ShowBoats International — May 2017

PHOTOGRAPHS: IRIS BROSCH; GUILLAUME PLISSON

There’s a tried and rigorously tested formula for superyacht

design. But change is in the air, as Risa Merl discovers

down the middle, so the balconies

have a purpose. To me, if you’re

going to be bold, at least have

some meaning.” To Horsfield’s

point, whatever the design, it’s

important to take a step back and

study the motivations. If designers

are doing things merely for the

sake of it, or because they are

dictated by tradition, then a rethink

is surely necessary.

Past revolutions – not mere

trends but designs that literally

changed the shape of yachts – are

easy enough to pinpoint. Nearly a

century ago Charles E Nicholson,

known for epic classics from

Endeavour to Malahne, was the first

to put a full-beam superstructure

on a motor yacht. At the time, they

had appeared only on steamships.

Other revolutions are more recent.

Take the advent of the infinity

pool, first seen on Alfa Nero and

gamely followed by yachts such as

Axioma and Galactica Super Nova –

the latter adding a waterfall for

good measure.

Then there’s the ubiquitous

beach club. There was a time when

this space was not so important,

when yachts were more business

than party at the back. Then in the

early 1990s Lady Moura showed off

her cabana and, in 2010, Baton

Rouge took the beach game to

another level. It’s hard to imagine

that it was less than a decade ago

that the beach club started to take

up its rightful place in the yachting

lexicon. “Before you had the entire

stern of the boat, which is almost

half the boat – between the engine

room and garage – completely

REVOLUTION

?

rules out of the window. What

canny designers are doing,

therefore, is offering well thought

out alternatives that suggest new

and exciting ways of thinking.

Exterior

“It can’t all be about styling for

styling’s sake,” says Jonny

Horsfield, of H2 Yacht Design,

whose curvy exterior design for the

404ft Lürssen project Jupiter is one

of those rare instances when a

client gave him a blank piece of

paper to do something radical.

“Even though it looks a bit weird

and wacky, there is actually some

meaning to it. There is a big atrium

The truth is that the traditional

views of how yachts should be

arranged still hold strong and, of

course, there is some logic in much

of this thinking. But unfortunately

it can lead to near-identical layouts,

unused living spaces and decks

stacked like a wedding cake.

At the other extreme are those

eyebrow-raising concepts, swiftly

pounced upon by mainstream

media and dismissed by the

yachting set as unrealistic flights of

fancy. So rather than think about a

radical shake-up, perhaps we

should be thinking more in terms

of an intelligent and planned design

evolution. With the money at stake

it is hardly surprising owners don’t

want to throw all the traditional

Is superyacht design

stuck in a rut? It’s a

question that yacht

designers will often

ponder. While designers as a breed

would love to be agents of change,

driving bold and brilliant ideas

forward, they ultimately have to

answer to clients who might not

share their love of the avant-garde.

Above:

Guillaume Rolland

and Christian Liaigre

Right:

The waterfall and

pool on Galactica

Super Nova

Above:

The beach club

on Baton Rouge

“ Clients are getting younger and

younger and they want more of a

gathering place than a showpiece”

I

DO WE

NEED A

DESIGN

ILLUSTRATION Jamie Cullen

MAY 2017 WWW.BOATINTERNATIONAL.COM MAY 2017

Left: Charles E

Nicholson designed

Malahne (below)

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