Group Y: “Nautical Hotel with quality certification”

When the best Made in Italy becomes a model for the whole world

How many of you have taken a vacation on a rented boat? Today more than ever the boat is the obligatory choice for an experiential holiday, in close contact with the sea and nature. In Italy and in particular in Sardinia there is the first ISO 9001 certified accommodation facility in the world as a Nautical Hotel. What it means? We asked one of the two founding members of Group Y, Monica Ricci. “In 2018, Group Y Yachting in Sardinia, after a twenty-year charter activity, having had the vision of the possible growth prospects of Eco-sustainable Nautical Tourism, decided to change gear and, starting from the choice of a certifying body expert in tourist accommodation (not nautical ones), as CSQA, has revolutionized the processes in an integral way by redesigning the operating model of the business. Today Yachting in Sardinia, after 5 years of certification, thanks to major investments in computerization, is the first company in the world capable of offering a Certified Nautical Hotel service. They often ask us, but how are you different? The real answer should be ‘in everything’ but we limit ourselves to highlighting some distinctive elements. For example, we were the first in the world to limit navigation, clashing with the market, with the aim of taking the customer by the hand and educating him to a new awareness of living the sea. So in 2020 we have included in the lease the limit to night navigation and the first 10 ‘prohibited’ areas; then in 2021 we inserted the limit to navigation within 3 miles from the coast. What will ever be the virtuoso in placing limits on navigation? The need is to preserve the safety of customers as well as of the boats, encouraging them to enjoy their holiday in an increasingly simple, spontaneous and above all safe way. When the experienced customer wants to sail over 3 miles or at night, he can do so by requesting the contractual integration. Since 2020, less than 3% of customers have made this request. Thanks to the research developed with the partner Seaguardian, today our boats are equipped with an active control in real time through which the captain is notified of any infringement. So if he enters a prohibited area, he receives a text message informing him of the violation and asking him to leave, with the main purpose of preserving the safety of the guests and then of the boat. At that point the commander contacts his dedicated Service Operator (who remotely follows him for the holiday) justifies the infringement and does not incur the penalty; on the contrary, a ‘braggart’ captain is sanctioned and after 2 hours receives a link to pay the penalty remotely: if he does not do it within the day, the boat is forbidden to sail. This example demonstrates how much there is still a lot to do in Nautical Tourism to redefine the Product / Service by exploiting the opportunities that technology makes available to us, with the awareness that it is often necessary to adopt not very commercial choices, but that if they are included in their profound essence represent elements that make the Sailing Holiday with Group Y different from the others. Group Y and in particular Yachting in Sardinia in the sector of the Nautical Hotel is a flood in full security “.

We then asked Fabrizio Cordeddu who did the last quality audit in 2 of the 3 Yachting bases in Sardinia what he thought of the results achieved in 5 years of certification: “The company is a virtuous example to be proposed as a model at national level. Not only does it work to achieve the minimum certification requirements, but it grows and transforms itself, year after year, because it truly believes in its mission. Proof that even small businesses can become models to follow ”. Group Y has also been involved in a project of excellence focused on continuous training in the nautical field that involves Sardinia. For years, throughout the group, training has been a must to develop the human capital necessary to bring about the profound transformation. But let’s go back to the boats. Group Y with ProSail Yacht Experts represents some important brands in Sardinia, such as Dufour, of the Fountaine Pajot group (second in the world), and Silent Yacht, an award-winning 100% renewable energy catamaran. The boats, however, are still obsolete in their concept: this is the worm that gives no peace to the other founding partner of Group Y, Francesco Della Torre. Bergamasco by birth, Sardinian by adoption and athlete of the national sailing team for 2 decades, after having bought, set up and transformed a few hundred boats, he realized that the product offered by the market is not in line with that requested by the Nautical Tourist. For this reason, in 2016 Group Y entered the boat sales sector and today it represents with ProSail a constantly growing reality capable of taking the customer by the hand and following him during all the phases of his experience as a shipowner. Furthermore, ProSail is working to redefine the product concept with the partner shipyards, putting at their service the data collected on the real needs of the new Nautical Tourist in a virtuous path of transformation. Finally, the future projects of Group Y: for now they are top secret, but with the subsidiary EHYFA it will revolutionize the nautical market thanks to eco-sustainability.