With the launch of Octopus, the first hull in the Deep Blue 115 series, Cantiere delle Marche has closed a circle that opened four years ago. When the Ancona yard delivered Acala in 2022 — a 43.10-metre Deep Blue 141 styled by Horacio Bozzo and conceived as a one-off — nobody was presenting her as the founder of a range. Today the Deep Blue line lists three models, at 115, 130 and 141 feet, with two further 141s under construction for delivery in 2027 and 2028. The one-off has become a language.
That, rather than the boat itself, is the story carried by the 35-metre explorer handed over on 20 July to a pair of American owners. Octopus demonstrates that a design idea drawn for a single client can survive translation into a series without losing its identity — provided someone is willing to redraw it rather than simply shrink it.
Redrawing, not reducing
The point is technical before it is philosophical. The features that make a Deep Blue recognisable — the bow with its signature beak look, achieved by introducing a gap between the upper section and the main hull that runs aft as far as the overhang of the upper deck, and the main deck window mullions that appear to float, detached from the superstructure — are proportional devices. They work because they distribute mass across a given length. Scaled down over eight metres less, they risk turning into caricature: the bow becomes a beak, the mullions a mannerism.
Bozzo puts it plainly: Rather than simply scaling down the lines and volumes, we redesigned them to suit the required dimensions.” The Argentine designer and naval architect, who has styled the entire line from his Viareggio studio, describes the outcome as a pocket gentleman’s superyacht with a strong explorer DNA, drawn to stand the test of time with elegance.
There is also a constraint that is invisible on board but governs everything else. Octopus measures 299 GT; Acala measured 499. Both figures stop one unit short of a round threshold, and that is no accident: in this sector those values correspond to different regulatory and management regimes, with direct consequences for crewing, certification and running costs. The volume available to the designer, in other words, is not a free variable but a starting condition. That the 115 manages to feel larger than her tonnage declares is the real design achievement.
An interior that refuses to behave like a 35-metre
For the interiors Cantiere delle Marche turned to Giorgio M. Cassetta, a new voice for the range: Acala‘s interiors were the work of Simon Hamui. The brief was coherence with the exterior lines, but Cassetta’s own reading of it is more combative.
“A 35m yacht is generally considered as ‘medium sized’, and its interiors are often treated accordingly,” the designer observes — and, thanks to demanding owners and the yard’s approach to full custom interiors, he argues that Octopus proves otherwise. The register he has chosen is avowedly narrative: the interiors are conceived as an eclectic homage to the idea of voyaging, full of colour and surprises, with organic shapes, fine detailing and exotic materials combining into what he calls a kaleidoscope.
It is an interesting position because it runs against the prevailing tendency in the 30- to 40-metre band, where interior customisation tends to contract in favour of predefined packages. Here the opposite happens: the series supplies the platform, the owner fills the volume.
Life on board and ocean capability
The distribution of exterior space follows the range’s template. The cockpit and stern area combine access to the main indoor living spaces with a swimming pool, generous seating and storage, closed by a swim platform at water level; the tender garage sits aft, with a side-opening hatch to port. Below, five suites accommodate up to ten guests plus two, while a crew of seven is housed in four cabins — a ratio that says a good deal about the project’s cruising ambitions.
The numbers bear it out. At 35 metres overall with a beam of 7.55 metres, Octopus displaces 325 tonnes and is powered by twin Caterpillar C18 engines in IMO Tier III configuration, each rated at 533 kW, for a top speed of 13.5 knots. Fuel capacity of 45,000 litres supports a stated range of up to 5,500 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 9 knots: less than Acala‘s 8,000 miles, as one would expect from a smaller platform, but comfortably enough to cross the Atlantic with margin in hand and to reach remote destinations without planning intermediate stops.
From the Cannes quayside to Ancona
The project’s commercial genesis tells another part of the story. The yard met the future owners in 2024 at the Festival de la Plaisance in Cannes; the contract was concluded through Jamie Swaine of IYC‘s London office, and construction began the same year. The project, the yard reports, was further developed with input from Döhle Yachts.
“The enthusiasm generated by Acala has been truly remarkable,” says Vasco Buonpensiere, co-founder and CEO of Cantiere delle Marche. What began as a unique project, he continues, has evolved into an opportunity to explore and develop a design language that clearly resonates with the yard’s clients — and the Deep Blue 115, together with the two Deep Blue 141s still in the pipeline, confirms in his words the strength and vision behind CdM’s proposals and its ability to turn concepts into successful series.
From contract signature in 2024 to handover took less than two years, for a full custom explorer under 300 GT. That industrial figure, in the end, is what gives the claim its substance.
