Mind & Body

The Ferretti 850 has the presence to stand out in any harbor.

- Alan Harper

HAVE YOU EVER WALKED INTO A CROWDED PUB and stood at the bar, wondering what you have to do to get a drink? No? That’s probably why you’re a reader of magazines like this one, and I’m merely a writer. There is something mysterious about the way some people, with no visible effort, can just get served. Maybe it’s a Zen thing.

The phenomenon applies to boats, too. At the Cannes boat show last September—a crowded bar if ever there was one—Ferretti’s 850 was one among hundreds of similar craft, all moored stern-to the quay. To the untrained eye, many of these yachts were virtually indistinguishable. And yet there she was. Nothing about her was obviously calculated to attract attention, but she caught my eye, and held it, without seeming to try at all.

Ferretti has always been good at creating this effect. Almost alone among European yacht builders, the company has the confidence to ignore fads and fashions. It sails serenely on, producing yachts with qualities best expressed in the abstract: They exude authority. They have presence.