Wider 150 "Genesi"

From Tenders to a Superyacht Division

Before Genesi, Wider had built open day-boats and a catamaran tender line, nothing over about 13 metres. Project Genesi, first presented to the market in 2011 and under construction through the early 2010s, was the company's leap into full superyacht territory and the reason Wider opened a dedicated Superyacht Division yard at Ancona rather than trying to build a 46 metre aluminium hull alongside its smaller composite boats.

The jump was deliberate rather than incidental. Antonelli wanted the same expanding-cockpit thinking that had made the Wider 42 distinctive, more usable space per metre of hull, proven at a scale that would put Wider in direct competition with established 40 to 50 metre builders, and Genesi was built specifically to make that case.

Aluminium Hull and a Genuinely Different Powertrain

Genesi was built in aluminium alloy, hull and superstructure, and classed by RINA. Her propulsion was a serial hybrid diesel-electric system: four inline variable-speed diesel generator sets rated at 350kW each, feeding two 531kW permanent-magnet electric motors that drove twin Veth Propulsion azimuth pods, backed by a 544kWh lithium-polymer battery pack from ESTechnologies and managed through Emerson Industrial Automation power electronics.

In practice that gave her a Zero Emission Mode, several hours of silent running on batteries alone at around 5 to 6 knots, a cruising range up to 4,200 nautical miles at 11 knots, and a top speed in the mid-teens of knots. The real payoff, though, was architectural rather than just electrical: putting the generators in the bow meant the stern no longer had to be engine room. Wider had already trialled the same serial hybrid principle on its smaller open-deck models, but Genesi was the first time the company applied it to a full displacement superyacht hull, which is why the yard treated the 2015 to 2016 sea trial period as a proof of concept for the whole Superyacht Division rather than as routine commissioning for a single client boat.

Even at 14 knots, to be sure that the yacht is underway, you need to look out the window.

The Wider Beach and a Layout Built Backwards

With machinery cleared from the stern, Genesi's aft end became a fold-down beach club of around 90 square metres, claimed at the time as the largest in her size class, built around a 7 metre saltwater pool, with a floating garage system launching a 9.6 metre Wider 32 tender. Ideaeitalia co-founder Alessio Battistini said the beach club and the owner apartments were the ideas the project developed from, and that splitting the technical areas between bow and stern left more space for guest accommodation.

That reversal of the usual engine-aft, guests-forward yacht layout became the template Wider carried into its later boats, and it is arguably Genesi's most durable legacy: the beach club and generous open-plan aft deck now define the whole Wider range, not just the one hull that introduced it.

Interior and Accommodation

Ideaeitalia, led by Battistini and Davide Bernardini, designed a contemporary interior of clean lines and smooth, taut surfaces in muted brown and ivory tones, furnished with Poltrona Frau leather and furniture and Gentili Mosconi fabrics. The full-beam owner's suite, around 75 square metres, included a sliding wall dividing the sleeping area from a study or salon that opened onto a private terrace over the sea, alongside two VIP cabins and two further guest cabins, one with a Pullman berth, for ten guests across five en-suite cabins in total.

Crew were housed to LY3 standard in four twin cabins plus a captain's cabin for a complement of nine. Notably, when Genesi was sold and renamed Bartali, her new owner had the interior modified to their own requirements, a reminder that even a well-reviewed original layout does not automatically suit every subsequent buyer unchanged.

Launch, Awards and the Quietest Yacht Afloat

Genesi launched at Ancona on 21 or 22 October 2015 (sources vary by a day), with Tilli Antonelli calling it enormously satisfying to see Genesi in the water for the first time. She was delivered in April 2016 after further fit-out and sea trials, during which RINA surveyors recorded noise and vibration levels good enough to award the first perfect COMF (Y) 100,100 class notation the society had ever given a yacht, with a RINA representative noting that even at 14 knots you need to look out the window to be sure the yacht is underway.

That result, and the diesel-electric system behind it, won Genesi a Neptune trophy plus a separate Technology and Innovation award at the 2016 World Superyacht Awards, and she made her market debut at the 2016 Monaco Yacht Show shortly after.

Sold, Renamed Bartali, and What Came After

Genesi was shown at the 2016 Monaco Yacht Show and sold immediately afterwards, in December 2016, to a Canadian buyer introduced by Golan Levi of Swell Yachting. Reporting on the sale described the buyer going aboard twice during the show, following up with a shipyard visit shortly after, and returning again just before signing in mid-November. The asking price had been 26.5 million euros; the final figure was not disclosed but was understood to be below that ask.

The yacht was renamed Bartali after the sale, and only one further Wider 150 hull, known as 150/02, was ever built. Wider's Superyacht Division moved on to the larger Wider 165 and, later, the WiderCat and Moonflower lines, so Genesi's name and her specific one-hull moment in Wider's history effectively ended with the sale, even though the technology and the beach-club layout she pioneered carried on into everything the yard built afterward. Before the sale, Genesi had also been offered on the Mediterranean charter market through Charterworld, an unusual step for a brand new flagship still under warranty, which suggests Wider was as keen to put hours and visibility on the hull as it was to find a permanent owner quickly.

Design

Para quién es: Owners who want a genuinely quiet, beach-club-focused 45 to 47 metre superyacht built on proven, if now decade-old, hybrid technology, and who are prepared to have her original power-management electronics and battery pack independently surveyed before buying.

Precio orientativo: New-build asking price was reported at 26 to 26.5 million euros around her October 2015 launch (Yacht Harbour, Boat International). Her final December 2016 sale price to a Canadian buyer was not disclosed, but reporting at the time said it was below the 26.5 million euro asking figure.