Flexplorer 146

• LOA 44.33 m, beam 8.6 m
• 499 GT, steel hull with aluminium superstructure
• Exterior and naval architecture by Hydro Tec, interiors by Paszkowski with Casprini
• Twin Caterpillar C32 ACERT, 15.7 knots on trials, 12 knots cruise
• About 6,800 nm at 10 knots
• 22 mm ice belt above and below the waterline on hull one
• Carbon A-frame crane, 4,000 kg, 9.5 m custom Rivellini tender
• Up to 13 guests in 7 cabins, 7 crew, on the first hull

Between the pioneer and the flagship

The Flexplorer story began with the 39 metre Aurelia in 2020, and now tops out with the 49.9 metre 165. The 146 sits at the point where most of the demand lives, around 44 metres and 499GT, big enough for a family plus staff and serious equipment, still compact enough to run without superyacht bureaucracy. Current hulls are offered at 44.3 and 44.5 metres.

The series has become the yard's commercial engine. By the end of 2024 nine Flexplorers were delivered, in build or on order across the three sizes, a striking figure for a concept that did not exist before 2020. Hydro Tec draws the naval architecture and exterior for every one of them, keeping the family visually and technically coherent from 130 to 165. It also spreads risk for the buyer, since the 146 inherits structure and systems already proven at sea on the delivered 130 and stress-tested again on every new hull.

Maverick, hull one, built to go north

The first 146 was commissioned by an experienced German owner with high latitudes in mind. Her steel hull carries a 22 millimetre ice belt above and below the waterline, a genuinely unusual specification at this size, and her systems are drawn for cold-water autonomy. Delivered in February 2024, she headed straight into service as the model's full-scale proof.

Inside, Maverick sleeps up to thirteen guests in seven cabins, including two owner suites, a layout that reads more private ship than production yacht, with seven crew in three cabins running her. On trials she logged 15.7 knots, comfortably above the brochure figure, and at ten knots her tanks stretch to roughly 6,800 nautical miles, Ancona to the Caribbean and back on one fill.

On trials Maverick beat her brochure speed, and at ten knots her tanks are good for 6,800 miles.

A crane that vanishes, a deck that transforms

The signature Flexplorer hardware is the carbon fibre A-frame crane, engineered with Advanced Mechanical Solutions, rated at 4,000 kilograms on the 146. It launches Maverick's custom 9.5 metre Rivellini tender and an A27 sailing boat, then folds down flush until the aft deck shows no trace of machinery. Most yachts this size hide their tenders in a garage and pay for it in interior volume. The Flexplorer wears them on deck and loses nothing.

With the boats in the water, the owner is left with over 135 square metres of clear teak, convertible to an open-air gym, a sea-level beach with folding bulwark terraces, a dining terrace or simply the biggest dance floor in the anchorage. The deck is the argument for this yacht. Everything else supports it.

Paszkowski and Casprini below

Interiors are by Francesco Paszkowski Design with Margherita Casprini, in the warm, tailored register the pair have refined across the yard's fleet. Big glazing keeps the saloons bright, and the materials lean natural and matte, chosen to age well at sea. The wheelhouse and crew circulation are laid out with the same care as the guest areas, which captains notice immediately.

Because every CdM is built to order, the 146 platform absorbs radically different briefs. Hull one's twin owner suites and single cabin are one answer. A five stateroom family layout with a bigger spa area is another, and the yard treats such changes as normal engineering, priced and scheduled at contract, a habit from its commercial shipbuilding roots.

The case against bigger

Set against the 165, the 146 gives up deck area and one convertible space, and almost nothing else. Range is actually longer on the smaller boat in its trial configuration, and the crew requirement drops. For owners without a standing tender fleet or a fifty metre ego requirement, the middle Flexplorer is the rational buy, which the order book reflects.

Set against anything from other yards, the comparison is harder to draw, because direct rivals at 44 metres with this deck concept, this ice option and this tonnage discipline barely exist. That is the position CdM has spent fifteen years building toward, a product whose competitive set is mostly its own catalogue. Scarcity does the rest of the work, because a 44 metre CdM reaching the brokerage market is an event, and the length of the new-build order book keeps it that way.

A chi si rivolge: An owner planning genuine high-latitude and long-range cruising with family, who wants the Flexplorer deck concept at the size where cost, crew and capability balance best.