On a quiet morning along the Canale dei Navicelli, the historic shipyard that gave the world the iconic Akhir series in the 1970s has just unveiled its boldest statement in decades: the Super Polaris 70 powered by T. Mariotti, a 230-foot steel-and-aluminum explorer yacht introduced this month as the first tangible result of a new alliance with the Genoa-based superyacht and cruise-ship builder T. Mariotti and conceived for an owner who wants to cruise from Antarctic ice to Polynesian lagoons without ever sacrificing the comforts of a floating residence. Penned outside by Cantieri di Pisa’s chief designer Antonio Luxardo and dressed inside by the Pisa-based studio Pulina Exclusive Interiors, the Super Polaris 70 rewrites the explorer conventions with deck spaces so expansive they can accommodate a regulation volleyball, basketball or padel court, a counter-current swimming pool, a 180-square-meter beach club and spa, six guest cabins plus a 95-square-meter full-beam owner’s suite with twin 20-square-meter fold-down balconies, and a four-deck layout that leaves almost every outdoor area open to the owner’s imagination, from side-opening garages for 12-meter tenders to loose-furniture terraces that double as party zones once the toys are launched.
Powered by twin CAT 3512 engines, she is projected to reach 15 knots flat out, cruise at 12 and cross oceans with a 6,500-nautical-mile range at 10 knots, figures that place her firmly in the go-anywhere, stay-forever category increasingly favored by billionaire adventurers. “We wanted to honor our past while inventing the future,” Marco Massabò, the yard’s chief executive, said in an interview, pointing out that choosing Pulina, a globally renowned studio still rooted in Pisa, was both a homecoming and a declaration that luxury today must feel effortless: linen and cashmere tones, light and dark walnut, travertine surfaces, discreet metallic inlays, and obsessive Italian craftsmanship in every detail.
Alessandro Pulina described the mood as “an oasis of comfort for every latitude,” with floor-to-ceiling glass erasing the boundary between salon and seascape and a palette deliberately soft enough to calm the soul after a day of heli-skiing or diving. Revived in 2021 by Italian entrepreneur Enrico Gennasio determined to fuse Tuscan heritage with modern industrial muscle, Cantieri di Pisa is signaling with the Super Polaris 70 that the explorer yacht is no longer a utilitarian compromise but a new genre of private wilderness lodge, one that carries the unmistakable accent of la dolce vita wherever it drops anchor.
