http://www.boatinternational.com | May 2018THE PROJECT BY HARRISON EIDSGAARD WAS INNOVATIVE
AND COMPLEX, SHOWCASING THE YARD’S CRAFT.The US-based owners had been thrilled with their new build experience
and Royal Van Lent director Arthur van Berge Henegouwen was hopeful
that after their first cruise he could show the boat to select clients and
perhaps some media.
Except the owners didn’t come back as planned. “They pretty much stayed
aboard for the entire season and then the boat crossed the Atlantic,” he says,
a touch of incredulity creeping into his words. “By the time I caught up with
them, the boat had been across the Atlantic four times.”
A lucky few were able to see the 66.25 metre Feadship at the Fort
Lauderdale International Boat Show last November, and the hectic schedule
explains why it’s only now that we are finally able to share the story ofVanish,
the first Feadship delivered in 2016. It was worth the wait.
The yacht owes both her chic interior and her innovative profile to
Harrison Eidsgaard, while the customary hull lines and engineering come
from De Voogt Naval Architects. The engineering solutions Feadship found
to accommodate the designers’ challenges are in large part what makes
Vanisha floating home the owners and their family don’t want to leave.
It starts with a relationship to water. “When yachts get beyond 50 metres,
[their passengers] often begin to lose their connection with the water,” says
van Berge Henegouwen. “These experienced owners very much enjoy a
connection to the sea.” They had cruised extensively, for the last eight years
on board a 50 metre Westport, enjoying its many outdoor living and dining
spaces and full beam bathing platform. The search for something bigger
would have to include even better water and outdoor access. One key request
was that the design avoided giving guests the feeling of being intimidated by
the hull’s bulk when arriving by tender or swimming around the boat.
Designers Peder Eidsgaard and Ben Harrison approached the issue of scale
by seizing a generous amount of space to transition from the main deck to
the bathing platform. Two sets of curved steps, flanking a cosy aft main deckFEADSHIP’S ROYAL VAN LENT YARD HAD BEEN ENTHUSIASTIC
ABOUT THE PROSPECT OF DEBUTING HULL 809.PHOTOGRAPHY: ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF FEADSHIP