Yachts International Spring 2025

Back in the days when I read a daily newspaper that was actually printed on paper, I started collecting obituaries. These weren’t the lengthy tomes penned by top-tier scribes celebrating the lives of vaunted celebrities, politicians and titans of business. These were personal reflections, typically written by grieving, stressed-out family members of ordinary folks who lived their lives without pomp or pretense. They lived good lives out of the limelight, raising families, dealing with challenges and just trying to have whatever fun they could in the process. I kept them because the lives they celebrated or the words the writers used to recall their relatives struck a note with me. As a professional editor, it’s not always easy to read past the clichés and typos common in the writings of…

The word kismet, derived from the Arabic word qisma, means fate or destiny. Colloquially speaking, when someone says a romantic meeting or other happening is kismet, they generally mean it was positive karma—something good happened. It’s an apt name for the 400-foot (122-meter) motoryacht Kismet, which belongs to American businessman Shahid Khan and is something very good, indeed. Every few years, an electrifying yacht hits the marine scene like a bombshell that nobody can stop talking about. For 2024, Kismet was that yacht. From her unusually pointed bow to her gracious glazed stern and mind-bending interior design, Kismet is profoundly impressive. Khan entrusted yacht builder Lürssen, exterior designers Nuvolari Lenard and interior designers Reymond Langton to create something utterly fantastic. “He challenged us to push the boundaries of innovation and…

Way down in England’s southwest, the Pendennis shipyard is so far off the beaten track that it has a slightly mythical status. Although it’s best known for superyacht refits and restoration projects—Marala, launched in 1931, and Malahne, which splashed in 1937, are recent examples—new builds are not unknown. Some of Britain’s most impressive yachts have come together in the Falmouth sheds during the past three decades. A new yacht from Pendennis is always an event, and a compact expedition yacht like the 115-foot (34.9-meter) Fox is something of a departure. She started life in Turkey, as a project by Tansu Yachts, which declared bankruptcy in 2020. The yacht’s owner, an Englishman, then lodged her with Pendennis. When Pendennis took delivery in spring 2021, Fox was a bare steel hull and…

It seems ridiculous to call SAN a small superyacht, but at 147 feet (45 meters) and 380 gross tons, she is not considered large. She is, however, perfectly formed—with design and engineering that marry elegance with practicality for her first-time owner. Designed inside and out by Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design in the Netherlands, with naval architecture by Lateral Naval Architects in the U.K., SAN’s coupé-style exterior lines were the starting point. The client wanted—no, insisted—that the profile be as low in the water as possible, but from on board, the yacht had to feel like a superyacht, not a speedboat. He was inspired by Alia’s 87-foot (26.54-meter) 0110, a sporty day-boat launched in 2023, and wanted similar aesthetics on a yacht almost twice the size. To create the impression…

Wally founder Luca Bassani has always been ahead of the game. Like all innovators, he stirs emotions. Traditionalists shake their heads at his radical ideas. Others hail him as a visionary who upsets the rules of yacht design. One thing is certain: Some 30 years after he established the brand, it’s hard to imagine a world without Wally Yachts. Ferretti Group, one of the world’s most prolific builders of luxury yachts, acquired Wally in 2019. Following the takeover, there were rumors of less room for disruptive design, but instead, the group’s financial muscle has allowed the Wally brand to flourish with investment and innovation. The latest example is the 110-foot (33.4-meter) Galma. Owned by a repeat customer, she is the first in a semi-custom wallywind series of sailing yachts that…

Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude earned global recognition for their massive sculptures and installations, many of which involved wrapping famous buildings and bridges in colorful fabric. Although they didn’t live to see it complete, the wrapping of theA Arc de Triomphe in Paris in 2021 was among their best-known accomplishments: nearly 269,100 square feet of silvery blue fabric painstakingly folded over and around the monument, held fast with more than 9,840 feet of bright-red rope and matching fittings. Thousands of people came out to marvel at the installation over a two-week period. If only Georg Gleistein, who established a rope-making factory in Bremen, Germany, 197 years prior, could have seen it. Surely, he’d have been amazed that subsequent generations of his family were involved in the making of those red riggings,…