Yachts International Summer 2025

Physicians have a knack for being hard to find when you need them, unless you have their mobile numbers to reach them on the golf course, at the beach house or on the ski slopes. There is one notable exception, though: They’re almost always available to talk about their boats. This has played out a number of times over the course of my career. Generally, when I would call a yacht-owner doctor’s office looking for information about his boat, I could almost swear I heard scalpels and forceps clanging on the floor as they rushed to take the call. After a bit, it would be me who’d start to worry about the poor soul the doc had left hooked up to the heart-lung machine. Whether they’re dinghies or superyachts, we…

Seawolf X boasts several firsts. Rossinavi’s 140-foot (42.8-meter) aluminum catamaran is the Italian yard’s first multihull. It’s also a hybrid-electric yacht equipped with an artificial intelligence software system, developed in partnership with Videoworks, to enhance performance and the guest experience. “Her name is the Italian equivalent of a sea dog, someone who has a high appreciation for the sea,” says Federico Rossi, Rossinavi’s chief operating officer. The yacht was delivered in August 2024 from the Italian builder’s La Spezia facility. Penned by Fulvio De Simoni Yacht Design—the Italian studio’s second collaboration with Rossinavi, following Aurora in 2017—Seawolf X is the first hull in the builder’s Sea Cat series, which was unveiled in 2022. It’s defined by a low, fluid profile with an aggressive sheerline that rises dramatically toward the bow.…

Building ecologically responsible yachts has become a necessity. Owners increasingly demand sustainable solutions. The International Maritime Organization is pushing for net-zero emissions by 2050 with progressively stringent regulations. A more sustainable future is starting now, and Sanlorenzo is helping to shape it with the groundbreaking 164-foot 50Steel Almax—the first superyacht with a methanol fuel cell. “I consider sustainability not as an alternative for the future, but as a priority for the present,” says Massimo Perotti, Sanlorenzo’s executive chairman and owner of Almax. “In the last few years, climate change has been such that everybody’s talking about it, so we’re really happy to have started in advance, and we’re confident the rest of the yachting industry will follow suit.” Using fuel cells to convert hydrogen presents an array of challenges in…

Sanlorenzo is not the only yacht builder moving ahead with fuel-cell ideas. Last year, Feadship delivered the 390-foot (118.8-meter) Project 821, its largest yacht to date and the first with a cryogenic hydrogen fuel-cell system. Lürssen is building the 375-foot (114.2-meter) Cosmos, a methanol-hydrogen fuel-cell superyacht designed by Apple watch developer Marc Newson. Baglietto is testing its prototype BZero project that uses a solar-powered electrolizer to generate hydrogen for fuel cells. Sanlorenzo’s research began by studying the operational profiles of 25 of its yachts above 164 feet (50 meters) in length. On average, the yachts were motoring only 10 percent to 15 percent of the time. Most of the time, they were at anchor or in a marina using diesel generators or shore power for HVAC and other hotel services.…

SCHRÖDER LEARNED THAT CANTIERE DELLE MARCHE’S DIRECTORS WERE PLANNING A MANAGEMENT BUYOUT OF THE SHIPYARD. HE FELT INCLINED TO STEP IN. Sales of explorer yachts have surged, driven by younger and more adventurous owners, but only some of these yachts are actually built for real long-distance cruising. Among them are Cantiere delle Marche’s tough, steel-hulled yachts under 500 gross tons. As CEO, sales and marketing director and part owner of the company Vasco Buonpensiere says: “We believe it should be you who sets the limits, not the boat.” When Tom Schröder first stepped aboard a Cantiere delle Marche yacht at the Cannes Yachting Festival in 2019, he was inclined to agree. A German entrepreneur and Top Gun aficionado with a keen eye for detail, Schröder was struck by the meticulous…

The B.Now family of yachts is built on Benetti’s tried-and-tested platforms, but that doesn’t mean they’re all the same. Asani, the ninth hull in the 164-foot (49.9m) B.Now 50 series, has naval architecture by Pierluigi Ausonio and a streamlined three-deck exterior—and it’s the first hull with a twist on the interior layout. The main difference is a spacious main salon, thanks to an HVAC trunk being relocated from the formal dining area to outside of the bulwarks. The change makes the interior volume, already considerable at 500 gross tons, feel significantly larger. Natural oak and dark wenge-effect detailing further enhance the space. “The main salon felt cramped before with the trunk imposing on the available guest space, so this revisited layout is a huge improvement,” says Barbara Papini, head of…