
SUPERYACHT #505 May 2004
Article selected from our quarterly magazine dedicated to the largest
and most luxurious boats with information, interviews, technical
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Article by Carlo Nuvolari-Duodo
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TIME PASSES... VOLUMES INCREASE
The architecture and proportioning of large yachts have changed considerably
over the years, especially if we compare one of today's megayachts with those
built at the start of the sector's contemporary history in the 50's and 60's.
Functional and space requirements have generally led to an enormous increase in
the distribution of superstructure volumes on many of today's yachts, and I feel
that in certain cases this has made them considerably ugly, not to say vulgar.
Let's take a look for example at the classic Christina which, once owned by
Onassis, we may consider the Yacht par excellence both because it was among the
largest of its time and because of its fame due to the history and personality
of its most renowned owner and the equally famous women that came aboard.
Christina is a fine boat, narrow and long but with incredibly limited space in
comparison with what a modern megayacht offers its guests today. Yet it
transmits an unmistakeable sensation of nobility and elegance all of its own.
We may make a similar comparison between a cruise ship of today and one of 30 or
40 years ago: not much has remained of that concept of "vessel", its intrinsic
expression of elegance, power and seaworthiness. Today's "liners" cannot be
compared with ships of the past such as the highly elegant Queen Elizabeth,
Leonardo da Vinci or Cristoforo Colombo: it would be like linking the concepts
of sports cars and campers.
The architecture of many yachts has unfortunately taken this direction: boats of
the same dimensions are increasingly taller and broader, with more voluminous
superstructures and the sections of the hull stockier, all motivated by the
constant search for interior volumes. It is almost as if yachting has become
merely a "real estate question".
On the other hand this is natural because the reasons behind big boat yachting
today are far different from what they once were.
Yachts were the absolute status symbol. The owners wanted simply to be aboard a
fine object and enjoy the sea. To be noted in the classic jet set places all you
had to do was get there, and the rest was done by the fact that there were very
few great yachts and that maybe your neighbour on the quay was the British royal
yacht Britannia.
Now it's quite different because the megayacht represents a combination of a
great many requirements. Its role as status symbol remains of course, but the
yacht today is certainly seen more as a place for amusement and refuge, for
seeking solitary holidays in distant and therefore exclusive places. So far so
good, and all the more so since this need also led to the development of a
specific market niche: explorer yachts with their very marked personality. The
bad side came with the attempt to combine various "functions": a luxury object
that was also a self-powered villa, offering the space and comfort of a large
house and perhaps something more, since a yacht, the great toy, is the
realisation of the owner's dreams.
This is why certain megayachts have become a heap of incredible accessories:
hydro-massage tubs everywhere, gym, sauna, quantities of jet skis, sailboats on
the deck, hovercrafts. Someone even carried a submarine! Not possessing a
helicopter could be seen as a sign of economic weakness, so it's better to have
at least the pad.
With all these gadgets you need, apart from the standard crew, a personal
trainer, a dive master, pilots, baby sitters and maybe a few bodyguards and so
on.
As a consequence we witness the birth of the floating villa, enormous, chockfull
of accessories and often graceless.
To design a megayacht nowadays you start out from the size and number of on-
board "toys" and not from general requirements such as number of cabins or the
range of the vessel. Design today is particularly highly conditioned by the
tenders. Increasingly large and numerous, these must be housed in garages below
deck, thus stealing cabin space. So the cabins are "thrust" upwards, which
involves an increase in superstructure volumes.
In certain cases the process appears to be unstoppable and has led to the
"birth" of boats that you will not forget if you see them, but you certainly
won't remember them for their refinement.
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