Uncompromising Vision

ARCADIA CREATES A DESIGN AROUND PEOPLE RATHER THAN HULLS. THE RESULT IS A STUNNING MIX OF COMFORT AND DELIGHT IN A 100-FOOTER THAT MUST BE EXPERIENCED TO BE BELIEVED.

- Alan Harper

Naples is a populous, ancient, and faintly chaotic conurbation with great architecture, bad roads, and a long tradition of boatbuilding. Unfortunately, it also has a long tradition of corruption and crime, and is not generally known as a great place to do business. Writers in search of an easy metaphor can always peer through the haze at Vesuvius, which sits glowering over the city, a constant reminder of the ultimate futility of man’s endeavors. But companies trying to establish themselves here have to deal with difficulties that are not metaphorical but real.

Against this backdrop, the achievements of Arcadia Yachts are all the more impressive. Set up in 2008 by two partners in a huge empty factory building on the waterfront at Torre Annunziata, a few miles south of the city, the fledgling company was quick to demonstrate an uncompromising vision. Its first yacht, the Arcadia 85, took the 2010 Cannes boat show by storm: No one had seen anything like it before, but it soon won friends, and several awards.

The fact that this new boat was actually the second to be built went quietly unacknowledged—the first one having perished in a mysterious and decidedly non-metaphorical fire at the shipyard. The company chose not to dwell on such difficulties, but to focus on the future.

The superb, two-and-a-half deck Arcadia 115—another award winner—soon followed. Then came the engagingly quirky 55-foot Sherpa, which raised eyebrows and won hearts in equal measure. And at the Cannes show last fall, alongside a new, raised-wheelhouse 85S, the shipyard unveiled its new 100.