With pomp and circumstance, Benetti in early June launched its latest Vision 145, Checkmate, into Viareggio’s Darsena Italia Basin. Checkmate is the 15th yacht built in the Vision line, and the top of the Class range of yachts.

After the traditional breaking of the champagne bottle across her bow, the yacht slipped smoothly into the Mediterranean from a specially built ramp to the notes of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Và Pensiero.” Present at the ceremony were the owner (a well known surgeon from Washington, D.C.) and his family, along with all the Benetti staff involved in the yacht’s almost two-year-long construction and fitting out.

The builder characterizes Checkmate’s interior as both rich and sober, with a combination of cherry and burr madrona woods and neoclassical dark inlays enhanced by marble.

Checkmate is equipped with twin 1,300 horsepower Caterpillar engines that deliver a top speed of 15 knots and a cruising range of over 3,500 nautical miles.

Contact: benettiyachts.it.