Baia Yachts
Speed is an integral part of Baia Yachts’ DNA. Located near Naples, Italy, this shipyard builds luxury high performance yachts to 31 meters in length capable running up to 50 knots.
History of Baia Yachts
Baia Yachts’ roots began in 1961 with the Mericraft recreational boat-building factory in Naples. In 1968, Mericraft, which specialised in small wooden day cruisers, moved to the nearby town of Baia, which in ancient times had been a naval base for the Roman navy. In 1971, the Capasso family became a client of the shipyard but, after a strike the following year, ended up taking ownership. The family changed the yard’s name to Cantieri di Baia Spa – Mericraft, which later became Baia Yachts.
An “early adopter” of composite construction, Baia designed high-speed hulls that were perfect platforms for Arneson surface drive propulsion. The shipyard hit a high point in 1983, when American performance boat guru Don Aronow designed the hull for Baia’s B50 model. In 1990, a B50 won the famous Venice to Montecarlo race. Baia went on to launch larger high performance models, and even has a “green” motor yacht series, the Sevolution range, on its design boards.
Notable Yachts
The Baia Atlantica 80 is a successful example of the shipyard’s semi-custom luxury yacht range. Designed by Albert Ascenzi and Carlo Galeazzi, this 25-metre “Coupe” provides speeds of up to 80 knots.
Galeazzi and Ascenzi also collaborated with Baia on the design of its One Hundred model, a 31-metre luxury superyacht, which debuted in 2009. The next hull in the series, Mirage, which launched in 2010 with triple 2,430-horsepower MTU diesels, delivered an impressive top speed of 50 knots.
Specialisations
Baia Yachts focuses on semi-custom, high-performance yacht construction utilising lightweight yet strong composites such as carbon fibre and Kevlar. Baia also builds racing boats for the international offshore circuit.