The Ferretti Group is known for conceptualising and building some of the world’s most high-end ships – and those looking for the utmost personalisation opt to have their vessel built under its Custom Line or CRN divisions. Teresa Levonion-Cole attends the launch of the latest super-yacht by the former, and gets a rare look behind the scenes at the latter, visiting the brand’s new Superyacht Division Building.
The sun is shining, seagulls are cawing, and a host of helmeted guests gather in front of a sleek, 38-metre, fibreglass yacht that floats suspended in the air. Officials make speeches. Welcome to the launch ceremony for Jerry’s Ferry – and yes, the eponymous Jerry is in attendance with his wife, who proceeds to smash a bottle of champagne against the anchor to confer this somewhat bathetic name. Photographers click, seagulls dodge drones, three priests sprinkle holy water, and the horn emits an ear-shattering blast before the yacht is gently lowered into her watery berth. Here she will stay for a further two to three months pending final trials and checks, before her proud owners can take delivery.
Jerry’s Ferry is a yacht by Custom Line, one of seven brands owned by the Ferretti Group (the others being Riva, Pershing, CRN, Itama, Wally, and Ferretti itself). Of these, CRN, which produces full-custom superyachts between 60 metres and 95 metres in length, celebrates its 60th anniversary. At this Ferretti Group shipyard in the Italian coastal city of Ancona, as an appropriate celebratory gift, a brand new Superyacht Division Building highlights the no-expense-spared craftsmanship found on the yachts themselves. In lavish offices decorated with model yachts, artworks, and yachting books by Assouline, clients discuss their requirements with the Project Team over glasses of champagne.
Some three years of work precede the launch of a new yacht. Part of the process can be witnessed in a shed that houses CRN’s latest project, dubbed CRN 143: a 5-deck, 67-metre steel and aluminium structure that will accommodate up to 14 passengers and 17 crew and reach a cruising speed of 16 knots. It has yet to be fitted and painted, and its machinery, on-board systems, equipment and furniture yet to be installed. A metal hulk, at this stage, it’s due for launch in November.
The process begins with a blank page, the client outlining his requirements, such as the range, performance, and purpose of the yacht. Over the course of a year or more, the project takes shape: the layout, the hull, the bow and stern, the length, beam and draft, the features of each deck, the number and volume of spaces, and the placing of the beach club, cinema, wellness area, tender bay and gym (the list goes on), leading to a general arrangement plan.
Once the fundamentals have been established, the naval architects and naval designers (in the instance of CRN 143, Nuvolari Lenard) set to work, with the structural side, electrical systems and utilities developed by the Technical Office engineers. The steel hull is constructed in the Marghera shipyard, and delivered by barge to a CRN shed, where construction continues, and carpenters are at work. Painting the hull, once it has been primed, is the most dramatic element of the process to witness: every inch covered but for the surface to be painted, whereupon two technicians, of the same height, work in tandem, synchronising their movements to music like human metronomes, to ensure a seamless finish to each section.
The project manager coordinates the in-house team of engineers, project architects, technicians and craftspeople. And, as the project evolves, clients are involved in the increasing refinement (or alteration) of details and materials, with the help of renderings, scale models, plans and mood boards – the “executive drawings” produced by the Project Architect responsible for the interiors.
The cost of such a project? “You can estimate around €1 million per metre of length”, says Project Architect Costanza Pazzi. “So, €70 million for a 67-metre yacht, plus a minimum of €20 million for fittings in a standard interior”. For CRN 143, with its leather, marquetry, book-matched and carved marbles, walk-in closets and pool – among other delights – you can expect to dig substantially deeper.
Photography by Phil Blake and courtesy of Ferretti Group
