Vancouver Sun

Speedboat makes waves

Azimut 50: Italian yacht can travel at speeds of up to 30 knots and costs $1.8 million

- malcolmpar­ry@shaw.ca 604-929-8456 Malcolm Parry

LUXE LAUNCH: Three days after arriving from a posting in Cairo, Italian consul-general

Massimilia­no Iacchini stood on Fraser Yacht Sales’ Milltown Marina dock. Not to ship out again, but to greet an Azimut 50 yacht that

Paolo Vitelli’s firm built in Viareggio and Ian Fraser’s outfit introduced here. The dolce vita surroundin­gs included shows of Ferrari and Maserati cars and Italian designer fashions, along with enough Giusti Prosecco and still wines to float the 30-knot fast vessel’s dinghy.

Those eyeballing the Azimut and a 43-foot sibling included BMO Nesbitt Burns V-P Jan

Canning and e-commerce consultant-entreprene­ur Tish Hill. The two have competed regionally in Southern Straits, Swifture and Whidbey Island sailing races, as well as Antigua Race Week, Hawaii’s Kenwood Cup, the BVI spring regatta and suchlike. Hill’s obvious laughter in the accompanyi­ng photo was “because I was pinching her bum,” longtime friend Canning said, smiling innocently.

The fiscal pinch for acquiring a Tuscany-built Azimut 50 speedster would be $1.8 million.

PLACKTIS MAKES PERFECKT? Developer and former luxury spec-home builder Alfie Placktis may not be pinching himself. But his fingers likely are crossed after meeting Jim Ackerman in New York Thursday. The CNBC senior vice-president of prime time alternativ­e programmin­g heard Placktis’s pitch for Renegade Entreprene­ur. To be produced with Gavin Wilding, Robert Caplain and Tricon Media Inc., the reality series, mooted first in 2013, would see Placktis and assorted aspirants powwow on putting business deals together.

FIDDLE TO GRIDDLE: Violinist Rosemary Siemens was out of the country recently to perform in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. Janey Harper, who lends her 300-year-old French violin to Siemens, wants to see the latter in the country. Country music, that is. Could be, as Siemens and Bryant Olender — Michael Bublé’s early-career music director — are mulling joint compositio­ns in the Alison Krauss idiom. Country-born herself, Siemens handmade sausages for the Food Network’s Chef In Your Ear premiere episode.

“It was like going back to my Mennonite roots in Plum Coulee,” the self-confessed kitchen klutz said of stuffing the bangers. She’ll return to Manitoba this winter for four concerts with pianist Roy Tan and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

PEDALS FOR HER METTLE: Eco-Century Technologi­es president Kerry Gibson is a good musician, too. She’d be even better if she could work her century-old piano’s pedals. Ironically, having taught disabled children to ride horses, Williams Lake-raised Gibson is now paraplegic. She dreams of Tetra Society techies devising ways for disabled pianists to utilize those pedals. Meanwhile, she’s working prestissim­o to fundraise for Surrey-based Innovation Boulevard’s “partnershi­p of health, business, higher education and government creating new health technologi­es to improve peoples’ lives.”

GREATER EIGHTY-EIGHTER: In the Waterfall building recently, Steinway & Son president Ron Losby unveiled an instrument he said performs virtuoso works all by itself. The Spirio is a grand-style player piano, but not the roll-driven kind that clunks out Spanish Flea or ancient de Souza marches. Instead, its phrasing, pedalling and volume are reportedly indistingu­ishable from the 1,700 works Steinway artists performed for Spirio purchasers to access via an iPad app. All for $130,000 or so.

HAND- ME- UPS: Former Saddle Sores band manager Helen Siwak and lawyer Richard Rainey’s Realia Music Inc. offered moviemaker­s a lot of exclusive soundtrack music for not much money in 2000. She’s still in the bargain business at her and husband Vlassis Xanthopoul­os’s THE Closet YVR boutique beside Carrall Street’s Pidgin restaurant. He’s an Athens riot police officer and fellow vegan that she married during a decade in Europe.

Back in Vancouver, a celphone-yacker’s car promptly hit their motorcycle. Recovering from injuries, they began buying and reselling higher-end garments online. So did many others, thus their “not a popup store … where people could see the goods.” The 1,200 items there recently included Siwak’s Alberta Ferretti jacket, half of a $195 set, and Robert Rodriguez linen-blend pants, $95. Her window mannequin’s Burberry trench dress was tagged $215.

“If you buy everything secondhand, you make a great contributi­on to the environmen­t,” Siwak said.

TUNING UP: Vancouver Metropolit­an Orchestra readied for its 2015-2016 season with an indoors reception and mini recitals at Van-Dusen Botanical Garden recently. Ken Hsieh, the former Vancouver Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor who now guest-conducts orchestras globally, founded the VMO in 2000. He dedicated it “to the artistic, personal and profession­al developmen­t of outstandin­g young musicians.” Several, like VSO first violinist Jason Ho, now have profession­al careers.

That nurturing commitment was counterpoi­nted when a prayed-for sudden shower sent other Van-Dusen attendees dashing for shelter. Watching them, Taiwan-born VMO chair Kevin Chen said: “I’m not an artistic person.” In fact, the civil engineer and Formation Project Management principal did play bass in jazz-rock ensembles. Pal Hsieh recruited him by volunteeri­ng to be godfather to Chen’s then-pregnant wife Joan’s child. Hsi eh has played an equivalent musical role many times since.

DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Try this on for geopolitic­al size: Putin vs. Trump.

 ??  ?? Setting aside her violin temporaril­y, Rosemary Siemens appeared on the Food Network's Chef In Your Ear show, stuffing sausages as she'd seen it done as a Mennonite girl in rural Manitoba.
Setting aside her violin temporaril­y, Rosemary Siemens appeared on the Food Network's Chef In Your Ear show, stuffing sausages as she'd seen it done as a Mennonite girl in rural Manitoba.
 ??  ?? Vancouver Metropolit­an Orchestra chair Kevin Chen's sprightly ways entertaine­d music director Ken Hsieh at VanDusen Botanical Garden.
Vancouver Metropolit­an Orchestra chair Kevin Chen's sprightly ways entertaine­d music director Ken Hsieh at VanDusen Botanical Garden.
 ??  ?? Ocean sailing-yacht racers Jan Canning and Tish Hill attended the debut of the deluxe Italian Azimut 50 motor-yacht moored behind them.
Ocean sailing-yacht racers Jan Canning and Tish Hill attended the debut of the deluxe Italian Azimut 50 motor-yacht moored behind them.
 ??  ?? Former moviebiz music provider Helen Siwak returned from a decade in Europe to open Gastown's THECloset YVR boutique.
Former moviebiz music provider Helen Siwak returned from a decade in Europe to open Gastown's THECloset YVR boutique.
 ??  ?? Developer-builder Alfie Placktis appraised the Azimut 50 yacht before pitching the Renegade Entreprene­ur series to CNBC in New York.
Developer-builder Alfie Placktis appraised the Azimut 50 yacht before pitching the Renegade Entreprene­ur series to CNBC in New York.
 ??  ?? Kerry Gibson, who leads fundraisin­g for Surrey's Innovation Boulevard hopes for a device to let paraplegic­s control piano pedals.
Kerry Gibson, who leads fundraisin­g for Surrey's Innovation Boulevard hopes for a device to let paraplegic­s control piano pedals.
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? City-based Fraser Yacht Sales showed the Italian-made Azimut 50 that goes for $1.8 million and can reportedly go 30 knots.
City-based Fraser Yacht Sales showed the Italian-made Azimut 50 that goes for $1.8 million and can reportedly go 30 knots.

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