Made of Metal
Functionality and repairability are at the forefront of the Pelagic 77’s design. Every system is accessible for maintenance. The engineering is highlighted, not hidden. The strength of steel is elevated; the aluminium flexes its lightweight versatility. The design of Vinson of Antarctica and AMUNDSEN is heavily informed by Skip Novak’s learned experience with Pelagic Australis and Little Pelagic, and Tony Castro’s deep experience in yacht design. Yet, no custom schooner is a product that just ‘works’ out of the gate. It takes years of fixing what breaks, then rethinking it to be more bulletproof, refining hundreds of specialised parts for resilience.
“Everything on this boat has some sort of challenge to it. Nothing is plain and simple and easy. It’s all custom-made, there’s weird angles.” - Marco Grandi
Marco Grandi is our metal fabrication mastermind and a key partner for each year’s annual refit. Grandi Manufacturing operates like an extension of the expedition team – fortifying the boats for the fierce conditions they’ll face in the Southern Ocean.
“[The crew] can’t just go somewhere for things to be fixed, so they have to be done in a way that’s fault-proof. Once it comes out the door it doesn’t come back, that's our policy.” - Marco
“There is nothing he can’t do with metal.” - Skip Novak
From first concept, to testing the installation of a ladder for divers to reboard
It all started two decades ago, when Marco and Skip met at the Italian Consul’s house in Cape Town, over a rogue mission to cook a lamb on the open coals. Two characters of mutual respect, both business owners and pragmatic problem-solvers, chasing big goals in their respective fields.
Marco was continuing his family legacy of engineering, taking over Grandi Manufacturing from his father, and growing the business into new domains. Skip was building Pelagic Expeditions, pioneering polar expedition sailing projects in South Georgia and Antarctica.
They began to collaborate on Pelagic Australis. It was the wild west – there were no precedents. One memorable project was building a cradle to pick-up the lifting keel, 12 tonnes of pivoting ballast that needed redundancy in case the 24V tow-truck winch failed. Such an invention requires a lot of testing and experimentation in the real, constrained spaces to reach a solution that’s classy, not clumsy. Is it even going to work?! There’s also the temptation to keep experimenting forever, and taking any project over the line requires dogged persistence through obstacles.
Skip recalled such a story: “Marco was building the cradle for our lifting keel on PA. This was out of 8-inch steel ‘I’ beams. He had it all worked out, and told the guys in the shop to start cutting lengths out with an acetylene torch for welding. It turns out they had run out of gas (which he was not happy about). He ordered one of the workers to fetch a 12-inch angle grinder, chalked up the marks, and proceeded to cut in one go through these hefty steel beams, sparks flying all over the place as we watched his cutting disk disappear almost to nothing before changing discs and continuing. It was an impressive ‘hands on’ demonstration of the boss taking things into his own hands and getting on with it. In any other shop there would have been head-scratching, prevarication, and time-wasting.”
PA’s infamous 12-tonne lifting keel
Marco assists an engine swap on Pelagic Australis
Over the years, this ‘wild west’ partnership has now built its own precedents, the groundwork that makes the ambitious scope of Pelagic 77s operating in the remotest corners of the earth even possible.
“That was a dinosaur. This is a spaceship.” - Marco
With Skip still involved in the background, the dedicated crews now continue the firsthand collaboration with Grandi Manufacturing. Marco emphasises, “It’s an exciting new venture - the boats are upgraded, with a different rig. The refits are rolling through, always with an interesting crew and people with a similar mindset. Everyone on board carries this sense of morale and responsibility that Skip has instilled - it has been an amazing legacy.”
On day one of arriving in Cape Town for the refit, the Skippers bring a list of metalworking projects: obscure parts that can’t be purchased, custom tools for extracting weird pieces of equipment, and ideas to make systems more failsafe. The Grandi team kicks off right away. They start on board, sketching and conceptualising complex shapes, then work back-and-forth between the boats and the workshop, evolving the solutions in conversation with the crews.
Fabio Grandi working on AMUNDSEN’s engine exhaust supports
Mount for ice lights in-progress. Hand-brake for the windlass. Water tank opener key. Gimballed custom cooker… Antenna guard. Autopilot bits. Kelp cutter…
On all the Pelagic boats, there are countless stories of the Grandi team coming to the rescue, ensuring the show will go on.
During the 2024 refit, Vinson was hauled out to replace the stern tube liners in the drive trains that were causing issues. The right parts were not available in South Africa, and the team asked the boatbuilder to send them down from the Netherlands. The parts arrived just in time, and the plan was to quickly install them, then bring in specialists to set the chockfast (an epoxy that would permanently set the tubes in place). Suddenly, the crew realized the tube diameter was too big for the stern gland, and a solution was needed immediately to avoid weeks of delay (or worse – install the wrong part and create a big vulnerability for the boat). The crew turned to Grandi for help. Marco promptly put the parts on the lathe and machined them to size. Within an hour, everything continued to move forward. Perhaps it was normal to him, but to the crew, it was a small miracle. With everyone pushing together, Vinson was back in the water within a few days.
Marco machining the tubes to accommodate the gland
“In engineering, one small left-out scenario has a huge factor. It’s about closing all the doors shut, so that nothing creeps in. Look at all those angles and relationships. How do things move?” - Marco
Visit the Grandi Manufacturing workshop and you’ll be struck by two sides — the technical and the human. A vast array of impressive machines looms over you: the lathes, grinders, drill presses, routers, mills, CNCs, and so on. Then, you notice the experts at work, at one with their tools, making anything imaginable out of metal.
Stories, photos and contributions from Skip Novak, Marco Grandi, Fabio Grandi, Grandi Manufacturing, Vinson/Amundsen Skipper Paul Guthrie, and crew members John de Wet, Víctor de Juan, and Arturo Oyarzun.
Written by Kate Schnippering, Amundsen Crew - holding a painting of the Sisterships for the Grandi family home mosaic wall.
