Zodiac is expanding its range with the launch of its X9CC (pictured above). This 8.6 metre model incorporates many features from last year’s X10CC but adapts them into a more compact, accessible, and versatile format.
The brand, which is focused on rigid inflatable boats (RIBs), is approaching its 130th anniversary. At Cannes Yachting Festival, Florent Battistella, CEO of Zodiac Nautic, told MIN that while Zodiac remains committed to tube technology as its core offering, it’s also adapting to market demands through closer relationships with dealers who act as a bridge to end users.
“Through them we will understand the market . . . we need to recognise that our dealers are part of it 100 per cent.”
This change is part of a long-term process. “When we developed the X10CC, we did it on our own. Last year, we decided that the 9CC will be discussed with most of our dealers.”
He’s keen that the dealer network really understands the way the company works, thinks, and manufactures. “We are welcoming them in the shipyard to show them the way we do, and the difficulty we have to build a boat, because they may bring a lot of ideas,” he says.
“We need to identify our strong dealers — strong meaning heavily involved. If they don’t succeed, we don’t succeed. If we don’t succeed, they don’t succeed.”
Battistella says the new approach directly affects product development – as dealer consultations happened before the X9CC design was finalised (a display model is pictured left).
Now the latest offering is said to ensure excellent seaworthiness, precise handling, and remarkable speed performance. Its inflatable tubes provide stability, significantly increased capacity, and reassuring safety, particularly during manoeuvres or turns.
It comes with a 620-litre fuel tank, is 8.60 metres in length and 3.32 metres wide. The X9CC an unladen weight of 2,350kg, and the capacity to accommodate up to 15 passengers. It can be powered by up to 2 × 250hp engines, reaching speeds of 50 knots.
Zodiac has plans to release a new boat every year.
“We are forcing ourselves to deliver a new boat every year. This is an objective. Will we be able to do it or not? I don’t know. But we’re striving to get it.”
“The brand is 100 per cent focused on RIBS,” Battistella notes.
“Next year it will be our 130 years of journey. So we’re going to celebrate that and take this opportunity to make an assessment of what we have been doing over these long years and where we should go next. . . tubes are our prime technology . . . we need to capitalise on what we have developed over these many years. That is something which is very important for us. At the same time, we don’t need to be nostalgic.
“And you know we need to protect our planet. So we’ll get into it, but one thing at a time. We are getting prepared, but one thing at a time.”
The post Zodiac launches X9CC and cites closer relationship with dealers appeared first on Marine Industry News.
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