings, reinforced with a newly-engineered type of fiberglass and stringers, again for structural integrity. The mockup had been set there to show placement and scale, revealing something of the Lazzara team’s resourcefulness and sense of humor, even in the face of what could potentially become a major issue.
No engines, no problems. Volvo had arranged to fly them to Tampa, possibly on a chartered jumbo jet, by September 6. A couple of the drives were actually already in the U.S. but currently tied up in customs. This seemed to leave Dick Lazzara unfazed. Chewing on an unlit cigar, he was a picture of steely composure. The two companies, despite being vastly very different businesses, have built a close relationship that dates back to the development and launch of the Lazzara LSX 75 and the first application of multiple IPS units. Engine specialist Volvo Penta is a division of a global conglomerate that employs around 100,000 people worldwide, and Lazzara Yachts a family business with about 440 employees. But they share the same goal to bring ground-breaking technology to the Fort Lauderdale boat show, and the commitment is real on both sides to do whatever it takes.
Within days Volvo Penta engineers would take up residence in a trailer located on the Lazzara property after extensive testing through computer simulation. Computers showed everything to work perfecty. But, behind the scene, was each side wondering? Dick Lazzara dimissed the question. “There is no opportunity for doubt or failure. There are a lot of smart and hard-working people involved,” he said.
The stakes are very high, said Rich Lazzara, who is in charge of sales and marketing. Missing FLIBS would postpone by months the tremendous opportunity to put their new model in front of thousands. Barring any major uncontrollable obstacle, such as a major storm, a slim but unfortunately real possibility during the peak of hurricane season in Florida, the LSX 92 would be at FLIBS. But indeed there would be ample opportunities between now and then for some nail-biting moments. The flybridge’s graphite top, for example, which computer models showed to work perfectly on screens, would undergo road testing, during which the Lazzara team would mount it on two steel poles, bolt it to a trailer and then pull it behind an F150 Ford truck back and forth across a bridge over Tampa Bay at speeds of 30 to 80 mph. There was only one graphite top and no room for error.
After extensive computer simulations, the quadruple IPS 2—once delivered in Tampa Bay—would be tested inside the hull, which alone could lead to some interesting moments. Dick Lazzara recalled the first sea trials with the first series of IPS drives on the Lazzara LSX 75 a couple of years ago. A particularly sharp turn had everyone turn a few shades of pale. Further adjustments took care of all possible kinks, and now the IPS drives and the joystick that operates them have earned accolades around the world, and the award-winning LSX 75 has become a best seller for Lazzara Yachts.
Time will tell if Lazzara Yachts can do the same with its LSX 92. Watch for the debut article in our January issue.
