Cantiere delle Marche Yachts

Based in Ancona, on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, Cantiere delle Marche builds long-range, luxury explorer yachts, both semi-custom and custom, from 26 to 43 metres in length.

History of Cantiere delle Marche

Just a decade old, CDM has a firm hold on the small to mid-size explorer yacht market. It was founded in 2010 by a group of veteran shipbuilders, including members of the Virgili and Cecchini family, international leaders in the construction of gas and chemical tanker ships and other commercial vessels. The shipyard also is associated with Costruzioni e Progettazioni Navali (CPN), which specialises in metal outfitting for yachts and merchant ships.

For the first 8 years of its existence, CDM focused on just two product lines and was sufficiently successful to move onto Boat International’s list of the top 20 boat builders in 2018 with its traditional explorer Darwin Class yachts and the contemporary Nauta Air line, which has been discontinued.

A rugged new line emerged in 2020 when the yard debuted its new flagship, a 40 meter Flexplorer. Along with celebrating its first decade of business in 2021, CDM’s semi-custom lines have coalesced around the Darwin Class model platforms at 92, 102 and 112 feet; the Flexplorer at 130 and 146 feet and the RJ series based on platforms at 115 and 130 feet, while continuing to build custom yachts as well.

Notable Cantiere delle Marche yachts and Award Winners

In 2013, the Darwin Class 96 Stella di Mare (now Lyubov'P) made her debut. The rugged 29.5-metre explorer yacht has a steel hull and aluminium superstructure. Equipped with twin MTU 8V M72 diesel engines, she offers an outstanding range of 5,900 nautical miles at 10 knots.

The Nauta Air 86 YOLO (now Rosey), the first hull in the Nauta Air series, launched in June 2014.  Featuring a design by Mario Pedol and Massimo Gino of Nauta Design, the 27.15-metre, aluminium yacht accommodates ten guests in four staterooms and four crew in two cabins. She has a 3,200-nautical mile range at 9 knots. A stretched version, the 90-foot Noga (now Icon), was delivered the following year and by 2018 the benchmark for the line reached 111 feet with a yacht named Hyhmä destined to traverse the Northwest Passage.

The yard’s milestone first project of more than 100 feet, (the Darwin and Nauta series are measured in feet by the builder) was delivered in July 2015 with a Darwin Class 107 rating a hefty 300 GT. A new flagship followed with 108-foot Darwin Class Narvalo in 2016, which claimed a special award for Quality & Value at the 2017 World Superyacht Awards.

The Nauta Air 110 Mimi la Sardine was delivered in 2018 and grabbed prizes at both Boat International’s Design Awards and the World Superyacht Awards.

Project K42 Audace is the yard’s first all-custom explorer yacht. Measuring 42.8m, the yacht has a registered tonnage of 450GT. Floating Life developed the project, which launched in January 2019. This was followed by the launch of the custom 42m explorer Crowbridge designed by Florence-based Tommaso Spadolini, with naval architecture and engineering by Hydro Tec.

In 2020, the builder added to its offerings a new series called Flexplorer. The first of this series is 39.37m Aurelia, a vessel that combines yacht styling and accommodation with the toy hauling capability of a shadow vessel. A carbon fibre A-frame crane designed in collaboration with AMS-Advanced Mechanical Solutions allows for the stowage and launch of a very large tender. Her astonishing interiors have been designed by Francesco Paszkowski. The second Flexplorer, currently in build, will be stretched to 146 feet.