SUPERYACHT #12
Spring 2007

Article selected from our quarterly magazine dedicated to the largest and most luxurious boats with information, interviews, technical articles, images and yachting news

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Article by
Franca Urbani

BENETTI M37 ANDIAMO

A question of style: this is a contradiction of the idea that a boat's interior is feminine, but it's also the classic exception that confirms the rule. The style of the master Francois Zuretti, which on "Andiamo" could be defined as new classic, is extremely masculine. With a flavour, so to speak, of "leather and tobacco", it seems to be modelled on the gentleman's club of a true yachtsman. The architect's sure hand is both essential and refined, signing his interiors, so to speak, in a perfect way and with absolute conviction. Zuretti is a master because those skilful details of his make all the difference, and to such an extent that on going aboard you immediately think "this is a Benetti done by Zuretti", just as we exclaim before famous works of art "this is a Picasso!" The distinguishing feature of the master's interior design is undoubtedly his skilful use of wood, of which he knows all the secrets and which he uses above all as facings and in the creation of furniture, including complex items, built rigorously to his design.

SALOON & DINING AREA
In accordance with the classic Benetti scheme the stairway is in the middle of the saloon and the club-type bar is on the port side. The low items of furniture beneath the large windows are used as containers for various sorts of things. Sofas, armchairs, gold curtains and sober mirror inserts complete the deeply relaxing decor. Simple and intimate, the dining area has a rounded carved wooden table seating 10, completed by wooden chairs upholstered in light coloured leather.

GALLEY
The galley includes a new solution: the cooking area is separated from the crew mess area by a sliding door with, of course, a service hatch for passing the dishes. Typical of Zuretti is his habit of using wood also in the galley and crew area, thus creating continuity with the rest of the boat. The floor is also in wood. Entering from the dining area you come to a landing with an item of furniture on the port side which contains, among other things, two freezers, while on the starboard side there's a dumb waiter, the galley door and a EuroCave for 70 bottles. The landing leads to the dinette and the stairway down to the crew's night zone. The galley proper is C-shaped with two sinks on the left as you go in, a Miele cooker opposite and, on the right, a large Frigit refrigerator. The work surface is in Corian and the walls in steel. In the galley too, technology is tempered by style.

OWNER'S SUITE
As you go in there's a small study with a cabinet and a walk-in wardrobe on the port side. On the starboard side, beneath a large window, the writing desk doubles as a dressing table. Beside it there's a bookcase with drawers. The walk-in wardrobe, increasingly requested by yacht owners, is a winning solution, and Andiamo's is beautiful: glass-fronted drawers alternated with plain shelves equipped with fiddles, and a great mirror which serves not only for admiring yourself but also for virtual expansion of the space. Plain steel rails for hanging clothes. All elegant, simple and easy, as well as very handy indeed for keeping everything in order. The big full-beam room is splendid, with a panoramic view and the owner's bathroom behind it. The décor is masterfully resolved with a piece set opposite the bed, conceived in the spirit of the great sideboards of the past, which is connected to the lower wall-pieces typical of this yacht. Inside there's also a plasma screen, extractable, because in these spaces TV is an optional, not a must. The finishes such as the dark leather of the headboard, the chaise-longue type sofa in velvet, the squaring of the lines, though with the gracefulness of smoothed corners, all express a strong and highly essential character: certainly the interior here is an expression of the owner's decisive choices which the architect has interpreted with great synthesis, effectiveness and, I would say, with a certain severity. There are many precious but not showy details in the classic honey onyx bathroom with corner shower, such as the two little corner cupboards with rounded edges, set at the sides of the mirror, which "disappear" completely into the wood finish of the wall.

UPPER DECK SKY LOUNGE
A lounge for conversation, with a refined ceiling and indirect optic fibre lighting, club style. The onyx-top bar, which ends in a harmonious curve, is a typical feature. The base is finished in squares of brown leather. The eye falls pleasingly on other details: the games table with a carved wood chessboard, the small cream coloured leather armchairs with wood finish, the plasma TV that retracts into a low wall cupboard beneath the window. The ceiling - in squares of white lacquered wood formed by pilaster strips in natural wood that intersect orthogonally - is embellished by a moulding with indirect optic fibre lighting that runs around the perimeter. The sofas and armchairs are by Frau and the whole is completed by a bookcase equipped with fiddles. Venetian blinds in natural wood, very pleasing and fashionable, filter the light from the windows. The wooden floor has an intarsia design with squares of two sizes linked by double pairs of rectangular pilaster strips. There's also a bathroom on this deck and the sky lounge can sleep one person if required. In the corners of the stern bulkhead there are two full-height wall cupboards with rounded edges, designed to stow the tableware for the upper deck. If these interiors strike you as somewhat severe, you need only consider what the master told us: The architect handles the design, but what will warm and brighten the wood, create the right pleasant atmosphere, are the yacht's works of art, stained glass, statues, paintings, fabrics and carpets. In a word, precious objects: the choice depends on the sensitivity and taste of the owners, some of whom cases commission leading art consultants.