With their new admirable launch, Italian builder CRN has proved they truly belong to the top. No matter the size or style, each and every unit they build exceeds expectations
Earlier this spring CRN has delivered Cloud 9, built to detailed specifications of the client, and managed by Burgess. The yard is currently working on a fifty meter Riva for the Riva Superyachts Division, a Pershing 140 is entering the first stages of production, and on average, the yard finishes one Custom Line yacht a month, and is currently juggling new CRN builds ranging from 50 to 79 meters in size.
Each of these reasons is enough to come to Italy, and we visited the Ancona Superyacht Yard to find out more about the latest builds and the yard that has been following a steady path to the top. CRN, now a serious threat to northern European builders, has become a builder difficult to surprise โ just look at one of their latest projects, the 55 meter Atlante, a project equally demanding for designers and builders.
Our visit to CRN began in the shed previously occupied by Cloud 9, where a 13.5 meter wide and 79-meter long yacht is being built. Set to sail in 2018, the yacht entered production in 2015 and has since then undergone extensive changes to the stern, which was lengthened significantly.
CRN changed the project without a glitch, proving once again that thinking on the go is one of their many fortes โ and demonstrating their willingness to meet the wishes of the client, no matter of the phase of project. They give Owners the opportunity to be an integral part of the developing phase, they come to CRN and give their key input without any constraints.
CRNโs first and main strength is the know-how and expertise that allow them to create bespoke yachts, ensuring that every vessel is immediately recognisable as the yacht wished for by the Owner. CRN develops projects from a blank sheet, hand-in-hand with the Owner, showing all its excellence and exclusiveness in cutting-edge projects and bespoke designed yachts, able to fit all Ownersโ wishes and needs.
It is important that the yachts are recognisable firstly as the yachts of the Owners and then as yachts part of CRN fleet. Such an approach is possible because the yard maintains a large number of their own employees, all trained in-house and adding to its excellence.
During our visit to the yard we have witnessed a number of junior-senior teams, working together to take the product to the next level and keep the know-how inside CRN. The 79 meter yacht we have mentioned earlier, currently built in the yard, was designed by Zuccon International Project, with interiors by Laura Sessa.
The yacht will have a beach club in the garage in the aft part of the yacht with direct access to the garage where three big tenders are stored together with a large number of other water toys, and a large number of cabins in a unique configuration (the rest is so far a secret).
Every detail of that new yacht is being made to highest standards โ for example, ceiling is mirrored in the floors down to a millimetre, with laser precision. The detailing is impressive: 160 km of electric cables (!) built into the yacht are laid with perfect organization, the many openings in the hull are perfectly spaced and the functionality of yacht is simply smart, for example the generator exhaust pipes are internal and lead tothe higher part of the Sundeck roof eliminating all the potentially unpleasant smells while yacht is on anchor.
Very interesting is also the fifty meter, >499 GT yacht built in the other shed. Although in smaller dimensions, partially it is inspired by the famous JโAde โ with whom it shares the design of the submersible garage, and this yacht will be a fun ride โ literally, as its upper deck will host a 12-meter slide.
In addition to the CRN yachts under construction, our favorite among the yachts we saw in various stages of design was the fifty-meter Riva, built in cooperation with some of the most famous names of the yachting industry. Set to be launched late in 2018, the yacht is based on a radically fresh concept bringing the quality on even higher level. CRNโs production director Graziella Repetto believes the new Riva will become one of the recognizable symbols of the yard: โWe have more than two hundred employees in production only, and another eighty in various offices.
With projects like Pershing 140 and the 50-meter Riva we put even more stress on quality than usually, which is a perfect task for our skilled and hard-working employees. We love setting the bar higher with each new project. An excellent example of our climb-to-the-top strategy is Cloud 9, delivered to the Owner on schedule. The interiors, signed by Andrew Winch, are a perfect example of the quality of the work we do, but all parts of the process are equally well-oiled. There is no part of CRN that lags behind, and with each new project weโll get even better.โ
Cloud 9 project leader Raffaele Giannetti, says: โCloud 9 was built for charter. Itโs a beautiful, functional, extremely comfortable and luxurious yacht that was developed by a special team of the yard. The technical and aesthetic aspects of the yacht were developed with extreme care to detail, and quality control was strict. The design itself was much more detailed than any before, and after the design was developed, we set out to gather all the tiny pieces necessary to build a yacht: all our contractors were under much more scrutiny than usually. This project is perfect in every way, but if I were to praise any one part of it, it would be the functionality with which the yacht is used. Every functional detail is perfect. Sailing on Cloud 9 really is like sailing on a cloud: at 15 knots of speed noise level never exceeds 44 db. That is something to be proud of.โ
During our visit to the yard, weโve noticed a new Custom Line Navetta 33 โhangingโ on the travel lift, which will be discussed in detail in one of our future issues; another perfect example of the prowess of the entire CRN yard.
Photos & video CRN
