Fabio Buzzi's Visionary Code X Catamaran Returns, Heads to Venice Boat Show

Fabio Buzzi's Code X is back on the water. The 14.5-metre catamaran that touched 62 knots on Lake Como trials under twin Ilmor V10 engines producing around 700 horsepower each, then sat beneath a tarpaulin at FB Design's Annone Brianza facility for the better part of two decades, has been revived and confirmed for Padiglione 1 at the Venice International Boat Show, running May 27 to 31.

The original commission came from Peter Grauer, a Swiss entrepreneur who arrived at FB Design with a rough concept model and a vision built around renewable energy. What Buzzi produced was a composite and carbon hull spanning 4.5 metres across the beam, with solar panels on deck, smoked glass screens at the helm and a cockpit roof in carbon that raised hydraulically. The standout engineering was the Tritab system: a satellite-guided arrangement of three hull flaps, two working conventionally at the sides and a third positioned in the tunnel between the hulls. That central flap operated in air rather than water, automatically depressing as speed increased to compress air beneath the boat and generate tunnel lift. The result was a powercat that planed cleanly at very high speeds with the crew seated in comfort below that rising canopy.

Grauer never took delivery, and the reasons have remained opaque. One of the original Ilmor engines failed during early testing, and the boat settled into long-term storage under canvas without a future.

What broke the impasse was Enrico Conti, Buzzi's long-serving in-house designer, who had worked on the Code X from the outset and passed it in the FB Design sheds every working day. When Federico Tognon, a Venetian marine surveyor drawn to unusual machinery, came inquiring, Conti made the introduction. Tognon negotiated a price with Grauer, bought the boat and brought it to Venice's Marine Tech yard, a facility where FB Design also maintains a base.

With the original Ilmors gone, Conti redesigned the engine bay to accept two FPT turbodiesel units producing 570 horsepower each. Tognon then added air conditioning, new upholstery, a revised floor and an autopilot before taking it onto the water. The Code X subsequently cruised to Croatia, drawing crowds at every harbour along the way. Tognon is now asking approximately 500,000 euros and has made clear he considers Venice, for all its prestige, a somewhat modest stage for what the boat represents.

The revival arrives seven years after Buzzi died in 2019 attempting an offshore speed record from Monte Carlo to Venice, his boat striking a man-made reef near the finishing line at the Lido di Venezia. Code X, conceived when hybrid power and solar integration were fringe ideas in powerboat design, reappears at a moment when both have moved firmly into the mainstream, giving its Venetian debut the weight of a design retrospective as much as a boat show appearance.