The Zen 70 is the first leisure model built by the experienced Gruppo Zen, an Italian shipyard that until now concentrated its activity in the professional navigation.The project has all the exclusivity of the large open boats with the addition of their hand made production in very reduced series

Zen Yachts is par t of the Gruppo Zen, a company dedicated to the merchant navy in the port of Gioia Tauro, in the south of Italy. For those of you that this name does not ring the bell, we will specify that Gioia Tauro is almost on the same latitude as the island of Lipari, nor th of Reggio di Calabria. This por t has a cer tain impor tance, because initially it was constructed to give service to blast furnaces, but the disrupt in the world of the iron and steel industry ruined this facility and later was reused as a port for containers, under the initiative of a Genovese industrialist. In slightly more than ten years this por t has become the largest in the Mediterranean destined to the traffic of containers, with facilities that allow to welcome enormous ships and with an annual traffic close to 3.500 ships.

The Zen group has in this port facilities of 60.000 square meters, 10.000 of which are covered. It is almost a decade ago that the group began its activity in the repair and maintenance of large ships and, later, to the construction of medium size wooden ferries – around 300 passengers -, used to transfer tourists from Calabria and Sicily to the Aeolian Islands.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECT
In this business context Antonio Zito, president of the group, decided to be present also in the leisure yachting sector and along with his nephew Francesco Zito, an architect, decided to begin with an exceptional project: a high performance 21 meters open. Therefore they contacted a prestigious naval architect, Massimo Paperini, well known since 1980 for the design of several sailing one off, firstly under the IOR rules and later in IMS. Paperini boats, more than 300, have been successful in several regattas and he has himself several distinctions, but this one was his first power design.
For the Paperini hull bottom he required the collaboration of his friend the engineer Alber to Ascenzi, creator of high speed projects for the Italian Guardia di Finanza and the hulls for Baia, Continental and Wally, among others. For the top sides he got inspired by different designs from the automobile world, from the racing cars of the fifties to some concept cars, with a very dynamic outer look and functional interiors, where space and light predominate.

In fact, the experience of the designer is perceived immediately on the lines of the boat, of great purity, with a very simple superstructure in its outcome but elaborated in its approach, because the lateral windows get a great importance, being perceived as a single piece from the outside. This piece ends up in a very fine line, in such a way that it seems that the roof leans on a minimum support, giving a sensation of great lightness. Also the windscreen has a well studied shape, just as the lateral windows opened on the hull, that are pure port holes or horizontal windows, two of which are superposed for the owner’s cabin and another individual one illuminates the main guest cabin.
Zen Yachts facilities would allow the construction of 13 yachts per year, but the activity has been voluntarily reduced to six boats, with the aim of taking care for the future owners in a personalised way, with a high level of standard equipment per unit. The first unit of the Zen 70 was launched in 2005. During the 2006 Festival de la Plaisance in Cannes this model obtained the award for the best boat of the year in the 60 to 80 feet open category and during the past Barcelona boat show unit number three, Elena, destined to a Russian owner, was exhibited. The shipyard is also working on a 105 feet model to be launched in 2009.

PRIVACY OR VIEWS
On the main deck the outer space is occupied by the saloon and the steering position, on a wengé floor of large laths. The saloon is, in fact, a large dinning room with a C shaped sofa of 3,20 by 1,78 meters placed on the starboard side, surrounding a table of remarkable dimensions. With no doubt, lunch time has a great importance in this case. A sideboard runs along the port side and allows to stow the usual equipment whereas the television is hidden inside of the piece of furniture that separates the saloon from the steering position. Among the wood chosen for the furniture zebrano predominates, which means a remarkable challenge for the in-house cabinet makers, not only because this texture could overload the atmosphere, but also for the extreme difficulty to match its grain, but the challenge has been superseded successfully.

The natural light invades the whole, the roof opens up, but what mostly attracts the attention is the method chosen to obtain the required privacy in this space, with no need to use curtains. The lateral glass panes can be darkened at will. In their conventional application they are perceived as conventional glass, tinted to preserve the privacy, but in addition they have an LCD sheet and it is enough to press a switch in the saloon so that they become opaque or vice versa, so that the view from the outside to the interior is avoided or the other way round. And that happens immediately in either of the two directions. The steering position, again, allows us to verify the effectiveness of the design and how complete the equipment is. The dashboard displays an engraved stainless steel panel, in the style of the racing cars, but with a perimetric leather finish. The navigation switches - trim, flaps, bow and stern thruster - are concentrated next to the steering wheel and to the sides there is the Raymarine E120 system screen and a screen for the domotics and the gauges. The standard equipment also includes depth sounder, the auto pilot, the on board computer, the CCTV with two cameras and the VHF, among others.