Our history
In 1962 a small series of hundreds of scaled water jet units were produced and distributed on the Ticino river, close to the company’s facility in order to allow Castoldi technicians a steady monitoring.
In February 1969 the first mass produced Castoldi water jet unit, the model Jet 05 was first exhibited at the Genova Boat Show and released on the market.
Many water jet drives were sold at that time in Europe and this new unit was viewed with a lot of interest.
In 1970 a strictly production model of Jet 05 appeared for the first time in the Pavia-Venezia motor boat race, which was 400 Km long. The 270 HP powered Castoldi jet runabout arrived first in Venice at an average speed of 58,5 knots winning the first price of its category and beating all the traditional hulls.
From 1971 to 1972 this aluminum 7.5 m boat, equipped with a standard production waterjet unit wins all the italian off-shore races in C2 class.
In 1974 the offshore race Santa Margherita-Montecarlo-Santa Margherita, 200 nautical miles was won by an ENFIELD 37 boat at an average speed of 57,2 knots.
It was propelled by a special Castoldi Jet 06 counter revolving twin stage coupled to two 600 HP engines.
Up to now this is the first long distance offshore race in the history of motor boat to be won by a boat having a propulsion system other than a propeller.
At the mythical Niamey-Bamako river Niger race 1200 NM long 5 boats equipped with Castoldi waterjet drives took the first 5 positions against 37 other much more powerful boats.
One of the two Jet Explorer boats used for an expediation in central Africa, 1989.
Up to now more than 30.000 Castoldi water jet units are operating all over the world; among their operators there is the Italian Customs with their patrol boats.
In the early 90's Castoldi produces the first twin seats jet ski ever made and start to export it worldwide
The second Waverider generation has also been used for a water chase in Venice during the shooting of a Wim Wenders movie
Castoldi waterjet drives power the Destriero support boat during its world speed record crossing the Atlantic Ocean, in year 1992
The Italian Navy with their fast landing craf.
The Carabinieri with their Castoldi custom-built fast patrol boats.
The first Jet Tender unit (called JT 18 PRO) has been launched in 1998. This unit is the precursor of all the present range (in the picture the unit manufactured for Carabinieri).
The Spanish Coast Guard with its fleet of 40 knots 22 m patrol rescue vessels.