Custom Line, an Italian shipyard that’s part of the Ferretti Group, squeezed in three more launches as 2023 drew to a close, bringing the yard’s total number of yacht launches for last year to 21.

The first of the three yachts to hit the water before the calendar turned to the new year is Nimir, which is Hull No. 11 of the Custom Line Navetta 42. Length overall is 137 feet, 2 inches, with a beam of 26 feet, 7 inches.

Ferretti Group’s Engineering Department developed the project, with interior design by Custom Line Atelier. The yacht’s color palette includes what Custom Line calls subtle milk white and sand, along with elegant shades of gray. Various types of marble used in the décor include bianca gioia, travertino titanio and Carrara, with an aim of creating a regal, yet refined style.

Also launched toward the end of the year, on December 5, is Hull No. 20 of the Custom Line 106. This is a planing yacht with a length overall of 107 feet, 8 inches, and a beam of 24 feet, 3 inches.

On this yacht, the Ferretti Group Engineering Department worked with Francesco Paszkowski Design on interior and exterior styling. Custom Line Atelier handled interior design. Custom Line says the interiors on this yacht include woodwork that’s silky gray, paired with a combination of neutral whites and pearls, and vivid bronze and anthracite. Nubuck leather is among the décor’s materials, which also include statuario extra marble and polished arabescato orobico marble.

Last but not least, the third launch to squeeze in before the new year is Hull No. 30 of the Custom Line Navetta 33, christened Pufferfish.

This yacht is a collaboration among the Ferretti Group’s Strategic Product Committee for exterior styling and Engineering Department on interiors, in consultation with Custom Line Atelier. At 108 feet, 3 inches long and 24 feet, 8 inches wide, Pufferfish has interiors that combine silky grays with pinks, blues and oranges in the décor and furnishings—which were custom made. Marble includes calacatta oro.

Custom Line takes great pride in describing all these yachts as representative of Made In Italy quality and style.

What other yacht brands are part of the Ferretti Group? The group includes Ferretti Yachts, Wally, Pershing, Itama, Riva, CRNand Custom Line. Some brands focus on building composite yachts, while others specialize in custom builds and superyachts.

Learn more about what’s happening at Custom Line: go to customline-yacht.com

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Y.CO has just welcomed the 298-foot Lürssen Lady Lara to the charter fleet. The lowest weekly base rate is $1.4 million for bookings this winter in the Caribbean and Bahamas.

The yacht is also listed for sale—at more than $254 million—for the first time since the German shipyard delivered it in 2015. Y.CO’s Max Bulley and Gary Wright, along with Merle Wood of Merle Wood & Associates, represented the yacht at the recent Monaco Yacht Show.

“With Lürssen quality and stunning Reymond Langton design, Lady Lara is an exceptional yacht that was conceived with family living in mind,” Wright stated in a press release. “Her adaptable spaces, variety and flexibility, in addition to all the amazing features like the breathtaking spa area, the beach club and two pools, are ideal for multigenerational groups and put Lady Lara into a league of her own.”

Accommodations are for 12 guests in their choice of eight staterooms (for private use, the yacht is built to accommodate 16 guests). Six of the guest staterooms are on the main deck, with one on the lower deck. The master suite has its own private deck with an exterior terrace, outdoor hot tub, and indoor library. The aft-deck space in the owner’s area is called a “winter garden,” with sliding glass panels that can be closed to shelter diners from the elements.

There also are two cabins for owner’s staff or supernumeraries, in addition to the yacht’s quarters for 27 crew.

Onboard amenities include an aft-deck pool whose floor can be raised to create a dance floor. A sound system on this deck helps to create a discotheque-style environment for parties. There’s another pool up on the sundeck, this one with a swim-up bar.

On the bridge deck, guests have access to the spa, which includes a hammam, massage room, treatment room, beauty salon and gymnasium. Guests who prefer to get their exercise outdoors can do so from the beach club at water level, which has a steam room and a sauna along with a sunbathing area.

For rainy days and relaxing nights, the lower deck aboard Lady Lara includes a cinema. There’s also a touch-and-go helipad on board, if guests want to escape to a different spot up the coast.

How fast can Lady Lara cruise? According to Y.CO, the yacht has a top speed of 17 knots and a cruising speed of 14 knots, which is plenty fast for exploring the islands.

How to book a week on board: contact a charter broker at y.co

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Heesen Yachts in the Netherlands has launched Project Oslo24, a 164-foot yacht that the shipyard calls a “smart custom” build that balances quality, customization and delivery time.

Christened Cinderella Noel IV, the yacht has a steel hull with exterior design by Clifford Denn, who has had his own firm in France since 2003. Denn has worked on numerous Heesen builds including the 164-foot Omaha, the 164-foot Triton and the 131-foot Lionshare.

Cinderella Noel IV has an owner who is an experienced cruiser, so Heesen merged Denn’s ideas with the owner’s wishes. Some examples include reinforced insulation for cruising in northern climates, heated soles, winter tents and mosquito nets. The yacht also has an “elevated standard” in the crew area, along with a separate crew outdoor deck, to attract a highly trained team.

Another owner request was for a second steering position on the flybridge, where the owner likes to drive the yacht himself. Heesen installed stairs from the flybridge to the wheelhouse to connect these two navigation spaces.

Cinderella Noel IV also marks Heesen’s first installation of a hybrid propulsion system. That technology, along with the yacht’s mast for navigating bridges, and its channel navigation lights for transiting canals and locks, indicate a substantive cruising itinerary in the years ahead. For instance, the owner’s plans include an exploration of the northern fjords.

“Heesen’s Smart Custom solution represented the perfect starting point for an experienced yachtsman to concentrate on the important details for him and his family,” Stefan Zucker, the owner’s representative with Zucker & Partner, stated in a press release. “ Cinderella Noel IV is a testament to Heesen’s intelligent approach, allowing this family to create their dream machine with the certainty of a result which would have taken considerably more time and cost to build individually without being sufficiently tested.”

Interiors are by Luca Dini Design and Architecture. The firm is based in Florence, Italy, and has worked with numerous superyacht builders, including ISA, Wider, Rossinavi, Columbus and Tankoa. Additional projects with Heesen include two 180-footers: Reliance and Venus.

On Cinderella Noel IV, the interior design brief was for extended family cruises with his and hers spaces to work. The design firm added sliding partitions to make interior areas more versatile.

“This project has been a unique experience, driven by the owner’s passion and the shipyard’s expertise, with every detail analyzed and agreed with the clients,” Silvia Margutti of Luca Dini Design and Architecture stated in the press release.

Heesen describes the décor as “quiet luxury and Scandinavian chic.” White, greige and taupe soft furnishings contrast with high-gloss Indian rosewood and dark oak soles. Pops of color are deep blue and musk green. Leather panels by Foglizzo Atelier depict antique sea charts. Vertical and horizontal ripples in the woodwork emphasize the connection with nature. Furniture is from Cassina, Paola Lenti and Toso, among others.

When will Cinderella Noel IV be delivered to the owner? Heesen expects the handoff to take place in March.

Take the next step: go to heesenyachts.com

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Merle Wood & Associates has listed the 332-foot Attessa IV for sale at an asking price of more than $164 million. It’s a yacht with a storied history as one of the most significant rebuilds ever undertaken in the global yachting community.

Until 2007, this same yacht was known as the 298-foot Evergreen, built by a commercial shipyard in Japan. American billionaire Dennis Washington—whom Forbes described as having had an early love of machinery, and who turned a $30,000 loan into companies focused on shipbuilding, railroads, demolition, mining and more—took notice when the owner wanted to sell.

But the idea wasn’t to use the yacht in anything remotely resembling its original form. Washington wanted a total rebuild from the tender garage to the foredeck, gutting everything from the main deck up, and totally reconfiguring the vessel for use as a private yacht more in keeping with what’s expected in regions such as the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

The rebuild, undertaken in Vancouver, Canada, was completed in 2010. Accommodations on Attessa IV are now for as many as 18 guests in nine staterooms. The master includes his and hers dressing rooms, a private office, a private salon, private outdoor dining and a private deck for arriving and departing by helicopter. That helipad is in addition to a second, touch-and-go helipad that is located on the yacht’s bow.

Onboard amenities include a spa with a beauty salon, massage, a steam room and a gym. The beach club abaft the gym has a hot tub and seating area, while up top on the sundeck, there’s a pool with a shallow section for children. The main deck includes a cinema, and there’s an elevator for guests to access the lower deck through the sky lounge.

The yacht also has quarters for 28 crew. And, just in case extra security is a concern, Attessa IV is built to be bulletproof. The yacht has a Kevlar-lined steel hull and superstructure, along with windows built of bulletproof glass.

Attessa IV is built to be a world cruiser, with a reported range of more than 7,000 nautical miles. Top speed is listed as 25 knots, and draft is a hair over 15 feet. The diesel power plants are by Wartsila.

Where is Attessa IV located for showings? The yacht is currently in the area of Cabo, Mexico.

Take the next step: contact sales broker Merle Wood at merlewood.com

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The Westport 40M is a trideck superyacht with serious capabilities for outdoor entertaining. Its flybridge has a covered outdoor dining area for 10, a hot tub and a wet bar. Inside, the galley has a dishwasher, a wine chiller, an ice maker, a stove on an island with a bar, and a double-door stainless-steel refrigerator. 

Belowdecks are four staterooms: two VIPs with king berths and two guest rooms with twin berths. The master is forward on the main deck. At press time, there were three Westport 40Ms available, ranging from $12.9 million to $17.9 million.  

From the Archive

“They’re constantly improving their product, sometimes building in extras in advance of needing them, and always with the long term in mind. When talking about the new 40M, which is built on the hull of the hugely popular, William Garden-designed Westport 130, [Capt. Fred] Hammond cites this vessel’s ABS class and MCA compliance as an example of something they started working quietly toward on previous builds.”

— Yachting, March 2010

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“This yacht is going to turn some heads wherever she is, but particularly at the Bucket.”

So says Jim Pugh, co-founder of Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design in San Diego, one of the driving forces behind the 154-foot Nilaya that Royal Huisman built in the Netherlands. The yacht was delivered to its owners in June. It spent the summer in the Mediterranean “tuning up for racing,” according to the shipyard, and has now crossed the Atlantic. Nilaya arrived in Antigua in December—with about three months to prepare for the March 2024 St. Barths Bucket Regatta.

The fast Atlantic crossing, according to Royal Huisman, “gave her owner and pro race team captain Bouwe Bekking and skipper Romke Loopik plenty of all-conditions experience at the helm.” There are already 10,000 nautical miles under the yacht’s keel.

The owner says his previous yacht, a 112-foot Baltic, won many regattas during the 12 years he owned it, but for this Nilaya, he instructed the yard and designers to create “a fast yacht that can win in a superyacht regatta.”

To that end, Royal Huisman says it built Nilaya using European Space Agency methodology. Nilaya is an aluminum-carbon hybrid designed with finite element analysis to direct the right material, or combination of materials, and the right thicknesses of those materials to handle the exact stresses in every part of the hull and deck.

For its part, Reichel/Pugh analyzed 10 years of historical wave data from the Eastern Caribbean and Greece, ultimately testing 12 models before developing the final hull shape.

Royal Huisman’s sister company Rondal was brought in for carbon-fiber expertise. As just one example of Rondal’s contributions, it supplied a runner arrangement that reportedly saves 2,646 pounds of weight, keeping the yacht lighter for racing.

Racing pedigree aside, this yacht also has plenty of luxurious creature comforts, with Italian studio Nauta Design collaborating on the project ( Nilaya is the largest sailing yacht Nauta has completed). And yet, even with the interior, light weight for racing was top of mind. Some of the bulkheads and door frames are carbon. Instead of heavy insulation to reduce noise and vibration, Royal Huisman developed composite panels made of cork, foam, honeycomb and other materials.

According to Royal Huisman, Nilaya is “arguably the most advanced sailing yacht” the shipyard has ever delivered.

“Royal Huisman was not afraid to invest in research to explore and develop all manner of innovative weight-saving possibilities,” said the owners’ project manager, Nigel Ingram of MCM Newport. “They really chased the details.”

And now, we all shall see if Nilaya leaves other yachts chasing its transom on the regatta circuit.

How long did it take to create Nilaya? Three years, including one year of preparation and two years under construction.

Take the next step: go to royalhuisman.com

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When I arrived at the marina, I asked the dock master where the Ocean Alexander 32E was moored. He grinned and said, “Oh, you’ll see it.”

He was right. The 32E didn’t so much float as tower head and shoulders over most other boats in the marina. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger at a debutante ball, or Kilimanjaro above the plains of the Serengeti. This is a yacht for grand adventures on the seven seas.

The 32E’s profile is forward-loaded, tapering aft from a tall plumb bow. It’s clear that the two decks aft, off the bridge and salon, are designed for alfresco living, with a beach club at the transom. The swim platform is full-on watersports, with a 2,500-pound crane to handle tenders from about 16 to 18 feet long, as well as personal watercraft. There’s also room here for toys and dive gear. Both hull sides butterfly out to expand the yacht’s beam from just under 22 feet to 27 feet. The air-conditioned beach club provides a lounge for guests to watch the action in comfort.

On the main deck, the salon has defined zones for entertaining, including leather U-shaped Poltrona Frau couches from Turin and a formal dining area for 10 guests, with electric sliding doors on each side for fresh air.

The enclosed galley is pure gourmet, arranged around an island that allows two chefs to prep, cook and plate without crowding. Equipment includes a 30-inch, five-burner Wolf cooktop and a Fisher Paykel fridge, and there are Berwyn quartz counters.

A companionway leads to the owner’s main-deck stateroom. It spans the yacht’s beam (no walkaround side decks) with a king berth and two walk-in closets. The head has a free-standing hot tub, a heated stone sole and twin vanities. The lower deck has four en suite staterooms for guests. The VIP is forward with a queen berth and a love seat. Two mirrored staterooms are abaft the foyer with queen berths, and there’s a guest stateroom to port with twins.

Ocean Alexander has a long-standing mantra that “happy crews make happy owners,” which is why the 32E has a crew space abaft the engine room. Access is safe in all weather scenarios with 24-inch-wide side decks. There is an en suite captain’s cabin and a high-low bunk stateroom with a head for crew. The mess has a kitchenette with a sink, a microwave and a fridge, and a washer and dryer are provided for the crew.

What Ocean Alexander calls the bridge deck, I see as a sky lounge with an outdoor component. It stretches full beam from the four-person hot tub (wrapped by a sun pad) aft to the forward helm. Along the way is a Poltrona Frau sofa facing a full bar to starboard with four swivel stools and sole-to-ceiling windows. A day head is convenient to the deck and the sky lounge.

The helm, as expected from a builder with a long history of producing oceangoing yachts, has a trio of 24-inch Garmin touchscreen multifunction displays for navionics as well as a closed-circuit camera feed from the engine room and on deck. A Garmin remote is built into the armrest of the skipper’s pedestal seat. Two husky pantograph doors lead to the single-level foredeck, with a forward-facing dinette/lounge and a convertible sun pad that faces fore or aft.

Standard power for the 32E is twin 2,000 hp MAN V-12 diesels, and they live in an impressive engine room. The engines are separated by a diamond-plate walkway with safety rails, and there is access to all sides. Outboard are a pair of 40 kW Kohler gensets with equally good access. The 32E sets a benchmark for color-coded, secured piping and electrical runs. Delta-T intake and exhaust fans have vents in the cabin sides, rather than the hull, because Ocean Alexander expects the 32E to shoulder through big seas. The engine beds are welded stainless steel surrounding large structural stringers. There’s a smart lube-oil-change system for the mains and the gensets, and a Gulf Coast fuel-polishing system should ensure clean food for the diesels in faraway ports.

This 32E is also outfitted with Side-Power Vector zero-speed stabilizers, a 53 hp bow thruster and a 42 hp stern thruster. The Dometic air conditioning is rated for extreme tropical climates, with heating designed down to 40-degree water temps. The 50 hz Atlas Marine Power Converter allows automatic marina connections anywhere in the world, and the aerospace-designed Octoplex provides sensors and controls for the ship’s systems and lighting.

Underway, the Ocean Alexander 32E is going to cause immediate cravings for anyone who has dreamed of anchoring off the volcanic peaks of Moorea or nudging a glacier to get thousand-year-old ice for a gin and tonic. This yacht exuded power and strength from the moment the bow touched the Gulf Stream, and I found myself glancing at the fuel gauge to consider how far the 3,600-gallon capacity might take us. On the pins, the 32E topped out at 21 knots, in case owners need to outrun a squall. That’s impressive speed for a yacht with a 274,233-pound displacement. Dropping back to 800 rpm and 7.1 knots (the MANs will last forever), the yacht has a 2,430-nautical-mile range. That’s about the distance from New York to Panama or Los Angeles to Honolulu.

The stabilizers held the yacht rock-steady in the lumpy Gulf Stream, and departing from and returning to the marina was fingertip easy with the thrusters. The 32E that I got aboard also had optional engine controls on each after corner for even easier docking.

Creating such a solid ride starts with the 32E being built tough. It has an infused-fiberglass hull and closed-cell structural foam with unidirectional carbon-fiber reinforcement on stress areas, such as stringers. There is a reinforced collision bulkhead forward, and watertight bulkheads are forward of and abaft the engine room.

Owners of this yacht could throw a dart at a world map to choose their next waypoint. The Ocean Alexander 32E is ready to go.

Meet the Designer

Yacht designer Evan K. Marshall says he grew up with a stack of Yachting magazines in his closet and doodled boats on his notebooks in school. Marshall introduced the split-level owner’s stateroom to yachts. From his office on the River Thames in England, he produces innovative designs for builders from Ocean Alexander to Hatteras Yachts and more.

Robust Reinforcement

Ocean Alexander reinforces the 32E’s hull and deck with straight aircraft-grade aluminum beams that are reportedly 10 times stiffer than wood or fiberglass, but that help keep the yacht’s overall weight low for safety and seaworthiness.

MAN Power

The 2,000 hp MAN diesels on the Ocean Alexander 32E are Tier 3 compliant for Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards, and they have a MAN gold-standard warranty for 60 months. A V-12 designed for luxury yachts, this four-stroke engine has strong torque to 2,100 rpm and displaces 24.2 liters (1,476 cubic inches).

Take the next step: oceanalexander.com

The post Ocean Alexander 32E Reviewed appeared first on Yachting.

Italian shipyard Cantiere delle Marche, whose specialty is long-range explorer yachts from 85 to 154 feet length overall, has launched Maverick. It’s the first of three Flexplorer 146 yachts that are under construction.

Hull No. 1 is owned by Tom Schroder of FIL Brothers in Austria, whose support for the yard inspired co-founder and CEO Vasco Buonpensiere to state: “This yacht, in addition to its countless intrinsic virtues, holds a special place in our hearts because it belongs to an owner who has known and appreciated us to the point of becoming the major shareholder of our shipyard.”

Maverick has exteriors, naval architecture and engineering by Hydro Tec. The yacht’s interiors are by Francesco Paszkowski with Margherita Casprini.

Accommodations are for as many as 13 guests in seven staterooms, with quarters for six crew. And make no mistake: This is an explorer yacht that is expected to take those owners and guests far, far away from the docks.

The yard says it’s planning to document every leg of an upcoming multiyear journey that the owner plans to undertake around the world, with destinations likely to include Iceland, Greenland and northern Canada. Maverick’s steel hull is built 22 millimeters thick at the waterline to be able to handle the icy waters the yacht will encounter in those locations.

Power is a pair of 1,300-horsepower Caterpillar ACERT diesels that the builder says propel Maverick to a top speed of 14 knots. Range is reportedly trans-Atlantic, with the yacht able to achieve 5,000 nautical miles at 10 knots.

Features that suggest how the yacht might be used in some of the planet’s most remote places include a custom A-frame crane that Advanced Mechanical Solutions built from carbon fiber with a lifting capacity of 4 tons. It will launch the tenders—including a custom 31-footer by Valerio Rivellini. The launching system keeps tenders out of the way, creating extra room on board for guest spaces such as a beach club with a gym, sauna and scuba-diving center.

For more guest relaxation (and amazing views), the yacht’s bulwarks fold down, expanding the aft deck into a more than 1,450-square-foot lounging space. There’s a swimming pool at the transom that, when covered, transforms into stowage for deck furniture. Inside, the salon is made to feel bigger with an asymmetrical design that allows crew passage to port but full-beam guest space to starboard. (It’s similar to the asymmetrical design of the Flexplorer 130.)

How long has Cantiere delle Marche been in business? Since 2010. The yard is in Ancona, Italy, a hotbed of yacht construction with many skilled craftspeople.

Take the next step: click over to cantieredellemarche.it

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The concept of 3D printing is not new when it comes to boat and yacht construction, but Project Pegasus—unveiled at the start of 2023 and now listed for sale with Denison Yachting—is a bold vision of how the technology could be used to create an entire superyacht.

Several years ago, we reported about ways that builders worldwide were already embracing 3D printing for everything from boat molds to parts. We also noted that the IYRS School of Technology and Trades was teaching students the basics of 3D printing, setting up a future where ideas could become reality as the technology matured.

Italian designer Jozeph Forakis says that time is now, and the team of people surrounding him on the idea is getting bigger. Forakis’ 288-foot Project Pegasus concept yacht would be the world’s first 3D-printed, solar-electric/hydrogen hybrid superyacht, with zero emissions and with a “Tree of Life” hydroponic garden for fresh food and air purification.

Article At-A-Glance

• The 288-foot Project Pegasus is a concept yacht that’s listed for sale with Denison Yachting.
• Project Pegasus would be the world’s first 3D-printed, solar-electric/hydrogen hybrid superyacht.
• The designer is Jozeph Forakis, who is based in Italy and known for his work with CL Yachts.
• Lateral Naval Architects in the United Kingdom also worked on Project Pegasus.

The Project Pegasus Vision

Forakis says his goal with Project Pegasus was to create a zero-emissions yacht that seems invisible in terms of design and environmental impact. He did not create the concept yacht as a design showpiece that never has a chance to be built. “All her core technologies are based on today’s reality,” he says. “It’s only a matter of time before all yachts are made this way. Today, together with Denison and Lateral, we embark on a journey to accelerate towards that future.”

An ‘Audacious Challenge’

James Roy, managing director at Lateral Naval Architects, calls Project Pegasus “an audacious challenge in the field of structural engineering, energy architecture and manufacturing.” In fact, everyone involved with the project says it’s on the bleeding edge of what’s achievable today. Alex G. Clarke, the broker who represents the project at Denison Yachting, says the concept “pushes the boundaries of what is possible.”

Clarke added: “The smart technology surrounding it—from fuel cells to hydroponics providing fresh air and food, to zero emission and the use of glass and solar panels—is very inspiring to me. I do feel this is more than a concept, and I would love to see a shipyard or owner get involved to help make her a reality.”

How the Team Came Together

Forakis gives special thanks to Marisa Ronchi and Ottaviiano Iacono of SuperyachtOne for believing in the Project Pegasus concept and introducing him to the sales broker, Clarke, at Denison Yachting. “We couldn’t ask for a better foundational team to bring this dream to reality,” Forakis says.

Clarke is no stranger to embracing big, visionary concepts. He was the sales broker who did Denison’s first $10 million-plus bitcoin deal, and, more recently, he’s been talking about ways that technology surrounding nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, might become useful within the superyacht industry.

In that context, 3D-printing a whole superyacht seems quite down-to-earth. The technology at least creates something that people can touch and feel.

The Project Pegasus Design

It was big news in 2019 when the University of Maine created the world’s largest 3D-printed boat: a 25-footer called 3Dirigo. That team set three world records: for the largest 3D-printed solid part, the largest 3D-printed boat and the largest 3D printer.

Designing a 288-foot yacht that could be built from similar technology less than five years later is no small feat, but that’s what Project Pegasus purports to be.

The Framework

Robotic 3D printing would be used to create a mesh framework for Project Pegasus, integrating the yacht’s hull and superstructure. Forakis says the result would be “an extraordinarily strong and lightweight structure that can be produced using less energy, material, waste, space and time compared to conventional construction.”

The superstructure would have multi-tiered glass wings that reflect the clouds and sky. At certain angles and in certain lighting conditions, the lattice framework of the 3D-printed structure would become visible.

According to Forakis, “The dramatic, triangulated structure allows light to penetrate all levels of the interior while framing the remarkable views in all directions.”

The Reality of Technology

The whole team involved with Project Pegasus says it’s possible to achieve the vision with technology that exists today, but there is no denying the fact that some of that technology may need a bit more time to develop in order to make the yacht a reality.

As Roy, with Lateral Naval Architects, says: “We look forward to exploring the boundaries of feasibility, technology readiness and how these can be accelerated.”

Is Jozeph Forakis for Real?

Sometimes, yacht designers create audacious concepts just to get noticed. They might draw a yacht that looks like a spiderweb, or that could transform into a plane or a submersible. Their ideas are often based on imagination and not necessarily grounded in reality.

Forakis is different. He’s known as a visionary designer, but he’s also spent the past few years affiliated with one of the most respected builders of bluewater, go-anywhere vessels: CL Yachts, a subsidiary of Cheoy Lee.

Partnership with CL Yachts

Forakis’ partnership with CL Yachts was announced in 2019, after the builder brought him aboard to act as creative director for its next generation of yacht designs. Forakis was put in charge of exteriors and interiors on the vessels, starting with the CLX96.

Even back then, Forakis was using language that tapped into a desire to push boundaries in ways that were new for the yachting industry. He chose the color orange for the new CL Yachts brand and went on to explain why: “I am very strategic when it comes to these things. In our research, we found that, in the world of yachting, there are many ‘me too’ boat designs and many ‘me too’ brands and colors. Orange is young and energetic, and rarely seen amongst yacht or other luxury brands. This is part of our ’blue ocean strategy’ to communicate a true alternative in the market with an alternative, authentic vision.”

Forakis’ Real-Life CLB80

Most recently, CL Yachts announced its CLB80, with interiors and exteriors by Forakis—yet again proving that the designer knows how to turn ideas into reality. The boat will fall in the builder’s lineup between the CLB72 and the flagship CLB88.

CL Yachts says the creative process included emphasizing onboard comfort, rather than focusing solely on raw performance.

And with this design, too, Forakis pushed boundaries. “One distinctive aspect that sets this model apart is the evolution of the unique stepped side windows,” the builder says. “These carefully crafted windows not only infuse a modern touch but also enhance visibility, allowing natural light to flood into the living spaces.”

Frequently Asked Questions

How long will it take to build Project Pegasus?

No timeframe has been established for construction, and, in some cases, the technology itself might have to be augmented before construction could begin.

Are hydroponics new on yachts?

At the scale of Project Pegasus, yes, but not in general. Some sailors have had hydroponic gardens aboard their yachts for years, to ensure the availability of fresh foods while cruising in remote destinations.

Is anyone building a zero-emissions yacht today?

Several companies are promoting these types of designs. One in-build version is the 226-foot Project Zero that Vitters is constructing in the Netherlands, with a sail plan that is projected to generate power equivalent to a modern wind turbine.

Does Jozeph Forakis, the designer of Project Pegasus, only design yachts?

Nope. He works in many spheres, including housewares, lighting and wearable tech.

Where can I learn more about Project Pegasus?

Visit denisonyachting.com

The post Is This the Yacht of the Future? appeared first on Yachting.

In early November, Westport Yachts in Washington State launched the ninth hull of its Westport 125 series.

The model has continued to prove popular since Hull No. 1 launched in 2016, marking the first new model in a decade for the builder that had long been known for the Westport 112 and Westport 130. More than 100 of those two models have been built.

When the 125 first appeared, Westport said it drew on popular features from the 112 and 130 models, giving owners a way to move up to a bigger yacht from the 112 without having to go all the way to the size of the 130. Like the 112, the 125 has a raised pilothouse (as opposed to the 130’s trideck design).

“The launch of the enhanced Westport 125 is a significant milestone for Westport Yachts, and it exemplifies their unwavering commitment to excellence in the luxury yachting industry,” the company announced in a press release. “The yacht will now undergo final outfitting and sea trials before being delivered to her excited owner.”

What are the accommodations aboard the Westport 125? The yacht has staterooms for 10 guests as well as quarters for five or six crew.

Take the next step: go to westportyachts.com

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