Maxi Dolphin says it will restart at another site after a fire destroyed an Erbusco shipyard building and three yachts, including the 27.07m MD80.
Maxi Dolphin says it will restart production at another site after a fire destroyed one of its buildings in Erbusco, Franciacorta, late on 24 August. Chief executive Luca Botter told Pressmare that the yard intends to resume both motor-yacht and sailing-yacht work rather than allow the incident to halt the business.
The fire broke out at around 22:00 at the Via Gandhi facility and required an overnight response involving about twenty fire-brigade crews from Brescia, with support from Bergamo and Mantua. Pressmare reported that crews contained the blaze to the building where it started, preventing it from spreading to the adjacent structure, while no injuries were reported.
Environmental technicians from Arpa Lombardia attended the site as clean-up and safety work began after the last hotspots were extinguished. The cause of the fire had not been established when the first-hand account was published on 25 August, so no cause is attributed here.
Botter confirmed that the destroyed building contained three yachts: an MD80, an MD75 and an MD51 Power. He said the MD80 had been close to leaving Erbusco, with departure for Marina di Ravenna planned for the end of September.
Maxi Dolphin's own project page gives the MD80 an overall length of 27.07 metres, placing it within the superyacht fleet by Superyacht Guide's 24-metre threshold. The sailing yacht was designed by Botin & Partners, with interiors by Federica Ravera and Patrick Pigoni, and the yard's official shipyard page lists the MD80 in its under-construction programme.
Botter's statement is significant because it commits the company to continuing both sides of its build programme despite the loss of the production building. Maxi Dolphin has not yet named the replacement site in the material reviewed, so the timing and location of the production move remain to be confirmed.
The Erbusco yard had more than 2,700 square metres of covered facilities and equipment for composite construction, including a 40-metre curing oven, according to Maxi Dolphin. The company was founded in 1987 and has been owned by MD Technologies since 2016, with Botter serving as chief executive.
The immediate facts are the loss of one production building and the three yachts inside it, alongside Maxi Dolphin's stated intention to restart at another site. The cause of the fire, the full financial impact and the precise effect on individual delivery schedules were not established in the primary material reviewed and should not be inferred until the yard provides further information.