Pershing celebrates 40th anniversary

Italian yard Pershing, a brand of Ferretti Group, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

The yacht brand started in the early 1980s, when three friends (Tilli Antonelli, Fausto Filippetti and Giuliano Onori) founded Cantiere Navale dell’Adriatico 1° with a focus on repairing laminated wood boats. In 1985, a fortuitous meeting at the Genoa International Boat Show with Italian designer Fulvio De Simoni led to the yard's first model and major success, the Pershing 45.

A 14.6-metre dayboat, the Pershing 45 was known for its 35-knot top speeds and hydraulic gangway, a technological innovation at the time. From here, the yard began to take its familiar shape – leaning into yacht design and production and eventually becoming the first brand to be acquired by Ferretti Group in 1998.

BOATPro reports that, since its conception, the Italian yard has delivered an impressive 160 yachts in the 24-metre-plus size bracket. This includes its flagship (and first all-aluminium build), the 43.3-metre Pershing 140; the Pershing 115, which introduced gas turbine propulsion; and the Pershing 108, with its cutting-edge triple-engine propulsion system.

Smaller models also brought their unique qualities, such as the Pershing 72 – which debuted a concealed sliding glass door developed with Bensenzoni – and the Pershing 70, which trademarked the "Pershing wing" access stairway.

Four decades later, and the bulk of Pershing yachts are still produced in Mondolfo, Italy, where it all began. The space, designed by architect Sandro Sartini, measures over 84,000 square metres and contains four buildings – one dedicated entirely to its comfort-driven GTX series – two paint booths and a testing tank. Exactly 27 yachts can be built in parallel at these facilities, with owners invited to visit and take part in the process from beginning to end.

"As an entrepreneur, I very much appreciated the visit to the shipyard; it’s called loyalty building and it’s quite unusual," said Edi Orioli, an owner of Pershing 70. "The people I met lived up to the brand's reputation. They were professional and qualified, as well as showing a certain flexibility towards configuration choices. [And] after going for a sea trial, I realised that everything they had told me was true."

According to BOATPro, the yard has three units currently under construction – a Pershing 140, Pershing GTX116 and a Pershing 9X.