Benetti Yachts
Benetti’s way of looking at yachting is simple. It wants to deliver designs a decade before they become mainstream. In 1962, for example, the brand launched the Delfino series, creating what would become the common practice of incorporating top-deck sun lounges and ensuite showers into modern yachts. In 2018, the Benetti Oasis Deck series reimagined the aft connection with the ocean. A year later, the B.NOW series was all about long-distance cruising. Last year, the B.LOFT concept ushered in 13-foot-high ceilings and apartment-style interiors with excessive use of glass. Several of these designs, as well as the first example of Benetti’s Class 44M series, are now on show at the Cannes Yachting Festival.
The latest reveal from Cannes is the B.NEOS. It’s unlike any Benetti, or even motoryacht in its size range. This brand-new 131-foot model combines the spirit and sleekness of a sailing yacht with the immediacy and speed of a motoryacht. Malcolm McKeon, a longtime designer most famous for his simple-but-elegant sailing superyachts, jettisoned the pomp and circumstance seen on many motoryacht profiles for pure architectural lines.
The B.NEOS is designed to shout luxury, but at low volume. Literally. A hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system will be standard. “Owners can stay for a whole day at anchor, with no gensets on,” Giovanna Vitelli, chair of Azimut|Benetti Group, the world’s largest yacht manufacturer, told Robb Report in an exclusive interview. Vitelli, the driving force behind the new Benetti concepts, has identified new owner types who want a different style of yachting: more lifestyle, less bling. That’s because owners are trending younger—on average, 10 years younger than just a decade ago. “In the past you had to inherit or spend a lifetime becoming a successful entrepreneur,” says Vitelli. “Today different industries—digital, finance, pharmaceutical—lets wealth be scaled quickly.”
These gilded millennials and Gen Z-ers have different aspirations to boomers. Showboats are yesterday’s news. Current vibes channel understated elegance and barefoot chic. “Life today is over-designed,” says Francesca Muzio, founder of FM Architettura which was responsible for the interiors. Some owners want to return to a more simple spirit of sailing, but in a more comfortable and less technical motoryacht package.
When the first B.NEOS boat hits the water in 2028, says Muzio, “three poly-functional areas” will serve as destinations for informal dining, looking at sunsets or playing boardgames over a round of Aperol Spritz. The B.NEOS has been stripped of “redundancy,” says the designer, to the point where guests don’t require the storage, swimming pools or entertainment tech of a similar-sized vessel. “It’s not a minimalistic boat,” she notes. “We are taking out all the complexity, the over-design, the opulence, and maybe some features that you don’t use.”
“We use yachts for social, business, and family events,” adds FM’s managing director Luca Boldrini, referring to them as “jacks of all trades.” Now, he says, owners will “regroup with friends and family.”
Benetti Chair Giovanna Vitelli has been the driving force behind Benetti’s new designs.
Azimut/Benetti Group
The designers were a bit tight-lipped about revealing specific interior details, but as part of the barefoot-living scenario, Boldrini says crew might not be as important as other crew-heavy superyachts. “Our dream would be that the owner has no need for too much service,” he says. He says owners will live aboard much as they do in their homes on land. As a result, the staterooms and common areas are relaxed, without show. Warm, natural materials will create a neutral canvas for a family to adorn the vessel much as they do a country home, with their own books, photos and artwork.
McKeon’s exterior has the same unpretentious elegance: a plumb bow and prowling lines that resemble a vessel in which the 2030s meets the 1930s, wrapped inside a technologically advanced frame. The look combines the svelte shape of a sailing vessel with the cruising capability of a motoryacht along with that yacht type’s speed, space and range.
“Benetti wanted something that was more low-profile and sleek, that still provided the sort of accommodation that they were looking to achieve,” McKeon told Robb Report. That involved two years of brainstorming and coming up with multiple concepts and layouts to create a harmonious vessel designed to travel the world. “The philosophy for sure is ‘less is more,’” he says, adding that “as with all our designs, the idea is to get as much glass into the boat as possible, so you’ve got that connection with the outside world.”
With its simplicity, B.NEOS wants to create a tidal change by promoting functional design over flash and bling. “In 50 years, I’ve seen many beautiful megayachts,” says Vitelli. “But most of the time ‘excess’ has been the key word.” This superyacht wants to be the opposite. “Boats chasing volume have sometimes given up their harmony. B.NEOS is about another type of elegance,” she says.