Italian yachtmaker Ferretti may lighten its load by selling off some of the less expensive brands it owns. Of course less by Ferretti standards is still quite expensive. Bloomberg reveals that one of the brands Ferretti may unload is Apreamare, a unit which makes gorgeously classic fishing boats. The boats are modest compared to Ferretti's standard megayachts and sell for as little as 500,000 euros.

The logic for selling brands with a lower price point is that the ultra-rich are less likely to cancel their yachts. Apreamare is valued at around 60 million euros and Apreamare Chairman Cataldo Aprea is said to be behind an investor group looking to by back his family brand. The group is one of several looking at buying the 160- year-old Apreamare brand. Apreamare may be sold in a package deal with the Itama brand.

Ferretti flirted with bankruptcy earlier this year but a group of 100 creditors led by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc converted their debt to equity to avert bankruptcy for Ferretti and restructured 1.2 billion euros of debt. Ferretti is expected to begin paying interest on that debt next month and a few sales could make that burden a little easier to take.

I touched last month on the problems facing Ferretti SpA, the Italian maker of luxury yachts, and since then things have only gotten worse. Bloomberg is reporting that the yacht company missed an interest payment on 1.08 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of senior loans from the Royal Bank of Scotland used to finance its buyout in 2007. At the end of last month Ferretti did not make a 1.4 million euro payment. Ferretti has released a statement saying that the payment is related to an interest-rate swap on the senior loan and that it only failed to pay interest on the debt's 200 million- euro lesser "mezzanine" loans.

Ferretti, which also owns Pershing, Riva and CRN creates some of the most luxurious and expensive yachts and mega-yachts in the world. Like many luxury brands it is facing diminished sales. Currently London-based Candover owns 50.2 percent of the company as a result of the LBO, while Ferretti's management holds 39.1 percent and Permira Advisers LLP, another London-based private equity firm, has 10.7 percent. The yachtmaker's senior loans traded at 22 percent of face value at the end of last week and the Financial Times has said that Ferretti has stopped production at Pershing sending 270 workers home for 15 days from the production site in Fano. It's a startling turn around for Ferretti which was planning its new public offering on the stock exchange just a few months ago. Orders for the larger boats Ferretti makes continue to come in but the fall-off in orders for the mid-range yachts has been swift.

The yacht industry is starting to feel the pinch from the economic crisis. In December we saw Carver yachts double its holiday work stoppages. This week brought bad news from two major yacht companies. North Carolina's Hatteras Yachts cut another 330 workers this week. The company already cut 300 workers last August. The company hopes to rehire workers when the economic climate improves. Hourly employees will receive a severance package with two months' pay and full benefits.

Across the Atlantic, the Financial Times reports that Ferretti, the world's second-largest yacht maker, is preparing for the worst after sales of its megayachts have plummeted. The company's private equity owners are looking to hire advisers for debt restructuring. The company was flying high just six months ago, earning record profits and preparing to be offered on the Milan stock exchange. Ferretti owns the brands Pershing, Riva and CRN.

The London Boat Show was held last week and as Sky News reports the mood was cautiously optimistic with a modest but steady flow of orders.

I've been hearing whisperings about this one for months but Italian yacht maker Ferretti is set to show of the the Mochi Craft Long Range 23, a yacht they say is the first hybrid yacht over 20 feet long that produces negligible tailpipe emissions. The yacht is a 75-foot tri-deck that has a a hybrid propulsion system. When running on diesel and cruising at eight knots, it emits 10 kilograms of carbon dioxide for each nautical mile. And the engine charges a battery pack that can also power the boat. In this diesel-electric mode, it emits less than half a kilogram each nautical mile.The NY Times reports that the yacht will cost around three million euros. The boat is being displayed at the Genoa International Boat Show, October 4-12. More pictures can be found at a listing for the boat on The Yacht Market.

Future yacht owners take note, naming your new toy some sort of victorious slogan might be a dangerous form of hubris. We saw it first with John Devaney and his yacht Positive Carry which was listed for sale a few months ago as the mortgage market started to show weakness. Now we are seeing it again with We Won, a 2002 94-foot Ferretti yacht owned by Bill Lilly, a.k.a "The Condo King." Lilly, who was once Massachusetts' largest condominium developer before he spent 5 1/2 years in prison after he was convicted of bank fraud in New England's real estate crash of the early 1990s, turned it all back around by investing heavily in the Florida real estate market. The Boston Globe reports that Lilly was living large in Boca Raton, Florida just a couple of years ago. Now in a glutted real estate market, Lilly and Valerie Kaan who control Bay Communities Real Estate, have given five condo projects totaling nearly 1,200 units back to the lender and Lilly put his yacht on the market at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. We Won is listed at $6 million. The charter brochure for the yacht reveals that she has a crew of four and can accommodate nine guests in four cabins. The yacht has rented for as much as $44,500 a week. Lilly insists he will be back again and sees the sagging real estate market as an opportunity to reinvest.

A luxury yacht that you can't get seasick on? That's the promise of the Ferretti 630. The Times Online reports on the yacht which uses a stabilizer system called Anti Rolling Gyro (ARG) to stop side-to-side motion. Here's how it works: there is a 154lb steel and aluminum gyroscope in the bottom of the hull with an electric motor, when the sea gets rough and the boat get tilty, the gyroscope spins against the lean and helps keep the boat on an even keel. The stabilizer not only has the benefit of keeping your guests from getting nauseous, it also can help objects stay put rather than pitching and rolling with the boat. The three-cabin yacht has other lovely details like a massage lounge in the owner's cabin and a padded sun lounge on the flybridge. The Ferretti 630 sells for around l £1.57 million and is currently on display at the Southampton boat show.

Normally, I'm a bit wary of Italian design in yachts. But lately, I've been very impressed with what's been coming out of Italian yards. Among those is the Feretti 731. At 73 feet, the yacht is good for weekend or short jaunts around the Caribbean. As I have spoken before, I feel that small yacht makers need to improve their interiors and this yacht does just that. From the bi-level salon with dining area to the massive windows in the master stateroom, this yacht definitely takes design to new levels. 4 en-suite staterooms bring the total capacity to 8. Details abound like the kitchen being separated from the salon to the ocean-view glass shower in the master stateroom.