Ancona, Italy recently witnessed the start of operations at the Cantiere delle Marche shipyard, a new facility for the manufacture of Italian pleasure craft, designed to turn out steel and aluminium displacement-model yachts with excellent naval and construction characteristics, plus trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific range, all created through an approach and a vision that mark a major evolution in today’s yachting market.
Darwin Class 86 - Cantiere delle Marche shipyard
In fact, the Cantiere delle Marche is outfitted for the production of yachts measuring from 21 metres to 40 metres, but with features unusual for ships of this size: extra-thick steel, engines designed to operate 24/7, design and construction details normally found on ships larger than 40 metres. And Cantiere delle Marche also allows shipowners to customise their yachts, to the point of building full-fledged one-off units. With only one condition: keep a high standard of design and construction, remaining true to the shipyard’s philosophy: build small vessels that are safe to navigate and last over time.
Darwin Class 86 - Cantiere delle Marche shipyard
The Cantiere delle Marche intends to set itself apart, taking on the challenge of facing both hard economic times and the radical return of the market in the direction of fundamental yachting values in terms of content: focussing on the top-flight quality and uniqueness of its ships, with each model produced in limited numbers and labelled with the name DARWIN CLASS: category of small ships that has ushered in an Evolution of the Species (meaning Yachts) that – while modifying the design lines of the vessels – has kept the DNA unchanged, thanks to chromosomes made to navigate and satisfy shipowners in waters throughout the world.
Darwin Class 86 Motor yacht - Cantiere delle Marche shipyard
Precisely to place the emphasis on the sea and the client in the shipyard’s operations, the Cantiere delle Marche has also developed new processes and systems of operation and quality control, as well as a full line of post-sale services, with the aid of northern European professionals who have been onboard since it start-up.
Darwin Class 86 Motor Yacht
The Vision of the Cantiere delle Marche is definitely up-to-arte and farsighted: in fact, three clients have already acknowledged the shipyard’s values and the worth of its projects and ordered Darwin Class yachts. Two Darwin 86 ft yachts and one 82-foot vessels (with a hybrid propulsion system) are already under construction and will be delivered to the fortunate owners between 2011 and Spring of 2012.
Cantiere delle Marche shipyard Darwin Class 86
To sum up the spirit of the new Cantiere delle Marche in a word: bespoke. The shipyard goes out of its way to analyse every type of request from its clients, who can either have the design and construction fully managed in-house or enjoy the freedom of proposing designs developed by engineering and naval architecture firms that work directly for the client, with the end goal always being the highest possible level of client involvement and satisfaction.
As noted, the company’s mission also includes the option of commissioning an eco-compatible yacht, with one of the most noteworthy contributions being the option of hybrid Pronaves engines developed in collaboration with the Department of Electronic Engineering of the University of Rome III and designed to significantly reduce environmental impact by lowering emissions and, at the same time, achieving a quantum leap in terms of range, meaning that the more adventurous shipowners could travel round the world with only three refuelling stops.
The solidity of the values that set apart the Cantiere delle Marche is guaranteed by the expert group of forms and professionals that has been brought together by the Cecchini family, known for a good many years in the shipbuilding industry for having built hi-tech commercial ships and carried out extremely skilled refitting jobs (including the M/Y Lady Haya (67 metres) and the motor yacht Prometej (45 metres), plus, more recently, the highly refined Explorer Vessels).
Ennio Cecchini, CEO, has built his team around Vasco Buonpensiere, the Sales & Marketing Director, who can point to years of experience as an international broker, having just finished a 6-year stint as Sales and Brand Manager for Custom Line and CRN of the Ferretti Group.
As Vasco Buonpensiere himself states: ‘We believe that the Cantiere delle Marche, with its Darwin Class yachts, is one of the few truly innovative responses that the shipbuilding industry has to offer boat-owners who are thinking of building a new yacht at the moment’. ‘Our goal is to offer top quality, durability, seaworthiness, low fuel consumption and attention to the services connected with the pre- and post-sales phases: all that seems very obvious, but the market, spoiled by excesses of recent years, ha drifted away from these fundamentals, and that holds for both the owners and a number of shipyards throughout the world’.
The Managing Director of the Cantiere delle Marche – Ennio Cecchini – adds: ‘our objective is not to arrive at the mass production of ships, as so many have set out to do, though with varying degrees of success, but rather to heighten the efficiency of the craftsmen-like approach that has always made these vessels so special for their owners’.
In addition to Vasco Buonpensiere and the Cecchini family, Cantiere delle Marche will be able to count on a large store of in-house expertise, thanks to a network of leading forms – all part of the mother company – and in particular CPN for steel carpentry, piping and engine rooms, and GS Allestimenti Navali for furnishings: firms that, together with the shipyard staff, have built dozens of ships admired throughout the world.
The Cantiere delle Marche operates in an ideal site for achieving its goals, a facility formerly used by Ferretti Group and built only three years ago, specifically for the construction of great yachts.
