After spending the past five months at the shipyard that built her over a decade ago, Ciao bid goodbye to Moonen Shipyards in recent weeks.
The 95-foot (29-meter) Ciao, which was Nilo at delivery in 2007, normally spends the majority of her time in the Med. The owner and captain decided the mostly mechanical changes they wanted made sense to do at Moonen. Specifically, the worklist included new zero-speed stabilizers and upgraded propulsion equipment. A new crew cabin was on the list, too.
When Ciao arrived, Moonen says, she showed a strong, regular maintenance and care program. Even with well-maintained yachts, however, sometimes hidden issues come up when a refit starts. This was the case with Ciao. Since the drive train and controllable-pitch propellers were on the work list, the Moonen craftspeople began removing them. In the process, they discovered some damage to the strut, according to Capt. Henk-Johan Hankart. Hankart, who’s been running Ciao for the past three years, says it was “expertly repaired.”
The rest of the maintenance tasks seemed to go as expected. In fact, “The mechanical work was very good, and the workers on the shop floor were helpful and easy-going,” he adds. Furthermore, Moonen says the megayacht performed well on her first day of sea trials—just as she did when first launched. The captain confirms this. “It’s impressive that a displacement yacht can manage almost 24 hours,” Hankart explains.
Ciao additionally confirmed to Hankart, and the owner, that she was a good choice when purchased. “She was already a very stable boat even before we made this switch from hydraulic to electrical stabilization,” the captain says. “We sailed to Holland from Greece last November, and the weather in the Atlantic was quite bad at times. As Ciao took the waves in her stride, I remember the words of one of those who joined us on the delivery, a captain on offshore vessels. ‘I feel safer on this yacht than on the boats we use for the wind farms,’ he said.”
Now with her new gear in place, as well as her new crew cabin, Ciao is enjoying some leisure time in The Netherlands. Next up are cruising around Denmark and the Baltic Sea.
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