FEATURE
VAVA I I
LOA: 96 m
Builder: Devonport Yachts,
England
Designer: Redman Whiteley
Dixon
Interiors: Remi Tessier
Delivered: 2012ULYSSES
LOA: 107 m
Builder: Kleven, Norway
Designer: Marin Teknikk
Interiors: H2 Yacht Design
Delivery: 2016 + 2015Enigmatic New Zealand billionaire
Graeme Hart has a well-earned reputation
for thinking outside the box. His latest
exploration superyachts built by Kleven
Ve r ft in Ulsteinvik, 570 km north of
Norway’s capital Oslo, are no exception.
Ulysses, a 107 m vessel was launched in late 2014, and completed
outfi tting in Germany last year.
Hart was said to have chosen Kleven because of the delivery time,
quality and price. Locals put this price at 300-400 million Norwegian
Kroner, or US$47-62 million.
Features include a helipad and hangar, swimming pool, hot tub, and
accommodation for 60 people. Photographed with wife Robyn at the
yard, the couple said they were very excited about the project. Hart,
whom Forbes lists just inside the world’s Top 200 with a personal wealth
of US$7 billion, is a complex and oft en publicity-shy character who
makes his money from high-stakes leveraged buyouts.
Now into his 60s, he began his superyacht buying career with
Feadship, commissioning the 49 m De Voogt, John Munford-styled,
Van Lent built Ulysses, now Teleost, in 1998, and for a time he also
owned an earlier 46 m Feadship called Audacia, which was renamed
Ulysses too.
But his interest soon switched to exploration vessels, and in 2006 the
59 m explorer Ulysses was launched at Trinity in the United States. A
fi re aboard led to a refi t in Brisbane, Australia, and then the vessel took
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up residence in the Viaduct Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. She
has since been sold in Europe, renamed Grand Rusalina, and refi tted by
Monaco Marine.
Next he acquired a 77 m vessel in Chile, and had her towed across
the Pacifi c. She sat in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter for more than a year,
but now, renamed We t a aft er a local grasshopper-type insect, she has
undergone a refi t at Whangarei by Culham Engineering, working with
naval architect Marco Yachts, Michael Leach Designs, and Lora Piana
and SMI interiors.
Aft er the Ulysses 107 m at Kleven was unveiled, Norwegian designers
and project managers Marin Teknikk announced that this was not
a “one of a kind” aft er all, and that a second 116 m vessel had been
contracted with Hart, remarkably for delivery in July 2016.
CEO Svein Rune Gjerde says the vessel, which carries helicopters
and a fl eet of support boats, will accommodate 66 people, and utilise
Norwegian suppliers of brands such as Rolls-Royce, Hareid Group, Jets
and Sperre. Marin Teknikk presently has 15 vessels under construction
around the world, including one in Dalian, China.
http://www.klevenmaritime.no
http://www.marinteknikk.noSwiss-Italian pharmaceuticals tycoon
Ernesto Bertarelli and his former Miss UK
wife Kirsty, now a Decca-contracted singer-
songwriter, cruised Asia-Pacifi c waters in 2013-
2015 in their spectacular 96 m Vava II, which
replaced a 47 m Feadship of the same name.
He is no stranger to the South Seas, having
launched the Alinghi America’s Cup syndicate
to challenge New Zealand in its initial defence
of the Auld Mug in Auckland in 2000. Th ree
years later he was successful, and the Cup
returned to Europe for the fi rst time since it
was lost off England’s Isle of Wight in 1851.
Alinghi defended the America’s Cup in
Valencia, Spain, in 2007, but then a fellow
superyacht owner, American Larry Ellison, got
involved, and the AC moved to San Francisco.
Th e next event is in Bermuda.
Bertarelli sails aboard AC yachts, as navigator in 2003 and as an
aft erguard runner and grinder in 2007, and recently he was back at
Australia’s Hamilton Island for Hamilton Island Race Week, a sort of
Antigua Week of the Southern Hemisphere, chartering Wild Oats X
in the event. His boys later fi shed the famous Black Marlin Classic off
Lizard Island. Vava II was last seen in Tahiti during her current sojourn.
http://www.bertarelli.com