Boat test for the 2006 CNM Continental 80 with boat pictures, boat specifications, and boat test results. Includes pricing, videos, engine test reviews, and ratings for the 2006 CNM Continental 80.

There are lots of ways to arrive at the Monaco Yacht Show, some more stylish than others. The airport bus is quick, efficient, and air conditioned, but perhaps a little humdrum for a man who wishes to be taken seriously on the quayside at Port Hercule. People often overlook the train, but the views are spectacular, and it's by far the fastest way if you're staying in a pretty coastal resort like Menton, rather than among the high-rises of Monaco itself. A limousine can whisk you to the show in dignified silence—a silence destined to be broken by your driver apologizing about the traffic once you get to the edge of town.

High-rollers flying into Nice, France invariably take the helicopter from the airport, which promises to provide the most noticeable arrival at the show—guaranteed to impress until you find that it lands not in the heart of Monaco, but next door to the show at Fontvieille, where you must hail a taxi and join all the other disillusioned big shots fuming in the gridlock.

I've tried them all, but this year I found the ultimate mode of boat-show transport: quick, luxurious, exclusive, and guaranteed to create a stir on arrival. I joined the CNM Continental 80 down the coast at Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, with two objects in mind: a thorough sea trial of this sleek machine from a new Italian yard, followed by a comfortable, traffic-free ride into Monaco.

With that endless foredeck, the 80 certainly looks the part. A resemblance to another well-known Italian brand is no coincidence.

Cantieri Navali del Mediterraneo (CNM) hails from the River Tiber just downstream of Rome and was set up in the old Itama shipyard (Itama having moved since its acquisition by the Ferretti Group) by property developer Salvatore d'Agostino. Mario Amati, the founder of Itama, has been retained by the new yard as a consultant, and an experienced team of designers and engineers was hired to create a new range of boats, of which the Continental is just the first.

She is an imposing vessel, with a great-looking, curved sheer, a vast foredeck, and a hunched superstructure aft that imparts a muscular, coiled-spring look. A family resemblance to the bigger boats of the Baia range is no coincidence; both marques were designed by naval architect Alberto Ascenzi of Genoa University. And CNM is not just capitalizing on the boom enjoyed by other Italian shipyards. It has set out to create a highly engineered, semicustom yacht at the top end of the market, and one feature in particular—the "floating floor" that rests on an insulated aluminum frame—is a big-yacht sound- and vibration-damping system that is rare on a boat this size.

With low-volume production and high-end aspirations, CNM is happy to meet customers more than halfway when it comes to customizing. If you want the saloon TV concealed behind the sideboard on an electric elevator mount, that will be no problem. Different interior colors and finishes entail a simple consultation with the design team, although this yacht's combination of burgundy leather flooring, beech bulkheads, and cream lacquers trod a pretty sure-footed line between opulent and comfortable. I felt that at 21½ inches, the guardrails were on the low side, but the yard can make them taller. All you have to do is ask.

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