Year after year, women in yachting have taken a larger and more significant role in the industry. They are emerging as powerful, effective, and efficient – as much as men in yachting, and have gone beyond the role of charter broker. Here, YATCO takes the time to get to know some of these women – whether they are yacht sales brokers, shipyard coordinators or marketing masters. Below, we get to know Raffaella Daino, the Head of Communications and Marketing at Baglietto SPA.
Featuring Raffaella Daino, Head of Communications and Marketing at Baglietto Spa
What drew you to the yachting world?
I entered this industry by chance, answering an ad in a local newspaper: a shipyard in Viareggio was looking for a part-time assistant manager with foreign language skills and I was a young graduate in languages and literature looking for my first job. I still remember my first interview at CBI Navi.
I didn’t really know anything about yachting, but the sea had always been an intrinsic part of my life, partly due to family tradition: I grew up in Livorno and my father is a Naval Officer, as was my grandfather. I couldn’t imagine a career far removed from the sea.
How did you get your start in yachting?
It’s been over 25 years since that day, and this industry has conquered my heart. I’ve grown professionally in this field, and I’ve seen enormous changes and incredible developments both in Italy and worldwide.
Over the years, I’ve witnessed the yachting industry transition from a “handcrafted” approach to a managerial and industrial model. Yet, even today, it still moves me to see something of such value come to life little by little: raw materials, cables and wood slowly transforming into the finished product.
Who are some influential people in your life that you look up to?
Throughout my career, I met many people who impacted me professionally and to whom I am deeply grateful. I’ve worked in some of the world’s biggest shipyards and every experience and encounter taught me valuable lessons that shaped my personal path.
But my main role models are my family, especially my parents, who taught me their core values: dedication, humility, respect, and honesty.
What are some challenges you face and how do you overcome them?
It’s not always easy to present a product when it doesn’t yet exist. Attracting and maintaining attention with only drawings and renderings over a two-year period is one of the many challenges of this profession.
It may seem like a paradox, but in this field, communication works backwards: usually the aim is to promote a product by highlighting its qualities, but in the yachting industry, no matter how well you describe it with words, images or videos, nothing can really convey the true value and quality of the final product. It will always be just a glimpse, a description, a partial and therefore limited representation. It’s very difficult to truly render the full picture.
What are you currently working on and how do you stay inspired?
Right now, we’re working on a project that is very dear to me. Baglietto was established in 1854 and has a beautiful heritage that deserves to be known. We have recently begun reconstructing the company’s history through a major digitalisation and restoration of the records in our possession, with the aim of creating a proper Baglietto Museum.
While we work towards this ambitious medium-term goal, we’ve set an intermediate objective: we have launched a competition for young architects to design four containers that will be used as “mobile” exhibit areas. A small traveling museum that can be easily moved to various locations and which can recount Baglietto’s past, present and future. A modern, interactive, and experiential museum. The competition was launched just recently, and the deadline is set for the end of May. The winning project will be selected in June, with the aim of having the “micro museum” up and running by the end of the year.
