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Colloquially known as CDM, this builder dominates the niche Italian explorer market by building hardy yachts with thoughtful design.
At the 2024 Cannes Yachting Festival, one offering that generated a ton of buzz over at the Superyacht Extension was Maverick, a 146-foot Cantiere delle Marche Flexplorer who stood tall among her peers in more ways than one. In a literal sense, the yacht’s crow’s nest was the highest point at the show. But it was the massive crane on her sprawling aft deck that garnered the most attention. The crane is used to launch multiple tenders and water toys that are accompanying the yacht on a seven-year circumnavigation that it is currently undertaking. These world-girdling ambitions matched with creative design traits are a hallmark of Cantiere delle Marche, also known as CDM. The Ancona, Italy-based builder operates at the vanguard of Italian expedition-style yacht manufacturing.
Contrary to what some Italian builders have done by expanding to multiple market segments, CDM has bolted down on one particular kind of yacht and is committed to staying there.
We don’t see them ever building larger than 499GT, which means 50-meters, so they can stay in that segment between about 100 to 150 feet and be experts at it. They are really doing a lot of things right, with rugged steel hulls, transatlantic range even at the bottom of their lineup—which is an 86-footer—and a level of attention to detail that is at the top of the pile when it comes to Italian yachtbuilding.
Boomer Jousma
The Italian Yacht Group
Sales Director
Another thing that impresses Jousma is CDM’s technical spaces, which perhaps aren’t often at the forefront of the yachting public’s mind when they think about Italian yachts. “When you tour a CDM, they often start off in the engine room,” he says.
That’s unusual, but it’s because you can tell they really want to show off how well their projects are built and how well they will run. The engine room is the heart of any yacht after all.
Nick Bischoff, CDM’s newly hired area manager Americas, echoes Jousma’s sentiments. “CDM is really different than other yards,” he says.
I’ve seen it in the lazarettes and the engine rooms and the technical spaces onboard. There is a lot of thought when it comes to serviceability. They do everything keel up and really think it all out thoroughly. And I think that’s because one of our founders had roots in commercial shipping, where everything is based on redundancy. Our yachts come with double radars, double watermakers … they take into consideration that the owners are going to take these yachts all over the world.
But the focus on usability doesn’t mean that CDM slouches on style—far from it. These yachts are as chic as you would expect from any top Italian builder. It’s a potent tonic of brawn and beauty that many have found too enticing to pass up. The builder often works with forward-thinking designers like Francesco Guida, Horacio Bozzo, Francesco Paszkowski, Giorgio Cassetta, and Sergio Cutolo who imbue the yachts with creative layouts, patterns, and color schemes while never losing sight of the importance of usability and ergonomics, especially for yachts designed for long voyages.
“You would be hard pressed to find a builder—not just in Italy, but anywhere on Earth—who are so focused on a specific type of yacht and so good at seeing their vision come to fruition,” says Jousma.
This is a brand that might not be the best known in America right now, but I think for those in the know it hits a real sweet spot. And it’s a name that will undoubtedly become more well known as the builder’s star grows.
146-foot Cantiere delle Marche Flexplorer MAVERICK
Genoa, IT-GE
