Yachts International November-December 2019

In his book “Isaac’s Storm” about the deadly Galveston hurricane of 1900, Erik Larson quotes the author Ernest Zebrowski, Jr. writing about chaos theory and the butterfly effect in the context of the unpredictability of the development of tropical storms. “Could a butterfly in the West African rainforest, by flitting to the left of a tree rather than to the right, possibly set in motion a chain of events that escalates into a hurricane striking coastal South Carolina a few weeks later?” It’s an intriguing concept that plays out each summer and fall to varying result. The storms that activate form a conga line of swirling disturbances that roll across the Atlantic toward the western hemisphere. Some evolve into hurricanes while others fizzle and flitter off to sea. Some eventually…

The owner of TIS feels very much at home in world-class hotels such as the Hôtel Hermitage in Monte-Carlo, Le Bristol in Paris and The Connaught in London—so much so that they became the reference point for Winch Design to create the interior of the 364-foot (111-meter) Lürssen. “The yacht’s ambience is intended to evoke Edwardian elegance, a great time for grand yachting,” Andrew Winch, founder of Winch Design, says of the early 1900s period. “It was a romantic golden age of long summer afternoons and garden parties. There is so much ugliness in the world, why not embrace the beauty of the bygone era? Why not have a tearoom that makes you feel like you are having tea and scones at the Ritz?” Winch and his company have designed…

The single most significant influence on the exterior appearance of superyachts in the past decade has been the structural use of glass. Advances in manufacturing technologies mean it is now possible to produce glass that is up to 15 times stronger, pound for pound, than steel. The load-bearing properties translate into enormous windows on today’s yachts. The latest spectacular example is 262-foot (80-meter) Artefact, built by Nobiskrug in Germany with interior design by Reymond Langton in the United Kingdom and exterior styling by Canadian naval architect Gregory C. Marshall. Delivered to her owner last summer, she had been expected to make her debut at the 2019 Monaco Yacht Show, but instead the yacht headed north into Scandinavian waters. Asymmetry is rare in yacht design, which is exactly why Artefact’s radical,…

The innovative use of glass is not the only feature that makes Artefact stand out. She is also the first hybrid superyacht to be equipped with ABB’s Onboard DC Grid system that allows the engines to work at variable speeds and run on stored electrical energy. “The hybrid system is all about operating and servicing the boat efficiently while future-proofing the owner’s investment,” says Capt. Aaron T. Clark. “Instead of pausing and thinking, How can we do things differently? most yachts out there rely on decades-old technology. I would always advise an owner to build a superyacht with some form of electric propulsion.” The system, comprising four generators and lithium-ion battery banks hooked up to azimuthing pods, provides multiple propulsion modes, from pure battery power for loitering and maneuvering to…

Mom had an old saying (usually when I’d outgrown a pair of jeans as a kid) that you can’t get 10 pounds of sugar into a 5-pound sack. But Mom was wrong, and the Horizon FD77 is floating proof. I never played three-dimensional chess, but I suspect that Dutch designer Cor D. Rover is a whiz at it because he’s managed to get all the niceties of a far larger yacht into a package that is 80 feet (24.56 meters) overall, including a 7-foot (2.1-meter) swim platform. That he did it without cramping anything is even more remarkable, and that includes a walkaround engine room, civilized crew quarters and a beach club hidden in the transom. Think about it: The FD77 has a full-beam master stateroom (no side decks) forward…

IN A SHRINKING WORLD of GPS navigation and Google Earth, an old-fashioned globe still has the power to delight. As a boy, I had a plastic one by my bedside that lit up. I remember thinking how squashed Europe looked compared with Africa or North America. Lying in bed at night, I liked to gaze up at the ceiling illuminated by the globe’s yellow deserts, green jungles and blue oceans. “A globe is the world in miniature and was the first way of seeing the planet in 3-D,” says Peter Bellerby, founder of London-based Bellerby & Co, one of just a handful of artisan globe-makers still practicing their craft. “Nothing else can reproduce that feeling of holding the world in your hands.” What’s believed to be the oldest extant terrestrial…