With sailing yachts becoming increasingly more complex and challenging to build, the shipyard has chosen to rethink its construction philosophy by developing an effective alternative to the more traditional full-custom and semi-custom approaches.

Dubbed 'Smart Custom', this process allows for each new build to optimize the production phase and increase the construction value for the owner. Ultimately, this new approach means that money now flows into the yacht, rather than being squandered into inefficiency.

"Throughout its thirty years' experience, Southern Wind has launched over sixty yachts. The knowledge of its internal process and the challenges we have faced has lead us to rethink and formulate a new build philosophy based on the belief that, as a shipyard, we would never cut corners nor passively accept any "wild" requests that could compromise efficiency, safety and blue water reliability", states Andrea Micheli, Commercial Director at Southern Wind, adding: "We came up with the Smart Custom idea because we wanted to combine the best of both worlds: on one hand the virtues of a full-custom yacht, on the other the efficiency of a semi-custom approach. Today we can develop a "purpose created" platform able to adapt to the Owner's brief while leaving the tested and reliable base structures untouched, which means adding value to the build thanks to a more healthier approach to construction".

Over the years Southern Wind has constantly developed its base platforms in order to stay at the forefront of technological evolution while remaining true to its heritage. Today's Smart Custom approach means maintaining high levels of quality, blue water reliability and custom personalization because no two yachts are ever the same.

"By adopting this new build philosophy, Southern Wind has identified the sweet-spot between customization and standardization, design and reliability and – most importantly – between performance and comfort", says Marco Alberti, General Manager at Southern Wind, adding: "By optimizing the build process, we can concentrate solely on construction while reducing to a bare minimum the project adjustments during this process. This improvement is also vital to our 280-strong workforce who now have a more comprehensive understanding of the "bigger picture" with regards to the shipyards future".