Perini Navi - The Italian Sea Group Yachts

Headquartered in Viareggio, Italy, with a metalworking facility in Istanbul, Turkey, Perini Navi builds luxury cruising and performance cruising sailing yachts from 40 to 88 metres in length. The yard was forced into bankruptcy on February 1, 2021 by a judge for Lucca Trubuna, the local government authority, which rejected a financial a €100 million restructuring plan presented by Fenix Holding, for the Tabacchi family, the majority shareholder of the yacht building company. In December 2021, the yard was saved from going under by The Italian Sea Group (TISG), which bought Perini Navi for  €80 million. The package included the Perini Navi facilities in Viareggio, the Picchiotti facilities in La Spezia, and all trademarks, patents and remaining employees.

History of Perini Navi Yachts

Perini Navi was founded in 1983 as a result of Italian paper manufacturer and inventor Fabio Perini’s passion for sailing. Unable to find a large sailing yacht that he could operate single-handed, he decided to create a company to design and build one. At first, Perini Navi primarily was a studio for designing and engineering large luxury sailing yachts, but by 1988, the company began building its own designs.

The design goal for Perini Navi was to create large yachts that could be handled by a small crew, and to that end, the shipyard helped to develop a computerised sail-handling system that would enable sails to be furled and unfurled with the push of a button and captive winches located under deck that eliminated flailing sheets and dramatically reduced the number of crew needed to handle massive sail areas.

Following many years as a leader in the international sailing yacht industry, Perini Navi entered the luxury motor yacht sector in 2007 with the launch of the Vitruvius motor yacht series by Picchiotti, a sister division within the Perini Navi Group.

Looking to modernize its offerings in 2017 with the announcement of a new series called Evolution, featuring aluminum hulls and hybrid propulsion. Forty two metre and 47 metre versions are currently under construction including the 42M GTS version without the characteristic Perini flying bridge.

Notable Perini Navi Yachts

In 2006, Perini Navi launched the 88-metre sailing yacht Maltese Falcon. Built at Perini Istanbul, the company’s Turkish shipyard, this majestic sailing yacht has three masts with curvilinear spars, naval architecture by Gerald Dijkstra and Partners (now Dykstra Naval Architects), and an interior design by Ken Freivokh Studio.

Seahawk, the first yacht in the Perini Navi 60-metre Series, launched in 2013. This all-aluminium superyacht has naval architecture by the shipyard in collaboration with Ron Holland. The shipyard’s in-house team also designed the interior décor for this semi-custom superyacht.

Sybaris, a full custom aluminium70 metre with Philippe Briand collaborating on her hull lines was launched to considerable fanfare in 2016. With a stunning interior by PH Design, The yacht picked up award from both the World Superyacht Awards and the Boat International Design & Innovation Awards in 2017. The yacht now sails under the name Badis.

The first motor yacht delivered under the Perini Navi/Vitruvius banner is 49.5m Exuma delivered in 2010. This unusually slim design by Philippe Briand marked new thinking about long-range expedition yachts and won Motor Yacht of the Year at the World Superyacht Awards in 2011. Exuma was followed by the slightly larger Galileo G. The third yacht was launched as Grace E (now Nautilus) and featured breakthrough diesel electric propulsion utilizing azimuthing propulsion from ABB. This 73m is also a multiple award winner both for her technical achievement and for her Remi Tessier interior.

Specialisations of Perini Navi

New custom superyacht construction in aluminium and steel, refits and service work all are provided by the Perini Navi Group, which maintains shipyards in Viareggio and La Spezia, Italy, and the Yildiz district of Istanbul. Perini Navi also provides brokerage and charter services for its clients. The facility in Turkey was closed at the end of 2020.