Within the next two months, the Wider Yachts Fano shipyard will officially open for business, a new construction project itself in Italy. Its production schedule will kick off a little over a year following the announcement of the site.
Encompassing 193,750 square feet (18,000 square meters), the facility will be where the Wider Yachts catamarans see construction. In fact, the first hulls whose keels will take shape will be for the WiderCat 92 superyacht series (below). The series features design work by Luca Dini Design in collaboration with Wider’s own in-house department. It also features a hybrid propulsion system that Wider developed. Hulls one through five are already under contract, too. The shipyard will have no issue launching and finishing a few of the WiderCat 92s simultaneously, given 1,148 feet (350 meters) of quayside space.
Marcello Maggi, the yard’s president and the head of the holding company owning it, wanted the Wider Yachts Fano shipyard to be more than just a production site. In fact, he wanted local businesses involved in its design and development. Furthermore, Maggi wanted the facility to reflect Wider’s image, including its focus on sustainability. The Massari Design studio, which is quite near the shipyard, took on creating the looks. Alessandro Massari, head of the studio, says, “It’s not easy to design something that is beautiful but also practical from an industrial perspective.”
Among the function-driven features, the Fano shipyard has an abundance of glass to brighten workshops and offices. Standing 46 feet (14 meters) high, the building additionally has a Wider yacht outline on the wall facing the sea. Effectively, the “yacht” will seem as if it’s floating in the marina. Real yachts, meanwhile, will exit the construction shed through four doorways on two sides. Massari notes, “My own studio is just a few hundred meters from the site of the new shipyard, so like other inhabitants of the town, it was very important for me that the building look good and not be an eyesore.”
As for sustainability, solar cells will cover the roof. Once operations begin, the Wider Yachts Fano shipyard should be mostly self-sufficient due to solar power. Finally, although the materials aren’t in place yet, exterior cladding will be recyclable wood-plastic composite. This is a lumber product created from recycled plastic and wood pieces. Besides recycling, its advantages include better UV and humidity resistance compared to solid wood, plus resistance to discoloring.
“The new shipyard will be a real innovation centre,” says Marcello Maggi. “It’s where all our future boats, new green technologies, and new ideas coming from start-uppers will come to life in full compliance with environmental issues.”
Luca Dini Design lucadini.com
Massari Design massaridesign.com
Wider Yachts wider-yachts.com
Leave a Reply