The Founder

GianAlberto Zanoletti was born in 1943 and grew up with Lake Como as his natural horizon. From a young age, he spent time with fishermen and shipwrights, learning to see boats not only as means of transportation, but as traces of life, work, craftsmanship, and culture.
At age 12, he received his first rowing dinghy and, using an old sheet, built himself a sail. This sparked a passion that soon led him to regattas and motorboating: at age 17, he competed in the Centomiglia del Lario, and in 1970, he broke the world speed record in the SF 1000 cc Outboard Sport class.

As a young man, he began collecting traditional wooden boats, aware that new materials and technologies were replacing the construction methods, traditions, and ways of life connected to the water. Sailboats, motorboats, gondolas, ferries, workboats, books, photographs, and personal accounts thus became part of a collection destined to grow year after year.
When his backyard was no longer enough, GianAlberto foundedthe Associazione Raccolta Barca Lariana with some friends. The boats were moved to an old spinning mill in Pianello del Lario, which in 1982 became the Museo Barca Lariana: a heritage site open to the public, created to restore value to the history of boating and the human connection to each boat.

In 1987, he also founded ASDEC, the Association of Vintage and Classic Boats, to promote and spread the culture of traditional boating. His vision lives on today in the museum’s galleries, among the boats, engines, documents, and artifacts that maintain the connection between the past and the future.