Nobody likes waiting for the arrival of a new purchase. Superyachts are no exception –a quick delivery is the most common demand of a new-build owner despite the numerous practical limitations. For the seasoned owner of 67.6-metre Aurora Borealis, for example, it was important that he have his new boat in time for the 2019 summer season. This would put pressure on Amels to deliver what has become its first Limited Editions 220 in just 32 months, which is four months – yes, four months – faster than the listed time.
“I received a call from the owner mid-July 2016, which turned out to be the trigger for the project,” recalls Fraser sales broker Antoine Larricq, who was en route to meet Andrew Winch of Winch Design to discuss New Secret, one of Amels’ Limited Editions 242 projects.
“It was the second hull that was under construction at the shipyard at the time, following the delivery of Plvs Vltra, so I took him to see the project in build.” While the owner liked what he saw, it quickly became clear he didn’t want a motor yacht above 70 metres, ruling out the 74-metre 242 platform. However, the Dutch shipyard had a smaller model that would offer greater length and volume than his previous yacht, 52-metre Latitude, while remaining under 70 metres. The solution was the 65.7-metre Limited Editions 212. Well, almost.
Although the 212 was a good boat, it hadn’t been as commercially successful as some other models in the Amels range, such as the 55-metre Limited Editions 180, Larricq tells me. So the shipyard worked up new drawings with designer Tim Heywood and modified the package to evolve the 212 into something more appealing. The changes would give life to what the shipyard calls the Limited Editions 220, a 67.1 metre with a distinctive beach club – a key requirement for Larricq’s client – and slightly different exterior. “The Amels 220 draws on pedigree and in particular the design of her predecessor, the Amels 212,” explains Victor Caminada, the shipyard’s head of marketing.
“She is strong, athletic, feminine and sleek,” adds exterior designer Tim Heywood. “The fluid lines, particularly aft, flow through the design and I particularly like the long shape of the wing stations.” Caminada goes on to explain how the design captures the essence and tradition of luxury yachting. “It is an evolution of an existing proven and successful design – one that has evolved to meet today’s yachting lifestyle,” he says. “What distinguishes her is the updated and elegant design with elongated decks and large windows for lots of natural light.”
As we stand on the transom, Larricq and Captain Paul Bickley reveal some of the reasons for extending the standard 220’s length by 50 centimetres to 67.6 metres. “When we measured a sun lounger, it sat very close to the edge of the swim platform. The boss wanted a bit more length in order to allow a person to safely and easily walk past it,” explains Bickley. “We’ve opened the transom to give a greater feeling of space, which has been helped by pushing the passerelle outboard. Also, the previous 212 model had these ears on the aft extremities [of the swim platform], which we got rid of to create a smooth curved transom.”
“These customisations were also important in order to make the space child friendly, as the owner has young kids,” adds Larricq. The additional 50 centimetres have allowed for a steam room – decorated with a handmade Italian pietra dura mosaic artwork and a fibre-optic starlight ceiling – and an ice fountain spa and shower. Aft of this is a bar with a Giallo Silvia Oro stone top and a panel of subtle sycamore diamond marquetry below. These light colours, together with sycamore-panelled walls, create a relaxed space, highlighted with oil paintings by British artist Heather Duncan. “A calm, harmonious, refined and restrained Scandinavian-influenced design is enlivened with touches of glamour and intricate details,” says Greig Jolly, associate at Winch Design, as he describes the theme and vision for the interior, realised by German outfitter Metrica.
As we make our way forward into the garage, it is clear the team has included the largest tenders possible. “Initially this was built for charter, like our previous boat,” says Bickley. “We had 380 days of third-party charter over nine seasons, which was possible because the owner rarely used the boat. We wanted to repeat that success on this boat, and to be able to load up with toys. It would have been good to have more space down here.”
Tenders supplied by Pascoe International are stowed with only centimetres to spare between the forward and aft bulkheads. The first is an 8.3-metre Beachlander, while the second is an 8.3-metre Landau Open, which is finished in the same anthracite colour as the superstructure and won Best Tender Design in the 2019 BOAT International Design & Innovation Awards. “Pascoe came to us and said, ‘Can we run with this idea?’ and I said yes, and on seeing the finished boat I’m really pleased with it,” says Bickley. “She has a James Bond feel with a carbon fibre champagne bucket among a number of features. It isn’t enclosed – there is a spray hood should you need it – but this is really ideal for enjoying places such as Porto Cervo and St Barths.”
Forward of the tender garage is the engine room, home to a pair of workhorse Caterpillar 3516C engines. “Mechanically, underway, she is like a Swiss watch, silent and very fast,” Bickley says. “These engines work best at 90 per cent load and are unhappy under 75 per cent load.” This, in turn, means the most efficient way to run the boat is on one engine, achieving a cruising speed of approximately 13 knots and a top speed of 17 knots. “Being the first Amels 220, Aurora Borealis had to be comfortable,” adds Caminada. “She offers unrivalled stability, low noise and vibrations, plus the perfect arrangement for the classic yachting experience at the highest level.”
Amidships is a staircase that extends from the tank deck up to the sundeck, while a glass lift runs from the very top to the lower deck. Backing the staircase is a vertical stretch of backlit cloud-cut honey onyx, the steps and handrail finished with tan buffalo hide and macchiato cowhide. The lobbies on each floor are variations on a circular theme, with the most engaging found at the main entrance on the main deck.
“The floor is grey oak with polished almond gold inlays arranged in a circular pattern inspired by sunrays and Saturn’s rings,” says Jolly. Above this is a custom ceiling lamp with illuminated gold leaf on the inside and a straw marquetry finish on the outside. The repeated circular pattern varies along the main deck companionway, from the saloon aft to the owner’s suite and office forward. A full circle inlaid with mother-of-pearl in the owner’s vestibule visually connects it with the owner’s office. The latter has been finished with bleached rippled sycamore and includes silver highlights and polished almond gold accents.
“Foot-worn oak floors and pale sycamore timber walls create a calm, cool atmosphere,” explains Jolly of the main saloon. The circular motif in this space is achieved through a hand-tufted silk carpet by Tai Ping that defines the sitting area, mirrored above by a circular lighting fixture, and through the 14-guest round dining table, centred with petrified prehistoric wood. The saloon is also home to a pair of stunning curved, starburst straw-marquetry panels that sit opposite each other and visually separate the dining area from the saloon. In front of each panel is a European walnut credenza with Italian Botticino Fiorito marble top, while a third unit between them is finished with straw marquetry.
Aurora Borealis sleeps 14 guests, the most striking suite being the owner’s, forward on the main deck. “The full-beam owner’s suite with a central bed features two bespoke bleached-oak loungers beneath large, full-height windows,” says Jolly. “A spectacular five-metre-long landscape artwork of gold-leaf divides the sleeping area from the master bathroom.” The master suite includes an enclosed head and shower with a centrally located oval bath carved from a single block of crema liria stone. In front of it is a high-gloss capiz shell panel from Nature Squared with polished almond gold inlays, while behind it is a striking petrified wood panel concealing a secondary (emergency) exit.
Drop one deck and you find a twin and three double en suites. “Each cabin has a different theme – earth, air, water, fire – which is reflected in the subtle variations in the choice of fabrics, carpets, artwork and accessories,” explains Jolly. While these cabins feature silk carpets, good storage and marble vanity units, the VIP suites on the bridge deck are not only bigger, but they also have a penthouse feeling when combined with the upper saloon, just a few steps away towards the stern. “The two cabins are themed around the concept of the North and South Poles with subtly different colour schemes, fabrics and artwork,” says Jolly.
At the top of the staircase is a skylight flooding the stairwell with natural light. Forward is a spa pool with a gym and shower aft, leading out to an open deck area with sunbeds and Summit sun loungers, as well as a table for al fresco dining and a projector for entertainment. Another modification was the deletion of the helipad aft on this deck. Despite having met the owner’s wishes, Aurora Borealis is for sale. Now complete, she is perfect for someone looking for a new fully loaded superyacht. At the time of writing, she had an asking price of €83.5 million including the owner’s supplies – and of course that priceless attribute, the absence of a waiting time.
Amels
( www.amels-holland.com )
The co-owner of Here Comes The Sun does not enjoy shiny surfaces and you will find few on board his gargantuan new toy – except for the gold discs hanging on the wall of his office. These records, The Beatles’ Let It Be and John Lennon’s Imagine, slip through the net for sentimental reasons: they are they names of his two previous yachts, 47 metre Heesen yacht Let It Be and the 65 metre Amels Limited Editions 212 yacht Imagine (since renamed Infinite Shades). Here Comes The Sun is also named after a Fab Four track, but this a project on an amplified scale.
Amels' new flagship measures 83 metres and packs in 2,827 gross tonnes of volume (compare that with 99 metre Madame Gu’s 2,991GT and 95.2 metre Kismet’s 2,700GT). But the combined experience of owner and yard meant that this team knew exactly how to use every inch of the space on board Here Comes The Sun. “Imagine was heavily used. We did 60,000 miles,” says owner’s representative Yavor Nenov, so they learnt what they needed and wanted on board – and what they didn’t.
The aspects they wanted to take to the new boat were clearly defined. “Most important for me and my partner was an owner’s private deck and open beach club and a bigger number of guest cabins in order to accommodate our families,” says the co-owner.
They wanted, as interior designer Andrew Winch puts it, “a home, a floating island” – hence the increased length of Here Comes The Sun. But height was also important. “They are both tall, the owners, so one of the signatures of this boat from Imagine is the higher ceilings, the feeling of more air, bigger spaces,” says Winch. “When you look around, a room feels nicely proportioned.”
Nenov used to work as chief steward on Let It Be – and his influence is evident in the design, as a keen interest has clearly been paid to how the crew will circulate and function. Examples include a crew staircase that runs all the way from the tank deck to the superyacht sundeck, a wealth of pantries, and hidden doors from crew areas into the main lobby on every level of Here Comes The Sun.
Amels was also a keen collaborator in this endeavour. “When we asked for some shelving in the bosun’s locker we said it could just be bolted in there,” recalls Nenov. Amels responded that it would go one better than that and measured the shelving to the bosun’s specifications, designed it, welded it and repainted the whole area.
In the engine room, Nenov says, “one of the big highlights is space, how the engineers can really work”. The generators have a separate room to contain noise and protect crew in case of emergencies. The integrated bridge, meanwhile, is covered in a glass panel and interfaced so it can be operated by touchscreen; there’s also good visibility and a comfortable seating area for owner and guests. There were upgrades from the previous boats in terms of soundproofing and they doubled the satellite domes to create two identical systems so one could operate even if the other was knocked out by a storm.
The design pairing of Tim Heywood and Winch Design is a combination tried and tested on Imagine – as well as the owners’ private jets. Andrew Winch’s studio has designed the interiors of eight other Limited Editions, while Heywood has penned the exteriors of this entire family of Amels boats. “I try to repeat some details that I’m particularly fond of,” says Heywood, “but give them a new twist and make a little change here and there to make it more original and make sure that the clients feel that they’re getting something completely different.”
For example, on Here Comes The Sun, the first Limited Editions 272 (although there are likely to be more to come), Heywood changed the beltline’s angle of descent. “It’s a more gentle curve, swept right the way round the back and into the stairwells and back outside of the stairwells, round the swimming pool.” The superstructure is oyster white, with a muted “castle” tan for the hull.
Inside, the co-owner wanted “a calm, beachy atmosphere, light materials and soft colours – a relaxing atmosphere”. Winch responded with a palette of warm browns, cream fabrics, goldtoned lighting, bronze panels with a brushed finish and antiqued patina, and furniture in curving shapes. Rather than glossy, this decorative scheme is tactile, with carved silk and wool carpets, mottled leathers, natural oak panelling and smooth “footworn” floors.
The theme of practical solutions, cleverly implemented, is also evident throughout the interior design of Here Comes The Sun; for example, press one of the sections on the smart leather-clad pillars in the main and owner’s saloons and the pillar swings open, revealing a storage cabinet.
There are plenty more happy surprises on board this yacht. The greatest is perhaps the bridge deck galley (there’s also a bigger main galley on the lower deck), which has a large opening on to the aft deck, where there is a bar and dining table for up to 24. From here guests can speak directly to the chef as he works, make little extra requests to be whipped up in front of them, or decide what they want as they sit down and describe it directly to the chef.
“You are basically in a restaurant, upstairs,” says Winch. “The chef is so good that he can do everything simultaneously and there are no service issues, no hot plates issues.” Alongside the galley, also open to the aft deck, is a small “grotto” that could be used as a smoking room or a cosy spot to retire to during inclement weather.
The sundeck above, the perfect place to recover from overindulgence, holds its own surprises. The superstructure to each side sweeps back in long curves, the aft sections of which are shaded glass. Behind these, Heywood has designed individual sunpad nooks, where guests can relax in shade and privacy.
His curving pillars aft – a tricky-to-build Limited Editions signature that Amels produces with skill – add style and have been rigged with lights and to hold awnings that can cover the aft sunbathing space. The covered central portion of the deck holds another long dining table that can be set up for glamorous dinners, while forward there’s a bar and spa pool with sunpads and cabanas.
Down on the main deck is another jewel of the exterior spaces, the pool. They wanted to avoid an ungainly ladder set-up that would make it hard to access, or giving it a height that would make the space feel cramped. “We had to modify the superstructure of the yacht, lower the whole pool to drop it down to recess into the ceiling of the beach club without sacrificing the height,” says Nenov. The result is a long, low pool that’s easy to dip into and the superyacht beach club below – something Imagine didn’t have – does not feel compromised.
This stylish space includes a central seating area with fold-down platforms to either side and aft of here, beyond a sauna and steam room, there’s an enormous amidships tender garage set up for side launching (this also stores an inflatable slide that runs all the way down from the sundeck, for thrill-seekers with a head for heights).
But the owners’ deck is arguably the most spectacular space on board Here Comes The Sun. At the aft end there’s a large lounge with a television that slides seamlessly up from a coffee table, and a broad aft deck and forward of the lobby – a highly individual cabin arrangement. To port is the owner’s wife’s cabin, and, forward, a large mirror-clad dressing room and shower room.
The style is glamorous and feminine, with cream toned fabrics and white marble, but the most exciting feature is the superyacht balcony – accessed via full height glass doors from the cabin. This broad space that curves out from the superstructure feels like an al fresco extension of the interior. “You can see the whole boat when you are standing here,” says Victor Caminada, marketing manager of Amels.
It’s the first time the yard has done this on a Limited Editions but it makes aesthetic sense to the exterior lines as well, echoing the bulge of the wing stations on the deck below. To starboard the owner’s office benefits from a similar balcony set-up, but the tone is warmer, with more natural oak, an eel skin feature wall behind the bookshelves and pony skin on the ceiling.
The owner’s cabin forward is accessed via its own corridor to starboard, lined with glass cabinets full of antique silverware and ancient artefacts. This personal museum runs past a dressing room and shower room – with carved perrera marble walls and a vanity unit in brown maron pinta marble – to the cabin, with its massive central bed and textured, dark wenge back panel. The foredeck conceals a MOB tender and a small crew tender, and can act as a touch and go superyacht helipad, but when not in operation it’s a clean, private-feeling space for the owner.
Down on the main deck of Here Comes The Sun, guests have impressive spaces of their own. The main saloon comprises, to aft, a circular dining table for 16 with curving full height glass doors to the aft deck, a central seating area with a long bar and a piano forward. Large windows throughout this deck flood the interior with light.
Forward of the lobby is a spectacular on-board cinema. The audio system combines a powerful ADA Suite Premium Home Theatre Preamplifier and a Lexicon DD-8 amplifier, plus Sonance speakers. For visuals there’s a full HD 3D JVC beamer with Vutec 123-inch projection screen and an 85-inch Samsung full HD 3D TV. The whole system is controlled by a Crestron system that uses an Apple iPad mini as the user interface.
There are five guest cabins on the same corridor, the central two of which have sitting rooms that can be shielded from the cabins by sliding soundproof doors – in this mode the sitting rooms can be converted into cabins, bumping up the total to seven.
As the backbone of an unusual general arrangement, Here Comes The Sun’s lobby is a synecdoche of the overall decorative theme. Surrounding the central lift by Dutch company Lift Emotion, monochrome marble stairs wend up from lower deck to sundeck, accompanied by a stone feature wall carved with a vine (the co-owner owns a vineyard).
On every level dark, intricately carved walnut panelling from Georgia provides a warm flourish. The effect is glamorous without being flashy – but when you’ve got all this to show off, you don’t need shiny finishes to catch the eye.
AMELS
( www.amels-holland.com )
Amels’ Limited Editions concept is one of the superyacht industry’s great success stories. Each boat in the range offers a high degree of interior customisation and there’s just enough in Tim Heywood’s curving exterior lines to make a yacht feel individual, while a shared technical platform hacks time and cost off a project. And, with every repetition, the process gets smoother, the unknowns diminish.
Heywood maintained the Limited Editions signature look, which he says is “strong and functional”. “It complements the flowing lines very well, which I describe as athletically feminine,” says Heywood. “I must admit that these curves are not necessarily the easiest forms to build, but Amels rose to the challenge.”
The paint — jet black between Matterhorn white decks — gives Plvs Vltra a dose of individuality. “I also added those curving jet black highlights to echo the curve of the wing station and then reversed it in the superstructure,” he says. “That form is echoed again in the mast structure. And finally the marlin blue waterline stripe.”
The owners previously had the Limited Editions 180 yacht Step One, which was also project managed by Moran Yacht & Ship and delivered in 2012._ "The owner and his family greatly enjoyed _Step One and he decided to build a larger yacht with Amels as he was happy with the shipyard and struck up a strong rapport with sales director Rob Luijendijk," president Rob Moran adds. The Plvs Vltra project was managed for the owner by Moran Yacht & Ship.
But lifestyle needs meant the layout required a thorough rethink for Plvs Vltra. “The main requests were a large swimming pool on the main deck, two 10 metre tenders, a large master suite forward on the upper deck, a huge spa with all of the features of a top class facility, and large exterior areas to enjoy with friends and family," Moran continues.
“They want their family to be with them and they want to spend a lot more time on board”, says Andrew Winch of Winch Design, who penned the interior. “They said, ‘At this size, we don’t really want to get off’.”
In short, the owners wanted a full-time residence, not a holiday boat. That informed every aspect of the design, splitting Plvs Vltra’s accommodation into an owner’s deck, two VIPs on the main deck and three guest cabins on the lower deck, so that three generations can have their own space or come together as desired.
But as Winch puts it: “The spa was where it kicked off at the beginning.” This lower deck, amidships space incorporates a spectacular central spa pool, massage area, steam room, bar and sauna with a window on to a broad, fold-down balcony to starboard.
There’s an elaborate mosaic of a dandelion by Sottoriva on the wall of the steam room and, on the floor, mystery white and rosa egeo marbles curve out from the superyacht spa pool in a shell pattern. Above the pool there’s an artwork of gilded porcelain shells by Valeria Nascimento. All this enhances the feeling of it being a space to linger in, rather than a utilitarian area to use and then leave.
“It’s quite normal for them to go there for four or five hours,” says Winch. “They can have an oil massage on the bed and when they’ve finished have their hair done. And when they leave the spa they are ready to put a dress on and go and party. It is a sequence of functions that are all about pleasure. Each area is a passage of time.”
The superyacht balcony, with an inflatable watertight seal, is positioned high enough that even stray waves that did make it to this part of Plvs Vltra would be unlikely to worry guests — but there are prodigious drains inside, just in case.
Routeing has been thought about carefully, with a smooth-running glass-fronted lift that whisks the owners down here directly from the lobby aft of their upper deck suite. There’s also a side-boarding ladder from the main deck to the fold-down balcony that means children can spend whole days outdoors, padding from Plvs Vltra’s aft deck swimming pool, with its counter current jets for lap swimming, extensive sunpads and bar, down to the superyacht spa.
But the position of the space is arguably Plvs Vltra’s greatest asset. “It was a deliberate choice of Amels to put the beach club in the middle, or tipping point, of the ship,” says Konings. “It is the most comfortable place to be at any time at sea. So when it gets a bit rough, the Jacuzzi can stay filled and guests can actually use the spa area.” This position also leaves the aft of the boat as a purely functional garage for tenders and toys.
Another consideration towards creating a more residential feel in Plvs Vltra is the absence of long corridors — a feature usually distinctive of planes, trains and boats. Where possible, the design eschews them in favour of more useful or atmospheric spaces.
Outside the main deck VIPs, for example, the area is divided into a circular lobby with painted, lacquered blue and white panels designed by Canadian artist Peter Gorman. Just aft, there’s a small library with two armchairs. “The two windows are lined up with the two windows in the ship’s hull, so you have natural light,” says Konings.
Slanting windows flood the VIPs themselves with light while the lower deck guests get spectacular marble en suites — and the head height throughout is excellent.
Décor was just as vital to the project as layout. “If you take a look at some of the hotels in the South of France, such as the Hotel du Cap, they are classical and they are about wonderful sea views with very light interiors,” says Winch. “They wanted, architecturally, a classic interior, classical mouldings, classical selections of marbles and furniture. They wanted variety and individuality to the boat.”
It’s a highly decorative design, with intricately veined marbles, stained woods and plenty of crystal but, thanks to the blend of neutrals with soft Cote d’Azur tones of blue and yellow, the effect remains light and relaxing — and more like a house than a boat.
In Plvs Vltra’s main saloon, there are substantial pillars, hand laid with moon gold leaf, customised Italian upholstery in ivory velvet by Pozzoli of Milan, crystal-based lamps with silver leaf and silk shades by Baldi, as well as a bespoke silk and wool carpet by Winch Design with Tai Ping.
The mosaic in the main deck lobby is as much a work of art as the bronze Alexander Krivosheiw sculpture that stands over it — slivers of marble in mystery white, blue jeans, labradorite weiss, golden spider, calcite azzurra and cream Valencia in an intricate pattern by Winch Design, created by stone artisans Magma in Sicily.
Other aspects of this detailed residential effect were a particular challenge. “We have never been asked before to do chandeliers that appear to be free-hanging,” says Winch. “If you go back to Victorian yachts, they would have free-hanging chandeliers but here you can’t afford a rattle, something to be tinkling or breaking.”
The solution for these fittings, in the main and dining saloons, was fixing the hundreds of individual crystal droplets with tiny metal pins. They were penned by Winch Design and manufactured by Czech crystal specialist Preciosa.
Up in the owner’s lounge things are more relaxed, with blue-stained sycamore panelling, loungy seating in front of a concealed cinema screen and full-height windows that open on both sides, for a breeze that runs all the way through.
Forward, there’s a limited edition Parallèle piano by Hilton McConnico and aft, a backlit rock crystal bar, behind which the wall is clad in pearlised lacquer with copper brick inlays. Back again on the long aft deck there’s a dining table and bar.
The full-beam master suite forward on the upper deck has a central bed and access to the foredeck from doors either side of the windows. The palette of green, neutrals and metallics is repeated in the organic patterns of the silk and wool carpet, again by Tai Ping and Winch Design, as well as lustrous Rubelli curtains.
The most spectacular piece is a hand-painted and embroidered silk wall covering of birds on a blossoming tree, penned by Winch Design and produced by Fromental.
All of this interior refinement was achieved on a pre-agreed budget, as Moran explains: “The biggest challenge our team faced, was that the client would not accept any cost changes. We accepted this gamble and we met our promise. Andrew Winch, who is a very good designer, is not known for his frugality, but we managed to provide an exquisite interior that came within the budget. Such a task has never been previously achieved on an Andrew Winch designed yacht.”
Aft of the master cabin, a corridor was necessary to lead between his and hers en suites to the bedroom, but it has been enhanced as far as possible. “Because of the way we planned the positions of the showers, with their own windows and inboard curved walls in glass, you get light through both bathrooms and into the middle of the corridor,” says Winch.
Those en suites are as decadent as they come, with sand-etched, curved glass panels enclosing massive showers with every bell and whistle, as well as glamorous vanities with rock crystal fronts that glow in the sun.
The owner’s office, off the lobby between owner’s suite and lounge, strikes a very different note from the rest of Plvs Vltra’s décor. It is dark and serious: black stained Newood, red lacquer, gold leaf panels and an ebonised timber desk with gilt detailing and an oxblood red leather top. “It’s a more male space,” says Winch.
Up on the bridge deck things are far brighter, with a much-used superyacht gym that leads out to a sprawling combined aft deck and touch-and-go helicopter pad, with an oversized elliptical sofa for watching films on the screen that drops down from above the gym door. Plvs Vltra’s sundeck has a spa pool and sunpads made ultra private by a position forward of the mast.
Heywood really went to town on the mast, with a sculptural form and decorative stainless steel touches. Other less glamorous aspects of the build have been thought through carefully, too. “We have a main stairwell and right on the back of it there is a stairwell for the crew, so the crew can service the whole ship without ever being seen by the guests,” says Konings.
A full-beam crew mess on the tank deck leaves the whole nose of the lower deck for crew accommodation, while a good-sized galley sits amidships on Plvs Vltra’s main deck.
Apart from consulting Damen Research to reduce noise and vibration through calculation and simulations, the generators are insulated in their own room — an idea taken from another Amels 74 metre, Ilona — giving better maintenance access than by boxing them in, while protecting the eardrums of those who work in Plvs Vltra’s vast engine room all day.
“It surprised everybody. The sound of vibration is phenomenal, unbelievable,” says captain Simon Truelove. “Plvs Vltra’s a big boat, she’s got a lot up top as well, but she’s got stabiliser systems that balance out. The 180 is a great boat and standing on the bridge this seems exactly the same — but actually there’s another extra 20 metres on the back of her and you’re higher up.” It’s one aspect in which the yard will be pleased to know that two of its Limited Editions can’t be told apart.
Amels
( www.amels-holland.com )
