SCHERZO

Inspirations from an elegant Italian boat design, themes from a promising early musical career, and a love of family boating all came together when Dr. Frank Rosso was ready to move up to his ‘next’ boat. It would be 75 feet in length.

Years ago, while boating in Miami, Dr. Rosso could not help but notice a splendid motor yacht that had arrived from Italy. “It was a knockout and I said to myself, I’ve gotta make a boat like that.”

With some experience building a previous boat, Rosso created a cardboard scale model of the flybridge motor yacht design that he envisioned and took his model to a prominent marine architect. Brought to life by Hill Marine of Seal Beach, California, of cold molded fiberglass and wood, she was launched in Long Beach in 1989. Rosso and his family enjoyed the boat for three decades, extensively traveling the southern California coast to Newport Harbor, San Diego, and Catalina.

Scherzo includes two staterooms each with ensuite heads, crew quarters, a spacious kitchen, and an elegantly appointed main salon scaled large enough for both formal dining and living areas, a spacious aft-deck with steps— one of two routes— to the large flybridge.

Rosso named his motor yacht “Scherzo,” a term for a musical piece that Leonard Bernstein described as “playful, full of energy, it’s — as all scherzos should be — full of good humor.”

The vessel’s name, along with violin images etched into glass surfaces, reflect Rosso’s early musical background as a gifted concert violinist. He began playing at the age of four, continued through grade school, middle and high school, participating in the Normandy High School Orchestra, which won the state championship.

Though he was awarded a fellowship to further his music studies, Rosso chose to pursue medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. He credits his serious music study as helping him complete his four-year pre-med studies in three years. “Music studies taught me perseverance and discipline, most of all.”

Skipper Len Wohlsdorf, who has served Rosso’s family for many years, describes Scherzo as a ‘cruising sedan’ motor yacht. “Lots of room on the aft deck, but it’s not quite a sports fisher.”

Wohlsdorf takes us down below into Scherzo’s multi-compartmental engine room. Two 625-horsepower Detroit diesel engines with low engine hours power the vessel’s two propellers. He notes how the well-built hull produces zero bilge leakage.

The generator room— separate from the engine room— includes a main 20-kilowatt unit for living on the boat, powering the water heater, jacuzzi, and cooking items. An additional 8-kilowatt unit is “quieter, less fuel consumption, and you don’t need anything more than eight kilowatts for the evenings,” says Wohlsdorf.

Today, California Yacht Company is pleased to present this one-of-a-kind cruising sedan motor yacht vessel, offered for sale by its original owner, builder and designer.

For more information on Scherzo, please contact either of California Yacht Company’s two offices, Marina del Rey Yacht Sales or Long Beach Yacht Center. (310) 822-9814 or (562) 983-6622, or cayachtco.com .