Ennio, the Global Order Book 2018, issued by Boat International has confirmed what it was already rumored in the last months: Cantiere delle Marche has entered into the worldwide Top 20 shipyards ranking after only 7 years from inception. What has been your first reaction to this great news? The truth is that when they communicated the news to us, I actually thought it was one of Vasco’s jokes...
But once I have realized that it was true, I immediately thought about letting every worker and employee of the shipyard know about it. This is a real example of a team effort, and I mean it. From the workers in the shop to the Board of Directors and the shareholders, I must say that there is no one who hasn’t put 200% of his capacity, commitment and loyalty into this project.

What makes this result so special for CdM? There are a couple of good reasons. First of all the number of yachts under construction matches also with a very positive profitability of Cantiere delle Marche. This is not always the case in our industry. Secondarily, what makes it even more special is that if we narrow the ranking to equivalent segments (size range on size range and/or building materials), we are either leading the pack or we are preceeded only by the biggest yachting groups in the world.

Will this success lead to an expansion of your ranges, increase of size of the vessels and a bigger and bigger facility as everybody would expect? Absolutely not. In terms of size of the yachts, we confirm that we are not going to build bigger than 45 mt/499 grt. We are not interested to enter into a very cramped arena where there are a few shipyards leading the market and a lot more which are struggling to build one unit per year… in the good years.
In terms of facility, we have just added one 61 mt shed to the existing one and – as we do not want to deliver more than 3 to 4 yachts per year – we do not need more. Once again I repeat our mantra: we want to become better and better, not bigger and bigger! And let me add: we want to keep on having a relaxed and enjoyable quality of life, too!

One last question about the future: what is the most exciting project you are following at the moment? For sure the one we sold last December after having showed the first preliminary drawings to the client in Cannes at the show. A very unique 40 mt yacht which will constitute our new range. An example of perfect matching between demand and offer.
As usual we have interviewed more than 100 people between clients, surveyors and captains before deciding about it and – seen the result (one sale even before promoting it) – I think we did it right!

Is there something more you want to say about this yacht? It is a very seaworthy and overengineered Explorer Yacht featuring a specific detail which I sincerely think will change the way of looking at tenders’ operation and tenders’ dimensions… but I cannot say more, otherwise I have to kill you!!!