Caprio’s First impression: At home dashing across the harbor at Monte Carlo for a night at the casino or flitting among the dots of land that make up the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River, the Comitti Venezia 28 is every bit the gentleman’s runabout.
Pure class may be the best way to describe the Comitti Venezia 28. Her styling may take more than a few cues from the 1960s, but that doesn’t make her retro. It simply makes her irresistible.
Her character reflects the type of sport boat built along the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. Mario Comitti founded the company in 1956 to build mahogany runabouts in the dolce vita style, maybe the most enduring look ever devised.
A straight sheerline, accented by a chrome rubrail, an aggressively raked stem, and a gracefully plunging transom define her profile. These elements combine to suggest a high level of speed and handling—in my experience aboard one of the mahogany models several years ago, the deep-V monohedron bottom delivers. The Venezia 28 has her maximum beam above the waterline at the helm. From there, the topsides tumble home and narrow as we trace the shape aft. This is as sexy a shape as anyone could imagine.
The area abaft the cockpit is devoted to a luxurious sunken sunpad. Lounging back there, even in moderately rough seas, ought to be comfortable, because the space is over the planing surface, where the motion is gentlest.
Driving a low-profile runabout feels like driving a spirited open sports car. You sit relatively low behind the wood-rim steering wheel, facing an arched dashboard of analog instruments. A lovely wraparound windshield protects the driver but lets enough air flow aft to make anyone sitting on the bench at the back of the cockpit fully experience the sensation of speed. A cuddy cabin in the bow provides an upholstered V-berth and has room for an electric marine toilet.
This midsize runabout will be equally happy resting on the boat deck of a superyacht or dozing in a classic boathouse on Lake George in upstate New York.
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Specifications
- Builder: Comitti
- Model: Comitti Venezia 28 Classic
- Boat Type: Runabout
- Year: 2014
- Base Price: $190,000 (plus shipping and destination charges)
- LOA: 28’0″
- Draft: 1’6″
- Beam: 8’1″
- Displacement: 5,400 lb.
- Fuel Capacity: 74 gal.
- Standard Power: 1/430-hp Volvo Penta V8-430-CE gas engine
- Optional Power: 1/300-hp Volvo Penta D4 diesel; Various single and twin Volvo Penta diesel and gas configurations
- Cruise Speed: 32 knots
- Top Speed: 49 knots
This article originally appeared in the September 2014 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
