Yachts International Spring 2022

kwooton@aimmedia.com For a sailor, one of life’s great pleasures is the moment you reach down and hit the engine-stop button. As the diesel or outboard goes silent, your nervous system experiences a perceptible, almost instantaneous surge of serenity. In that moment of transition from propeller-driven propulsion to wind power, the boat seems to relax as well, taking a few seconds to calm itself and adjust to the new mode. After a few moments of dialing in sail trim, the world goes quiet, save the soothing rush of the bow wave. Like a nautical neck massage, you enter a world of blissful chill. That said, I’m not at all averse to the thrill that good old mechanical horsepower can impart on a restless soul. Ripping along a glassy waterway in the…

What happens when an experienced sailing yacht designer with a predilection for classic lines is commissioned to create the exterior and interior design of a motoryacht? You get the 184-foot (56-meter) Blue II. With her sweeping sheerline, gently raked bow, canoe stern, midnight blue and white color palette, and proud golden-yellow stack rimmed with black stripes, Blue II strongly resembles a 20th-century steamship. But with naval architecture and styling by Hoek Design, she is every bit a 21st-century yacht, intended to explore polar regions including the Northwest Passage yet be at home cruising the Mediterranean. Hoek Design, founded in 1986 by Dutchman Andre Hoek, is a prolific design firm renowned for its diverse fleet of sailing yachts. Hoek has penned a number of modern sailing yachts, but he is especially…

The AB 100 Superfast is aptly named, referring to her overall length in feet and her reported top speed of 60 knots. Few flybridge cruisers can reach that kind of speed, and even fewer can do it without feeling like a runaway train. “This is currently the fastest boat in our range,” says Gennaro Candida de Matteo, CEO of NEXT Group, which includes the brands AB Yachts, Maiora and CBI Navi. “This is thanks to her well-proven hull shape, but also the water-jet propulsion, which has always been a hallmark of AB Yachts.” AB Yachts has been building high-performance yachts in fiberglass for 30 years. While the AB 100 model is not new, the Superfast version ramps up performance with three 2,600-horsepower MTU engines coupled to two steerable MJP water…

On the one hand, Baglietto’s 131-foot (39.8-meter) motoryacht Panam pays homage to the shipyard’s heritage of building high-performance aluminum yachts designed by Francesco Paszkowski. On the other hand, this yacht looks forward to a new and dynamic design language. Her automotive-inspired, wedge-shaped profile with a vertical bow and geometric window shapes is a far cry from the Italian brand’s sleeker and more feminine forms. Add a darkly brooding paint job, and the yacht looks like a crouching panther, ready to pounce. “Beauty and dynamism, performance and comfort are the key characteristics of the design,” says Diego Michele Deprati, Baglietto CEO. “The young owner’s brief called for a sporty yacht with a dynamic profile that would instantly convey a sense of speed, but also provide maximum contact with the sea.” To…

‘An order for 60 pairs of handles came through. I knew nothing about superyachts and thought he’d made a mistake. He pointed out that he still had another deck to do. It was at that moment that I realized the superyacht industry was worth looking into.’—Steven Roberts We tend to take the humble door handle for granted, but it’s hard to think of a piece of household hardware that gets more daily use. Which is why commercial door levers and knobs are mechanically tested up to 1.5 million times to simulate several years of wear and tear. “The door handle is likely the first and last thing you touch when you enter and leave a room, so it has to look and feel good with a solid, precise movement,” says…

Turnstyle aims to minimize its carbon footprint, from replacing single-use plastics for packaging with biodegradable alternatives to offering staff a bike-to-work incentive. This drive has assumed a new urgency as sustainability becomes a mainstream concern, but Roberts believes the superyacht industry is still lagging behind. We offer a complete refurbishment service for our old handles, for example, but on yachts they generally get replaced rather than repaired,’ he says. ‘This throwaway mentality is something we discourage because we want to be able to offer complete circle of life and sustainable sources for all our products. There are so many new and sustainable materials out there, and we feel there’s much more we can do.’…