Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2024 i Yachts International

I was lying in bed early one Saturday morning last summer watching Formula 1 practice on TV when my phone rang with a video call. It was an old pal who’s done lots of time in the superyacht-building business. It had been a while since we’d spoken. Given the odd day and time, I decided to pick up. “Dude, what on earth are you doing calling me at this hour?” I asked. “I’m doing a trans-Atlantic on my brother-in-law’s boat,” he replied. “We’re 500 miles west of Fastnet Rock headed for Portsmouth. I’m talking to you on Starlink.” He panned around the yacht’s deck to show me the conditions they were sailing through. It took me a moment to wrap my head around what I was seeing. He went on…

‘For a 53-meter, the yacht seems to offer as much space as a 90-meter yacht,’ says Patrik von Sydow, CEO of Turquoise, ‘She is very large, a whopping 713 gross tons.’ Istanbul-based Turquoise Yachts initially conceived the 174-foot (53-meter) Jewels as Project Tala for a client who wanted as much volume as possible within the length overall. Twenty months into the custom build, with only 18 months left on the schedule, another prospective client came on the scene. He wanted a yacht that could accommodate his large family. As it turns out, the first client was already thinking about an even bigger build, so a deal was done as a win-win for all parties. After that, the work began on determining how best to reconfigure the sizable spaces. “For a…

Grey, the fifth hull in Tankoa’s 164-foot (50-meter) S501 series, centers around the first-time owner’s fondness for sun, the silver screen and soirees. He’s a seasoned charterer who drew up a long wish list of amenities for the shipyard to add. At the top was an attention-grabbing C Seed 144-inch cinema TV that folds—yes, folds—out at the bow, transforming the space into an outdoor theater. That high-definition screen stands above a glass-encased pool with custom, submerged seats to keep guests cool on hot days. The pool—flanked by sunpads, sheltered by a temporary sunshade and supported by integrated speakers—pairs the grandeur of a Roman amphitheater with the latest technology. “Our usual flexibility in satisfying customer requests is evident in the customizations made on board Grey, such as the installation of a…

When the Westport 164 Legacy launched in 2012, the build team gave the owner exactly what he requested: an interior that was conservative, monochromatic and dark. The beauty of a customized interior is that it really can be finished in any style a yacht owner desires, but for resale purposes more recently, the look wasn’t exactly in keeping with the times. “The boat really, really needed some help,” says South Florida yacht designer Patrick Knowles, whom the new owner tapped to do a refit. “It wasn’t run-down or anything like that, but the previous owner had commissioned her really austere.” Westport 164s (50 meters) have good bones, as the real-estate saying goes, so the refit didn’t require moving bulkheads or redoing the original walnut woodwork, which Knowles says the previous…

It’s been nearly 20 years since I was on a Pershing this size. It was the shipyard’s first 115. On a gray, choppy day in October 2004, it carried me along Italy’s Ligurian coast from La Spezia to Genoa, about 45 nautical miles, in not much more than an hour. That yacht packed a little more horsepower than the new GTX116, but this “SUY” still has plenty of punch with 6,000 horsepower, triple waterjets and an impressive top speed. The shipyard can’t help itself: Pershings just have to be fast. And with the GTX116, Pershing added the sort of spacious, family-friendly accommodations that yacht owners generally expect from something bigger, or slower, or both. With a beam of more than 25 feet (7.7 meters), this yacht feels huge on board.…

Hunt James has been a lot of things over the course of his 55 years—an investment banker, a marketing strategist, a financial adviser, a serial entrepreneur, a philanthropist and an investor—but he’s never not been a boat guy. “Oh, man, I have owned so many boats,” he says. “I love boats. I’m an absolute boataholic. Yeah, I mean, I started off, I had a jon boat. I sailed prams when I was a kid. I had a couple of Wellcraft bowriders. I’ve had an Ocean Master. I’ve had a Hatteras 54. I’ve had one of our 34s, one of our 52s. I’ve had a lot of boats.” His wife and two grown children share his love of the sea. “We’re all water bugs.” James’ water-based passions focus on traditional rod-and-reel…