CRN: 50 Years of Yachts and Megayachts

In 1963, an Italian entrepreneur by the name of Sanzio Nicolini established a yacht-building facility in Ancona, Italy that remains today. Costruzioni e Riparazioni Navali is the yard, better known as CRN. Celebrating half a century of operation, CRN is certainly a significant player in the world of megayachts. Equally significant are its accomplishments along the way.

Take, for example, the fact that CRN starting building yachts with steel hulls straight away. It was unusual, since wood construction dominated the years leading into the early and mid-1960s. It’s further notable that CRN continued solely using steel for all of its yacht, megayacht, and commercial ship hulls until 2004. (The builder added commercial work in the 1980s.)

Additionally, while you may know that CRN and Riva are part of the same umbrella organization, the Ferretti Group, you may not realize that the two builders actually began collaborating in 1970. That’s when Nicolini met Carlo Riva, founder of the eponymous shipyard in Sarnico, Italy. Over eight years, CRN built eight yachts for Riva. Plus, Carlo Riva used one personally.

That same decade saw CRN increasingly building megayachts from about 92 to 131 feet (28 to 40 meters), sizes that were astounding for the time. An average of two to three launches occurred each year, too. By the 1980s, CRN had become associated with George Nicholson, the founder of Camper & Nicholson and who has for decades been credited with coining the word megayacht to describe the yachting market of 80 feet (24 meters) and above. Nicholson was impressed with CRN’s operations and began referring clients, leading to the construction of megayachts like Awal in 1980 and Abdulaziz in 1987.

The 1980s further saw two additional well-known people become associated with CRN: Gianni Agnelli, the chief of Fiat; and Ed Sacks, who had established The Sacks Group as one of the first yacht-management companies in the world. Both men commissioned significant megayachts, each designed by the late Gerhard Gilgenast. Agnelli bought F100, while Sacks bought Azzurra. F100 was intended for long cruises in a variety of weather conditions and could have a helicopter land on her deck, unheard of for a 100-footer (33-meter). The 154-foot (47-meter) Azzurra chartered for $100,000 per week, a tidy sum at the time, to say the least.

The North American market became increasingly important to CRN starting in the 1980s, and by the time the Ferretti Group acquired CRN in 1999, Americans were increasing among its clients. So, too, LOAs were increasing. In fact, by the turn of the 21st century, CRN was building megayachts upwards of 200 feet. The late 2000s saw the signing of the largest launch to that point: Azteca, measuring 236 feet (72 meters) and splashed in 2010.

Diversification was on order in the late 2000s, too. CRN expanded into fiberglass megayacht construction, adding the Navetta series and the CRN 128 series. To date, the two series have seen a combined total of 14 megayachts hit the water.

Of course, CRN’s history with the Ferretti Group has seen its share of difficulties, between the recession and the well-publicized financial troubles of the Group itself. But the Italian megayacht builder seems to be on firmer financial ground now, a year after the SHIG-Weichai Group, a Chinese firm, acquired controlling interest in the Group. The head of Weichai Group attended his first-ever CRN launch this past January, a day that was significant for the megayacht builder in two additional ways. First, it was the launch of its 120th yacht, christened Chopi Chopi (above). Second, Chopi Chopi is now the largest-ever CRN, coming in at 262’5” (80 meters). While you’ll need to wait until the Monaco Yacht Show in September to get a good look at Chopi Chopi, you can get a good look at 50 years of history by perusing this roster of CRN’s projects, which starts with the metal boats and is additionally ranked by year of launch.

Related posts

CRN Reorganizes: Exploring Refits, to Build Pershing and Riva Metal Megayachts Latest Amels 180 Marks 30th RoFlo in 8 Years: VIDEO Derecktor Shipyards Celebrates 75 Years, and World Record