It is with a profound sadness that the renowned South African luxury yacht builder, Southern Wind Shipyard, received the news of the passing of previous president Nelson Mandela on the 5th December 2013.

Nelson Mandela

Managing Director Guglielmo Persico, the management and staff of Southern Wind Shipyard would like to express their deep gratitude for the legacy left by this giant of our time.

“Madiba’s” message of peace and reconciliation allowed South Africa to emerge virtually bloodlessly from the clutches of Apartheid.

“I established the shipyard in 1991, at the time when Mandela was being released from prison and preparing himself for the presidency of the country”, tells Willy Persico, “his moderate soul, that made  equality, democracy and education the themes of his life, stimulated and reassured me in undertaking an entrepreneurial adventure in South Africa. At that time the country was still troubled by civil disorder linked to the end of the Apartheid regime. Thanks to Mandela, South Africa has grown, and so have its people. He brought peace, forgiveness and inter-racial collaboration to what has become “the Rainbow Nation”.

Marco Alberti, General Manager of the shipyard said in his farewell to Madiba: “All of us at Southern Wind Shipyard are thinking of him today, and coming to terms with the passing of a man who is a hero and a leader for so many of us. May his soul rest in peace”.

“I learnt that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

Extract from Long walk to freedom, autobiography of Nelson Mandela