Heesen 45mt Amore Mio

The rewards of delayed gratification can far outweigh the frustrations, something that the owner of Heesen’s custom-built aluminium 45 metre Amore Mio learned firsthand. Just as the serial yacht owner was due to take delivery of another Heesen yacht, 40 metre Galatea (now called Taurica), an offer came in that was too good to refuse. He sold the 40 metre and found himself at square one and boat-less, a frustrating position for any yacht owner.

Luckily, there was something ready on the shelf at Heesen. The Dutch builder’s first ever 45 metre sportster, then known as Project Necto, was a year into build at the yard. Started on spec, all the aluminium — hull, deck and bulkheads — was finished. Taking the financial gains from the quick sale, he turned his 40 metre into a 45 metre.

“It’s a great stage to come into a build, because you save all the time it takes for that rough construction process, as long as you like the general layout — and we did, the owner loved it,” says Amore Mio’s Captain Tripp Hock, who has worked for the owner on various builds, including multiple Heesens, for 16 years. The spec-built semi-displacement 45 metre motor yacht was at an ideal stage for the owner to come along and put his stamp on her while not having to wait too long to enjoy her.

What he had on his hands wasn’t just any Heesen, but a unique blend of high-performance and long-range capabilities, bold exterior lines and a layout that put a priority on outdoor living. The latter was perfect for this owner, who was looking for a summer house on the sea, to be enjoyed by the family and used for outdoor fun, with a bulging toy box that far exceeds what you’d find on other yachts of similar size.

Amore Mio might be the first Heesen of her kind, but she has a strong familial heritage. Designed by regular collaborators Omega Architects, who have penned more than 90 designs for Heesen including concepts and builds in progress, that’s no surprise.

“We combined the comfort of a three-deck yacht, like 42 metre Alive, with the sportiness of a raised pilothouse yacht like 40 metre Galatea,” says designer Frank Laupman of Omega Architects.

“Furthermore, Alive’s exceptional bow was used as inspiration.” The result is a 2.5-deck yacht, as Laupman describes it, with aggressive exterior styling, dominant knuckle bow and bold angles. Family likeness aside, Amore Mio has no problem standing out amongst her kin.

“This is the next generation,” says Laupman. “The sporty rocket-style exterior with chiseled lines and the long hard chine forward emphasises her sharp and edgy appearance.”

Laupman used window placement artfully and expressively in Amore Mio’s exterior design. The bridge is set between the main deck and superyacht sundeck, with wheelhouse windows wrapping around like a heavy black brow. “The upward curving glass windows give her the character of an open sportster,” he says. “They were created from three straight windows instead of five — beauty goes with functionality, non-curved glass prevents distortion and offers a less obstructed view.”

The main deck glazing that looks like one continuous swathe of glass stretching from master to aft deck is, in fact, two distinct sections that parts midway on the side decks, marking the path to the bow and the entry to the crew quarters on the port side. The bulwark is lowered to encourage excellent views from inside. Amore Mio’s hewn lines and a black stripe along the bulwark flow all the way back to the gently sloping transom.

Amore Mio is one of those boats that looks fast when she’s sitting still. Powered by twin MTU 16V diesel engines, she packs a punch to match her energetic exterior profile, reaching top speeds of 30 knots. Sitting up top at the open helm on the sundeck when she’s moving at speed, it’s evident that Heesen’s largest sports yacht to date is designed for performance. She’s also intended for longer-range excursions, with a range of a 2,750 nautical miles allowing her to pootle around the Med or cross the Caribbean without having to fill up the tank.

However, Amore Mio’s owner has spent most of his time since taking delivery bobbing off Malta and using his summer home at sea as intended. The owner arrived on the build scene at the point where it wasn’t too late to change a few things he wasn’t in love with, such as the superyacht spa pool and bar on the flybridge. The owner preferred to rip these out for more deck space where he and his wife could roll out their yoga mats, part of their daily routine when on board. As far as the owner is concerned, what’s the need for a spa tub when the sea is right there?

Instead, the toy box is ample, with everything from Seadoos to flyboards and high-flying towables to stand-up paddle boards. A 5.9 metre Boesch mahogany tender is stowed in the garage. The 90 square metre sundeck seems massive without a spa to clutter the way. The hardtop shades an al fresco dining table and teppanyaki grill station.

“The exterior spaces are vast for a 45 metre boat,” says Captain Hock. “I think it’s smart; minimise the interior to what you need, and all the emphasis goes to the beautiful outdoor space, massive sundeck, great aft deck for a 45 metre, having both a dining table and a separate aft seating area.” There’s also a bow seating area, with a sofas and sunpads.

While the priority is placed on the exterior, there isn’t any skimping on the interior with a total of ten guests accommodated. The forward main-deck owner’s suit is full-beam and has a dressing room and bathroom with tub. The lower deck arrangement is traditional but ample, with two equally sized VIPs and two twin guest rooms. Space is intelligently used — by creating a smaller lobby on the lower deck, 6.5 square metres were able to be saved and redistributed amongst the guest rooms.

The elegant interior is designed to match Amore Mio’s beach house purpose, as interior designer Cristiano Gatto tells it. “The owners arrived on the project in quite an early stage, and we developed the colour board and the material selection in close collaboration,” says Gatto, of his fifth collaboration with Heesen. “[Amore Mio’s] designed to be contemporary but without the modern trappings of cold, impersonal interiors.”

Gatto’s interior is all about consistency and harmony, with a subdued palette, linear shapes and round edges all meant to convey softness and warmth. Calnetto walnut and white lacquered wood blend with leather, parchment stone and steel details, while cushions and throws in blue, green and red provide pops of colour.

The simple interior design belies her many nuanced details. “Take a look at the dining table edges,” says Gatto. “The table corners are four half spheres of leather whose stitching has been executed manually by extremely skilled artisans. And all marble surfaces on board Amore Mio come from a single block of Breccia Sarda. What I’ve tried to do with this project is to make consistency and coherence win over complexity.”

A special feature is the guest staircase set abeam in the main saloon. Topped by sliding glass at its apex on the bridge deck, there is an atrium affect with light filtering into the living spaces below. The superyacht staircase is fronted by a wall of floating walnut beams supported by polished stainless steel columns and sanded glass, all giving a further illusion of height and openness, and adding a wow factor to the dining room.

The layout is planned so guests and crew avoid collision, with this separate guest staircase leading from the lower deck through the main deck saloon to the sundeck. The separate crew stairway is placed forward, creating an easy thoroughfare from the crew accommodation, past the galley and through the bridge to the top deck.

Based on his years of experience, Amore Mio’s captain added in his own innovative solutions and storage requirements. He points out panels that move away to reveal storage where you’d least expect it. One interesting feature he promoted is a bespoke man-overboard system. When such an incident occurs, a life-saving device is instantly deployed to the victim in the water while the spot is marked and tracked via GPS so the captain can easily find them. It’s a safety measure that’s sure to assure a family cruising with young children.

Combining high-performance, long-range capabilities, expansive outdoor living and singular style, it’s easy to fall in love with Heesen’s new 45 metre aluminium motor yacht. So will Amore Mio see sisterships in the near future? While the aluminium 45 metre was started with the intention of being a series, the builder may be looking to even larger yachts for its spec-built offerings and a second hull isn’t yet in the works. But any would-be Heesen owner could certainly order this hull. Or for those to hate to wait, they could buy Amore Mioherself.

Her owner’s love affair has been on the passionate but short side. After only one season enjoying his summer house on the sea, Amore Mio is offered up for sale as her owner is already looking ahead and building his next — and bigger — yacht with Heesen. Once again, he’s choosing to delay gratification for greater rewards.


Heesen Yachts

( www.heesenyachts.com )

Wally 33,51mt Barong D

The 33.51 metre Wally 110 sailing yacht Barong D has been delivered to her owner, the Italian yard has confirmed.

This all-carbon sloop was developed for an existing client of the Italian builder. The new owner, an experienced yachtsman, previously owned 28.5 metre Wally Barong C and before that 24 metre Barong B.

Barong D was designed by Frers Naval Architecture and has been created with performance in mind. “Wally employed all its advanced know-how to produce a fully equipped cruising superyacht displacing only 65 tons: two tons lighter than predicted,” explained Wally's president and CEO Luca Bassani.

“We succeeded in delivering a truly exceptional performance cruiser that accommodates in full comfort the owners who spend several months of the year on board.”

As well as the use of pre-preg carbon fibre throughout, advanced technologies and materials have also been used on the electrical system and the hydraulic systems, which can provide up to 350 bar of pressure.

The interior was built in blocks to achieve the maximum quality while reducing the weight. Designed by Wally and Luca Bassani it includes a forward owner’s suite with two large separate beds for comfort under sail. On top of the two en-suite double guest cabins there is a main saloon, while the four-person crew and service area features a galley, crew mess, two double cabins and engine room.

“As often happens with happy owners, Barong D is the larger evolution of their previous yachts, featuring similar style and deck and interior layouts,” Bassani added.

Auxiliary power comes from a single Cummins QSB6.7 diesel engine, giving Barong D a top speed under power of 13 knots and a cruising speed of 10 knots.

Other projects currently under development at the Italian yard include hull number four in the Wally Cento series and the upgraded WallyPower 52 dayboat.



Wally Yachts

( www.wally.com )

Lloyd Weft Luna 115m Refit

Pinned to the wall of the well-appointed captain’s office on board the 115 metre explorer yacht Luna is an ambitious plan for a world cruise, laid out in a series of printed sheets, with routes and ports of call marked in red. Included are some of the world’s finest cruising grounds — the Galápagos, Sea of Cortez, Alaska and the endless archipelagos of the Pacific.

Captain Lui Anphin catches me staring. “We’ve been planning it for a while,” says the native of Copenhagen, who has been with Luna since her launch in 2010. In all that time arguably the world’s most famous explorer yacht has done remarkably little exploring, instead sticking mostly to familiar cruising grounds in the Med.

But all that might finally be about to change. With new owners and fresh from a 14-month, €50 million refit, Luna is looking good — and ready to take on the world.

Originally envisioned as a more elegant version of 113 metre Le Grand Bleu, Luna, when launched, made headlines for two reasons: the celebrity of her first owner, Roman Abramovich, and in more specialist press for that long, low aft deck that sacrificed interior volume for sun worship. That famous pool, the biggest ever seen on a superyacht at the time, is still jaw-dropping, especially when empty and its full scale is revealed.

It was designer Frank Neubelt’s idea to devote so much space to outdoor living. “I wanted a real pool, and lots of relaxation zones for friends and family,” he says today.

Luna was bought by her current owners in 2014. They spent a season on board in the Med before releasing the yacht in October that year for an extensive refit that would wrap in her five-year survey.

The yacht's swimming pool is netted, the crew are busy washing the decks and superstructure, and canvas hides all the sunloungers, but the huge spaces that make Luna so special are impossible to cover up.

And even on this grey, overcast day in Gibraltar, her hull absolutely pings: flawless, faired and painted a special new colour christened “Luna Blue”. It’s a marked difference. The yacht’s first owner wanted to reinforce her rugged aesthetic by making a show of her plate seams and welds, but giving her a shiny new coat was the biggest item on the to-do list when Luna was laid up at German Dry Docks in Bremerhaven, northern Germany, in late 2014.

“The previous paint wasn’t very attractive,” says the owner’s representative. “Just a top coat over bare hull. Luna now has the most high-quality paint job to date on such a vessel. It’s a complete mirror finish.”

The work was done by local firm Thraki Yacht Painting and constitutes the biggest single change to the boat in its six-year life. It took 70-80 painters eight months to fill and fair more than 2,000 square metres of hull, while also refinishing Luna’s superstructure. But first the hull was sandblasted to remove any remnants of the old paint.

“We then applied more than 20 tonnes of filler,” says Thraki’s MD Ritvan Metso. “This was followed by two epoxy primers, a show coat and top coat.” The result is an uninterrupted shine as you look down the hull, with no blemishes or movement in the finish. “This is what Luna was missing,” adds the owner’s rep with clear pride.

Neubelt led the design team from German studio Newcruise in defining Luna’s exterior lines. He calls it a “boy cool” look — tough but elegant. It was the first major motor yacht project worked on by the German designer and remains the biggest.

Outdoor life, obviously, was key to the design and, of all the proposals put in front of Luna’s first owner, he was “most amazed by the idea to create a very open outer deck”, says the designer. “So we quit all the earlier concepts with lots of toys on board and I was free to create her style.”

The deck below might not be rammed with superyacht water toys but there is still plenty of room — in fact, more than you’d think. To port, two tender garages sit opposite a gym and behind all of this is Luna’s expansive beach club wrapping round a spa, with steam bath, plunge pool and sauna.

This whole area was changed extensively in the refit. Updated equipment from Technogym has been installed in Luna’s superyacht gym, alongside new mirrored panels lining the length of the space. “Gym equipment keeps changing — and we only like the best,” says the owner’s rep. The glass means you can fold down the huge 12-metre shell door and look out over the water without anyone seeing you sweating inside.

Conversely, the platform means it’s possible to do morning routines outside, with the water lapping almost at your feet. A further shell door opens behind and Luna’s transom door folds up, to create the feeling of a single, open, water-level space.

The teak throughout this area has been replaced, alongside a host of other cosmetic changes: new mosaic on the walls in the steam room, upgraded AV and a new pantry area to ease service. The sofa in the rearmost section of the beach club now faces backwards — with a view of the sea instead of a TV on the bulkhead, in place of which is now a beautiful fish-eye sculpture discovered in Greece on one of the yacht’s travels. “Who wants to see a huge TV in a beach club?” asks the rep. “Luna is a boat to relax on! There are 80 other TVs on board.”

Included in the new sofa design are drawers for storing shoes, the idea being that you board via the bathing platform, sit on the sofa, put your shoes in the drawer… “and relax”, he adds. Luna’s boarding steps have been modified, too: they’ve been opened up to allow guests to walk directly up from the tender, instead of being forced sideways, making it much safer, and easier for crew to assist guests.

Luna’s owner and his family sometimes take breakfast at the beach club dinette to port, a space they’re already planning to change in the next big yard period by adding a large new shell door on the port side — bringing the number of major openings in this space to six — and 18 portholes in the transom, to give a view and let in light even underway.

Beyond the superyacht's beach club, the entire lower deck is dedicated to Luna’s crew, who are well served with spacious cabins forward, all of which were upgraded with new upholstery, curtains and AV/IT. Further crew quarters are found on the deck below, but the main attraction here are the machinery spaces.

Big yachts such as Luna have large, impressive engine rooms, but this one stands apart, not just in the volume dedicated to housing the engines and electric motors, but in the polish applied to it. “It’s the most spotless engine room I’ve ever worked in,” reports chief engineer James Burden — the result of a fastidious owner who regularly visits the crew areas.

As a result, the chequerplate floor is polished once a week and you could shave in the cylinder heads. “We even painted the toolboxes the same colour as the engine to keep things neat,” he adds.

Luna’s seven generators output a total of 15,000hp and they power electric motors coupled to each shaft. “Diesel electric, in terms of operating a ship, is great,” says the chief. “It’s less real estate taken up, it’s less vibration, it’s more economical, it’s more flexible for the owner and it’s more flexible for us to operate.”

She’s got massive power — designed to nudge Luna through shallow ice — and can run at her full speed of 21 knots and still have one generator offline. With all generators engaged and running at full revs, Luna could power a town of 25,000 people. In the yard, the shafts were taken out for survey and maintenance, and seals and bearings were replaced, while air-con was added in a number of the working areas to improve conditions, among a host of other jobs.

The main hot work happened in the living spaces decks above. The lounge fronting Luna’s observation deck has always been a superb place to be when coming into a new port or anchorage, but it’s been made even better by an extended deck cut-out, creating an entirely new exterior seating area.

“You can now walk to both sides, relax or sleep on the sofa and use it for dining,” reveals the owner’s rep, who has spent considerable time on board Luna. “It was incredible being up there when coming into Cuba. The new exterior observation lounge was very useful.”

Other changes have been made to the rear of the bridge deck, with new extendable wind breaks installed to protect this main outdoor dining space when it’s blowing. The teak has been perfectly re-caulked all over the boat and the two helidecks are now clad in Future Teak from Bolidt, embellished with Luna’s name and logo.

Donald Starkey was the original interior designer for Luna but joined the project when the yacht was only about 70 per cent complete at its build yard of Lloyd Werft. He worked hard to impose himself on a boat mostly built and won some concessions — extending headroom throughout the living spaces and adding a dining room, which wasn’t on the original GA.

“I did this by subdividing the upper deck lounge on the starboard side,” he says. “I separated the lounge and dining room by a wall incorporating a fireplace, which can be appreciated from both sides.” The stone-panelled finish to this unit is contextual in an interior that leans heavily to the natural.

“My intention was to try and create an elegant but calm feeling, away from the hard-edged traditional glossy interiors,” he says. This extended to sourcing oak panels in Germany cut from large logs that could be sliced into 70cm veneers, to avoid too many joints. The panels were then wire-brushed to expose the deeper grain and stained pale.

Starkey’s original intention had been to lay the oak floor using antique 17th century beams, but was dissuaded by concerns about splintering and combustibility. Modern oak was used instead and “aged” to create the same effect, which extends throughout Luna and grounds the entire design.

The floor, it should be noted, is also an absolute pleasure to walk on. One of the quirkier design flourishes involves the main deck guest corridor on Luna, with its arched separations, which not only add visual interest to an otherwise straight corridor but also serve to hide watertight bulkhead divisions.

Six years on and Starkey’s interior is still pristine, thanks to an owner with a meticulous eye for imperfections and a crew dedicated to making sure there aren’t any. Some updating was done in Luna’s refit period, including the addition of new fabrics in the corridors and updates to all cabins, but the soul of Starkey’s design is very much intact.

And while the owner gets the pick of those cabins, with its huge views and access to a private terrace forward, it’s the guests that get the easiest access to Luna’s headline feature, through the guest corridor on the main deck that leads straight out on to the aft deck. It’s a proper playground and perfect for the family’s children to run around, in complete safety.

A new raised section of this deck, just aft of the pool, was added in Luna’s refit and helps create distinction on the massive platform. The area can be tented and is a great spot for “tea and fruit in the afternoon”, says the rep.

Throughout Luna’s 14-month refit, around 130 jobs were completed, ranging from the tiny (the installation of new wine fridges) to the tricky (the separation of the ballast tank system) but, taken as a whole, they have managed to improve on a classic.

Until now few people have ever seen inside Luna and, as for being featured in a magazine, forget it. But finally here’s proof of her pedigree — Luna has risen. And if all those plans pinned to the captain’s wall become actual, real-life passages, she’s coming to a port near you soon, wherever you are in the world.

Lloyd Werft

( www.lloydwerft.com )

Rossinavi 49mt Polaris

Polaris is the second in the powerful Prince Shark superyacht series from the Italian builder Rossinavi. On the outside, she closely resembles her predecessor, Param Jamuna IV, but her owner pushed the designers, architects and family-owned shipyard to achieve further refinements, particularly in terms of performance.

The Prince Shark concept was developed by Team for Design with naval architecture by Arrabito Naval Architects. Designer Enrico Gobbi’s dynamic and clean lines give the aluminium, semi-displacement Polaris a sporty and aggressive look.

Details recall commercial or military ships, such as the reversed pilothouse glass installed at a 45-degree angle, a style line echoed in port and starboard fashion plates and the supports for the fixed awning on Polaris’ sundeck.

Another goal for the series was to create well-proportioned volume that guarantees comfortable and spacious interiors within a superstructure sized to remain coherent with Polaris’ sleekness and especially to fit below the 500GT threshold.

Strong horizontal elements and stretched windows make Polaris appear longer than she really is but this streamlined look does not come at the expense of views. The extensive use of notches in the coamings in front of key windows, which reach nearly full height in the saloon and the owner’s suite, guarantee panoramic vistas and plenty of light on the main deck.

“All elements of this project have been carefully studied to obtain the optimal proportions that compose the yacht’s architecture,” says Gobbi. Polaris, even with three decks and a flying bridge, maintains harmonious volume, ensuring an elegant line, which is not so common in yachts of such volume, he adds. In recognition of her excellence, the yacht won the 2015 World Superyacht Awards class for 40-metre or above semi-displacement or planing three-deck motor yachts.

One of her best features is the large lounging and sunbathing area at the centre of the foredeck, a position that guarantees good views while Polarisis underway and privacy at anchor. The most impressive exterior area, however, is the flying bridge deck. An arch that incorporates large smoked-glass windows shields passengers from the wind and sun but allows them to enjoy optimal views from more than nine metres above the water.

The aft section of Polaris’ flying bridge is designed around a 3.6-metre superyacht spa pool. A recirculating waterfall from the louvred hardtop cascades down a glass panel separating the pool from the dining area, so that guests can enjoy the sound of water even if the sea, from this high vantage point, is too distant to be heard. The whole deck boasts details in crisp teak and stainless steel, while the pool bottom is lined with Murano glass tiles, a detail that reveals something about the designer’s proud Venetian origins.

The interior of Polaris features a compromise of contemporary influences with a dash of eclecticism stemming from the personal taste of the owner, a young entrepreneur. Precious materials convey timeless elegance and opulence. Varnished ebony, used primarily for the custom-made furniture, and other dark materials are found in combination with a light ivory-coloured maple and high-quality leathers in off-white.

The choice of materials creates a chiaroscuro enriched with marbles that give Polaris her distinct personality. Embossed and polished stainless-steel details used on the furniture and the walls, together with some deep colours, add a touch of modernity.

“We have worked intensely on the details with the entire team to make a welcoming and warm atmosphere [that is] luxurious and distinctive,” says Gobbi. “The fitting out of all areas plays an important role in giving Polarisher eclectic and exclusive style. Cottons, silks and velvets hail from Armani Casa’s textile collection. Decorative objects in Murano glass have been placed in prominent areas, where they are highlighted by means of a clever lighting system.

“Last but not least, a selection of fine paintings, including two rare works from the 18th century, confer importance and prestige on Polaris’ lobby area, ensuring a sophisticated welcome to the guests stepping on board.”

The main hallway offers an impressive welcome and guaranteed “wow”. Here, Gobbi left Venice to embrace the rigorous geometry of Swarovski’s Austrian glass artisans. A chandelier made of thousands of Swarovski crystals, three decks high, fills the space within Polaris’ superyacht staircase and projects awesome flashes of light onto the surrounding walls.

All these beautiful spaces and materials made the work of the naval architects a little more challenging. Giuseppe Arrabito, owner of Arrabito Naval Architects, explains what makes Polaris so complex. The owner wanted the most volume for this length, while remaining under the 500GT threshold.

Next, the full-beam decks, the enormous superyacht sundeck, the pool and the decor – including over nine tonnes of stone – added substantial weight, as did acoustic insulation, an advanced system of floating floors and the most complete array of state-of-the-art equipment and electronic entertainment systems available. Yet Polaris’ owner did not want to compromise on performance.

“[The owner] requested that we reach a maximum speed of 23 knots and a cruising speed of 16 to 17 knots and, weight notwithstanding, obtain optimum fuel consumption for long-range crossings,” says Arrabito. “This weight, much of it at the top, made it more difficult to comply with the performance and, above all, Polaris’ stability requirements, and mandated a very accurate and refined study of the hull and lines.”

He is justifiably proud that Polaris floated exactly on her lines at launch and that no fixed ballast was required to obtain correct load-line trim. Moreover, the yacht, with her two MTU 12V 4000 M93L engines creating 3,460 horsepower at 2,100rpm, exceeded requirements and reached a maximum speed of 24.3 knots during sea trials, which were undertaken in less than ideal conditions.

Param Jamuna IV topped out at 23 knots. The surveyor’s report noted that the tests were carried out in Force 4 sea and wind conditions with gusts up to 30 knots. The hull form also met the requirement of low fuel consumption. Fuel burn is only 90 litres per hour in total at a speed of nine to nine-and-a-half knots, giving a range of more than 4,800 nautical miles at this “transfer speed”. At the cruising speed of 17 knots, consumption is around 580 litres per hour, whereas pushing to full speed consumes around 1,300 litres per hour.

There are a few differences between the first and second Prince Shark that account for different performance results. In contrast to Hull No. 1, for instance, Polaris does not have a superyacht elevator and has one less cabin in the forepeak area. At full throttle heading into the sea, the surveyor noted the vessel “is particularly dry, showing a very good performance of the spray rail”.

Federico Rossi, COO of Rossinavi, says: “With Polaris, we have reached even better performance than on Param Jamuna IV by adopting various weight-saving measures.” He recounts with pleasure the sea trials conducted with RINA. “The yacht, going at 24 knots, had to turn at full radius and remain within a set heel range. We all grabbed on, expecting a big heel, and instead the incline was limited to two-and-a-half degrees.

“This performance is due to the hull form, which is straight at the bow and then widens quickly to provide lift and stability. As to the comfort level,Polaris has obtained the highest rating available in RINA’s comfort class, thanks to the yard’s vibration and noise-dampening techniques, with decibel numbers comparable to those of a displacement yacht.”

The next chapter will come with the third Prince Shark iteration, which is already under construction in a large waterfront shed that the Rossi family owns in an industrial area near Pisa, a few miles from Rossinavi’s Viareggio home base. No. 3 is being built in steel and is a full-displacement hull.

While the three Rossi brothers who founded this company began building yachts under their own name only a few years ago, they have worked with steel and aluminium materials since the 1970s. They constructed hulls and parts for other well-known shipyards in the Viareggio area of Italy, and later launched a series of passenger ferries.

Their office in Viareggio, which now employs two generations of Rossis, includes an engineering department that designs custom parts such as hatches, doors, hinges and accessories. One of the brothers, Paride, heads that department, while his nephew Federico, the COO, who also has an eye for design, has been instrumental in building a portfolio of enticing projects, including the Bahamas series which he created with Axis Design to appeal specifically to the US market.

“We are very pleased with the work done, including at Rossinavi and in particular with our relationship with [CEO] Claudio Rossi, who has been a reliable partner, passionate about his work,” says Polaris’ owner, embarking on his first cruise.

“Polaris has met all my expectations, be it in terms of exterior or interior design, and exceeded them in terms of performance. And she was delivered on time!”


Rossinavi

( www.rossinavi.it )

Heesen 70mt Galactica Super Nova

The largest Heesen superyacht ever built, 70 metre Galactica Super Nova, has been delivered to her owner, following four days of extensive testing in the North Sea.

This is not only the biggest superyacht built by the Dutch shipyard to date, but - with the benchmark of yachts entering the Top 100 Largest set at 78.3 metres - Galactica Super Nova comes in just a few metres under the world’s largest rankings.

Size, however, has little to do with this yacht as this yacht offers far more. The revolutionary Fast Displacement Hull Form (FDHF) technology by Van Oossanen Naval Architects and the addition of a third engine to power a booster jet, means Galactica Super Nova will be able to reach top speeds of more than 30 knots.

The design, drawn by Espen Oeino, and interior decor by Sinot Yacht Design is both an evolution of Heesen’s long experience in the superyacht sector and combines that pedigree into one incredible project.

Beyond size and speed is efficiency, and further more, luxury. Galactica Super Nova’s toys and tenders are housed in the garage located forward, which doubles as a beach club to bring owners and their guests much closer to the water.

Other key features include the 13,500 litre swimming pool on the main deck aft with contra flow system for swimming, a waterfall and integrated Jacuzzi - not forgetting the glass bottom which allows natural light to filter through to the beach club below.

Another feature, found forward on the main deck, is the touch-and-go helipad which doubles as an outdoor cinema, completing an enviable lifestyle which offers owners and guests the highest levels of luxury.

Twelve guests can be accommodated in absolute luxury across six stateroom with the master suite on the main deck forward, four guest cabins on the lower deck and a VIP found on the wheel house deck aft. All of this is enclosed in a beautiful Espen Oeino exterior which is built on an established engineering platform provided by Heesen in-house experts.

She will be undergoing extensive sea-trials in the North Sea before being delivered to her owners in May and journeying to Montenegro and the Mediterranean for the summer in time for her debut at the Monaco Yacht Show 2016.

Heesen Yachts

( www.heesenyachts.com )

Kusch Yachts 101mt I Dynasty

Building the most complex yacht in history was not what Richard Hein, founder of Monaco-based studio The A Group, originally intended, but with I Dynasty, that is exactly what he achieved.

Designing for a client who wanted to cruise regularly with more than 12 in his party, Hein faced a choice: design the 100-metre-plus motor yacht to Solas passenger ship rules or to the new Passenger Yacht Code (PYC), created specifically for yachts with 13 to 36 passengers and still in development.

To build to PYC would grant more design freedom but its regulations for safety and materials were a moving target. Realising this standard would be the wave of the future, Hein and his client took the road less travelled: I Dynasty is the first yacht delivered to full PYC certification without additional restrictions.

A bit of backstory on the project is useful. Besides being a naval architect and designer with The A Group, Hein was also a yacht builder, having served as president and equity partner in the Dutch yard Oceanco from 1992 to 2004. After selling his interest in the yard, Hein travelled extensively and discovered an affinity for Japan and its culture. He was impressed with the quality of Japanese commercial and patrol vessels and invested with a Japanese partner in a new manufacturing facility, opening an office in Tokyo for his project management company, VegaYachts.

Vega’s first contract was for an 86 metre yacht to be built in Japan. Just before construction was due to start, the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck, followed by the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. “Besides the potential radiation contamination issue, Japan’s manufacturing efforts shifted almost overnight to rebuilding its infrastructure,” says Hein. “We had to seriously consider starting over outside Japan.”

The client, however, was not discouraged; quite the contrary. Not only did he ask Hein to engage a European shipyard, he asked him to enlarge the vessel. He was adamant that Hein would serve not only as the naval architect but that he and his team would be the conduit through which I Dynasty was built. In essence, VegaYachts was employed as owner’s representative and general contractor for a turnkey project that included Studio Massari as the interior designer.

“The owner had some clear ideas: creating a multi-generation yacht with high manoeuvrability and heavy displacement for continuous cruising and boarding in all seas, efficient propulsion to minimise carbon emission and lots of pools and direct water access. Other things he left up to us,” says Hein. By the time the design was complete it was clear that I Dynasty was going to have to meet the newer, more comprehensive rules of PYC 2012.

“Starting the project after the adoption of the 2012 rules gave us a higher standard than those yachts that laid keels before 2012,” says Hein. “We had the option of applying for exemptions but the owner felt that if there was a guide for building the safest possible yacht we should adhere to it, and I agreed. We all had to discover the consequences of implementing the new Passenger Yacht Code to the normal design and construction process.”

The last sentence speaks volumes. PYC’s impact was ubiquitous at the Peters Werft yard in Wewelsfleth, Germany, where Kusch Yachts was building I Dynasty. Insulation materials, the all-steel construction, the bridge wing stations’ arrangement and the number of stairway escape routes were all guided by the PYC’s demand for fire containment. In the unlikely event of a fire starting (given the restriction on flammable materials), it must be contained via fire doors, use of low-flame-spread surfaces and fire breaks or areas where non-combustible material such as stone, steel or A60 fire-rated glass separate two combustible materials.

Every interior area has a worst-case combustion heat load, and it’s up to the designer and builder to work out material trade-off to stay below each area’s allowable load. Hein notes that Lloyd’s Register and the Cayman Islands (flag state) worked closely in co-operation with the project team and Kusch to meet the PYC requirements for I Dynasty.

“I do not think it is possible for a designer to create a PYC yacht without involvement of a shipyard; it is just too complex a balancing act. It requires the designers, builder and engineers to be in a constant revision process to achieve the desired goal without compromising the appearance, the luxury or the liveability,” says Hein.

Visually, I Dynasty is a stunner but it is the amount of “hoop jumping” to meet the new code – with materials and finishes that either didn’t exist or were not in use on yachts prior to PYC – that makes her remarkable. Take, for example, a typical yacht design scheme that pairs pale leathers with the dark mahogany in the corridors: an impossibility with fire loading.

Rather than forego the elegance imparted by elaborate mahogany cornices, the project team found a supplier who could articulate the style using non-combustible plaster and faux wood paint. The fabric wall panels that designers typically rely on to cover large areas and/or absorb sound can’t be made fire retardant enough, but leather can, so beautiful stamped or woven leathers are used with abandon.

With 4,437 gross tonnes, I Dynasty offers her family tremendous interior volume and many special areas, such as a cinema, beach club and lower arrival lobby, sauna, hair salon, massage room, hammam, gym, dive centre with changing room, a forward-facing observation lounge, and main and upper saloons connected by a spectacular open staircase. Eleven cabins, including the owner’s suite and two VIPs, are concentrated on the main and upper decks.

Alessandro Massari, who designed the interior of the client’s three previous yachts, had the task of marrying The A Group’s contemporary exterior profile – with its outstanding use of glass – to an interior that honours classic design themes and a leitmotif of decorative floral elements. The owner asked for a cosy family yacht with “wow”.

Studio Massari chose warm honey-coloured woods, primarily anigre and madrone burr veneers, to form the background for stunning handmade marquetry that fronts the cabinets and built-in furniture on I Dynasty. The main saloon sole is patterned parquet because Massari believes it is more formal than carpet.

This saloon on I Dynasty is a multifunctional space aft of the dining saloon with several comfortable seating areas, including one around a fireplace, a games table to starboard and a library with a baby grand piano to port. Flanking the piano, a magnificent open staircase creates a tangible link to the upper saloon. “Together with Richard (Hein), we discussed how to deal with the number of family members cruising; that is why the two main saloons are directly connected,” says Massari.

“Part of the family could be downstairs while the rest is above engaged in a different activity entirely. It really is the heart of the yacht. The stairs minimise the feeling of being in two different spaces.” A custom five metre chandelier from Cenedese of Murano creates a waterfall of light.

The “wow” factor of I Dynasty’s décor is particularly evident in a fantastic stone foyer where dark Port Laurent marble recreates a design by Michelangelo across a field of white and Calacatta Gold marble. The light marble is the backbone of the staircase that wraps around a large glass elevator leading to the upper deck.

A wrought iron balustrade with gold-plated details takes up the floral motif. “It embraces you while climbing the stairs,” says Massari. Gold leaf appears throughout in accents and tray ceilings. While gold leaf itself is not low flame spread, the sealer is, according to Massari.

Each of the cabins on I Dynasty is a world unto itself with enormous space and rare marbles, some with powerful veining and striations, creating an unusual colour scheme. All of the guest cabins feature a backlit 3D oyster shell headboard with fan patterns mimicking the paving stones in Italian piazzas.

The mix of traditional and contemporary continues outdoors, where multiple dining areas, a covered cinema, pools and sundecks fore and aft, plus a float-in tender garage/salt-water pool, provide plenty of options for living at sea. Equally impressive are the spaces Hein dedicated to machinery, workshops, dry and cold stores, laundry, guest services and quarters for the 32-strong crew.

“From the beginning the stated goal was to design a very robust vessel built completely in steel to prevent dissimilar metal distortion while cruising,” says Hein. “Plate thicknesses in excess of that required by class were used to reduce distortion due to welding, thus minimising the use of expensive filler, while also adding a margin against future corrosion.

“From a technical point of view, our main goal was to maximise all engineering and construction solutions to prevent the unnecessary use of diesel power and related exhaust gas emissions.”

The diesel-electric powerplant on I Dynasty utilises a full package of Rolls-Royce equipment and five engines, with power generation limited strictly to electrical load demand, thus hindering unnecessary fuel consumption and inherent gas emissions. Huge particulate filters occupy an exhaust silo underneath the mast, allowing clean emissions at anchor or in port.

The yacht’s power management system is seamless and offers surge-free power with a clean supply from 690 to 110 volts. I Dynasty does not rely on battery banks for smoothing peak loads but on generators of variable sizes that start or stop automatically. As propulsion and hotel loads vary, the full range of operating scenarios can be covered efficiently. “This is an important achievement,” says Hein. “This isn’t about propulsion any more, it is power management.”

The wheelhouse on I Dynasty is a masterwork designed by Rolls-Royce and the client’s captain after he spent substantial time in the Rolls-Royce bridge simulator. It looks like an updated version of the bridge from Star Trek’s USS Enterprise. Two custom high-tech helm chairs slide back and forth on rails to suit the preferences of the helmsman. Each of the chair arms are fitted with controls and the ability to switch any combination of information displays to the centre LED screen.

There are also full control stations port and starboard on the console and, of course, wing stations outside. A large navigation area is behind the con to port with a monitoring station to starboard. The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System station and a night-time working area with night-vision-safe low-level illumination are aft of the bridge proper.

I Dynasty is highly manoeuvrable – she turns in her own length at 16 knots thanks to a pair of Rolls-Royce Azipulls. Used with the bow thruster, they provide I Dynasty with a full dynamic-positioning mode useful in deep water or fragile seabeds, as well as for positioning the tender side-boarding platform away from the wind and waves.

The naval architecture, engineering and exterior design also contribute to the owner’s demand for “wow”. The floodable 10 metre tender garage holds a custom Pascoe limo tender launched via a system engineered in collaboration with Kusch Yachts. When I Dynasty’s tender is deployed, the space becomes a huge pool deck with light and air also flowing from a 12.5 metre starboard-side shell door that opens to launch a Riva.

A brilliant piece of engineering allows the tender to clear the stern opening while maintaining a closed pool for children to swim in. To keep water from sloshing unpleasantly, a teak-planked slope aft dampens motion and allows water to spill back to the sea.

The exterior lines on I Dynasty are slick and fresh and the walkaround side decks are so large they invite placement of steamer chairs. Glass is both a feature and a structural element, with floor-to-ceiling windows on the main and upper decks capped by glass “shark fins”.

A signature attribute, they form a windbreak and a visual transition from the strong horizontal lines of the lower profile to the top of the mast. The A Group and Massari worked closely to design exterior living areas that, thanks to hidden glass doors and windows, are usable in all weather.

Although I Dynasty passed PYC certification with flying colours, Hein admits there are still parts of the code that make it challenging to meet owners’ expectations. For example, rules mandate additional crew and extra escape routes via stairs rather than ladders, which use considerable space in both owner and crew areas.

Hein does not take issue with the extra research and design, build costs, the eight mandated watertight zones on the two lower decks or the continuous double-bottom requirement. It’s that some of the rules demand materials that are yet to be developed to acceptable yacht standards, such as fireproof and waterproof exterior deckheads. It’s also the lack of transparency that leads to different interpretations of some of these rules by surveyors and flag states.

“At The A Group, we don’t just design, we design to build,” says Hein. “Designing to build to previously unknown rules has been a challenge for me as the naval architect and exterior stylist, and also as the owner’s representative and partner in the building process with Mark Dethlefs of Kusch Yachts. To accomplish this in three and a half years’ build time is, as I look back on it, more than we could have imagined possible.”

Kusch Yachts

( www.kusch-yachts.com )

Abeking & Rasmussen 81mt Romea

How do you do justice to the work that’s gone into making a superyacht? It’s a nearly impossible task, especially when the interior encompasses no fewer than 182 different finishes garnered from all over the world, as is the case on 81 metre Abeking & Rasmussen yacht Romea.

Take, for example, Romea’s dining table, a true work of art with a hand- carved base and a lacquered top. “The dining table is finished with a particular hard-wearing Japanese lacquer that was originally developed for the scabbard of Samurai swords,” says the interior designer, Terence Disdale.

Like everything else about the Samurai tradition — and really all things Japanese — the making of the sword’s scabbard was a fastidious affair, involving the sap of trees cured and applied following precisely timed steps to create (sometimes with the addition of silver or gold power) a light, resistant and precious lacquered finish.

“It is a very lengthy task to apply this lacquer as each of the twenty or so layers has to dry hard before the next is applied,” Disdale says. “To my knowledge this is the first time it was ever applied to such a large surface, which took many months. The effect relies on the final sanding, which means the finished effect can only be viewed when the table is completely done. Only at that stage can you fine-tune the other finishes in the room.” Carved oak panels, their grooves sanded by hand, echo the patterns on the table.

Many yachts with elaborate interiors have emerged from Germany’s family-owned Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R). Witness Amaryllis or Excellence V, each with Reymond Langton interiors, for instance; they both have an enormous amount of complex, beautifully executed details.

Another characteristic of the yachts launched at the Lemwerder shipyard on the Weser river in Lower Saxony is that they tend to be rather discreet, despite — or perhaps due to — their growing size.

As if to confirm this fact, the largest yacht yet delivered by A&R bears the name Secret. A Sam Sorgiovanni design, she left the yard in 2013 and her Jim Harris-designed interior has never been shown. Superyacht Romea’s identically sized predecessor, Kibo, was launched in 2014 and has also kept a low profile.

“We do seem to attract owners who seek privacy,” says Till von Krause, the yard’s director of sales. He says yacht clients appreciate that A&R is a family business and that they can speak directly to the company’s CEO, Hans Schaedla, who, in 2009, succeeded his father at the helm of the soon-to-be 100-year-old shipyard.

A little more visible than recent yachts to emerge from A&R, Romea made her world debut at the 2015 Monaco Yacht Show and is available to a rarefied group of clients able to afford its close to seven-figure weekly charter rate (once you factor in taxes and incidentals).

She is nonetheless a bit of an enigma. The owner’s representatives, Imperial Yachts, are reluctant to provide details on how the yacht came to be and the owners are, naturally, off-limits. Company representatives prefer to let the “oohs and ahhs” speak for themselves, and there were plenty of those during the well-choreographed show visits.

Romea will be among the largest yachts available for charter. Close to 269 feet in length, with an elaborate beach club encompassing a Finnish sauna and one of several media rooms, a beauty-dedicated area with massage room, walkaround decks that compare favorably to promenade decks on small cruise ships and an irreproachable, easygoing interior bathed in light, Romea will be a standout from the Mediterranean charter fleet that gathers at events such as the Monaco Grand Prix.

Imperial, with offices in Monaco and Moscow, prides itself on its professional and discreet service to its clients who seem to have in common the goal of building outstanding superyachts and keep themselves out of the limelight.

One of the first grand yachts that Imperial helped produce was Arkley, launched in 2009 at Lürssen, followed a year later by the Amels’ Bel Abri. The company works with the world’s leading shipyards and designers but also likes to keep close tabs on all of its projects.

“As owner’s representative and construction manager of Romea, Imperial installed a large team at the shipyard from day one, and every exterior and interior detail was supervised from the very start by Imperial in respect with the owner’s requests and budget,” says the company’s chairman, Evgeniy Kochman.

In this case, the company is also involved in managing the charter program and helped select the 23-member crew, carefully chosen and trained to offer a five-star or even six-star experience. They are assisted in this task by a logical and practical layout dedicating two decks to their quarters, galley, split-level engine room, garage, laundry and stores.

Imperial dismisses parallels to previous vessels. Involved from the get-go in the extensive specifications, the company stresses that Romea is a custom project whose elegance mirrors the owner’s good taste. “Romea clearly doesn’t look like any other superyacht; her interior and exterior layout are completely made to suit the owner’s requests,” Kochman says.

“The layout was selected by the owner in close collaboration with Terence Disdale and Imperial. It is built mainly to satisfy his requests while on board. Charter clients will recognise this process while living on board; every single element was designed to make your journey unforgettable.”

Disdale says one of the yacht’s strong points is the “practical layout that rotates from the central stairway leading through the decks up to the sun deck”. An elevator, clad in stainless steel details polished to a jewel finish — “You can’t imagine how much work we did on it,” says von Krause — provides an alternative to ascending the comfortable stairs to the top, where a private sun deck with Jacuzzi is located.

Privacy is also paramount in the owner’s area, which takes up about half of the upper level’s interior accommodation with a cabin for children, an ample study, identically sized his-and-hers baths, dressings and a spectacular bedroom. A privacy wall/headboard anchors the bed, which sits at the centre of wraparound windows offering views of a discreet terrace and the sea beyond. The owner’s guests certainly won’t feel shortchanged, their cabins vast, comfortable and enjoying a prime location on the main deck.

Despite imposing dimensions, no one space feels either too large or underutilised. Wide passages outside provide a sense of ease that is replicated inside with great headroom. Soothing colours and meticulously selected materials, including oak, leather, silk and stone, live in perfect harmony. While ever consistent, the décor is not repetitive. “Too much matching decoration from space to space will create a ‘corporate’ environment without any visual surprise,” says Disdale, who also avoided the “startling wow factor”.

Although the interior was developed in close consultation with the owners and their representatives, Disdale says, “The overall philosophy of the interior is not really a departure from our day-to-day mantra of avoiding glitz and visual ostentation in decoration.” The goals were to “create a calm environment, easy on the eye but including finishes and detail that entertain the eye as well as the mind,” and, Disdale adds, “above all, create an environment that functions as well as being aesthetically pleasing.”

There is a great sense of ease moving throughout the decks. To make room for a wide corridor enabling guests to get to their soundproofed cabins, the designers chose to “pinch” the space a bit at the bathroom level rather than taking away from the staterooms.

Shapes, sounds, lights, art and even smells all work in concert to envelop guests into an atmosphere of utmost comfort. Feet can also participate in the discovery of sensations, from thick silk carpets that surround the toes to round pebbles that massage the soles. And if you happen to be tall enough, you can also feel with the tip of your fingers the texture on the ceiling, created by a British artist.

Behind this sense of ease is an elaborate process of creation. Disdale, winner of Boat International Media’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014, has spanned the globe in search of new ideas and finishes that grace the interiors of several of the world’s most iconic yachts. Romea is only the second yacht he has designed to be built at A&R, but he’s already made his mark.

Von Krause, who visited the iconic design firm in Richmond, UK, and marvelled at the samples available for clients to peruse, shows a real appreciation for Disdale’s unique creative process, even if it may add a little to the complexity of building a superyacht. Von Krause estimates than no fewer than 250 trucks transported goods to and from the German yard when it came to outfitting the yacht.

“The logistics can become a challenge in production when the fitted furniture is made in Germany and shipped to South America to be finished with dried cow horn, lacquered and returned to the vessel,” says Disdale, “but that is typical of what we do in our constant search for new finishes.”

As for Imperial, what they sought to do was “simple: deliver a state-of-the-art motor yacht within time, costs and quality deadlines,” says Kochman. “And Imperial is delighted to confirm that we achieved successfully the task.” With art from all over the globe, Romea is truly out of this world but also remains very rooted.

Abeking & Rasmussen

( www.abeking.com )

Kleven explorer yacht 107mt Ulysses

The 107 metre Kleven explorer yacht Ulysses has been delivered to her owner, where she has been spotted cruising in the western Mediterranean.

The superyacht, said to have been commissioned by New Zealand businessman Graeme Hart, is the first private superyacht build undertaken by Kleven. The Norwegian family-owned shipbuilder, which is better known for its commercial vessels, announced the giant explorer superyacht order in March 2013.

Ulysses was moved unfinished from Norway to Germany in August 2015 and Dörries Marine was working on the final outfitting until a fortnight ago.

The builder's commercial roots have influenced its first superyacht. The Kleven hull 366 is designed by Norway's ship design company Marin Teknikk, who has previously worked with the builder on its offshore, commercial vessels.

Ulysses is designed for long-range passages in the most testing of sea conditions and has oceangoing capabilities fitting of the Ulsteinvik yard's heritage. Kleven said the 107 “blends a robust, hard-working character with luxurious added extras”.

Unlike the vast majority of the world's superyachts, the steel hull of Ulysseshas not been faired, which just emphasises its nature as a tough explorer yacht.

Making use of its ample size and huge 18 metre beam, Ulysses can accommodate 60 guests over seven decks. It has interiors by H2 Yacht Design and amenities include a helicopter landing pad, helicopter garage and a swimming pool.

One of the most notable features is the huge 21 metre tender that requires two specially designed cranes to lift it onto the foredeck. A host of other tenders, which provide options for any situation, can also be seen stored on the foredeck and high up on both sides of the yacht.

Kleven has collaborated with Teknikk on many of its offshore vessels, bringing his oceangoing yacht know-how to the new build.

Ståle Rasmussen, CEO of Kleven, said: “We have worked with Marin Teknikk for many years, developing numerous offshore vessels together, and the collaboration between us always works well. This vessel is a good example of our ability to develop and build specialised vessels and prototypes.”

Svein Rune Gjerde, CEO of Marin Teknikk, said: “This has been a different and interesting project for our design team.”

This robust type of yacht seems increasingly in vogue, as exemplified by the 76.6 metre Yersin, which is equipped to protect the planet as well as explore it.

Ulysses is currently the world's fourth largest explorer yacht, but will be overtaken by its big sister. The 116 metre version of Ulysses, Hull 370, iscurrently being constructed at Kleven for the same owner.

Kleven

( www.klevenmaritime.no )

Baglietto 43,65mt Pachamama

Attaching the adjective “family” to “superyacht” rather cools the simmering sexiness of the most exciting word in the nautical lexicon. Toddlers in the spa pool? Nannies patrolling the aft deck? A large yacht makes a fabulous platform for a family holiday but this is not the stuff of James Bond fantasies. Until, that is, the Italians get involved. Living up to a trio of cultural stereotypes, the La Spezia yard Baglietto has crafted a bambino-friendly boat with serious style – and speed.

“I’ve made some sea trials on a displacement yacht, but I’m not ready yet for that kind of boat,” says the owner of 43.65 metre Pachamama. “I wanted an express boat from the start because I prefer to cruise at 26, 27 knots – at least.”

It made perfect sense for such an owner to approach Baglietto, which specialises in fast aluminium yachts. But this owner is also the (rather cool) father of a 12 year old and a nine year old, as well as a keen cook and entertainer of friends. He needed a boat that would comfortably accommodate relaxed gatherings of friends and family, as well as impress on the water.

The designer engaged to perform this balancing act was Francesco Paszkowski, who has been penning boats for the yard since 1991.Pachamama’s spare, sporty and faintly military lines are distinctively Baglietto (military boats make an appearance in the yard’s 20th century repertoire).

“She combines the past with new elements such as the shape of the superstructure and the black side windows running from the stern to the bow,” says Paszkowski. “Both were reinterpreted according to contemporary design trends and requirements.”

Of Baglietto’s previous launches, she has most in common with 44 metre Monokini, which hit the water in 2013, a few months after the Gavio Group bought the yard – but many of Pachamama’s spaces have been tailored to this owner’s needs.

The dining saloon and galley of Pachamama are perhaps the best examples of the boat’s social soul. The idea was to create one large area that could be partitioned into three parts as necessary: a dining saloon, a galley and a smaller, informal dinette forward of the galley, that the owner could use for laid-back breakfasts. Between the glossy cream galley and main dining saloon is a bank of cabinets, with a glass panel in the middle. With this partition raised, the space is set for a formal meal, cooked by the chef; with it down, the owner can whip up meals and snacks himself while chatting to his guests. There’s also a TV in here, in case there’s something unmissable on. “I like football very much,” says the owner, “and this year we have the Euro 2016 in France.”

The main saloon is a broad space, well lit through large windows. It sweeps to a short entrance hall with skylights and out on to the aft deck. The furniture on Pachamama is low, simple and comfortable – a relaxing open space for family and friends – and throughout the boat the colours and materials emphasise that feeling. “We realised a contemporary design using just a few materials: teak, limestone silk and dark brown leather,” says Paszkowski, who designed the interior in collaboration with Margherita Casprini. “Natural teak was used for the floor and a checkerboard-like teak panelling for the walls, while ceilings feature white lacquered surfaces. Limestone silk was chosen in the bathroom floor and the tops of some furniture.”

It is a decorative scheme chosen for pragmatic as well as aesthetic reasons. “The style is very simple, very easy,” says the owner. “My idea is to have something that doesn’t bother you over the years. Because maybe when you buy a boat, you like [its ornate décor]. Then after two, three years, you feel that you did something wrong. So you keep the style simple.”

The aft deck features a long L-shaped built-in sofa and a table for alfresco dining – but the show-stopping outdoor space is up a starboard staircase from here. The massive bridge deck has a cosy, private atmosphere that makes it feel like an outdoor saloon. Aft there are sunloungers, over which a sun awning can be set up. In the centre is a huge sofa and coffee table area, while forward is a dining table with adjacent fridge, icemaker and teppanyaki grill. Where’s the spa pool? Unusually, it’s right down on the tip of the bow next to a spacious row of sunpads, creating a third outdoor lounging area. That bumps up to four if you also include the fold-down platform by the aft garage. This arrangement allows family and friends to come together when they want to and do their own thing when they prefer some time alone, without anyone having to hide away inside – an unusual luxury on a yacht of this size.

But in terms of family friendliness, the most exciting area of Pachamama is the wheelhouse. Aft of the captain’s station are two large sofa areas for observing the yacht’s impressive speeds – she can hit 33 knots – and a PlayStation for when even this cannot hold the children’s attention. “The solution we chose for the settees aft is deeply rooted in Baglietto tradition. Just look back to [44 metre] Apache II,” says Paszkowski. Here, the theme comprises glossy finishes and dark grey leather, and the state-of-the-art bridge is lit with futuristic purple lights. Different from the décor elsewhere, this marks it out as “the technological heart of the yacht”, says Paszkowski.

Down in the engine room of Pachamama things stay predictably slick. Two MTU engines drive the aluminium planing hull to its impressive speeds, but stabilisation was also important – with four ABT Trac stabilisers – while insulation was carefully planned to prevent noise and vibration. “What I felt when I’ve been on the boat – you can reach 30 knots and you’ll not feel that you are running 30 knots,” says Michele Gavino, general manager at Baglietto. “This is, I think, the most beautiful sensation you can have on a boat.”

All guest accommodation is on the lower deck, with three twin and one double cabin amidships and a full-beam master aft, with a large en suite and walk-in wardrobe. The palette remains calming and simple, with splashes of lime green, cornflower blue and warm orange in soft furnishings, art and lamps. The cabins open on to a good-sized lobby, where a modern staircase in stainless steel and glass leads up to the main deck.

The crew and captain’s accommodation is forward of the guest cabins and many of the same finishes and materials have been used here. These cabins are also of a comparable size to the guest cabins. The compromise is that there is no dedicated crew mess – they will use the dinette forward of the main deck galley when the owner does not need it. Paszkowski explains this unusual blurring of crew and guest space thus: “Although the boat features, of course, separate areas for the crew, the crew is essentially part of the family on board.” It’s a solution that could work, depending entirely on how the boat is used.

Another 43 Fast is under construction at Baglietto, a hardtop version with an enclosed lounge behind the wheelhouse. That boat’s launch is scheduled for the end of the year, with delivery in 2017. The owner of Pachamama has had some interest in his boat, too, although he would like to get some use out of her before thinking about selling. “Even if just for this summer,” he says. Although Pachamama could just as easily prove a firm family favourite for years to come.

Baglietto

( www.baglietto.com )

Heesen Yachts 50mt Ann G

In the world of superyachts, patience is both a virtue and an anomaly, perhaps even an anachronism. In truth, many yacht builders prosper by understanding that their customers prefer, if not instant, then certainly speedy gratification.

It’s all the more interesting then, that Heesen, a company that started by building custom yachts but found a strong niche in semi-custom series boats, begun on speculation for faster delivery, courted a client with plans for a fully custom yacht, a more challenging journey that took them back to their roots. In doing so, the yard delivered one of the stand-out yachts of 2015, the 50 metre Ann G.

“It was a great experience to work with such a committed owner,” says Heesen’s sales and marketing director Mark Cavendish. “The yard and the owner’s team really worked well together on Ann G and the owner was at the yard frequently.” Of the 10 current projects at the yard, four are full custom, with four more in discussion.

The project came to Heesen by a rather unusual route – a designer the yard had never worked with – and developed in a rather unusual way – via collaboration driven by the owner and designer Clifford Denn involving naval architects from several yards.

Together they explored and rejected extras such as a helipad, revised the yacht through several lengths and beams – even considering both displacement and semi-displacement hull types – to arrive at the look, the layout and the technical envelope of Ann G that matched the owner’s vision.

It started in 2010 when a France-based broker asked Denn to meet a prospective client who wanted either a semi or full-displacement yacht around 50 metres. Denn, who worked for Foster + Partners and Martin Francis before setting up his own studio near Antibes in 2003, recalls the brief was “a unique yacht that stands out from other yachts of its size and has a real identity”.

Ann G was to be a five-cabin yacht with a side-loading tender bay to allow a beach club aft, as well as a large sundeck with a covered living area in the middle that could divide or unite the entire deck by means of sliding glass panels. The owner had seen an 85.5 metre Oceanco called Sunrays that was styled by the late Bjorn Johansson and wanted Denn to explore introducing that yacht’s floating deck look.

“He also mentioned the lines of the 47 metre Benetti Imagination Series, particularly the curving stern stairs,” Denn says. Designers were asked to present exterior styling and a preliminary GA for a 52 metre, with both the influence of Sunrays and original design.

By October the owner had chosen his favourite look from numerous Denn sketches. What emerged was a 55 metre concept more masculine than Denn’s original idea and more flowing than Sunrays. With a 3D CAD model for guidance, in spring 2011, Ann G's owner asked various yards to develop it based on their platforms – and all responded with larger plans and over-budget construction costs.

“The owner had been very clear about how much he intended to spend and the estimates were above that,” Denn recalls. “We received the rendering back from him with three distinct red lines on it to indicate how to convert the 55 metre into a 50 metre under 500 GT”.

At that point, the autumn of 2011, with the global financial crisis grinding on, the project stopped. “The next summer, I heard from the client again. He had a new manager and was ready to go,” says Denn. Designing resumed at the 50 metre/500 gross tonne limits, with Arcon Yachts managing the project and Heesen developing a new round-bilge hull form, combining the lines of its 47 metre displacement hull with the GA and beach club of 50 metre semi-displacement Satori.

Sketches went back and forth, but besides the dark blue hull and wide, gentle stairs, the one element that both the owner and Denn kept returning to was an “arrow” feature, a sharp downward and outward angle on the upper deck bulwark that creates a dramatic space for the bridge wing station. That taut curve became Ann G’s defining style line. Heesen’s only difficulty seemed to be fitting a six metre tender on the bow. Try as they might with the original sheerline, it would be peeking over the rail and impacting the helmsman’s sightlines.

In November 2012 the owner gave the OK to start building. “We had a very short time to transfer the exterior styling forms to the new Heesen platform,” Deen recalls. “I had two hours to transfer the actual 2D profile to the proposal before the owner arrived to sign the build contract. The breakthrough I had was to lift the wheelhouse to see over the tenders and raise the foredeck bulwarks to hide them in profile.”

The owner chose for his interiors Pascale Reymond and Andrew Langton– on the day they opened their London office. “He told us he liked the masculine and square elements of art deco, the colours blue and cream, and stainless steel,” says Reymond. “He made it clear he had high expectations but gave us carte blanche.”

Reymond picked up a vibe from the profile that reminded her of cars in the 1920s and 30s and began drawing an interior with lots of contrast; glass, steel, white onyx and ebony, but the client asked for the details to be “more square, more modern”.

Reymond Langton responded with chunky, masculine details such as the stainless steel inlays in the foot of each bed frame. It is a style more Gotham than Paris and perhaps London’s Daily Express building or New York’s Chrysler building as its godparents.

“The core of the yacht is the staircase. It needed to be a big story; it connects everything,” says Reymond. Its centrepiece is a custom light fixture by Crystal Caviar. Extending two decks, backed by macassar ebony and framed by leather and ebony stairs, this is more giant sconce than chandelier and looks unmistakably like a glowing skyscraper. The stair surround features an intersecting lattice of cool-toned LED strip lighting set in leather panels that projects a graphic design on the black Portoro marble at each landing. “Strong diagonal lines aren’t deco but we used them to freshen the style,” says Reymond. It is a theme that reappears throughout.

The main saloon of Ann G is designed for entertaining, with an intimate seating area adjoining a bar built of macassar and backlit onyx. Extending aft through sliding glass panels, it visually and thematically links the interior to the aft deck.

Forward, an elegant dining area is anchored by a three-tiered rectangular crystal chandelier, which contrasts with the planked floor below, while an ebonised tray ceiling detail and macassar window frames establish the homage to squares in the design.

The owner’s suite is forward on the main deck and incorporates an office, full-beam cabin and large bathroom flanked by his and hers dressing rooms. The primary design palette is white leather wall panels, cream carpet and macassar furniture banded in steel. Rich blue fabrics give relief to the contrast theme but the trump card is a silk velvet wall covering behind the headboard.

“We designed the basic motifs for this wall covering and those in the guest suites and Sabina Fay Braxton executed them as one-of-a-kind murals,” says Reymond. Braxton once worked as a textile designer for the fashion house Lacroix. Her love of colour and texture in fabrics is down to her parents – a painter and a writer – who carted their daughter along as they lived and worked around the world.

Braxton’s medium is a medieval Japanese wood block embossing process – called gauffrage in the West – that was used to mimic woven damask patterns in the 17th and 18th centuries. Coincidentally, the process was “rediscovered” during deco’s heyday and used to emboss 3D patterns on velvet upholstery.

Braxton’s take on the process, “gilded gauffrage”, embosses the silk pile with heated carved blocks, encrusts the fabric with metal powders and paints broad areas with inks to create a patinated and luminous effect.

“The pattern in the master is based on a compass, but with a sort of sci-fi, ‘After Earth’ approach,” says Reymond. “We picked the same compass circle motif but in concert with the geometry of deco for the mosaic tile surround in the master bath and paired it with honey onyx and black Portoro gold marble flooring.”

The upper deck saloon is subdued, with parchment wall panels. Here the dark/light contrast is downplayed to serve as a backdrop to the views through windows on three sides. The bar, instead of being a focal point, is tucked against the forward bulkhead.

As the original driver of the GA, the beach club on the lower deck is the most contemporary space in style and function, with gym equipment, steam room, bar and a seating area offering uninterrupted views of the horizon when the transom door is open.

Here, the joinery switches to elm and teak in sand-mimicking tones. The proximity of the water is reflected in the striking backlit blue agate of the bar face.

But Ann G is far more than a pretty face. On sea trials before delivery last July the yacht exceeded the contractual speed by 0.6 knots, reaching a top speed of 15.6 knots on a pair of 1,300hp MTU 8V4000 M63 engines.

Arcon’s project manager Konstantin Kolpakov says: “The entire project was a big challenge for everybody. It was the owner’s decision to push everything forward to save space for the beach club, even though it meant the tenders would ride atop his cabin. With Heesen, we did our best to build in efficient noise and vibration reduction.”

Of the fact that Ann G launched five years after the start of her design process, Kolpakov says: “We had a courageous owner who wasn’t afraid to try something new; we spoke night and day about the yacht. This is the kind of person [who] is moving the industry forward.” As well, of course, as creating a truly moving boat.



Heesen Yachts

( www.heesenyachts.nl )

Feadship 62mt Sea Owl

Personal and enchanting, 62 metre custom Feadship Sea Owl is a portal to a different world, where children learn as they play and adults can enjoy family time, work or relax miles away from land. Aside from her one-of-a-kind fantasy inspired interior, the yacht has a sophisticated custom-designed security system to allow her occupants to venture far afield in safety.

Sea Owl’s lead designer, Andrew Winch, grew up near Kensington Gardens in London, where a bronze statue of Peter Pan has bewitched generations of children since it mysteriously appeared in 1912.

Peter Pan is only one of several fairy tales and scholarly books that have inspired the décor, as the designers worked closely with family members to personalise each room and encourage the children to explore real and imaginary worlds.

On the bridge deck is a staff cabin decorated with frescos of fossilised seashells that a young Charles Darwin identified during his first trip onHMS Beagle. This doubles as a classroom, allowing the children to learn about Darwin as the yacht explores the Galápagos Islands.

On the lower deck is a delightful pirate-themed room; next to this is one of the daughters’ cabins with scenes from Alice in Wonderland. On the sun deck, a toothy shark grins on the walls of the freshwater spa pool.

Three decks below, a book painted on the ceiling appears to be defying the laws of gravity to fly away from the library wall – it’s Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, naturally. While the décor is playful, it is never kitsch, reaching a level of artistry even grown-ups can appreciate.

The results surprised the Sea Owl’s owner. "Although I was tangentially involved in the design of the boat and kept abreast of how the build was progressing, I was truly astonished by the level of craftsmanship and tastefulness that distinguishes every nook and cranny," he said, adding that this success "is largely due to the close collaboration between the design team at Winch Design and my wife and daughter who are endowed with both exceptionally good taste and exceptionally strong opinions."

While children were the inspiration for this project, making this dream happen was anything but child’s play. Winch, who has designed seven Feadships to date, including the 99 metre Madame Gu, says Sea Owl was one of the most complex projects he has ever handled.

Part of the complexity resides in the number of details in this high-volume explorer. There are those you can see, such as a silk and wool carpet hand-knotted in Nepal, the Dale Chihuly chandelier made of Venetian glass, or the basin carved like a gem from a single block of crystal.

And there are the ones you don’t – security cameras with a 360-degree view at the waterline, fingerprint-recognition keypads and a sophisticated entertainment system.

A detailed description of this interior would fill a book, but a few details are enough to illustrate the yacht’s spirit. The central stairway features a mural, carved from Peruvian mahogany, of a magical tree rising four decks high in one continuous design, the roots grounded in the lower deck’s sole and branches reaching the sun deck.

The guest lift is much less noticeable from the outside but on its inside walls are trompe l’oeil murals depicting, among others, a garden scene and the family dog awaiting a treat.

The owner, gifted with a mathematical mind, has an office where he can be introspective behind closed doors but find inspiration in the oceanscape unfolding in front of him. This room is part of the owner’s private suite.

Its centrepiece is an exquisite copy of an 18th Century French desk by French furniture designer Serge Mirochnikoff, who created several other special pieces on board. On the ceiling is one of many frescoes commissioned by Winch Design, this one a depiction of a world map circa 1800. Such details bring character to a yacht that the owner wanted to serve as an ideal holiday home for his large family.

Soon after starting construction of their previous Sea Owl (now Shadowl), a 43m Burger of which Winch Design designed the interior, the owners realised the need for a bigger boat to accommodate their growing family and, in 2007, began discussing the new yacht with Winch Design and Anthony Sands of Edge Yachts, their representative.

The Burger’s green hull and white superstructure colour scheme was shared with the new yacht, which is painted in the Awlgrip shades Jade Mist and Oyster White.

A bid to build the new Sea Owl went out to seven shipyards, and a contract was signed with Feadship in 2008. Construction began two years later on what may be, at close to 1,500 gross tonnes, the biggest 62 metre yet built.

"We knew from the very start that Sea Owl was going to be an extraordinary vessel, but also one that would pose challenges in her design and construction due to the high aesthetic standards the owners were trying to achieve, coupled with the yacht’s cutting-edge technological sophistication," Sands said.

"The experienced Sea Owl team from Winch Design knew that the yacht’s exterior and planning was the answer. It’s to the entire team’s credit that we achieved on all counts, including construction deadlines and budget."

For the new Sea Owl, her owners wanted big spaces and wide-open vistas but within the length of 62 metres, which while generous by other measures, proved challenging when it came to accommodating all the family’s wishes.

This puzzle was left to Winch Design to resolve. The experienced team designed a yacht that is exceptionally beamy (12.2 metres overall) with a very large superstructure.

The sun deck is partially enclosed to create a light-filled dining saloon with an adjacent pantry that occupies a good part of the interior on this deck. Winch and his team, which gave the yacht elegant and classic lines, used the wide beam to maximum effect.

As the owners value privacy and security, access points are limited to what’s necessary and the accommodation stretches across the full beam where convenient. On the bridge deck, a light-filled Caribbean-inspired upper saloon stretches between windows, while forward, two balconies unfold to offer up panoramic views to guests.

Throughout, Winch pursued an organic design. "Symmetry makes the environment feel controlled," he said, which was far from the desired effect. The layout is very different from the rigid patterns found on many yachts. While there is practicality in the way the decks are organised (the layout is being kept private at the owner’s request), few linear patterns are on board.

The main dining table, set in front of a Venetian fresco, for instance, is off centre. Glancing forward from the saloon, you get an open view up to a library wall that conceals the owners’ walk-in wardrobe.

As amazing as what you can see, is what you do not see. It is not obvious that the custom-made furnishings, most built in-house by the Feadship craftsmen, are all sea-fastened for safety.

The custom rosewood self-playing Steinway baby grand piano in the main saloon is not only affixed to the deck sole, but also interfaces with the music library and can play any piece of music stored in the Kaleidescape audio visual system.

The yacht features WiFi throughout for iPad use, while most tables, including those on the outer decks, have hidden power sources to recharge tablets or laptops.

Security consultants worked closely with the shipyard up to the last few days before delivery, and while the effective and discreet security system does not distract from the magic of the décor, accommodating it added a layer of complexity – one that even the experienced Feadship shipyard acknowledges.

"It added weight on the boat, which we had to account for and balance with the class requirements," said Koos Zitman, sales director at Feadship. "You can only assign the space once."

Asked what design features were borrowed from other Feadship projects – perhaps the large windows, the saloon door that recedes to fully open the upper saloon to the aft deck or the twin tender bays forward – Zitman said the project was entirely owner driven. Even the large radar mast was done at the owner’s request.

Conscious of their surroundings and the pristine areas they want to discover, the owners also opted for a dynamic positioning system, which allows the yacht to stay in place without deploying anchors.

In early July 2013, the yacht and her crew of 18 set off on the first of her extended journeys to the Norwegian fjords after a handover ceremony in front of Amsterdam’s National Maritime Museum. Adventure is built right into this stately yacht’s design.

Feadship

( www.feadship.nl )

Benetti 63mt 11.11

Timing is everything. When the original owner of Benetti hull FB265 walked away from the project 10 months before delivery, an opportunity was presented, of the kind the boat’s new owner has made a living out of exploiting.

“Let’s just say there was a clear opportunity for a mutually beneficial deal to be done,” he says when we meet on board 11.11. The British businessman had been in talks with Benetti throughout the summer of 2014 about a new project, and when FB265 was left ownerless two-thirds of the way through construction, he made a list.

Cons: layout was largely fixed and engineering installed to a different owner’s specification. Pros: he’d get a brand new boat in less than a third of the time it takes to design, commission and build a new one. He spent the rest of that summer weighing it up.

“11.11 is only the second bluff-bowed boat Benetti has ever built, after 65 metre Nataly,” the owner says. “I was on a boat in Porto Cervo in 2014 and Nataly was there. I just kept looking at her and asked for the tender to take me around the boat. I grew to love the shape more and more. It was exactly what I wanted, so I was sold on the exterior design of FB265.

The question was whether we could turn her interior into something which would suit our family, from a design, style and functionality point of view.” The fit-out was about 40 per cent complete when the commissioning owner walked away and some of his choices were a little eccentric.

“There were no bars,” 11.11's owner says, “and it was designed for a Rolls-Royce Phantom to be kept in the tender garage! I didn’t need any of that. The sundeck was all wrong – everything was too small, the Jacuzzi, the seating. Inside it was like a Russian tsar’s palace. I’m not saying that’s bad but it’s not my family’s style. It was too heavy, too classical and it was quite dark. We needed to de-wood it, basically.”

Delivery, too, was a consideration. If he bought it he wanted it for the tail-end of summer 2015, an aggressive schedule that had a few people at Benetti sweating. “I lost a bit of hair,” Benetti project manager Marco De Cosmo jokes. “But the owner is such a nice guy – it’s difficult to say no.”

The deal was eventually signed in October 2014, spurred on by news that one or two other buyers were circling, and a delivery target was set for 11.11: July 2015, giving the Livorno shipyard just 10 months to turn a palace into a home.

“I had to make a quick decision – go for it or pull out. I was actually in Hong Kong airport on my way home from a business trip and I said ‘let’s do it’. The deal was closed at the airport,” the owner recalls.

Delivery was nudged back throughout the transformation and FB265 emerged from the yard just weeks before the 2015 Monaco Yacht Show, where the yacht was introduced to the world as 11.11. “If you compare the finished boat with the initial renderings we did for the first client, you would not say they were the same boat,” De Cosmo says.

It’s hard to imagine she was ever anything but the monochrome masterpiece she became. Where it was impossible to change styling left over from the first owner, such as the dark, patinated wall panelling throughout, it was made to look deliberate: the dark wood was offset with lighter colours to create a sort of deco-lite interior, for instance.

“We wanted that kind of look anyway,” the owner, whose company also designed the interior, says. “Our home in Los Angeles is art deco, too.” Splashed throughout is artwork from the owner’s collection, including, much to his daughter’s delight, interactive butterfly displays by Dominic Harris in the main saloon that flutter at your touch.

“We’ve had great feedback on those,” the owner says. “I had a guy building a 90 metre at Lürssen on board and he said: ‘I have to have that for my boat.’ Everyone’s stealing my ideas!”

The art animates spaces on board 11.11 that could otherwise get a bit two-tone and one piece stands out above all: a Tracey Emin neon perfectly located behind the bar in the upper saloon that says: “Move me”. A very close second, however, are works from Hans Kotter, Helmut Newton and photographer David Yarrow.

Defying the modern trend for hard, minimalist edges, the main living spaces of 11.11 offer softness and comfort. Part of this comes through the owner’s desire to create a home on the water, but also because it was built into the contract that the boat had to be child-proof: curves are preferred to edges at toddler height and the two main seating areas in the lower and upper saloons cluster around coffee tables you can bounce off, or fall asleep against “while watching Peppa Pig”, the owner smiles.

It’s the kind of attention to functionality that comes from having owned boats previously; 11.11 is the owner’s third superyacht, after a 45 metre Benetti and a 62 metre. “I’ve made mistakes in the past. I’ve designed stuff which looks great, but then you sit on it. My wife told me: ‘I’m not sitting on another sofa that’s uncomfortable,’ ” he says. “Functionality and comfort are the most important things.”

The owner’s wife was heavily involved in the design of 11.11 throughout and it was a collaborative decision to take the major step of restructuring the sundeck, the biggest job on Benetti’s to-do list once terms were signed.

With the transom garage housing a custom Benetti limo tender (the first one it’s ever built) and RIB instead of a beach club, 11.11’s top deck is the pre-eminent leisure area. “It was our first project when he bought the boat,” De Cosmo explains.

The pool was initially placed where the seating is currently but the new owner wanted it all the way aft, surrounded by sunpads. “The deck was completely redesigned, destroyed and rebuilt,” the project manager adds.

To avoid welding and other “hot activities” so close to delivery, the pool structure was built in fibreglass, and painted to make it blend in. Comfortable seating was added along with an Italian stone-clad bar and a gym was replaced by an intimate seating area and kitchenette – a favourite spot of the owner and his young family. “We tend to end the day up here, with afternoon tea,” he says.

The mornings are spent around the second spa pool on board 11.11 – forward of the superb panoramic owner’s suite on the upper deck. Despite being out the front and feeling a little exposed, it remains a private area and can’t be seen from the bridge above, making it an exclusive little enclave.

It wasn’t always obvious that this would become the owner’s deck. It’s got the view but the VIP on the main deck has the beam – all 10.8 metres of it. “It came down to outside space in the end,” the owner says. “You have a boat because you’re going to spend a lot of time outside, and it’s great to see our little baby daughter running around the front, which is all enclosed.”

Lucky guests, then, who get quartered in the VIP suite, with its vast acreage, private study, walk-in dressing room and six huge portrait windows. The rest of the guest accommodation is on the lower deck – two twins and two doubles feeding off a central lobby. Each is dressed in the same art deco style, with Italian marble in the bathrooms – personally selected by the owner’s team at the quarry – and Lalique taps.

The design throughout 11.11 offers a “polycentric experience”, the owner says. “It’s all about your senses coming alive, in what you see, hear, touch and feel. That’s when you’re going to have the best experience of your life, and hopefully we’ve managed to achieve that with this interior.”

The exterior charges a few of those senses, too, and will inspire comment wherever 11.11 sails. She’s not built on the same platform as Nataly but the similarities are clear, although whereas Nataly’s design was from the boards of Redman Whiteley Dixon, 11.11’s exterior is identifiably Benetti’s work.

The decks bubble up behind that long nose, which ends in a near-vertical blade. A significant spray rail runs aft, to keep water off the decks – a common problem on boats with such an upright stem.

The hull’s efficiency gains are still to be properly recorded but the captain, Vaughan Hill, is happy so far, reporting engine loading of just 65 per cent at her cruising speed of 15 knots.

“We got her up to 17.5 knots on the run to Monaco from Livorno,” he says. “We had a head sea, with two metre swells. She stayed nice and buoyant and rode over the top, rather than falling into the holes.” Not that he has to worry about anyone getting seasick – the owner’s wife was a sufferer but she was treated by famous British hypnotist Paul McKenna and hasn’t had a dose since.

The benefit of 11.11's bow is more volume forward, and this has been well used in a big bosun’s locker and mooring area on the main deck, and generous crew quarters down below.

The yacht runs with 16 crew currently and the happiest of all is surely the chef, whose main deck playground puts the galleys of much bigger boats to shame. It’s also a superbly finished space, with – to the chef’s delight – big windows over the water and a central island.

The owner didn’t spend a huge amount of time at the yard overseeing the finishing of this and other spaces, relying instead on his design team, but did make one very important visit towards the end of the build. “I flew from LA to London to Pisa for a single day, just to see 11.11, and went back to LA the next day. I wanted to see it before my family got on board – I’m a perfectionist,” he says.

As soon as 11.11 was handed over, he snuck in some holiday time before the Monaco Yacht Show, visiting Capri, where music mogul and friend Simon Cowell was a visitor. “We had a nice day with Simon in Positano, and then after headed up to Cannes, Monaco and St Tropez.”

The owner’s winter cruising ambitions extend to the Caribbean – and might include the latest hot destination, Cuba. Plans could then include a tour of the Bahamas, Exumas (“so my daughter can swim with the pigs” - a Caribbean bucket list favourite), St Barths and Mustique before heading back across in 2016 for the start of the Med season.

It’s a trip that wouldn’t have been possible this year had the owner not seized the opportunity of buying a part-built boat. The timing was auspicious, like the name of the yacht itself. The 11th of the 11th is the owner’s daughter’s birthday, but 11 is also considered a “master number”, emanating all sorts of positive vibes. It’s definitely doing its job so far – doubly so.

Benetti Yachts

( www.benettiyachts.it )