CRN launches 70m Thunderball, a full-custom to one sailor's brief
A 70-metre full-custom, floated out at Ancona
CRN moved Project Thunderball into the water on 4 June at the Ferretti Group superyacht yard in Ancona, in a private ceremony for the owner and family. The steel and aluminium yacht runs 70 metres on an 11-metre beam, measures about 1,100 GT, and carries its accommodation across four decks. There is room for 12 guests in an owner's suite and five VIP cabins, with 15 crew housed in nine cabins. Vripack handled the exterior and naval architecture, Nauta the interiors and outdoor areas, and Y.CO managed the build for the owner. Delivery is scheduled for later this summer.
A float-out is not a finish line. From here the yacht goes through final outfitting, systems commissioning and sea trials before she can be handed over, which is why the summer delivery window is tight rather than settled. What the launch confirms is that CRN, the full-custom arm of the Ferretti Group, has cleared the heaviest structural and fit-out stages on a 1,100 GT hull. A bespoke 70-metre reaching the water on schedule is a statement about the yard's capacity as much as its craft.
A sailing owner's brief, written in steel
The design pulled from sailing yachts rather than the usual motoryacht playbook. All three trade reports describe a long bow, clean lines and a low-slung silhouette meant to echo a sailboat's profile, with curved surfaces carrying the eye between inside and outside. Below that styling sits an Energy Storage System built for peak shaving and silent running at anchor, which cuts generator hours and fuel burn. BOAT International reports MAN V12 engines giving a 15.5-knot top speed and a 12-knot cruise, a relatively shallow 3.2-metre draught, and stowage for two 9-metre tenders alongside a gym and spa.
Those choices read as an owner's list rather than a catalogue spec. The shallow draught opens up anchorages a deeper 70-metre has to skip. The battery bank means quiet nights at anchor without a generator running under the aft deck. Sailboat lines give the boat a profile that stands apart from the slab-sided hulls on the same dock, and none of that comes off a production shelf. The owner is paying for a boat built to a brief, and every one of those decisions traces back to how they intend to use her.
Full-custom against the spec tide
Thunderball lands as much of the yard world pushes the other way. Groups from Benetti to Pershing have leaned into spec and series builds to keep berths moving and shorten queues, betting that buyers want delivery slots more than blank sheets. CRN sits at the other end of that spread as the Ferretti Group's steel full-custom yard, where each hull starts as a one-off and an owner's team such as Y.CO runs the project from the owner's side of the table. The 70-metre is among the yard's most significant launches this year.
For a buyer weighing the two routes, Thunderball is a data point about what the very top of the market still wants. Spec hulls win on speed and resale liquidity, but they cannot deliver a sailing owner's silhouette or a draught tuned to a favourite bay. As long as owners at this size will wait years and pay the premium for exactly that, yards will keep a full-custom line open next to the series sheds. The next signal comes at handover, when the summer window closes and the boat either leaves Ancona on time or slips into autumn.
What owners and crew report
Vripack's co-creative director on why the hull skips a bulbous bow
"The family's design inspiration very much came from the long and elegant close-to-the-water lines of graceful sailing yachts." On dropping the conventional bulbous bow after tank testing: "The reduction of resistance is so low that it doesn't weigh up to the added resistance of the bulb." He also noted the owner has "a rare keen eye and really pushes for what he wants."
Marnix Hoekstra, Vripack Co-Creative DirectorY.CO's head of new-build projects on the pace of the build
"It's exciting to see the project move through the milestones. The collaboration between the teams at Vripack, CRN and Nauta has been instrumental in the efficient progress."
Donna Green, Y.CO Head of New Build ProjectsThe owner is reported to be a competitive sailor, and the yacht is built to support his sailing yacht
The anonymous owner is independently described as an experienced sailing-yacht regatta competitor who wanted the motoryacht to double as a support and chase vessel for his own sailing yacht, with a smaller companion sailing yacht reportedly planned to operate alongside her.
Barche Magazine
What is good, and what to watch
Strong points
- A tank-test-driven decision to skip the bulbous bowRather than defaulting to a bulbous bow as convention would suggest for a displacement hull this size, CRN and Vripack ran tank testing that showed the sailing-yacht-inspired, sharp-entry hull was already low-resistance enough that adding a bulb would increase drag rather than cut it, a verified engineering call rather than a styling choice.
- Built for a specific dual role, not just as a showpieceThe hull form and general arrangement were shaped so the yacht can work as a capable support platform for the owner's own sailing yacht, including reported plans for a companion sailing yacht alongside her, a distinctive, owner-driven brief rarely seen on a full-custom motoryacht this size.
What to watch
- A long, schedule-risk-prone gestation typical of one-off full-custom buildsDesign work reportedly began around 2018 and Y.CO completed the project sale in 2022; spring-2026 coverage still expected a spring float-out that slipped to 4 June, and the delivery window given at launch, later summer 2026, has passed with no confirmed handover date as of late August 2026. A semi-custom or spec-built hull of similar size would carry far less of this kind of schedule risk.
Practical detail
| Price | Not publicly disclosed by any outlet reviewed, expected for a private, full-custom commission with an undisclosed owner. |
|---|---|
| Delivery status | Not yet delivered as of late August 2026. Coverage describes her still in sea trials and outfitting, with handover expected later in 2026 under her delivery name, Cerulean. One secondary brokerage listing shows a data field marking her 'delivered June 2026', which conflicts with that same listing service's other page for the yacht and looks like the June float-out date miscoded as a delivery date rather than a genuine handover report. |
| Delivery name | Cerulean, flagged Cayman Islands, already used in brokerage/directory listings ahead of formal handover; 'Project Thunderball' was the shipyard project name. |
| Owner identity | Not publicly known. Consistently described only as an experienced sailing-yacht regatta competitor; no name, nationality or country has been reported. |
| What is not publicly known | Purchase price, the owner's identity, the exact delivery date, the Energy Storage System's capacity and output, the make and model of the two 9-metre tenders, and details of the reported companion sailing yacht. |
Questions this story answers
What happened?
CRN floated out its 70-metre Project Thunderball at Ancona on 4 June, a steel full-custom shaped by an owner who wanted a motoryacht that carries a sailing yacht's low, long lines. Vripack drew the exterior and naval architecture, Nauta the interiors, and delivery is set for later this summer. In a market leaning harder into spec hulls and repeat series, a one-off at this size marks where the top of the fleet still puts its money.
What is good about it?
A tank-test-driven decision to skip the bulbous bow. Rather than defaulting to a bulbous bow as convention would suggest for a displacement hull this size, CRN and Vripack ran tank testing that showed the sailing-yacht-inspired, sharp-entry hull was already low-resistance enough that adding a bulb would increase drag rather than cut it, a verified engineering call rather than a styling choice.
What should an owner or buyer watch?
A long, schedule-risk-prone gestation typical of one-off full-custom builds. Design work reportedly began around 2018 and Y.CO completed the project sale in 2022; spring-2026 coverage still expected a spring float-out that slipped to 4 June, and the delivery window given at launch, later summer 2026, has passed with no confirmed handover date as of late August 2026. A semi-custom or spec-built hull of similar size would carry far less of this kind of schedule risk.
What do owners and crew report?
"The family's design inspiration very much came from the long and elegant close-to-the-water lines of graceful sailing yachts." On dropping the conventional bulbous bow after tank testing: "The reduction of resistance is so low that it doesn't weigh up to the added resistance of the bulb." He also noted the owner has "a rare keen eye and really pushes for what he wants." (Marnix Hoekstra, Vripack Co-Creative Director)
Who reported this?
BOAT International, Marine Industry News, Yachting Magazine, CRN (Ferretti Group), SuperYacht Times, YachtBuyer, Vripack, Yacht Harbour, Barche Magazine.
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