From submarine exploration to over-the-top interiors, this year’s Best of the Best marine winners include vessels as varied as a 48-foot go-fast tender with oodles of fold-out deck space to a 357-foot award-winning hybrid gigayacht with opulent staterooms—and everything in between. We applaud an interior that, at the owner’s request, emulates Italy’s art nouveau rendition, Stile Liberty, with exacting execution, as well as a semi-custom model that comes with designer furniture and sculptures in place. In our 200- to 300-foot category, we recognize an efficient and fast yacht that employs a historically commercial-and military-vessel technology that improves comfort while under way, as well as a low-key and tasteful explorer yacht built for family fun.
With larger and longer, faster and more efficient yachts leading the global fleet, we give a nod to the best examples as we see them.
Following through on last year’s Best of the Best trend of going green, Dutch shipyard Oceanco delivered the 357-foot, four-deck Bravo Eugenia to Gene and Jerry Jones, owners of the Dallas Cowboys, in December. This lean and mean yacht with naval architecture and engineering by UK-based Lateral Naval Architects, sporty exterior design by Nuvolari Lenard of Venice and elegant interior by Reymond Langton, also in the UK, receives Best of the Best honors for its LIFE-designed hull (lengthened, innovative, fuel-efficient and eco-friendly), a new ethos for Oceanco. Bravo Eugenia’s long, slender hull means less drag, making for a lower propulsion-power need (read: efficiency), and its single-story engine room (the big yachts usually require at least two levels) provides space for the fun stuff—staterooms, spas, beach clubs.
Besides its efficient architecture, Bravo Eugenia offers up two helipads—one on the foredeck and one on the aft deck—a large tender garage with tons of space for a flotilla of water toys, and an onboard spa with massage room, plunge pool, rain shower, steam room and sauna. Oh, don’t forget the gym on the lower deck, which is part of the must-have beach club.
Reymond Langton’s interior decor exudes contemporary elegance, featuring light maple wood and white pearl lacquer with contrasting accents of walnut and ebony. Bravo Eugenia provides accommodations for 14 guests and 30 crew.
There’s something disarmingly divine about Sinot Yacht Architecture and Design’s Art of Life concept. The 377-foot motor yacht is long, simple and sleek. While its two-tier superstructure looks more like an open, tropical beach house than a gigayacht, the sloped stern takes cues from a sailing superyacht. The unassuming elegance of the yacht’s “monolithic” shape, as designer Sander Sinot calls it, comes from the open aft and foredecks, bridge deck and unassuming lines. Those features distinguish the vessel from more ostentatious gigayachts. Meanwhile, its inner beauty is the connection with the outdoors: Large sliding panels provide ocean views from the formal dining area, and the stern’s floor-to-ceiling windows are one-of-a-kind in the world of yachting. The owner’s stateroom also has a unique private lounge that traverses the main and upper decks, while the wellness center offers a Roman-style bath, massage area, sauna and loose sofas. And of course, Art of Life’s indoor cinema includes a retractable screen that covers an entire wall. The concept is a work of exceptional beauty.
The owner of Aquarius assembled the dream team of Dutch shipyard Royal Huisman, Dykstra Naval Architects in the Netherlands and UK-based Mark Whiteley Design to create this singular 184-foot sailing superyacht. Designed as a world cruiser that will participate in superyacht regattas, the yacht’s classic exterior has an elegant, muscular look, bolstered by carbon-fiber masts and rigging and extensive sail plans. The downwind sail plan, which gives the boat a majestic presence, measures a staggering 32,292 square feet. To minimize manpower, the yacht has remote units that raise and lower the sails with the push of a button.
When landlubbers dream of superyachts, this is the kind of boat they have in mind. Launched and delivered last year, the five-deck, 227-foot Spectre is the third Benetti yacht for John and Jeanette Staluppi in a line of James Bond–named vessels. Besides the necessary pool, spa, gym, helipad and elevator, Spectre is the “first yacht of this size equipped with a ride control system, an innovative hull by Mulder and much more,” says Dario Schiavo at Benetti. Schiavo is referring to the Naiad Dynamics Ride Control System designed to improve comfort and performance at sea for navy and commercial vessels. With the collaboration of Dutch firm Mulder Design, Spectre is the first monohull superyacht to use the technology. The system significantly improves cruising stability and onboard comfort.
In addition to providing a smooth ride, the naval architecture includes Mulder’s high-speed cruising hull, which Frank Mulder says will not only be about 30 percent faster than “normal” displacement yachts with a similar engine configuration, but will also reduce fuel consumption at long-range speeds. The yacht does in fact deliver a speedy 21.2 knots and a range of 6,500 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots.
Giorgio M. Cassetta created Spectre’s exterior lines, giving it a long forefoot, with a hint of classic sports car. The interiors, crafted by the Benetti team, include four—yep, four—wine cellars. A spiral staircase and glass elevator grace the lobby, while six cabins sleep 12 guests and nine more sleep 14 crew.
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