Commander

Italian superyacht builder Cerri Cantieri Navali (CCN) and Swiss company Floating Life have joined forces for the development of a 42.5m explorer vessel.

The combination of Floating Life’s unique sales tactic and CCN’s previous relationship with them – as a result of the K40, which is currently under construction at the yard – is destined for a positive outcome and sheds a positive light on CCN’s current stance in the superyacht construction market.

For Floating Life, the objective is to offer a client a unique and high quality build from an excellent shipyard. The way in which this is executed depends on the due diligence of the facility regarding financial stability and other parameters such as quality-to-price ratio, experience, reliability and delivery times. The preconceived concept is then brought to the selected shipyard for construction, at which point the two companies join forces to see the successful construction of the project. Essentially, this sales tactic provides a security blanket to the client, who can rest assured that a substantial degree of risk has been removed from the contract.

This is the second time that CCN has worked with Floating Life, following winning the contract to develop and build the light ice class vessel K40 earlier this year. The new project, Commander, is also strengthened to meet ‘light ice class’ and is to be built in steel with an aluminium superstructure. Much like the K40, Studio Sculli has developed the exterior lines of Commander, working from the K40 as a platform – meaning that Commander is essentially a development of the K40.

“The design of Commander is what I would call ‘transversal’,” explains Mauro Sculli. “Essentially it is a compromise between different types of yachts, mainly an explorer and a traditional modern craft, combined with the wish to include elements that would immediately and clearly reflect CCN’s distinctive style.”

However, stylistically the choice of CCN is certainly an interesting one for both the K40 and Commander. Since the yard’s conception the focus has primarily been large open yachts or ‘flyingSport’ yachts until recently, when CCN unveiled the ‘Navetta Yachts’ concept range which has spurred a new direction of yachting for the Italian shipyard in the expedition market.

“Our success with the K40 encouraged us to develop this new project, of which we are very proud, in cooperation with Floating Life,” comments CCN’s CEO Diego Deprati. “I am confident it will be welcomed by the market, just as it deserves.”

“As for the K series yacht we are currently building, on this project too we have been focusing our attention on system efficiency and easy maintenance,” says Floating Life’s CEO, Andrea Pezzini. “We have deployed all our management expertise into the main characteristics that our customers have been asking for in our 16 years’ experience in the sector.

“We have tried to make this project extremely versatile and able to cruise in any and all sea/weather conditions,” Pezzini continues. “The experience we’ve gained from building the K40 proved that we share a common objective with CCN, which is great care for product quality and the same ethics and working philosophy towards our customers.”

CCN now have six yachts under construction, including the K40 which is scheduled for a 2017 launch.