This International Women's Day, Ocean Independence speak to naval architect Marialuisa Francia to discover more about her role and where her motivation lies.
Marialuisa Francia most definitely inherited her passion for the marine world from her family’s deep-seated love of sailing. Being born in Viareggio, a location with strong seafaring ties, further increased Marialuisa’s appetite for all things nautical. Graduating in Naval Architecture from the University of Genoa, she focused on gaining experience at the most advanced builders and research centres within the leisure yachting industry. To date, Marialuisa is one the youngest (and one of very few female) naval architects in Italy. For International Women’s Day 2022, Ocean Independence delved a little deeper to discover more about her role and where her motivation lies.
Growing up by the sea and enjoying regular family sailing trips, Marialuisa had clear intentions for her career. “By the time I finished high school and had to decide what path to follow at university, I had no doubt that I wanted to be an engineer within the marine industry,” she recalls. “My course was taught in English and based in La Spezia. It focussed on the world of pleasure yachting whilst integrating traditional naval architecture with a focus on the latest design and building techniques. It included studying composite materials, scantling and construction, computation fluid dynamics for planing hulls and sailing yachts, together with some fundamental interior and exterior design.” Clearly Marialuisa thrived at university, finding her niche and excelling in her field, loving what she studied. She reminisces, “I have no doubt I would choose the same course over and over again, every time”.
After graduating and working as a project engineer for some years, by the age of 26 Marialuisa had already accomplished her first America’s Cup campaign. She founded Skyron, a yacht design and engineering company, with a group of likeminded colleagues, describing the team as “a group of naval architects providing design, technical, office and management support to several yachting industries based on Italian and European soil. Each of us specialises in a different area, so we cover all requirements from yacht design and building through to systems design and project management”. Marialuisa is the self-confessed “shipyard man”, gathering experience from her focus on yard and project supervision for both motor and sailing yachts. She explains, “I am in charge of more than one project at a time, plus planning everyone’s jobs and schedules, then the challenge of making sure everything happens on time and within budget. All this while checking on drawings, ensuring technical standards and client’s requirements are fulfilled on board plus following all the construction phases in the yard closely! It is a demanding role!”.