Our company history

Although Kifaru was only founded in 2008, it has a vast experience of over twenty years in the field of planning and constructing leisure boats, thanks to the professional knowledge and experience handed down by the company’s founders.
The company includes the Sarti family, founders and main shareholders of Tecnomar from 1987 to 2008, as well as Roberto Mancini, footballer, coach and shipowner.
This group may seem eccentric at first glance, but it is the result of futures and destinies crossed and united by the same passion:

Roberto Mancini has always been a passionate shipowner. Mancini met Paolo and Faliero Sarti in 2001 at the offices of Tecnomar, when purchasing a Madras 2. It was this mutual understanding that would become a prelude to Kifaru, which was created only two years later. Not being satisfied by what the market had to offer in 2003, Mancini decided to commission the Sarti shipyard to build an open 35 metre prototype. The shipbuilder and owner entrusted the designing of the yacht to the Luca Dini Studio of Florence, whom they had collaborated with on a previous occasion and were both very satisfied with the result.

From this collaboration, in the summer of 2004 came the first exemplary Velvet 35 yacht model, which immediately became a leader in that market segment. This collaboration allowed the Sarti (Tecnomar) shipyard to make the jump in quality.
The yacht’s impressive dimensions combined with a refined design made "Mates" (the name of the yacht) catch the attention of everyone who set eyes on it. Thanks to its "charisma", on June 29, 2004, only a few days after being launched, the yacht conquered the first page of the "Gazzetta dello Sport".

In the following four years Mancini and the Sartis crossed paths less often. Roberto devoted himself to being a successful coach of Moratti. Meanwhile Paolo and Faliero rode the wave of success that the Velvet brought with it, and year after year Tecnomar’s sales went up significantly.
During these years, perhaps as a result of the distance, a growing belief among them arose that the shipbuilding sector was changing; Roberto, as a shipowner and Paolo and Faliero, as shipbuilders and sellers.
Mates was sold, causing Roberto to embark on what would be an unsuccessful search for a boat suitable to satisfy his new needs. The Sartis, on the other hand, decided to seize the opportunity to sell their shares in the shipyard, and on July 9, 2008, after more than twenty years at the helm, founders of Tecnomar, both father and son, left in search of a new adventure.

Only a few months later the paths of these three men crossed once again thanks to an old mutual friend, the internationally famous designer, Luca Dini.  During an informal meeting Paolo and Faliero expressed their ideas to Luca regarding the evolution that the shipbuilding market was experiencing and which products they believed to be most suitable in this context.  It was on this occasion that they found out that not only Luca shared Paolo and Faliero’s vision, but Roberto did as well. Coincidentally, Roberto had already met with Luca to ask him for a similar yacht and to come up with some ideas. Roberto expressed his delight to take part in this new adventure, not just as a shipowner, which he had already done, but this time also as an entrepreneur.
From that point on, as they all had a mutual understanding, the next step to realizing this dream came quickly.  The Sarti family and Roberto Mancini formed the shipbuilding company in November 2008 and signed an agreement right away to closely collaborate on a long-term basis with the Luca Dini Design Studio. This was the dawning of Kifaru Yachts.