As many as three boats are currently in the pipeline at the shipyard that is a symbol of Italian style

A profile of the new MD78 by Giovanni Ceccarelli Yacht Design

17 November, 2023

“One boat now waiting to go to sea, one in the process of being fitted out with interior furnishings and systems, and one about to be decked out.” Luca Botter CEO of Maxi Dolphin summarises where the shipyard is at in this final part of a 2023, a year packed with commitments and rewards. Not many custom boat yards can boast three builds running simultaneously: the MD55 (16.76 metres LOA), a project by Botin Partners now completed and scheduled for launch at the beginning of the new year, the MD63 (19.20 metres LOA), another Botin Partners project due in spring 2024, and the MD78 a project by Giovanni Ceccarelli Yacht Design that will be”closed”, that is the joining of the hull and the deck, by the end of the year. 

The new boat, is a race cruiser measuring 23.95 metres LOA (22.73 metres at the waterline) with a maximum beam of 6.55 metres. The MD78 features a vertical bow, deep bow sections, wide but flared stern sections to reduce drag when the boat is heeling, a T-shaped lifting keel and double rudders. 

The hull and deck are made on female moulds, and laminated in carbon fibre in wet lay-up using a technology developed by Maxi Dolphin that more sophisticated than infusion, and enabling to fully control the construction process, to minimise the input of resin and to obtain a high quality product. The process is completed by post-curing in the yard’s in-house 40-metre oven. On deck, a double cockpit and a profile barely marked by the long windowed deckhouse. The rig includes a Hall Spars mast, carbon boom and rigging, a squared top mainsail, a bowsprit for Code Zero or asymmetrical kites, and a 103% furling genoa. 

The interiors, co-developed by Ceccarelli and the Maxi Dolphin Technical Office headed by engineer Giovanni Pizzati, include the owner’s suite and two VIP cabins fore of the living area, whilst aft there are two cabins for the crew.