CUSTOM LINE NAVETTA 50: DESIGNING A DREAM

Designed entirely in aluminium, the Navetta 50 joins Custom Line’s displacement series, becoming the shipyard’s flagship in the process.

With Piero Ferrari and the Ferretti Group Superyacht Yard Engineering Unit leading the project, Filippo Salvetti was brought in to design the Navetta’s exterior lines, with Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel taking care of the 50’s interiors. We catch up with Salvetti, Citterio and Viel to see how they started the design process.

How do you start planning a project like the Navetta 50?

Citterio: “Planning in the field of yacht design is an interesting synthesis exercise between architecture and design. On the one hand, yachts, being usable spaces for humans, are to be considered as architectures; on the other hand, being in effect self-propelled products, they have to deal with technical, production and serial problems.”

Viel: “In planning in the field of yacht design, we found ourselves putting into play the usual architectural relationships between space and context.”

The amount of space available is important?

Citterio: “The challenge in boating concerns above all the dimensions, every space and piece of furniture must be designed and designed “made to measure”, integrating and relating in small spaces – with an almost millimeter attention – compositional, functional and ergonomic criteria with technical solutions, plant engineering and structural.”

Were different design languages used?

Viel: “For the Navetta 50, we used different languages depending on whether you are in the hull, or in the superstructure, i.e. above the main deck. In the guest cabins on the lower deck, many of the furnishing elements, the containment and technical volumes lean against the side, integrating into the design of the hull and allowing the typical cross section to be read. In the salons on the upper decks the bulwarks are lightened, the containment volumes move back from the perimeter to make room for the windows, letting in as much light and sea as possible.

What about the exterior language?

Salvetti: The stylistic language used for the project gives the model sufficient character in terms of presence and plasticity. The combination of sculpted shapes and almost stylised features give the Navetta dynamism and strength, but at the same time preserves its classic and elegant soul, thus highlighting the desire to fully respect the design philosophy of the current range.

There is a connection between the interior and exterior?

Viel: “In the Navetta 50 project, the strong connection between interior and exterior recurs in all environments and is perceptible above all in the main and upper deck salons and in the Owner’s suite. This interspatial relationship is achieved not only thanks to the use of large vertical full-height windows, but is exacerbated by the recurring use of shiny and reflective surfaces, especially near the bulwarks, where the sensorial relationship with the mirror is even stronger. The resulting feeling is that of being on a private floating island in the middle of the sea.”

Construction work on Custom Line Navetta 50 will start at the end of the year and the yacht will be ready for presentation in 2024.