SUPERYACHT #501
January 2004
Article selected from our quarterly magazine dedicated to the largest
and most luxurious boats with information, interviews, technical
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Article by
Angelo Colombo
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ALFAMARINE 140
Alfamarine, founded by sea and speed enthusiast Marcello
Fazioli, started building boats in 1955. The Fiumicino yard,
in the province of Rome, went on to build and sell racing
boats, some of them skippered by Fazioli himself, in the CIU
and CU classes of the Sport category. In 1975 the founder
freed himself definitively from competition commitments to
dedicate himself exclusively to building fast pleasure craft,
innovative from both a technological and stylistic point of
view. Marcello Fazioli commissioned Renato Sonny Levi and
Franco Harraurer to design a new boat with all the features
that sprang from his desire to build fast, avant-garde yachts.
The result was the "Bronte 40", the boat with which Alfamarine
took its first decisive step towards success. This fast yacht
was one of the first to be fitted with surface propellers, an
innovative transmission system in those days and forerunner of
today's Arnesons.
The yard's boats, both past and present,
have always stood out over the years for technological
innovation and performance,. So Marcello Fazioli's aims were
achieved and inevitably the yard sought new directions.
Precisely this desire for new avenues led the founder's son,
Andrea, to go back to the pleasure craft sector about ten
years after their last superyacht was built. In the past
Alfamarine had built boats of this kind on two occasions: the
1982 Alfamarine 82 and the 1993 Alfamarine 90.
But although it
was not the first time that the 24 metre limit had been
exceeded, the Alfamarine 140 may reasonably be described as
something revolutionary for the yard since this yacht has a
number of details that deserve due attention. First of all it
is built to Maritime Coastguard Agency standards and, unlike
many other pleasure craft similarly built, is also MCA
certified. These regulations impose special building standards
whose main objective is passenger safety and protection
against fire. To meet the requirements the yard had to use
technological materials capable, for example, of isolating a
fire in any enclosed area for at least 60 minutes.
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TECHNICAL DATA
Overall length 42.50 m
Beam: 8.70 m
Draft: 2.50 m
Fuel tank: 30.000 litres
Water tank: 7.000 litres
Maximum speed: 22 knots
Cruising speed: 18 knots
Displacement: 205.000 Kg
Engines: 2 x 2.770 HP MTU 12V 4000 M90
Classification: ABS A1 Yachting Service + MCA.
For more details on the Alfamarine 140 and the yard's future
projects, contact Alfamarine - Cantieri di Fiumicino; Via
della Scafa 135; 00054 Fiumicino (RM); tel. +39 06 6580355;
fax +39 06 6523466; website www.alfamarine.it; e-mail
alfamarine@tin.it.
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As this boat is in aluminium and built for speed, the prescriptions
created a problem. The solution was found in the use of
technologically advanced materials that would neither melt
before the deadline nor add too much weight to the structure.
Furthermore, again in compliance with MCA regulations, all the
water circulating in the systems on board the Alfamarine 140
is drinkable. Waste water is filtered and treated before being
stored in special tanks, and nothing is discharged into the
sea. Other special features, such as the independent
generator on the flying bridge, offer maximum passenger safety
even in the case of the boat sinking. Thanks to a fire
fighting system called "high fog", which produces a very thick
fog that smothers flames, it was possible to use flammable
materials for the interior. It is no coincidence that
Alfamarine 140 has an abundance of wood throughout. In line
with the Alfamarine philosophy, performance was one of the
main elements in the design of this 135'. The owner, with his
fifth Alfamarine, wanted a larger but still fast boat that
could call at English ports where MCA certification is
mandatory. The Alfamarine 140' owner's requirements set the
yard staff working fast to find suitable solutions. The hull
designer, the well-known architect Bacigalupo, together with
Andrea Fazioli himself, personally supervised building at the
Rossi boatyard in Marina di Pisa. Fitting out was done in
Fiumicino. We could add a lot more about the systems and
structures on the Alfamarine 140 but now we want to give a
little space to how the interiors have been divided and how
the external space has been exploited, where further original
ideas requested by the owner have been implemented. First of
all, there are no fewer than six guest cabins, meeting the
owner's need to comfortably accommodate his large family, with
whom he loves to spend his holidays at sea, and any other
guests. All the cabins have private bathrooms and are roomy
enough for prolonged periods aboard. There is also a Turkish
bath, custom-built for the yacht by a company specialising in
this kind of installation. The spacious interior of the
Alfamarine 140 also includes a disco, this too built and
installed by a specialist company. The acoustics are similar
to those of discos ashore, with a fine ad hoc lighting system
and of course a dance floor. Unlike the interiors, the open
air spaces did not call for any special details since this is
a superyacht that the owner will be using all year round and
in climates that are not exactly temperate. This is why almost
all the open decks are protected by the decks above them, with
the obvious exception of the sundeck and the sunbathing area
with sofas, forward on the main deck. The flying bridge has a
heated swimming pool and sunbathing area with sofas. Aft there
are two tenders and safety equipment such as a generator
capable of supplying all the on-board systems for as long as
the vessel remains not fully submerged. As we mentioned at the
beginning, this was not a normal project for the yard, but
observing the boat's construction, performance, safety
standards, quality of fitting-out and overall appearance, we
may say without fear of contradiction that this is an original
superyacht that will get talked about. And we are pleased that
the Alfamarine 140 is brainchild of that much sought after
"Made in Italy": a further opportunity to elicit worldwide
appreciation.
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