Opacmare

Thirty years in Turin, not the yacht coast

That inland location is unusual for a yacht equipment maker and it has not slowed the company down. By 2023 turnover had reached EUR 50.97 million, and the company's own figures for 2025 put group turnover at more than EUR 50 million again with more than 350 employees across five production sites. Research and development spending runs above EUR 1 million a year with roughly 50 engineers and designers on staff, and the company files two to three new patents most years.

The catalogue has grown to more than 5,000 items. Certification runs deep too: ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 at the company level, and individual products independently certified by RINA, Bureau Veritas, Lloyd's Register, ABS, CRS and RRR depending on the market a customer is building for. In 2025, its thirtieth year, Opacmare was named to Italy's Campioni della Crescita growth-leaders list and won a regional award for best new industrial facility in Piedmont.

Buying its way up the yacht, one acquisition at a time

The Pin-Craft deal is the one that changes what Opacmare can sell. Pin-Craft's own work sits at the superyacht end, and the acquisition is explicitly framed by both companies as extending Opacmare's range up to vessels of 200 metres, covering the 10 metre to 200 metre band as a combined group. A new general manager for the Pin-Craft subsidiary was named in February 2026, which suggests the two businesses are still being knitted together rather than simply badged as one.

On the OEM side, Opacmare confirms an active, ongoing supply relationship with Azimut for movement systems and doors across the Seadeck range, and a 2024 collaboration with Four Seasons Yachts on custom automatic doors, with wider integration due in 2026. A single Sanlorenzo SD96 has been reported fitted with an Opacmare swim platform in a yacht-sale listing, though that is a single, unconfirmed data point rather than a named ongoing relationship the way Azimut and Four Seasons are.

An owner who paid EUR 12,000 for his passerelle was told, after its handrail snapped off under a guest's weight, that the handrail was never built to hold a person.

The platform that triples the swim deck

It does more than one job from one mechanism: passerelle, swim ladder, tender lift and loading platform, in twelve configurations from four to eight steps, rated from 450kg up to 1,650kg depending on the model, running on a 380V supply. An optional carbon-fibre structure cuts weight where every kilogram at the stern affects trim. A stepless variant, the 3390, drops the passerelle function and focuses purely on tender-lift and loading duties for owners who do not need a boarding staircase built in.

The original Transformer, developed with a custom rotating actuator sourced from a German supplier, turns through 360 degrees, so the same platform serves as a raised dive platform, a submerged teak beach at the waterline, or a lowered swim and snorkel step. The updated Transformer EVO cuts weight by 12 to 16 percent and footprint by 18 to 25 percent against the previous generation. One owner is reported to have used the platform to move a car between the dock and the garage, which is the kind of use case the mechanism was never marketed for but is strong enough to handle.

A hi-low platform built around the outboard, not against it

It moves electro-hydraulically between three fixed positions: submerged about 10cm below the waterline for anchoring or swim access, level with the cockpit sole for normal running, and raised for high-speed trim. Control is by smartphone, and the interlock is the safety feature that matters most: the outboards cannot be started while the platform is down, and the platform cannot lower while the engines are running. A dedicated hatch gives access for propeller maintenance without lifting the whole platform.

Opacmare states the system can free up to 30 percent more usable deck space on a boat that would otherwise dedicate a fixed area to outboard clearance. A lighter variant, the S.A.F.E. 5370, weighs just 52kg and targets smaller outboard installations where the full system would be overkill. Between the Transformer and S.A.F.E. lines, Opacmare has effectively built two different answers to the same question, one for inboard-powered yachts and one for outboard tenders, rather than trying to force a single mechanism to do both jobs.

What it actually costs, from the little that is public

The clearest figure found anywhere is a secondhand listing referencing a current new replacement cost of roughly USD 20,000 for the entry-level 8998/30 hydraulic passerelle, a single data point from a resale marketplace rather than a dealer price list. A more concrete number comes from an actual buyer: an owner on the Jeanneau Owners forum reports paying about EUR 12,000 for an Opacmare hydraulic passerelle fitted as a factory option on a Jeanneau Yachts 51, a mid-size production sailing yacht rather than a superyacht.

Parts pricing is where the real complaint sits. The same Jeanneau owner was quoted more than EUR 1,100 to replace a single broken handrail section, a welded assembly that cannot be repaired piecemeal. No published figure exists for a Transformer platform, an S.A.F.E. hi-low system, or any factory-option pricing through the Azimut or Four Seasons OEM relationships. A buyer specifying Opacmare equipment should expect to request and compare quotes model by model rather than budget from any public number.

The handrail that was not built to hold a person

The root cause, per the owner's account, was structural: the handrail's retaining bolts sat only 11mm from the edge of a 4mm aluminium casting, which sheared under load. He describes the guest as nearly going overboard head first, saved only by a quick grab from others nearby. Opacmare's response was to decline warranty cover and quote him more than EUR 1,100 to replace the section, prompting a blunt verdict from the owner: had he known, he would not have bought the gangway or bought from Opacmare again, and he contrasts it unfavourably with a competitor, SeaGo, whose warranty service he calls prompt and hassle-free.

This is not the only mechanical complaint on record. A separate YBW forum thread describes an Opacmare gangway that does everything except retract, traced to a limit switch or sensor out of alignment by as little as half a millimetre, sometimes from nothing more than a dockside knock or wind pushing the boat against a wall. Replacement sensors are described by that owner as insanely expensive, above EUR 195 each. Both threads point the same direction: Opacmare's hardware works when it is installed and adjusted correctly, but the tolerances are tight and the parts to fix them when they slip are not cheap.

Besenzoni is the real rival, and the difference is in the sensor

One long-running forum comparison places both companies together in what one poster memorably calls the Timex and Seiko league of the passerelle world: reliable, well distributed, mass produced, rather than the fully bespoke work of a small specialist shop. That same thread names Pin-Craft, now an Opacmare subsidiary, as one of the small shops previously seen as a cut above both of the bigger players on custom fit and finish, which means Opacmare's 2025 acquisition brought a competitor's reputation in-house rather than simply adding capacity.

Where the companies clearly differ is service response reported by owners: Besenzoni's Riviera customers describe same-day technician callout, while Opacmare's North American customers are directed to a single authorised dealer, Menniti Nautica in Pompano Beach, Florida, for hoses, hydraulic parts and service. That is not necessarily worse, a single well-stocked specialist can outperform a looser network, but it means an Opacmare owner outside a handful of hub locations has fewer independent options when something needs fixing quickly.

What is not published, and what a buyer should ask for

The warranty terms are at least on record, in the product manuals rather than on the marketing site: 12 months from delivery for a shipyard buyer, 24 months for a private end customer, void if the equipment is disassembled or tampered with by anyone outside Opacmare's authorised network. Routine maintenance is specified at weekly or seasonal, monthly and annual intervals covering fixings, hinges, cylinder pins and hydraulic fluid level and leak checks, which is more detail than Besenzoni publishes for its equivalent range.

What is missing is everything that would let a buyer compare cost of ownership before signing a contract: no published figure for a Transformer or S.A.F.E. installation, no employee-verified account of how the Pin-Craft integration will change lead times or pricing at the superyacht end, and no independent test of the load figures printed in the catalogue. A buyer who wants price certainty should get a written quote for the exact configuration needed, not a catalogue figure, and should ask directly how a warranty claim on a structural part, like the handrail that failed on the Jeanneau, will actually be handled before the equipment goes on the boat.

Für wen: A yard or owner comparing Opacmare against Besenzoni for boarding, platform and lifting equipment, who wants the newly expanded superyacht reach that the Pin-Craft acquisition brought, and who will get every warranty term in writing before relying on a structural part.