Ferretti Group will spend €3 million enlarging one of the superyacht construction docks at its yard in Ancona, on Italy's Adriatic coast. Ancona's port authority signed the permit on 21 October. It is the first single authorisation issued in the port under Italy's special economic zone scheme, known as ZES. According to the port, the work will take six months, and after that the yard will be able to build yachts up to 100 metres long.
The port authority puts the overall economic impact at around €30 million.
What does the Ancona yard build today?
The site opened in 1963 as the CRN yard and has been the group's Superyacht Yard since 2019. It covers 76,945 square metres, 32,704 of them under a roof, and employs more than 1,000 people. Nine construction halls stand on it: four for steel and aluminium yachts and five for Custom Line.
Custom CRN yachts are only part of the work. The yard also builds Riva superyachts from 50 metres, including the Riva 54 Metri, whose first hull, Sairu, was launched here in August 2025. Pershing builds its 43.3-metre flagship, the Pershing 140, here, and so does Custom Line with its whole range of roughly 30 to 43 metres.
From 90 to 100 metres
When CRN opened new offices at the yard in December 2023, it called the site "designed for the construction of pleasure vessels up to 90 metres in length". The group's website lists CRN yachts at 45 to 95 metres.
The biggest CRN yachts delivered so far are Chopi Chopi, at 80 metres, and Mimtee, at 79. The largest in build is the CRN 144, about 86 metres long, with exterior design by Vallicelli Design. Her launch was planned for 2026; YachtBuyer lists delivery in 2027. In June 2026 the yard launched a 70-metre CRN under the project name Project Thunderball.
A 100-metre dock leaves room above all of them. The port's statement links the extra length to where the market keeps heading. In Italy, Benetti has already built in that class. Its 107-metre FB277, launched in Livorno in December 2018, was described by SuperyachtNews as "the largest yacht built in Italy by a private shipyard", and by 2020 Benetti had completed three yachts of 107 to 108 metres.
How did the first ZES permit in Ancona work?
Permits for building work inside the port usually come from the port authority itself. This time Italy's national ZES office ran the review, gathered the opinions of every agency involved and handed the file back to port authority president Mirco Carloni to sign; the procedure took 54 days. The scheme started in southern Italy, and the Marche region, where Ancona sits, joined in November 2025, so the permit was co-signed by Giosy Romano, the ZES coordinator for the South. "Other significant investments will follow," Carloni said (translated from Italian). In September the local news site AnconaToday reported that six companies in Ancona, including firms working with luxury yachts, had asked to use the ZES scheme to expand or build facilities.
A slow half-year for Ferretti superyacht orders
The money goes in during a weak stretch for the group's biggest yachts. Ferretti signed no new superyacht orders in the first half of 2026, according to its half-year results. The company said customers were putting off orders for larger yachts amid global uncertainty.
| Ferretti, first half of 2026 | Amount | Year on year |
|---|---|---|
| New superyacht orders | €0 | €64.9 million a year earlier |
| Superyacht revenue | €91.7 million | −12.2% |
| Superyacht order backlog | €639.5 million | −7.2% |
| New orders, whole group | €341.4 million | −26.9% |
By the group's standards the Ancona dock is a small sum. Ferretti spent €30.6 million on capital investment in the first half alone. The superyacht backlog still makes up 43.9% of the group's total, and the company expects ongoing negotiations to turn into orders.
Stassi Anastassov, CEO since May 2026, said in the July results statement: "the first half confirms that we are operating in a more challenging market than we have experienced in recent years."
Photo: Ferretti Group. Source: Port of Ancona Authority (21.10.2026), ANSA, Corriere Adriatico, AnconaToday, SuperYacht Times, Ferretti Group, CRN, SuperyachtNews.
