Custom Line Navetta 30: Nautical Style

The Navetta 30 is Custom Line’s first project with an exterior by Filippo Salvetti and interiors by the world-famous Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel (ACPV) architectural studio, both firms giving a special imprint to the brand’s new entry model while respecting and updating the line’s heritage.

Successor of the Navetta 28, the 30 has an overall length of just 28.4m and a hull length just under 24m. Yet although the 93-footer is 15ft shorter than the Navetta 33, this wide-body yacht is just 8in narrower, with a hefty beam of 7.3m (24ft).

Below the waterline, the Ferretti Group’s Engineering department used CFD techniques to develop a tapered hull shape with 30 per cent more volume than the Navetta 28 and better fuel economy.

With the naval architecture arranged, Salvetti began designing the visible parts of the exterior, masking the vertical connection between the decks with strong horizontal lines and continuous expanses of dark tinted glass. It’s an honest, no-nonsense approach that balances interior and exterior, private and convivial spaces in a functional and appealing package.

Boarding the yacht from a tender, the first feature that welcomes you is an aft platform with running boards that make access easy from the stern or either side.

The garage can accommodate a Williams Sportjet 435 tender and a jetski, and the door is fitted with the Ferretti Group’s patented Dual Mode Transom (DMT) that opens to launch the tender and become a beach platform. An innovative new feature is a flap that keeps the garage dry when closed and doubles as a launching and recovery ramp when open.

Symmetrical staircases lead up to the aft cockpit, which has a table, chairs and an extra deep couch that can double as a sunbed. Glass doors to the main saloon slide open wide to reveal a space where the designers’ quest for continuity and connection between all areas of the yacht is as immediately apparent as their good taste and painstaking attention to detail.

The saloon is furnished with freestanding pieces that Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel has designed for top Italian furnishing brands such as B&B Italia and Flexform, as well as structural pieces built to ACPV’s designs by Zago, a long-time Ferretti Group collaborator.

EMBRACING NAUTICAL TRADITION

Because of careful choices of materials, shapes and colours, ‘stylish’ aboard the Navetta 30 never overwhelms ‘nautical’. While you’re always aware you’re in a chic and modern interior, you don’t forget you’re at sea because you’re always surrounded by ocean views and because the interiors maintain a discreetly nautical vibe.

Walls are finished in brushed and textured fibreglass, a boatbuilding material resistant to the elements and easy to maintain. Window and door frames have rounded corners as per nautical tradition and are in natural teak, the timber that best expresses an idea of seafaring life.

The midships stairwell to the upper deck is lined in a textured material that recalls carbon-fibre, another boatbuilding staple. Even the floor seems to be a continuation of the caulked teak used on the outer decks until you look more closely and see that it’s teak painstakingly inlaid with a thin strip of wenge – an imitation game that masks luxury as functionality.

Riccardo Menin, an architect and interior designer for Custom Line, says: “Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel chose materials such as natural leather and real hemp cord that would recall the nautical tradition and would age gracefully with time. They wanted the yacht’s interiors to show the signs of the life they have ‘lived,’ not to stay as an untouchable showcase.”

At the forward end of the saloon, the portside door leads to the Ernestomeda-designed galley, which includes the crew mess. Protecting the privacy of owners and guests, the galley connects to the crew quarters forward on the lower deck, made up of a captain’s cabin and two with twin bunks, all with ensuite bathrooms.

The saloon’s starboard door leads to a hallway accessing the lower-deck stairs, the day head and the owner’s cabin forward. Like the main saloon, the full-beam owner’s suite gets plenty of natural light and views through large, continuous windows.

The shapes and materials are like the ones used throughout the yacht, but there is added luxury in details such as the bathroom mosaic made of tiny round tiles of recycled glass, an ecologically luxurious material that was created exclusively for this project.

The four guest cabins on the lower deck are all ensuite and comprise two VIPs with inward-facing double beds and two aft-facing twins, one that can convert to a double and be fitted with an additional Pullman bed. All guest cabins have portholes that can be opened to let in fresh air.

UPPER DECKS

The upper deck, accessed from the main saloon or aft cockpit, has a large outdoor area with an oversized teak couch, again purpose-designed for the Navetta 30 by ACPV. A dining table for 10 can fit comfortably in this space, but the showstopper is the spiral staircase in carbon-fibre and teak whose thin chrome balusters are lashed with rope.

The sky lounge and al fresco space are united stylistically not only by the yacht’s characteristic teak flooring but also by teak panels mounted in the ceilings of both areas. Interspersed between the panels are small spotlights, which are used throughout the yacht.

These discreet pinpoints of light were developed for the Navetta 30 by ACPV with Metis Lighting and have a warm, dimming technology that allows owners to adjust them both in brightness and in colour temperature to create a specific mood and atmosphere, whatever the time of day.

The upper deck’s fore area is easy to reach from the port side passage and if the outdoor areas already mentioned aren’t enough, there’s also the sun deck. Set low so that it doesn’t give the Navetta 30 a top-heavy look, the large deck has a second custom couch like the one on the upper deck, a grill, sink and fridge by the mast, and a forward bar for enjoying a sundowner or simply taking in the view from on high.

The bridge is on the upper deck and features six large Simrad touchscreens. Like all Navetta displacement models, the 30 is designed for covering long distances with low fuel consumption and has an impressive range of about 2,000nm at 10 knots. To assure comfort and reduce sound and vibration, the engine room has a ‘floating floor’, while ceilings have extra soundproofing.

With the Navetta 30, Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel has shown that nautical doesn’t have to be predictable and that there’s a happy medium between nautical and style. Their dash of new perspective coupled with Custom Line’s careful attention to fuel efficiency and comfort make the Navetta 30 an important new player on the water today.
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