| CRN 177 |  |
Last December’s launch of 54-meter (177-foot)
Ability capped a remarkable second half to 2005 for Italy’s CRN shipyard. The
Ferretti Group company sold 17 yachts—each between 30 and 72 meters—during that
six-month stretch, an extraordinary accomplishment by any standard. So it wasn’t
surprising that Norberto Ferretti and his management team were in festive
spirits at the launch of this displacement yacht, Hull No. 119, despite the rain
showers blowing into Ancona off the Adriatic.
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Ability’s fluid exterior lines are by
Zuccon International Project. The interior layout and décor resulted from a
collaborative effort between Zuccon and the owner Andreas Panayiotou, who has a long-standing relationship with CRN. (Panayiotou was
to take delivery of a Custom Line 128, but switched to the
steel-and-aluminum Ability.)
 Ability under way (note the open owner’s
balcony, forward main deck.) (Click image to enlarge)
"As a regular customer and a close friend of CRN’s Managing
Director Lamberto Tacoli, I had complete confidence in the yard," explains the
owner. "Large yacht projects can become quite intense, so you need the
foundation of a good working relationship if everything is [to] go smoothly. In
the event, they were very flexible in incorporating my requests." These requests included two of the yacht’s most innovative
interior features: the gymnasium in the stern section of the lower deck and the
balcony in the owner’s cabin on the main deck. The full-spec gym, sauna and steam room are housed in an area that would
ordinarily be taken up by the tender garage, a change that presented some design
challenges to CRN’s technical office. Instead of the regular transom door, there
are two sliding glass doors that open onto the swim platform, which has a
fold-down extension to provide 19 square meters of "beach," complete with pop-up
cleats for securing the tender. Developed in accordance with MCA
recommendations, these watertight glass doors are made from twin panes of
tempered glass sandwiched around an intermediate polycarbonate layer, for an
overall thickness of 40 millimeters (1.6 inches). The glass can be covered with
metal storm covers for long crossings in rough seas, but project manager
Danielle Pascutti thinks these will only be necessary for the worst weather
conditions: "During sea trials in high seas we put the yacht in full reverse and
the aft platform was completely underwater, but not a drop of water
entered the gym area." The gym provides access to the garage and side-loading
6.8-meter Novurania tender, and there is a second entry from the main deck.
 The side-loading 6.8-meter tender. (Click image to enlarge)
The owner’s balcony provides a teak-decked space overlooking
the sea that is accessed from the cabin by sliding glass doors. Lloyd’s Register
of Shipping imposed a high safety margin because the balcony is almost on the
starboard quarter. That presented CRN with two technical options: They could
leave the balcony window in the starboard hull permanently open, but include a
60-centimeter watertight parapet under the doors; or they could fit a
cantilevered metal storm door into the hull. The owner chose the latter, as it
provides free access from the suite. The electrically operated storm door lifts
inboard and is fixed to the balcony ceiling using locking pins. Like the gym
doors, this door remained open throughout the sea trials to no ill effect.
With a plan for chartering, the owner and Nigel Burgess sought
out the best in noise attenuation. In addition to floating floors and walls
throughout, the entire engine room is lead lined. The result is an extremely low
48 decibels in the owner’s suite, 55 decibels in the guest cabins and the
bridge, and 57 decibels in the salons. CRN also analyzed simulated vibration
levels from the engine room, props and drive shafts. As a result, the technical
team increased the diameter of the drive shafts by 10 millimeters and added an
intermediate bracket to
prevent whirling vibrations. Further, prop-maker Rolla conducted additional
tests for noisy cavitation and pressure pulses, and recommended using six-blade
propellers.
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