EDITOR’S LETTER
PHOTOGRAPH: OLIVER HOLMS. STEWART IS WEARING PEMBREY SHOES BY CHURCH’S ENGLISH SHOES, €377, CHURCH-FOOTWEAR.COM
It’s taken five years, some arm-twisting, a little
convincing and a share of shameless begging
but I am thrilled to say that we’re finally able
to feature Eclipse, the world’s most famous
superyacht. I still can’t quite believe it. When
she first appeared from Blohm+Voss’s big sheds
in Hamburg in 2009, the headlines were
immediate – and she’s remained a hot news
item ever since, wherever she is in the world,
such is the level of interest in this 162.5 metre,
13,500 gross tonne yacht. She held the title
of world’s largest superyacht for four years but
her owners never set out to build such a big
boat, as her designer Terry Disdale reveals
in our feature starting on page 82. We’ve
thrown pages at it – 24 in total, which I think is
the most ever – but it’s been absolutely worth
it to bring you a selection of never-seen-before
images. Disdale was one of the stars of ourrecent Superyacht Design Symposium, the
greatest concentration of yacht design know-how
anywhere, ever. He told a packed audience in
Kitzbühel, Austria, that inspiration most often
strikes when he’s sitting at the end of his garden
fishing and just staring into space. What else did
I learn? That it’s frightfully common to relax,
according to interior designer Nicky Haslam. And
that, in fact, the navies of the world could learn
a thing or two from new yachting technologies,
rather than the other way round. I can’t end this
without mentioning chartering. It turns out 2015
was a bumper year for the world’s charter brokers,
and 2016 is shaping up quite nicely. Good timing,
then, to bring you a handy guide to the best
holiday money can buy. A great selection of boats,
an etiquette guide and advice from owners – it’s
all there. But go check out Eclipse first, and be
one of the very few people ever to see inside her.@boatinternational@boatintEDITOR