Cantiere Nautico Cranchi
| Category | production motor yachts and luxury tenders, bought by superyacht owners as chase boats and mega tenders |
|---|---|
| Founded | first workshop at San Giovanni di Bellagio on Lake Como in 1866, with the firm registered in 1870 |
| Ownership | independent, held by the Cranchi family with the Monzino family since Aldo Cranchi established the Piantedo company with Tullio Monzino in 1970 |
| Plants | Piantedo, Colico and Rogolo in Lombardy and San Giorgio di Nogaro in Friuli, about 100,000 sq m covered across more than 372,000 sq m of land |
| Seventy Plant 4 at Rogolo | 140,000 sq m for hulls above 50 ft, with Kawasaki FS020X robots working components up to 24 by 7.1 by 7.1 m |
| Marine Test Centre Italo Monzino | San Giorgio di Nogaro since 1997, about 2,900 sq m covered with a private dock for prototype trials |
| Range | about eleven models in production, from the 7.9 m E26 to the 25.15 m Settantotto 78 |
| A46 Luxury Tender | 14.25 m, about 4.3 m beam, twin Volvo Penta IPS650 packages on 480 hp D6 engines, 26 knots cruising and 35 knots top, 1,500 litres of fuel, one cabin and four berths, CE category B |
| A46 price | about EUR 1.3 million as a base boat, with a hydraulic deck package quoted at EUR 90,000 and a hardtop at EUR 48,000 in a 2021 review |
| Settantotto 78 | 25.15 m, 5.76 m beam, three Volvo Penta IPS1350 packages, 24 knots cruising and 28 knots top |
| Sessantasette 67 | 20.8 m, 5.4 m beam, 1.5 m draft |
| Design | Christian Grande on the E26 and on the T36 Crossover, which took European Powerboat of the Year 2019 in the 35 to 45 ft class |
Six generations, and one lake
Giovanni Cranchi opened a workshop at San Giovanni di Bellagio on Lake Como in 1866 and the firm was registered in 1870, which is the date the company uses. A grandson bought a building at Brienno in 1932 and turned it into a yard. By 1952 the family was producing wooden boats in series. The move that made the modern company came in 1970, when Aldo Cranchi of the fourth generation set up at Piantedo with Tullio Monzino.
Both families still own it, and Cranchi has never been absorbed into one of the large groups that now control most of the Italian production market. For a buyer the practical value of that is continuity of parts and of the people who know the boat. The risk is the other side of the same coin, because an independent family firm has no group balance sheet standing behind a warranty claim.
Robots in the Valtellina
Cranchi builds across four sites, at Piantedo, Colico and Rogolo in Lombardy and San Giorgio di Nogaro in Friuli, with roughly 100,000 square metres under cover on more than 372,000 square metres of land. Seventy Plant 4 at Rogolo covers 140,000 square metres and handles hulls above 50 ft, with Kawasaki FS020X robots cutting and spraying glass and gelcoat on parts up to 24 by 7.1 by 7.1 m.
Since 1997 the company has run its own test centre at San Giorgio di Nogaro, named after Italo Monzino, with a private dock and about 2,900 square metres under cover. An owner should care about all of this for one reason. A robot-laid hull is repeatable, which means the tenth boat matches the first and a warranty defect is a batch problem the yard can identify.
A chase boat that needs its own berth is not a tender, it is a second yacht with a second set of bills.
The range, which is bigger than most people think
About eleven models are in production. The small end is the 7.9 m E26, offered as a classic inboard day boat and as an outboard bowrider, both drawn by Christian Grande and both sold openly as luxury tenders. Above them sit the Z35, the T36 Crossover, the T43 and T55 trawlers, the M44, the E52 Evoluzione pair and the 60 HT and 60 ST.
At the top the Sessantasette 67 runs to 20.8 m on a 5.4 m beam and the Settantotto 78 to 25.15 m on 5.76 m, driven by three Volvo Penta IPS1350 packages for 24 knots cruising and 28 top. The first Cranchi above 78 ft was delivered in 2020. A directory entry describing this yard as building up to twenty metres is out of date by five metres and a whole class of boat.
The A46, which is the one superyacht owners buy
Launched in 2021, the A46 Luxury Tender is a 14.25 m walkaround on about a 4.3 m beam, driven by twin Volvo Penta IPS650 packages built on the 480 hp D6. It cruises at 26 knots and tops 35, carries 1,500 litres of fuel and 300 litres of water, sleeps four in one cabin, and is certified CE category B. Cranchi sells it as a mega tender for a large yacht or a waterfront house.
The deck is the point. Articulating platforms fold out on both sides, there is a tender garage inside a tender, and the bow is laid out as a lounge with a fridge and a removable table. Published draft figures disagree, at 1.17 m in one listing and 1.7 m in a review, and that is half a metre of difference deciding whether the boat can nose into a bay. Get the figure from the yard in writing.
What it costs, and what is not included
Trade listings put the A46 at about EUR 1.3 million as a base boat. A 2021 review of the model quoted EUR 90,000 for the hydraulic deck package and EUR 48,000 for the hardtop, and noted that a realistic specification adds well over EUR 250,000 to the base figure. Those are the two items most owners will not want to do without, so the honest number is closer to EUR 1.5 million.
Against a custom limousine from an English yard at similar money, the A46 gives far more boat and far less tailoring. It will not be drawn around a garage, it will not arrive with the mothership's interior fabrics, and it will not be delivered as a matched pair. It will arrive when the dealer says it will, at a price the dealer can hold.
As a chase boat, honestly
A chase boat carries what the garage cannot: the extra toys, the extra guests, the shopping, the crew running ahead to take a berth. The A46 does all of that and looks like a yacht doing it, which matters when it is tied alongside a 60 m in Porto Cervo. Two IPS drives and joystick control also mean one crew member can berth it single-handed in a crosswind.
What it is not is a purpose-built support vessel. CE category B limits it to 200 miles offshore, there is one cabin and four berths so crew cannot live aboard for a season, and 1,500 litres of fuel at a 26-knot cruise is a day out and no more. A yacht crossing to the Caribbean puts its chase boat on a ship or leaves it behind.
Licences, crew and who drives it
This is a 14 m boat with 960 hp, and the Mediterranean states that issue recreational licences require one for a craft of this size and power, with the exact threshold varying by country and by the flag the boat carries. Most owners with a mothership simply have a deckhand or the bosun drive it, which is the sensible answer.
The joystick makes low-speed handling easy and hides how much boat is moving. At 35 knots with guests on an open bow this is a fast planing hull in a Mediterranean chop, and the difference between a comfortable trip and a frightening one is entirely the driver. Anyone letting a guest take the wheel should do it at 15 knots in open water.
Service, parts and the dealer question
Cranchi sells through a dealer network with long-established agents on the Cote d'Azur and in the United Kingdom, and the density follows the market. Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Adriatic are well covered. Coverage in the Caribbean and the eastern United States is thinner, and an owner planning to winter there should confirm who will actually turn up before he signs.
The mechanical side is easier than the boat. Volvo Penta IPS is one of the most widely serviced drivetrains in the world, and any competent yard in the Mediterranean can work on it. What needs the dealer is gelcoat, hydraulics, glass and the electronics package, and those are the items that fail in a boat used hard off a swim platform all summer.
Against the specialists, and who should buy elsewhere
The A46 sits between two worlds. Against Wajer it loses on finish and on the feel of the helm and wins on price and on interior volume. Against Pascoe or Compass it loses everything to do with fit and gains a boat that exists. Against a Williams or a Novurania it is a different animal entirely, because it is a yacht in its own right and needs its own berth.
The owner who should buy one has a yacht of 40 m to 70 m, keeps a summer base in the Mediterranean, and wants a second boat the family can use on days the mothership stays put. The owner who should look elsewhere needs a craft that stows in a garage, or is buying full custom where the tender is drawn into the yacht from the first line.
Practical detail
| Base price | About EUR 1.3 million for the A46 Luxury Tender as a standard boat, per a 2021 review; hydraulic deck package about EUR 90,000, hardtop about EUR 48,000, teak deck about EUR 22,000 and paint options EUR 20,000 to EUR 60,000, so a fully optioned boat can add roughly EUR 250,000 to the base. |
|---|---|
| Used market | Asking prices on the brokerage market run from about EUR 725,000 to EUR 1,190,000 as of August 2026, reflecting age, hours and options rather than a single resale figure. |
| Fuel burn by speed | Per a rpm-by-rpm test: about 3.2 l/h at 4 knots, 61 l/h at 11 knots (2,000 rpm), under 90 l/h at 22 knots (2,600 rpm, the efficient cruise point), 112 l/h at 26 knots cruise, and 190 l/h at the 36.7-knot top end on 3,800 rpm. |
| Tankage and range | 1,500 litres (396 US gallons) of fuel; at the 22-knot economical cruise burn of under 90 l/h that is a still-water range in the region of 350 to 380 nautical miles before reserve. |
| Engines and drives | Twin Volvo Penta IPS650 packages on 480 hp D6 diesels with joystick docking, which is the same IPS pod-drive control an owner is likely to already know from the mothership's tenders and toys. |
| Servicing | Cranchi remains independent and family-owned with its own four-plant production and test-centre infrastructure at Piantedo, Colico, Rogolo and San Giorgio di Nogaro, which supports continuity of parts and factory service history compared with a yard that has changed hands. |
What owners and crew report
Reviewers who actually ran the A46 call it more than a tender
Testing the A46 for Boat Life, Dan Jones reported it worked as well as an overnighter and a twenty-guest party boat as it did as a chase boat, which is the range of duty a superyacht owner actually asks a mega tender to cover.
Boat Life (Dan Jones)The ride is soft rather than sporty, and reviewers rate that a plus
Gregorio Ferrari ran the A46 through its rpm range for Barche a Motore and described the handling as responsive and agile with a soft, forgiving character at the helm, not the harder ride some 14 m walkarounds give up for outright speed.
Barche a Motore (Gregorio Ferrari, December 2022)The interior quality tests well against the mega-tender competition
Carl Richardson rated the A46's interior finish and deck space highly, giving the sunbathing and entertaining areas a full five stars, but flagged that the hydraulic deck package and hardtop are extras rather than standard fit at this price point.
YachtBuyer (Carl Richardson, February 2025)
What is good, and what to watch
Strong points
- Genuine offshore manners, not just a marina queenIndependent tests put the A46 at 26 knots cruising and 35 knots flat out on twin Volvo Penta IPS650 pod drives with joystick docking, and reviewers who ran it in open water describe agile, controlled handling rather than a boat that only performs on a brochure.
- A true four-berth interior at 14.25 mOne cabin sleeping four with a proper galley and heads is unusual at this length in the mega-tender class, and it is what lets an owner use the A46 as an overnighter or a standalone weekend boat, not only as a chase boat tied to the mothership.
What to watch
- The headline extras are optional, and they are not cheapThe hydraulic deck package runs about EUR 90,000 and the hardtop about EUR 48,000 on top of a roughly EUR 1.3 million base, and YachtBuyer's Carl Richardson made the point directly: at this price, features like these would sit better as standard than as a la carte.
- It is a production boat, and that cuts both waysThe A46 is built on robot-assisted lines across four Cranchi plants rather than hand-built to one owner's brief, which keeps quality consistent and parts available but means it carries none of the exclusivity or bespoke pedigree that superyacht buyers sometimes pay a premium for in a custom tender.
Who it is for: Owners of 40 m to 70 m yachts with a Mediterranean summer base who want a second boat the family can take out on their own.