The family-run Freire Shipyard has a 100-plus-year history of constructing commercial vessels and a much shorter history with megayachts. Despite that, it celebrated the keel laying for its second superyacht exceeding 328 feet (100 meters) this week. The somewhat secretive Project Incognita will be its second-largest yacht delivery, too, upon completion.
So far, the Spain-based shipyard is not disclosing the design studios responsible for styling, naval architecture, and/or interior design. Neither is it revealing amenities, such as the number of staterooms, or special toy-carrying capacity. It does say, however, that it signed the contract in 2021, and that plate cutting started in May 2022. In fact, the steel cutting coincided with a visit by Spain’s King Felipe VI, in which he saw a few of the yard’s projects underway. Freire Shipyard’s general directors, Marcos and Guillermo Freire, presented the king with a profile of Project Incognita, too. The yard’s workers created it from the first sheet of steel they planned to use for the hull.
Originally, the builder announced Project Incognita as measuring 351 feet (107 meters). Now, however, it simply says she exceeds 100 meters. Regardless, it anticipates her hull and superstructure to reach completion by August of next year.
For now, Freire Shipyard’s management team shares a statement from the owners’ representative. “We are proud of the extremely efficient hull, which went through extensive design and tank-testing programs to make it one of the most fuel efficient and stable hull designs,” the representative says.
Freire Shipyard, which dates to 1895, further has NB724, another explorer motoryacht, in build. She measures 367 feet (112 meters) and reportedly bears design by Bannenberg & Rowell. The joined hull and superstructure floated out of the fabrication shed last summer.
As significant as NB724 is, though, Pegaso put the shipyard on the global yachting map in 2011. The nearly 242-footer (73.6-meter) was its first megayacht, for an experienced Mexican owner seeking to explore the Amazon, icy waters, and everything in between. The yacht continues cruising today under the name Naia.
Freire Shipyard freireshipyard.com
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