Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i Boat International

As summer settles in the Northern Hemisphere, superyachts from all corners of the world make a beeline for the Mediterranean Sea. Only this year, the coastal marinas and anchorages were especially crowded, with a record number of boats descending on the famed maritime hub. BOATPro’s Global Fleet Tracker indicates that during the month of July, there were 1,570 yachts above 24 metres LOA cruising through the area, the highest volume of traffic seen in the past five years. The catalyst appears to have been the global reopening following 2020’s initial Covid-19 shutdown, when the number of superyachts visiting the Mediterranean bottomed out at 1,179. Superyacht owners have appeared all too eager to get back to their regular travel habits - and it seems that new fans are seeing the appeal…

Best far… ECO STYLE I wish I could say that the sun is shining as I step off the ferry in Cowes, Isle of Wight. But this is England, after all, and in the height of summer I am presented with an overcast morning and choppy seas whipped up by wind funnelling its way through the Solent. The perfect weather for sea trials? Perhaps not. But where’s the fun in flat water? The Spirit BARTech 35EF cuts a slender figure as she just peers above the pontoon. A 10.2-metre wooden launch with an elongated prow, aft-set cockpit, gorgeous rolled sheer and a sloping stem, she is supermodel material and the product of Spirit Yachts in collaboration with BAR Technologies. With her toggle switches and analogue dials, it would be easy to…

ULTIMATE LADY This 28-metre wave-piercer fishing boat has a top speed of 32 knots, a fighting chair on the rear sundeck and a dedicated chase fishing boat. It's led by an experienced captain, and guests have been known to nearly miss flights home after hooking huge marlin right before disembarking. From $59,000/week, fraseryachts.com HEMISPHERE This 44.2-metre is the world's largest sailing catamaran, equipped with a 16.4-metre custom sports fishing tender with tournament-standard fishing capabilities. It's complemented by vast deck spaces for spectators and a captain with an encyclopaedic knowledge of marine life. From €203,000/ week, burgessyachts.com MADSUMMER Built in 2019 for an owner who loves to fish, 95-metre Madsummer boasts a dedicated crew who set up her large selection of fishing equipment and will happily help guests to reel in…

The mother of all luxury beach clubs is marking its silver anniversary this year, having played host to the great, the good and the extremely glamorous at its waterfront locations around the world. And to celebrate, they’ve made the Nikki Beach brand even bigger and better. Commemorative collabs with superbrands such as Givenchy and Missoni are taking over at the Porto Cervo and Costa Smeralda locations respectively, while some of the most popular properties are being revamped to keep them at the top of the game and their favourite clientele returning summer after summer. For the uninitiated, while each of the II properties has its own character and vibe, the clubs are variously described by long-term guests as “buzzy”, “always a fun time” and “if not a little ostentatious now…

LES AMBASSADEURS The Hotel Metropole gets a chic new restaurant this season with Christophe Cussac’s Les Ambassadeuis. Blending contemporary Mediterranean fare with influences from the executive chef’s culinary legacy, the dining experience includes a chef's table with a 360-degree view of the kitchen. Hotel Metropole, 4 Avenue de la Madone, 98000; metropole.com GRACE DE MONACO Deck out the top deck with ultra-luxe candles, silk scarves and home fragrances, all in the name of a good cause. An offshoot of the Princess Grace Foundation, this "luxury for good" collection sends its profits to the late princess’s eponymous charity in support of the performing arts. gdmonaco.com BUCCELLATI Having launched a special-edition range of its famous bangles in homage to the sights and sounds of Capri, Italian high jeweller Buccellati brings the collection…

ABOVE AND BEYOND Summit Furniture Frequently found in five-star hotels, restaurants and beach clubs around the world, Summit's handmade furniture aims to stand out with its top-notch artisanship and the company's commitment to sustainability. Each collection is created in collaboration with well-known designers from Europe and the US, and this season is no different: Paley, the autumn 2023 range, is a product of the long-standing partnership with designer Mark Anders, who has crafted a range of elegant lounge furnishings inspired by American socialite Babe Paley. The fluted forms and simple yet elegant shapes pay homage to her ever-stylish aesthetic, summitfurniture.com Officine Gullo This Florentine kitchen maker’s distinguished designs take to the great outdoors with its new range of barbecues. Crafted with the aim of creating “an actual outdoor kitchen in…

Owner of Canova Length: 43.3m Year: 2019 Location: Nova Scotia What inspired you to cruise the north-east coast of North America? We really appreciate cold water. Last year we went to Norway and it was fantastic and this year we wanted to do New England, Maine and Nova Scotia. The best thing is we're alone - there are very few other boats around, so we don't have to fight for space in crowded bays. Being in a big boat in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard means you can't get too close to shore, but we have a big tender, which has been transformative. If we have to get fuel or supplies, we use the big tender and it doesn't interfere with the vacation. We have one custom seven-metre tender with 220…

A boat is a boat. It’s not a villa on the water; it’s not a penthouse at sea, and it’s certainly not a floating work of art. At least that’s the mindset that the owner of Baglietto’s first T52 model had when he came on to the project. This is somewhat surprising, since the yacht gives the impression of an elegant, slender townhouse. But behind the coffee-tinted timber and creamy upholstery, the T52 has eco-credentials and design tricks up its sleeve that prove it’s more than just a pretty face. The hybrid yacht officially premiered in a private ceremony in Portofino ahead of her Monaco debut. Italy was having uncharacteristically miserable weather and the Baglietto team had to herd guests through throngs of tourists wrapped up in raincoats, past coffee…

CRN cooks up a storm In a first-time collaboration, CRN has teamed up with Nauta Design and Vripack to reveal a new 70-metre superyacht currently under construction. Named Project Thunderball, the yacht will have a classic exterior, colourful interiors and plenty of space for her owner's locker of water toys, including sailing boats. “I’ve worked with Vripack before on some stuff, and I really like what they do,” says the owner. “And for Nauta, I really like their designs on [the first] My Song. I like that they’re sailing-yacht designers.” crn-yacht.com New lease on life for trawler A four-year conversion has turned the 46-metre fishing trawler Scintilla Maris into a fully fledged explorer yacht, while also reducing the vessel’s gross tonnage from 570 to below the 500GT threshold. The conversion…

Water park Enrico Gobbi and his Team for Design have revealed a 64.9-metre concept called DB65. The jet-inspired superyacht will have an impressive beach club connected to a sheltered gym space with glass-fronted swimming pool that looks across to a cinema screen, teamfordesign.com Mini but mighty Turkish shipyard AvA Yachts has added a 23.9-metre model to its line of compact explorers, named the Kando80. Atilla Küçükdiker, the yard’s founder and chairman, calls it “the ultimate entry-level proper global explorer for either an experienced couple or family to run themselves or with minimal crew operation”, avayachts.com All-Italian team Italian shipyard Mostes has revealed a 26-metre concept named the Navetta Eighty J. Designed in collaboration with Unique Yachts, the vessel aims to be entirely built, designed and produced in Italy, cantierimostes.it From…

BOAT LIFE A slew of electric hypercars has been announced during the past couple of years, but one of the few to have made it to full production and wide-scale homologation is the Pininfarina Battista. Pininfarina is the Italian design house established by Battista “Pinin” Farina during the 1930s after he broke away from the family’s Turin coach-building firm to set up on his own. Pininfarina went on to design some of the most celebrated automobiles of the 20th century, ranging from the Lancia Aprilia of 1937 to the Ferrari Dino 206 GT of the mid-1960s - but until now it has not produced a car of its own. To say it has hit the ground running with the Battista is an understatement. Not only does it feature typically impressive…

DESIGN REPORT From leather tanneries to cashmere mills, Italy is renowned for its history of traditional craftsmanship - and, crucially, for keeping age-old artisanal skills alive. Which is why, when Italian-born, London-based Mariangela Oliveri first had the idea of setting up her own fine linen company more than 20 years ago, there was never any doubt that production should be based in her native country. “Tuscany is where the best craftspeople are located, and the art of making by hand is part of the culture here,” she says of the thinking behind her initial collections of bed linen for both adults and children - she now sells bathroom, table and outdoor linens too. “Many of my competitors produce overseas for obvious reasons but I support the local economy, knowing that…

Marie and I are coming to the end of two blissful weeks on board Tuga in Greece. We’d usually go north to Croatia and Montenegro in August, but this year we’ve stayed south, cruising around Corfu, Kefalonia, Paxos and Antipaxos and I’ve absolutely loved it - the food, wine and little inlets. Today on the beach we had lunch with Peter Digby, chairman of the British Racing Drivers’ Club. We’ve been cruising together for a few days and yesterday, despite Peter owning a motor yacht, we almost kept up with him. We had such an unbelievable sail, averaging around 9.5 knots. This is the ultimate place to sail, in my view. Berthing up stern-to, putting out ropes onto the rocks, going for a walk, just cruising around the place. It’s…

I he name of Turquoise Yachts’ new 53-metre, Jewels, can be understood in many ways. One of the interpretations is that it refers to the amazing collection of stones, metals and fabrics on board, but it’s also a yacht designed for the comfort and privacy of precious family members. Delivered in May 2023, she has had a couple of lives already. She was born as Tala, featuring an elegant, raised pilothouse design by Miami-based Luiz De Basto. She had six guest cabins, a large beach club and a spacious sundeck. Tala was De Basto’s first collaboration with Turquoise on a built project, but the designer knew the owner from Turquoise’s sister company, Dutch superyacht builder Oceanco. The designer applied his cerebral design approach to deceive the eyes; the yacht appears…

"That night I start out of my sleep at 3am when a huge log thunnngs into our hull,” wrote author and political satirist Christopher Buckley in his 12-day travelogue of the Amazon - the cover story for Condé Nast Traveler’s inaugural edition in 1987. “I walk forward in the hailstorm of insects and stand awhile as Highlander’s searchlight sweeps back and forth across the water. No lights on either shore. The Virginian is behind us, slaloming through the logs…” The Feadship-built Highlander belonged to Forbes magazine owner Malcolm Forbes, a highwattage personality famed for his lavish lifestyle and unashamed self-promotion, who filled the yacht with art, threw celebrity parties and used the boat as a power base to schmooze the elite (both avid readers of, and advertisers in, his magazine).…

One of the most recognisable faces in French cuisine, chef Yannick Alléno, has been awarded a staggering 12 Michelin stars over the course of his illustrious career. His approach marries traditional French cookery with contemporary techniques and experimental flavours. In 2019, he opened Pavyllon, a counterfocused restaurant that not only boasts some of the best views in Monaco from Hotel Hermitage, but some of the finest flavours, too. To Alléno, cooking is theatre - a concept he plans to bring to his new restaurant that opened this summer in the Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane. How does Monaco and the South of France influence and inspire you foodr? It’s always the product that inspires me first. Products from the South of France are extraordinary, especially the fish. What…

IL TRIDENTE POSITANO, ITALY Few views in Italy are as remarkable as those along the Amalfi Coast, strewn with beaches and pastel houses that cling to the cliffs. The rooftop Il Tridente Positano, located in the heart of the town, is the place to be at sunset. You’ll catch the twinkling lights of Positano and candles glowing in the houses that stretch into the distance. iltridentepositano.com ARISTIDE HOTEL, SYROS, GREECE Since its opening in 2022, Aristide Hotel has quickly gained a cult following thanks to its rarefied setting within a restored mansion in Hermoupolis, and its individually designed suites and art gallery. This season it revealed its new rooftop, an open space with breathtaking views of the Aegean Sea and Mykonos. The menu here is short and changes daily, but…

Taking a supeiyacht up the Amazon is a rare thing in 2023, but in 1987 it was practically unheard of. With its swift currents and constantly shifting sandbanks, the river is not for the faint of heart. But nothing fazed Malcolm Forbes, the legendary publishing baron who ruled the New York scene during this era, more often than not from his 50-metre yacht, The Highlander. “He was many things - boss, bon vivant, raconteur, balloonist, columnist, happiest millionaire, leader of the pack, oyabun, el jefe, mentor, friend, super-this, mega-that; father, grandfather, father-in-law, uncle, cousin, and ever the sparkling naughty boy,” his son Bob once wrote. Forbes would regale guests with his hair-raising adventures at glittering parties on board The Highlander. This portrait, taken from the Forbes family archives, shows a…

ON BOARD The Monaco Energy Boat Challenge has proved itself to be a “critical” event in guiding the yachting industry towards alternative fuel, according to the Yacht Club de Monaco. The 10th edition of the event saw increased attendance from shipyards including Oceanco, the Ferretti Group, Monaco Marine, Sanlorenzo, Lürssen and Palumbo SY Refit, in a development which has been hailed as a “positive signal” by Bernard d’Alessandri, general secretary of the club. The event was organised under the Yacht Club de Monaco’s Capital of Advanced Yachting umbrella and held between 5 and 8 July. Students from around the world are tasked to build small boat prototypes powered by sustainable fuels and race them off the coast of Monaco. There are two classes - Energy (electric and hydrogen) and Solar…

WILD WATER SPECIAL Best for… THRILLING SPEED When I started reviewing yachts 14 years ago, my late mentor, yachting journalist Richard Thiel, gave me a piece of advice: “Never let them see your tongue loll out of your mouth.” It's wisdom that has served me well as I’ve crawled over nine-figure superyachts and loud go-fasts. But every once in a while I come across a boat that makes it difficult to keep my enthusiasm under my hat. Nautor Swan’s Swan Shadow is one of them. I sea-trial the Shadow the day after the 2023 Miami International Boat Show ends. Boat-show breakdowns are dusty affairs, rife with thick-wristed men and all manner of clangs and bangs, and the pretty little boat looks so out of place in this scenario. She is…

From one-of-a-kind wall panels to 600-hour cabinets, superb crafts and artisanship are a crucial piece of the contemporary designer palette when creating rarefied interiors. They offer an opportunity not only to create something unique, personal and inimitable, but to bring the skill of the maker - often acquired over decades - into the creative mix. It is also worth noting that without patronage, crafts will simply die out. In the UK, Heritage Crafts publishes the Red List of Endangered Crafts every two years. The 2023 list included skills such as encaustic tile making, coppersmithing and passementerie (decorative trims such as tassels and braids). If we are to keep these crafts alive and, importantly, attract new generations to train in the skills required, it is a question of finding them a…

Cover boat ALCHEMY T he project was ready, the team was at the starting blocks, but before the contract on this new Vitruvius yacht was inked, the owners had a specific request: when they walked out of their main deck cabin, they wanted to see all the way down the length of their 66-metre yacht to the water. They wanted to rip up the classic yacht layout, let the stairway out of the closet and ditch the lobby. It is a mark of the boldness of the yard and designers involved in this project that they agreed to this kind of radical thinking. “It was our biggest design choice,” the American owner says. But what may seem like common sense to a layman can create headaches for a builder. “It…

Wind the clock back to 1983 when BOAT International first hit the newsstands, and join me in a helicopter (it’s a Hughes 500) over Monaco. A youthful Alain Prost is in pole position at the Grand Prix, and a crimson Lamborghini Countach makes a surprisingly sporty safety car. Below us, Port Hercule is stuffed with small plastic boats - and the most striking thing? Lots of them have masts! Moored stern-to along the Quai des Etats-Unis is one of the big new beasts of the nascent superyacht world: 55-metre Le Pharaon is the last word in 1980s opulence and grabbing all the headlines - a Feadship motor yacht allied to De Voogt lines, with a classic raked bow, lots of sheer and overhanging side decks. Fast forward 40 years and…

The J Craft Torpedo has been propelled by design as well as devotion, discovers Peter Howarth When Radenko Milakovic saw his first J Craft it was, as they say, love at first sight. “I was in Monaco in 2007 and looked out from my balcony and there was this boat below. I had no idea what it was, but it looked so beautiful – all elegant polished wood and curves, but somehow substantial too. I rushed downstairs to speak to the guy on board.” What he learned was that this was a J Craft, a Swedish boat named after its inventor, Björn Jansson. It was a rare beast, one of only a handful that had been made on the Swedish island of Gotland since 1999, and other owners included the…

After a decade of success selling to international clients, market conditions and strong domestic demand made it less desirable for Brazilian shipyards to export their boats. “In the 2000s, we exported a lot of what we called our Global Fast Trawlers, which were fast aluminium vessels with a lot of volume,” MCP Yachts owner Manoel Chaves says. Tariffs on the one hand and demand front a growing domestic market on the other both contributed to a drop in the export of Brazil-made yachts to the US particularly. MCP, however, has always been interested in the world beyond Brazil’s borders. The builder made its debut in 1994 at the now-defunct Nice Mega Yacht Show in France, with a 36.6-metre aluminium yacht named Santa Maria. The builder has also worked for several…

Sea Spa Where is it? On its own quiet corner of Mirabello Bay, north-eastern Crete, the Six Senses Spa is part of a collection of Elounda properties including the Elounda Peninsula All Suite Hotel, which is perched right on the glittering Sea of Crete. What's the hype? The contemporary Six Senses Spa has 23 treatment rooms, an indoor-outdoor pool and striking glass installations by Costas Varotsos. The treatment menu is a mix of restorative massages, facials and high-tech offerings including wellness screenings and skin analysis to identify water loss, lipid barrier function, elasticity, pigmentation levels and oil balance. What to have? Choose the personalised Advanced Facial using Biologique Recherche, a 75-minute treatment preceded by an in-depth skin diagnosis that will determine the approach and your individual requirements. After a gentle…

“The owner hooked a whopper… moving the boat now would ruin everything” One summer cruising the Mediterranean, the owner hosted a couple of business associates he wanted to impress. Over a few beers one night he decided that tomorrow would be a fishing day. He was crazy about fishing and I think he wanted to show off his angling prowess. The deckhands set things up on the aft deck and stood by, making sure the group had everything they needed. As soon as there was a fish on the line, we would stop the boat so it could be safely reeled in. It was just an ordinary day’s fishing, but the problem was that the two guests were catching plenty of fish and the boss wasn’t – and it didn’t…