If you want to see magic in real time, pair Italian masters of yacht design and naval architecture with a visionary owner. Full custom superyacht construction is a playground for creativity and the ultimate personal expression of yachting for its respective commissioning clients.
Naturally, there are just a handful of choices for full custom superyacht builders, each with its strengths, yet few that match CRN's range. Its yachts are brought to life on Italy’s Adriatic coast, in the historic shipbuilding city of Ancona, where CRN runs an 80,000-square-metre dedicated superyacht construction facility. Since opening its doors in 1963, the Italian shipyard has delivered more than 80 fully custom superyachts – each one made-to-measure.
Amor à Vida demonstrates the possibilities that full custom yacht design offers, and how CRN pushes those limits just that little bit further. "Every CRN superyacht serves as an advanced technological platform, enabling the shipyard to develop and refine innovative solutions that can become part of its expertise and be applied to future projects,” says Giordano Pellacani, CCO of Ferretti Group.
For Amor à Vida, you can trace a shadow of that lineage. Behind her design is Nuvolari Lenard, the studio arguably most synonymous with translating an automotive lexicon – particularly of the Italian variety – into yacht design. The studio's language is timeless, masculine and aggressive even at times, yet never disproportionate. You don't have to look beyond the CRN fleet to see how differently that language can be spoken, from the streamlined, sporty Comfortably Numb to the purposeful Atlante, which feels akin to a luxury SUV parked on Savile Row.
CRN’s partnership with Nuvolari Lenard since 2001 has led to 10 history-making superyachts, designing and styling both interior and exterior spaces, including 43-metre Cacique, 46-metre Alaska, 72-metre Arbema, 62-metre Salt, 72-metre Njoy and the CRN M/Y 146 currently under construction.
When the client of Amor à Vida then shared his passion for Italian sports cars with the build team, he was in great company, and the team could quickly sketch and develop reference points tailored to this vision.
Nuvolari Lenard sculpted Amor à Vida as low-slung and sporting, with a pronounced flared bow and sweeping lines running uninterrupted from the upper deck to the beach club. Full-height glazing floods the interiors with natural light while maintaining an uninterrupted connection to the sea, while the absence of a traditional fashion plate lends even greater emphasis to her taut silhouette. Yet beneath that assertive exterior lies a markedly different philosophy. Rather than relying on sheer horsepower, Amor à Vida is equipped with a hybrid propulsion system, developed to maximise fuel efficiency, onboard comfort and operational flexibility.
“The owner's clear vision extended beyond design to encompass the yacht's technical and technological aspects as well,” Pellacani explains. “This provided us with the opportunity to further expand and strengthen our capabilities in these areas, reinforcing CRN's commitment to continuous innovation." So the technology has since become part of the yard's wider technical repertoire for future clients.
The hybrid yacht system makes use of a 260kWh battery bank, enabling silent anchor mode while powering all hotel loads for a few hours without the generators running, allowing guests to enjoy their boat experience in near silence. A heat recovery system adds even more efficiency, capturing waste energy to provide hot water, while the pair of MTU engines, coupled with two Siemens Energy synchronous AC electric motors, deliver cruising speeds between 15 and 16 knots.
It is this quieter, more considered mantra that defines the onboard experience. That muscular exterior is just a front, because when you step on board, she comforts you with luxury. She's incredibly social, and her layout promotes exceptional flow between decks and between the interior and exterior spaces. She has a broad mix of open entertainment spaces and intimate retreats, with each deck catering to different occasions. Her crow's nest is a cosy and private open-air cinema, while her bridge and main decks are primed for hosting and entertaining, with an Italian pizza oven, al fresco lounges and dining areas, and a pool, tiled in peacock blue mosaic with hydromassage jets.
That same peacock blue runs quietly throughout the interiors as a signature, with a fil rouge chosen fittingly for the owner's love of the sea. Meanwhile, a recurring marine rope motif, cast in plaster and inlaid with teak, threads from the main deck's crystal quartzite bar through the furniture beyond. The interiors are by Nuvolari Lenard, with the studio's interiors art director Valentina Zannier.
Amor à Vida is a high-volume yacht of 1,447GT, all of which has been curated around family life. The forward VIP suite, positioned beyond the midship lobby and elevator on the main deck, is flexible and can be configured either as a private apartment complete with its own lounge or as two separate cabins – hugely beneficial for when travelling with younger guests. The remaining four guest suites are on the lower deck, while the owner has a dedicated deck with a lounge, an office, and private al fresco space forward and aft.
Her name translates to "love for life" from Portuguese, and it was that philosophy that shaped the owner's brief. It was a love of the sea, a love of the open road and a love of time spent with family. Every decision that followed was, in some way, an attempt to hold all three at once. Moran Yacht & Ship acted as the owner's representative throughout the build, helping translate that original vision into reality.
For more than 60 years, the thread running through every CRN delivery has never been a look or a formula; it has been the discipline of building whatever each owner actually asked for. That is a hard craft, and one CRN has mastered.
Sponsored content created for CRN