Benetti’s new 37M Motopanfilo meets the needs of today’s owners, but has its roots in a time of great creative expression, that of the “Navetta” style of the 1960s. Not a restyling of a successful product, but a 21st century yacht. With interior by Lazzarini Pickering Architects

With a clean design, elongated profile and classic rounded stern, and interiors strictly featuring wainscoting and wooden furniture with white and blue upholstery, the 1960s motoryachts fascinated royalty, VIPs and people in show business. Benetti was already the market leader back then with highly successful models. Today it returns with its Motopanfilo 37M, a 21st Century craft whose design has its roots in time, drawing on the shipyard’s cultural heritage and interpreting it in keeping with the trends of today.

Designed by Francesco Struglia in partnership with Benetti, the lines of the exterior have a classic, elegant and austere style with clean, sharp lines that enhance the yacht’s styling. Large terraces descend to sea level, opening the boat to the outer world and creating close contact with the natural setting. At the stern it has a large beach club, a must today, with a central hatch that opens to transform it into a spacious platform on the water. A place of immense charm, the Observation Deck: a modern interpretation of what was once the crow’s nest (the highest outlook post on the mainmast of large sailing ships) is positioned above the hard top, becoming a small fourth bridge, an intimate and exclusive place from which to enjoy the view.

The interior of the new 37M Motopanfilo evokes the skeleton of some great whale. Designed by Lazzarini Pickering Architetti, it draws on the architectural elements (the ribbing) that shaped the hull of the wooden boats of the past to articulate the space and give it a rhythm. The bulwarks have been dematerialized leaving the large glazed sides the task of enclosing the volumes while completely opening out the interiors. Mirrored surfaces frame the windows, amplifying the spaces and creating a magical interplay of reflections of sea and sky.

The decision to replace the classic bulwarks with glazed surfaces prompted Lazzarini and Pickering to use wood in keeping with a new scheme, here featured on floors and ceilings, worked with counter curves and fine cabinetry, enhancing the morphological vision of the interior. The design by Lazzarini Pickering Architetti is extended to the decks to create a close continuity with the interiors with a canopy offering a shaded space in the fascinating beach club area. Below deck, in the cabins, it was also decided to bring out the nautical character of the rooms, leaving the form of the hull exposed and again playing on stylistic themes with colors and materials recovered from the seafaring tradition.