These portholes on the lower deck give a view into the pool, and provide some dappled ambience to the wellness and gym area. Right: one of two plunge pools on the yacht
and a design miracle that, despite using broadly
the same colour palette throughout, nowhere do
you tire of the ochre-like shades. This uniformity
wasn’t applied to the lobbies between decks:
different artists were tasked with creating unique
works to give each lobby a flavour, so there is no
confusion about what deck you’re on – a problem
when you have nine. One of these pieces is
a wooden sculpture made up of seven pieces, the
design for which was hand drawn by Disdale and
sent to Japan for manufacture. It’s a stunning
work and symptomatic of the detail shown
throughout – even in more mundane pieces, like
the sideboards in the cabins that were designed
in Europe and crafted in Chile.
With no clear-cut brief on the yacht’s layout,
Disdale was forced to second-guess, “but that’s
my job”, he says. “You have to work out how people
will move around the boat.” The benefit of an LOAlike Eclipse’s is the owner can swallow serious
acreage without impacting the guest experience.
It’s not about avoiding guests, but being able
to operate independently of them.
It would be easy to mistake the guest suites for
the owner’s own quarters, such is their footprint.
There are 18 guest cabins in total, served by
100 crew. From the moment the guests arrive
by chopper, mainly on the top helideck, they’re
absorbed in the comfort of the boat and have
access to the main stairwell and elevator. It’s a
transition of which Disdale is particularly proud.
“It came from understanding how a boat is used.
When you get out of the helicopter, you’re blown
to pieces, and then where do you go?” The answer
is an intimate lounge, where you can freshen up
before entering the interior proper. It also gives
pilots somewhere to conduct safety briefings, he
points out. Eclipse is able to travel with multiplehttp://www.boatinternational.com | April 2016102