Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Boat International US Edition

I wandered the Miami Beach Convention Center halls during the recent Miami Boat Show, where I heard a “What-are-you-doing-here-with-the-little-boats?” greeting more than once. Well, I told these nosy people that owners of larger yachts — especially in the US — rarely have just one boat. Am I right? Plus, I have to say it makes me happy to see the US boating industry being so creative and lively. I saw many innovations, witnessed a new boat brand unveil its first ski boat and viewed a 150th-anniversaiy edition of the Chris-Craft Launch 27 that had me swooning over its lines and sparkling paint with aquamarine trim. In the large yacht segment, we have expert yacht builders and outstanding yachts being built right here in the US, but clearly fewer than we…

On Board REVEALING THE LATEST NEWS, TRENDS AND TECH After being in private hands for years, this spectacular 2002 Liirssen was sold to new owners with a love for refit projects with the goal of renewing her. She debuted her new look at the 2024 Monaco Yacht Show and, as part of the Fraser fleet, has now joined a tight-knit group of iconic superyachts available for charter to a select few. Her pedigree will certainly attract those who can splurge — the charter rate is from €1,400,000 ($1.5m) per week — but amenities such as the renewed spa, new pool and state-of-the-art 10,000-square-foot gym, plus a professional crew of 33, make additional arguments for a very special treat. For more newcomers to the charter market, turn the page for our…

WILD WATER ON BOARD The Barton & Gray Daychaser 48 is a boat that shouldn't exist. And that's not meant as a slight, it's just a stated fact, according to Barton & Gray co-founder Doug Gray, who helped dream up the project. “We tried so, so hard not to build this boat,” he says with a chuckle. “We went to a bunch of different boatbuilders and said, ‘We want to buy 15 multi-million-dollar boats from you, and send them to the most important ports in the world and fill them with the most influential people in the world,’ and no one — not one of them — bought in. The yachting industry is really lagging behind the private-jet industry when it comes to accepting these share programs. So we had…

As is true of many top naval architects, Frank Mulder's career began in a shipyard, in this case at Amels as assistant yard manager. Two years later he was lured away by Damen as head of high-speed ship design. Brashly, at age 28, he opened his own firm to specialize in high-speed commercial and navy projects. Fast boats got him noticed, but his proximity to the Heesen shipyard brought him his first yacht in 1981. He had drawn six yachts for Heesen when John Staluppi called. “He asked me if I could design a yacht that would go 50 knots. I decided theoretically, yes. But if it turned out to be impossible, he would just owe me a design fee. If we calculated it was possible, he would build the…

I t used to be that private yacht charter was the world's best-kept holiday secret — a getaway accessible only to the privileged few in the know. But if the bookings figures that MYBA The Worldwide Yachting Association has shared exclusively with BOAT International are any indication, the secret is well and truly out. In nine years of MYBA data — gleaned from its YACHTFOLIO database — charter bookings increased 138 percent from 5,067 in 2015 to 12,074 in 2023. Each year shows steady growth but an unexpected push came from the pandemic. “We almost doubled [bookings] during the Covid-19 years,” says Raphael Sauleau, CEO of IYC and current president of MYBA. Yachting stole the spotlight when resorts were closed and received a lot of exposure in both mainstream and…

Acala Darwin Class 102 With an owner who is an expert diver, this 2015 yacht was always going to go off the beaten track. She started with the Great Blue Hole - an underwater sinkhole in Belize. From there, she went through the Panama Canal and up the west coast of Central America, visiting Cocos Island, Cerralvo Island and the Sea of Cortez. Storm Darwin Class 107 Crossing the Atlantic in hsr namesake conditions in winter 2022, Storm made landfall at the little-visited Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha. From there the 2016 yacht cruised to the Caribbean, through Panama and to the Galapagos. Then it was a 3,000-nautical-mile leap to French Polynesia. Her tour continues. Acala Deep Blue 141 Built for the owner of tha Darwin 102 Acala, this…

Carla Guilhem Design Florida-based designer Carla Guilhem developed a passion for interior design while growing up in Brazil with her family, who owned a furniture business. She studied architecture and interior design and lived in Italy and Spain before settling in the US where she cut her teeth on residential projects in New York and the Hamptons. Guilhem founded her eponymous design studio in 2012, headquartering the business in Miami: “a nexus of cultural and design influences that resonate with my ethos.” Her foray into yachting came through a client who asked her to design the interior of custom motor yacht Lady Lene. Her brief was to create a home at sea for three generations of the family, and in the end the yacht won the 2023 BOAT International Design…

DAY ONE Meet the yacht moored at Ålesund, a vibrant art nouveau city, which lies on Norway's serrated south-west coast and is often considered one of the country's most beautiful. Settle down for a decadent lunch on the aft deck. In the afternoon, head into town and walk among the colorful architecture, picking up souvenirs and local delicacies. For the best view, head to the main park and walk up Fjellstua, a steep path of 418 steps that towers over the city. DAY TWO Following breakfast, cruise 15 nautical miles west to Runde island, passing puffins and seals. More than half a million birds congregate on the soaring cliffs of this sequestered isle, home to only 100 people. Spot rare breeds such as razorbills and guillemots before cruising to Kami…

Olga Dromas Behind the camere since she was 16, Olga studied fine art photography and did an internship as a photographer's assistant in Paris. This gave her a fashion background that helps with the lifestyle shoots for which her company, Blueiprod, is best known. For this issue, she shot our cover boat, Pink Shadow (page 96). What was on your mind while shooting Pink Shadow? The yacht has quite a rich story and my goal was to show this through the photos. It is very important tD capture the vibe of the boat. It's a great-looking vessel with a lot of fun activities and cozy spaces for the guests What's the best praise you've aver received for your work? The best compliment is seeing clients happy, and alse seeing my work…

PRESENTING THE 2024 BOAT INTERNATIONAL ON BOARD The ever-increasing number of entries shows the BOAT Design & Innovation Awards are growing in popularity, especially in the interior and exterior categories. Where entries may have fallen short this year is in the Eco category. We encourage the industry to increase its focus on more comprehensive environmental considerations and to go beyond IMO Tier III compliance. The judges were able to see many of the nominated yachts and also diligently reviewed the all-important owner, builder and designer statements, photos, renderings, layouts and videos. An element of personal taste always intervenes where it comes to aesthetics, but our judges must consider criteria that evaluate objective measures—for instance, how closely a yacht meets its mission or how well it caters to guests and crew…

LA DATCHA Cruising from the Arctic to Australia in 2024, this certified Ice Class and IMO Polar Code 253ft Damen SeaXplorer is equipped with a skilled crew and specialist underwater gear. Alongside a certified dive center with a decompression chamber and instructors with nitrox certification, there's a Triton submersible. From $630,000/week, twwyachts.com VIRTUOSITY This 187ft Sanlorenzo from 2023 will reel guests in with one-of-a-kind fishing charters available in the Med in summer and the Caribbean in winter. With two deckhands as experienced fishing guides, guests can pursue bonefish in the Bahamas, deep-sea fish in Antigua and bream and bass in the Med before sending their catch to the chef to prepare for dinner. From €400,000/ week, fraseryachts.com LOON Few yachts fulfill wild watersports requests as well as 221ft Loon. The…

For more information about joining our exclusive community of owners, email ownersclub@boatinternationalmedia.com THIS MONTH: the crew member who struck geld and became an owner / catching dogteeth tuna in Bali / running a beat on a single computer Official partner of the Owners’ Club…

OWNERS’ CLUB MY LIFE IN BOATS I got involved in boating in high school when I built my first boat with friends. A good friend of my father's started Interplastic Corporation. He spotted us five gallons of his experimental epoxy and we built the boat with plans we found in Popular Mechanics. I think I still have fiberglass resin in my hair. Over some 60 years, I have had around six boats. The last one, a 65ft Horizon, I owned for 15 years before I started my current project, Sobe Sunset. No boat was ever just right, so I set out to build the perfect one. I started designing this thing 25 years ago. For 58 years, I ran an engineering firm that built most of the world's retractable roofs…

Charter SPECIAL “If bad weather delays us reaching our yacht in Antarctica, can we get money off?” Ben Lyons, CEO of EYOS: “Delays are fairly frequent when it comes to Antarctica charters, because around 90 percent of flights that clients take into and out of Antarctica are dependent on the weather. Once a season, there's at least a one-day or maybe a two-day delay. So, for clients that have chartered a yacht that's sitting at King George Island waiting for them to arrive, and they can't reach it, that's quite a big problem. It's not the yacht's fault as it's there on station ready to take deliverance for the contract, and it's not the client's fault as they're trying to get to the yacht but can't. It's a situation whereby…

VOYAGE DAY ONE Touch down at Phuket International Airport and meet the yacht at Royal Yacht Marina, where the crew will welcome you on board with lunch as you begin to cruise south. Drop anchor io nautical miles south in the bay of the Mueang Phuket District, home to Old Phuket Town. Meander past the brightly painted Sino-Poituguese townhouses and along roads dotted with street vendors. Don't miss Wat Chalong, the largest of Phuket's temples, set within immaculate grounds and filled with golden statues. DAY TWO Following an early morning cruise 75 nautical miles north-west, arrive at Koh Ba Ngu, the northernmost of the Similan Islands. The archipelago of nine islets is covered in thick forest and considered one of the world's finest diving spots. After a light breakfast, divers…

VIRTUOSITY Category Best Interior Design Commendation Staircase Interior designer Lissoni & Partners Naval architect Saniorenzo Builder Saniorenzo SOBE SUNSET Category Innovation of the Year Commendation Data collection and control system Developer Atlantic Marina Electric Naval architect David Richards LIMOUSINE TENDER Category Tender of the Year Commendation Design Builder Cockwells Naval architect Wolstenholme Yacht Design Exterior/interior designer Cockwells NYUMBA Category Eco Award Commendation Hybrid propulsion system Builder Southern Wind Shipyard Naval architect Farr Yacht Design PINK SHADOW Category Outstanding Lifestyle Feature Commendation Beach garden Builder Damen Yachting Naval architect Damen Yachting Interior designer Design Unlimited…

The Artistry & Craft Awards is an annual event that celebrates the artisans and craftspeople who work tirelessly behind the scenes to elevate a superyacht interior. From furniture to wall treatments, lighting installations and individual works of art, the awards aim to showcase the finer details that bring an interior to life and the talented individuals or teams who create them. This year's deserving winners were announced at the Superyacht Design Festival in Kitzbühel, Austria. BACA's chair and BOAT's group creative director Christopher Whale handed out the award for Excellence in Craftsmanship to glass blower/ ceramist duo Stan Chen and Cristina Vezzini, who were commissioned by Winch Design to create a truly memorable sculptural light installation for the 230ft Nobiskrug Amoa. The second award of the day went to Emerging…

BOAT LIFE Piaget is sometimes regarded as a jeweler first and a watchmaker second. In reality, it's the other way around. The Swiss firm was founded in 1874 as a manufacturer of movements (watch mechanisms) before becoming a dial name in its own right, and this year marks its 150th anniversary with the revival of a watch that epitomizes the golden age of Riviera glamour. Back in the 1960s and'70s, a wafer-thin Piaget was an essential item in any self-respecting pleasure-seeker's toolbox, just like a Riva, a Ferrari or a villa on the Cote d'Azur—partly because the watchmaker had proven its exceptional mastery of micro-mechanics with the introduction of the Calibre 9P movement in 1957. Just a sixteenth of an inch thick, it was one of the thinnest watch mechanisms…

ON BOARD WITH I was 26 when I realized that I wanted to be the one drinking cocktails on the aft deck,” Aaron Fidler, the proud new owner of 135ft Palmer Johnson AK Royalty, explains. “I had become chief engineer on a boat called Sea Bowld but I wanted to be an owner. I knew it was my time.” It's a punchy vision for a young man, but Fidler has that punch. And the proof is, as they say, in the pudding — or, rather, in the Palmer Johnson. AK Royalty has just been relaunched after a custom respray containing real 24kt: gold and is now for charter with Burgess in Dubai. When she's not out paying her way with guests, the boat is there for Fidler. Like all sea…

“We took it through some serious weather and it handled very well. Its an incredible platform” It's a big day at Damen Yachting's yard in Antalya, Turkey - although the celebration is not for Pink Shadow. The morning sun shines on the crowd gathered to witness the latest Yacht Support vessel make its way to the water. A buzz gives away the mini drone flying overhead to capture the momentous occasion. Watching the proceedings intently is Anthony Hsieh, owner of this new 174ft addition to his fishing-focused Bad Company fleet. Nearby, already in the water and also humming with activity, is another yacht, the stillmysterious SeaXplorer Pink Shadow. This is the boat we're here to talk about. Aside from coming out of the same Damen Yachting facility in the Free…

Cantiere delle Marche's yachts are no strangers to adventure. For a small Italian shipyard that just celebrated its 13th birthday, its fleet is remarkably well traveled, with voyages to such far-flung destinations as the Northwest Passage, Fernando de Noronha, Tahiti and St Petersburg, Russia. And all that in the compact format ofvachts from 88ft to 115ft. The new RJ 115 is the latest addition to the fleet and aims to continue the yard's illustrious record of adventure. Hull No 1, Stellamar, plowed her own way across the Atlantic to the Caribbean this winter. Her sistership, Pazienza, launched in mid-November, is headed to Australia. Take a glance at the RJ 115, though, and you might be surprised: it does not tout the classic explorer form at all. Francesco Paszkowski designed the…

BORN IN THE At some point or another during his 36 years at Nautical Structures, Rick Thomas supplied cranes, gangways and davits to 27 US shipyards that built yachts large enough to be professionally crewed. Of those 27, only five are actively delivering new builds today, three exclusively do refits and two have moved their production offshore. Seventeen have permanently shuttered their operations. “We've got a legacy of shipbuilding and shipwrights and an economy that's second to none in the world, and we can't compete. We've lost 80 percent or more of our market over the last two-and-a-half to three decades,” Thomas says. The situation is particularly befuddling when you consider the world's biggest market for large yachts is within these same shores. Estimates of Americans’ share of large yachts…

DAY ONE Meet the yacht in Puerto Montt, where the crew will welcome you with lunch as the boat gets under way, cruising south to Chiloe Island, the largest in Chile's archipelago. Arrive at the colorful fishing village of Ancud and pay an evening visit to the waterfront Spanish fortress, Fuerte San Antonio, with its cannons pointed at the port. As the sun sets, return to the yacht and dine on board with this classic Patagonian town as a backdrop. RAFTING ON THE MANSO RIVER Take the helicopter to the Manse River, west ef Puerto Montt, and get the adrenaline pumping at this famous rafting spot. PUÑIHUIL PATHS Head to shore and hike the ceastal paths that cling to the waterside on the north of the verdant Puñihuil peninsula. DAY…