Flexplorer 130

• LOA 39.37 m, beam 8.6 m, displacement 392 t
• 380 GT, steel hull with aluminium superstructure
• Exterior and naval architecture by Hydro Tec, interiors by Francesco Paszkowski Design
• Twin Caterpillar C32 engines, around 14 knots maximum
• Range beyond 5,000 nm at 10 knots on 60,000 litres
• Folding carbon A-frame crane and fold-down bulwark terraces
• 8 to 9 guests in 4 cabins, 6 crew
• Hull one Aurelia delivered October 2020

The idea, at its original size

Sergio Cutolo's concept for the Flexplorer was disarmingly simple. Stop hiding the tenders in a garage, carry them on a big open deck with a crane strong enough to handle real boats, then make the crane disappear when the work is done. The 130 was the first hull drawn to that logic, 39.37 metres, 8.6 metres of beam and a displacement of 392 tonnes.

The name was the thesis. Flexibility as the core product, with the aft main deck serving as tender bay on passage and as an open-air living space measured in the tens of square metres once the boats are launched. Fold-down bulwark sections extend the deck over the water, and the capstans and fittings retract flush so bare feet meet nothing sharp. The thinking borrowed from the commercial ships the yard's founders knew well, where deck cargo is routine and cranes are tools, and translated it into yacht finish.

Aurelia, built through a lockdown

Hull one was built for an experienced European owner and completed in the strangest year in modern shipbuilding, with the Ancona workforce finishing her through Italy's 2020 pandemic restrictions. She launched in September 2020 and was delivered that October, on schedule, a point the yard still cites when buyers ask how it behaves when circumstances turn hostile. It was an early demonstration of the production discipline that has since delivered seven yachts from the Ancona sheds in a single year.

Her interior is by Francesco Paszkowski Design, arranged around a full owner's apartment forward on the main deck with two VIP suites and a twin below, sleeping eight to nine guests with six crew. The style set the Flexplorer register, warm, low-key and durable, a home for long passages more than a showpiece for marina evenings.

The crane folds flush, the bulwarks fold flat, and a 39 metre yacht turns into an open-air plaza.

Machinery and range

Twin Caterpillar C32 diesels give a top speed around 14 knots and an easy ten knot cruise, where 60,000 litres of fuel stretch the range well past 5,000 nautical miles. The steel hull carries a bulbous bow, and the whole ship measures 380GT, comfortably inside the yard's under-500 discipline and cheap to operate for her length.

As on every CdM the engine room is a place to work, full height, wide access, commercial-grade systems chosen for parts availability in distant ports. The specification list reads like a delivery captain wrote it, which is close to the truth, since the yard's founders came out of commercial shipbuilding and its technical office signs off every layout.

What the first hull proved

Aurelia demonstrated that the transforming deck worked in open water as well as it had in renderings, and the market answered. The 146 arrived next, with Maverick delivered in 2024, then the 49.9 metre 165, which sold all three of its opening hulls in a single year. By the end of 2024 the family counted nine yachts delivered, in build or on order. Aurelia herself went on to cruise widely, doing the quiet advertising that delivered explorers do best.

The 130 itself has stepped back in the current catalogue, which concentrates on the 146 and the 165, and that gives the original a particular position. It is the rare CdM available only through the brokerage market, and Aurelia's own off-market sale showed how quickly a delivered Flexplorer finds its next owner when one surfaces.

The buy today

For an owner who wants the Flexplorer concept at its handiest size, the practical routes are a brokerage chase for the existing hull or a conversation with Ancona about the 146, which carries the same architecture with more volume. The 130 remains the reference point the rest of the line is measured against, and its dimensions still make sense.

Under 40 metres, under 400GT, a crew of six and a deck that swallows a 9 metre tender, a sailing dinghy and a workshop's worth of toys. Nothing else on the used market does that job with CdM build quality behind it, which is why the model earns its place in this library despite its short production run.

Who it is for: An owner who wants the original Flexplorer at its most manageable size and is prepared to hunt the brokerage market, or to brief Ancona on a 146 when no 130 is for sale.