Darwin 102

The workhorse size

At 30.8 metres with the Darwin's characteristic 7.43 metre beam, the 102 occupies the size where many experienced owners eventually settle, big enough for real autonomy and a professional crew, small enough to slip into harbours and haul-out yards that turn a 40 metre away. The first hull, Atlas, was delivered in 2017, and the model has stayed in the catalogue ever since.

Like every Darwin it comes from Sergio Cutolo's Hydro Tec, steel below and aluminium above, with the bulbous bow and generous tankage that define the class. Nothing about the design has needed rescuing in eight years, which in a fashion-driven industry is its own kind of achievement, and successive hulls have evolved detail by detail on owner feedback, the adaptive habit the class was named for.

Haze2, the 2025 edition

The most recent 102, Haze2, launched in Ancona in June 2025, the third CdM launch inside thirty days that summer, and was delivered later that year. She measures 245 GT with a displacement of about 250 tonnes, and she carries the current state of the Darwin art, from her hull form refinements to a specification built around her owner's cruising plans. That summer sequence, with two other yachts into the water inside a month around her, said as much about the yard's production systems as about demand.

Her numbers show why the model endures. Twin Caterpillar C18 diesels of 500 kilowatts each draw on 40,000 litres of fuel for a range beyond 5,000 nautical miles at nine knots. That is Gibraltar to the Caribbean nonstop with reserve, from a boat that fits on a 31 metre berth and runs with a modest crew.

Gibraltar to the Caribbean nonstop, from a boat that fits a 31 metre berth and runs on a thousand horsepower.

Volume where it counts

The 102's interior arranges an owner's cabin and guest accommodation across layouts the yard adapts hull by hull, and the constant is proportion. The Darwin carries its beam far forward and aft, so cabins, galley and stores all draw on more volume than the length suggests, and 245 gross tons is serious internal space for 30.8 metres. The wheelhouse is a genuine working bridge with proper watch seating, drawn for passages that run through nights and weather.

The aft lazarette follows the class formula, configurable as dive centre, fishing station, tender workshop or expanded laundry, and the sun deck is oversized for the length, a Darwin signature since the first 86. These are boats drawn from the inside out, with the profile left to be the honest consequence of the spaces.

Running costs a spreadsheet can love

A thousand horsepower moves the whole ship, which means fuel burn, maintenance schedules and spares budgets that read like those of a much smaller yacht. At passage speed the 102 sips, and because the machinery is drawn from Caterpillar's global commercial catalogue, support exists in every serious port from Panama to Papeete.

The under-300 GT measurement keeps the compliance regime simple, and insurance and crewing follow the same friendly arithmetic. For owners moving up from a 24 metre production boat, the operating budget of a Darwin 102 is the surprise in the right direction, often close to what they already spend, for a boat that can cross oceans. It is also the size at which many owners first move to a rotational crew, and the boat's simple, robust systems keep that transition painless.

The eight-year verdict

Between Atlas in 2017 and Haze2 in 2025, the 102 has become the quiet backbone of the Darwin order book, the size that owners graduating from the 86 step into and the one that introduces many first-time CdM clients to the yard. Used examples are scarce and short-lived on the market, the pattern across the whole fleet.

The buy case is straightforward. This is the smallest yacht in the current range that offers the full Darwin toolkit, the range, the lazarette, the volume and the presence, at a size an owner-operator mindset can still wrap itself around. It is the definition of enough boat, built by the yard that defined the type.

Для кого: An owner stepping up from production yachts or up from the Darwin 86, who wants full ocean-crossing capability at the most manageable size and operating budget in the class.