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Once the owner decided he needed a massively capable, submarinetoting, media platform superyacht, Pegaso Marine began studying commercial research vessels that carried, launched and operated submarines.

ambient air temperature outside in the 40s, and the HVAC system couldn’t cope. Knowing that the owner could frequently be in places like that for weeks at a time meant that the specs had to include an HVAC system that could tackle persistent heat and humidity. She also needed to be able to handle ice, and have the capacity to take a commercially operated helicopter, and dive all areas of the world from the tropics to the Arctic. For this, she needed a state-of-the-art dive centre, recompression chamber and the most advanced personal submarine ever built. The designer, Steve Howard, and Michael Wasilewski were friends and had worked together previously, so when it came to working up the initial specs for Pegaso into something visual, the Pegaso team turned to Howard, who was then at H2 design in London. Howard understood what the owner didn’t want: a design statement yacht. What he wanted was his own boat, designed around his lifestyle. At the time, Andy Moore was on the design team at H2, and it was Moore’s sketch

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based on a 65m GA, with the garage and the helicopter at the stern, that caught the owner’s eye. The H2 team had a model built based on Moore’s sketches. That model revealed a kind of muscular leanness to her lines that belies the vessel’s height. The cascade of her aft lines is graceful and clean – there are no sweeping staircases up from the swim platform to her aft sundeck. The owner’s penthouse deck, above both a sky lounge and the bridge, is a stunning feature, and truly gives the vessel the impression of being a 21st-century explorer’s vessel. She is about going far away for long periods of time, working and playing hard, seeing the world, and knowing how to do it with technology and style. It was abundantly clear from the model, just from the way it looked, that Pegaso would be a boat with great ambition. Michael Wasilewski was widely respected and regarded, and upon his passing, two memorial services, in Florida and England, had to be organised to accommodate his broad circle of friends and colleagues. >>

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At his service in London, Pegaso’s owner simply said: “Let’s do it: let’s build Michael’s legacy.” The next day, the order was put in for the VAS sub, and search began in earnest to find the yard that would bring the project to life.

THE SHIPYARD The build was a highly technical, precise job. Pegaso was clearly going to be a vessel requiring machinery and technology pulled from the commercial offshore industry – but she also had to appear like a superyacht: she needed the right look, a luxurious feel and the ability to provide the owner and his guests with the highest levels of comfort, privacy and security whether stationed over a wreck at sea or berthed alongside the many international ports she was likely to visit. Wasilewski began looking for yards that could understand the Pegaso concept and, more importantly, actually execute it. Eventually this search became Flemming’s responsibility. “We had looked at some of the big northern European yacht yards who could have offered us their 70m platform and worked to incorporate the technical requirements, but we just never got the feeling that it would be what the owner really wanted,” he said. “We flew around the world, checking out all the name-brand commercial yards we knew in Australia, China, Louisiana, saying: ‘This is what we want to build. Can you do it for us?’ The bottom line was that this had to be a real go-anywhere boat; yes, she had to be pretty, but from the beginning we were talking about a boat with a 10,000nm range. We wanted a boat with capacity to go far with great autonomy. We were talking about a one-of-a-kind luxury research vessel.” Flemming realised that the concept would result in a truly complex technical build, and this significantly narrowed the choice of yards. With his previous surveying business in Mallorca, Flemming had worked closely with Astilleros de Mallorca Shipyard, owned by the Freire family.

They also owned a commercial shipyard in Vigo, Spain, that built some of the most technically sophisticated research vessels anywhere in the world, complete with state-ofthe-art engineering and the kind of industrial-grade problem-solving that would win them the contract to build the UK’s newest Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) research ship. Plus Pegaso’s owner had favourable experience with Astilleros de Mallorca when they fitted a bulbous bow on one of his previous yachts, so was familiar with the capabilities of the team running the yard.

“We wanted a boat with capacity to go far with great autonomy. We were talking about a one-of-a-kind luxury research vessel.”

Guillermo Freire García, 33, son of the owner of the yards, had met Flemming in Mallorca during >> THE SUPERYACHT REPORT | ISSUE 128

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a post-university stint there. After working in the finance department, he moved to commercial director of the Vigo yard, and six months later, was there when the Pegaso team arrived. In many ways, the Pegaso project is a demonstration of Freire’s commercial thinking and flexibility and his dedication to building Freire’s name as a yard that can deliver technically complex and beautiful vessels. And his drive is unquestioned. As Flemming put it: “If you’re doing battle with a Norwegian ship-owner, trust me, you’d want him on your side.”

Every single detail of the vessel’s design, from the lines of the superstructure to the look of watertight hatches, was openly discussed so that the Pegaso team could ensure the yard really understood what they were looking for.

In the summer of 2006, Freire, his two other brothers in the business and their father, Jesús Freire, sat down with the owner for the first time and started a presentation on their history and yard’s capabilities. Key to the presentation was the combination of Astilleros de Mallorca’s experience, with its pedigree of luxury yacht work, and the real, hard-core industrial experience of the Freire shipyard. “The vessel the owner wanted was unusual,” explained Freire. “It has a lot of systems and equipment that are really for research vessels and the offshore industry. And we’re experts at that.” They showed how they built boats that combined dynamic-positioning

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systems, cherry-pickers, helidecks and ROVs. After about half an hour, the owner raised his hand and said: “Stop. I like you. I can do business with you.” The owner himself has a family-run business and so had a good sense of how the father and sons worked together. “He was impressed by what we were doing as a family,” said Freire. “I think we persuaded him that the tradition of the business was key. He definitely responded to that.” The fact that the owner is a Spanish speaker made the case even stronger. After pricing negotiations, during which the yard, according to Flemming, was thorough and very transparent, the deal was agreed, and Pegaso finally started her build.

BUILDING & LESSONS For the yard, there were plenty of lessons working with a yacht team as opposed to their typical shipowner clients. The commercial offshore vessels that the Freire shipyard delivers are custom tailor-made builds, but always built on a proven concept. Freire works with Norwegian design offices that are world-leaders in the latest offshore technology, and they often receive fully completed specs and designs for projects; all they have to do is build them. In other cases, they do the design and >>

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naval architecture work in-house. But with Pegaso, the entire approach to the build was different: more apt to change, and based on newly available features and adjustments on the fly. “The yard appeared to really enjoy that once a month everybody would show up – the designers, surveyors, lighting designers, engineers, captain – and we’d work things out together in a very open way,” Flemming said. “I don’t think there’s another way we could have done it.” Every single detail of the vessel’s design, from the lines of the superstructure to the look of watertight hatches, was openly discussed so that the Pegaso team could ensure the yard really understood what they were looking for. “For a commercial yard, when the spec says weather-tight hatch, it could just be a hatch that passes the hose test,” said Flemming. “We went through options with the yard and showed them pictures of features on yachts. It was a detailed process of informing them how we wanted the vessel to look.”

The wait for the thrusters had led the Freire and the Pegaso team to throw their full confidence into the Vigo yard to complete the project. Although they hadn’t planned it, it was exactly the test that Freire thought his yard would rise to. He saw it as an opportunity.

The Pegaso team’s approach may not have been familiar to the yard, but they quickly adapted to the kind of creative customisation required of this particular client and project. “When we started, we thought that the specifications the Pegaso team provided had been validated from a naval architecture point of view, for instance,” Freire said, “but, in build, we had to increase the draught and beam of the vessel to comply with stability expectations.” Freire worked with the H2 design office in the UK initially, following their superstructure lines and GA. What made the process challenging was the details. In commercial vessels, when the yard has a decision on parts, they usually know there are, say, two options. They can choose equipment based on the delivery time they’re working to. If the owner then decides to go with another choice, these typically don’t then involve major changes to the project, “but on yachts and vessels like Pegaso,” Freire explained, “a minor decision can have a major implication on the design.” The yard learned that unlike in the commercial world, luxury vessels require very specific, detailed designs before the start of construction.

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“In the future, we would approach an owner and his team with that kind of awareness and experience,” Freire said.

Decision to not go to Astilleros de Mallorca The plan was to get all of Pegaso’s engineering, hull and superstructure fundamentally complete at the Freire yard so the vessel could get to Mallorca on her own bottom by April 2011 to receive her topcoat, the installation of her teak decks, final electrics, lighting and any other outstanding work. But the yard ran into a serious problem with the thrusters, key to the yacht’s dynamic positioning system. According to Freire, when the team had originally sat down to make final decisions on key suppliers, Van der Velden was the only company they believed could supply the electrically rim-driven (and thus very quiet and efficient) DPS thrusters that the Pegaso team had wanted. “The other developers of this technology were working a bit longer to address issues they were encountering,” Freire said. “Van der Velden clearly took a risk. We’d heard that there had been some problems with the classification of the equipment, but we felt that given our timeline, they would have addressed the problems by the time we received the equipment. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way.” A recall had been issued due to water ingress in the thrusters, and this ended up causing a major delay: Pegaso was put back in drydock to await replacement equipment. At the time Van der Velden had recalled the thrusters, they’d estimated that replacement equipment would be delivered and installed within a couple of weeks. “Pegaso was in drydock for the installation, and we just ended up waiting for the thrusters to arrive,” Freire said. “We could have taken her to Mallorca, but we decided with the owner that we would complete Pegaso at the Freire yard in Vigo. They were pleased with all the work we had completed up to that time, so they were OK to stay.” The wait for the thrusters had led Freire and the Pegaso team to throw their full confidence >>

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into the Vigo yard to complete the project. Although they hadn’t planned it, it was exactly the test that Freire thought his yard would rise to. He saw it as an opportunity. “Finishing off in Mallorca would have been better for marketing, as it’s more of a pedigree issue than an issue of real quality,” Freire said. “Maybe in Mallorca, they could get some of the final details done better, but really, it’s basically the same. And in terms of delivering a yacht with this level of technical complexity, I don’t think there are many yards anywhere in the world that can achieve what we have achieved.” Diego Colón de Carvajal, general manager of Astilleros de Mallorca, worked with the Freire yard to help oversee the finer points of the project that he would otherwise have been in charge of in Palma. “Diego took the opportunity to visit the vessel many, many times during the construction,” Freire said. “His advice was really useful to the project.” “The Pegaso team was very supportive of us,” Freire said. “The owner knew that Freire were not experts in the superyacht market, and so it was always part of the plan that the Pegaso team would assist us. We solved all the problems together.” Flemming brought in Pegaso’s captain, Steve Probst, an intensely focused man who exudes competence and ingenuity. He hired a highly experienced crew, including an engineering department from the commercial world and three other watch officers, to enable simultaneous DP and submarine operations. As they and the rest of the crew became involved at the yard, they brought their expertise and passion to the build and started the process of turning Pegaso from a worksite into a living, breathing boat.

THE INNOVATIONS & DESIGN The Helideck According to the Helideck Certification Agency (HCA), Pegaso’s is the only commercially certified, retractable helideck on a seagoing vessel. It’s another example of the yard tackling an engineering issue with

the kind of solution you would expect from people who otherwise build oil-rig support vessels. “We hadn’t asked for a retractable helideck,” said Flemming. The owner’s preferred helicopter is an McDonnell Douglas Explorer, but when the Freire and Pegaso teams looked at the D-value (the overall length of the helicopter from the front of the rotor disk area to the rear of the tail rotor disc area) required for the Explorer, they realised that the deck needed to extend further aft from the superstructure than was specified in Andy Moore’s very pleasing exterior lines. So the yard came up with the solution to make the deck retractable. HCA looked at the new retractable designs and pointed out that by extending the pad design by a further 120mm, the D-value would enable a broader range of helicopters to land, including the Eurocopter-135 (currently a popular choice in the yachting community). Everyone approved, and the yard built it. Alex Knight, general manager of HCA, who surveyed the helideck, remains in awe of the project as a whole, and the helideck in particular. “Pegaso is unique, imaginative and inspirational. There are many yachts out there that can’t fit a helideck due to limited clearances,” he said. “These owners, captains and brokers will see the Pegaso solution as a way forward for them, so we might see more such decks in the future.” Pegaso is also challenging the need for lights around the helideck by painting the landing markings in UV pigment that will be lit by a big UV light on the main mast. If this works as well as the Pegaso team expect, it will present another step forward for helideck solutions for yachts. “You have to admire their audacity in these types of approaches,” Knight said. “Their only guarantee was HCA’s preparedness to keep an open mind when looking at their innovations.”

“In terms of delivering a yacht with this level of technical complexity, I don’t think there are many yards anywhere in the world that can achieve what we have achieved.”

Probst and his officers will be using an HMS-100 helicopter monitoring system from Kongsberg, which monitors helideck attitude and vertical velocity, wind speed and direction, air temperature and barometric pressure and presents this information to the bridge and helicopter to indicate landing conditions. It’s a system >>

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typically used offshore on floating production and storage vessels (FPSO) and seismic vessels, but works perfectly here in conjunction with the rest of the Kongsberg integrated K-Bridge system. When not in use, the commercially compliant teak helideck becomes a big sundeck, which will soon have an awning, which would be specified to be able to be downrigged in 30 minutes or less for helicopter use. The Sub Crane Freire shipyard is used to the installation of complex cranes aboard offshore research vessels, but the 14-metric-tonne VAS submarine required a crane that operates in a totally new way.

When not in use,the commercially compliant teak helideck becomes a big sundeck,which will soon have an awning,which would be specified to be able to be downrigged in 30 minutes or less for helicopter use. 82

Again, the issue for the yard was the fact that while the principle of launch and recovery of ROVs and other vehicles from the side of ships was one they were completely comfortable with, all of the previous equipment they had to work with was commercial, and built to a tested standard. The Freire engineers could simply plug in which model of ROV or submarine needed lifting, and the requirements for the crane became clear from the outset. Everyone knows what to expect. But with Pegaso, and the VAS, things changed over the course of the build. “We had changes in the sub during construction, in size

and in weight, so we had to adjust everything in the middle of the build of Pegaso,” said Freire. The challenge for commercial ships is that if the subs or ROVs don’t launch, the entire vessel is useless – there would be no operations to carry out aboard. But with Pegaso, the challenge for the commercial suppliers was to combine their successful technology with beauty. The solution was an overhead gantry crane that hoists the sub snugly up into two reverse chocks and then rolls out 2.16m from the side of the vessel on the centre-points of the lifting hooks. The gunwale edge of the garage is 1.77m above the light-load waterline, so the sub doesn’t have far to descend (and thus to swing) before she’s in the water alongside, up against an innovative underwater fender system being developed by Probst and the team exclusively for the VAS aboard Pegaso. Recovery will work the same way, but in reverse, with lines running aft from midships to the sub to help bring her alongside, and likely some help from the support tender. Suffice to say, launching and retrieving a submarine is serious business – similar to helicopter operations in complexity. Pegaso, of course, has both, so the crew will quickly be masters at each procedurally precise operation. >>

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The Dive Centre Diving is the soul of Pegaso, and as such no expense has been spared to equip her with the finest diving equipment on the planet. The swim platform leads straight into the dive area that is fully kitted out with custom dive racks and lockers for wetsuits and storage. With teak flooring and comfortable benches, it’s a full wet area designed for heavy use. Pegaso commissioned Nautilus, the same company that provided the VAS and with whom they had worked for over a decade, to design and build a custom designed breathing-gas system that was capable of reliably providing large quantities of safe and ultra-pure oxygen, air, nitrox and trimix. The system was built at their factory in Florida and flown to Vigo as two modules that were welded into the hull during construction. There is a veritable arsenal of rebreathers, scuba gear, underwater scooters and a recompression chamber. The VAS sub is equipped to work with a toolkit of advanced scientific and exploration apparatus, including state-of-the-art underwater video cameras. Adjacent to the dive centre is the professional video-editing suite complete with a wet area for handling underwater cameras and getting video safely secured and processed into the vessel’s servers for editing and viewing. The Tenders The 14m by 10m+ athwartships garage contains, aside from the VAS sub and her crane, an 8.8m D-Max Goldfish 29 tender with 65 knot top speed, on the port side and a custom-designed aluminium dive boat by McMullen & Wing to starboard.

On the foredeck are the two Pascoe 6.2m tenders, one a SOLAS rescue boat, the other with teak decks, iPod player and shower. The two Pascoes and the Goldfish were supplied through EYOS Tenders. The McMullen & Wing tender was designed in large part by the captain, to carry out its very specific dual mission as a support vessel for the VAS submarine and a custom dive tender. It carries a 12” chart-plotter screen with video switching for the submarine’s directional tracking, which is measured using a sonar probe, machine-lowered through the towing post 1m below the tender. To carry the heavy rebreather units, she has custom racking that can be removed and covered with cushions to make a sunbed area. There’s a removable awning and benches that fold up to hold two euro-sized palettes side by side for ferrying supplies to Pegaso. It has remote-control searchlights, digital radar, AIS and an iPod speaker system.

Diving is the soul of Pegaso, and as such no expense has been spared to equip her with the finest diving equipment on the planet.

The engine install is impressive for a tender. She uses two Yanmar 315hp engines – enough power to tow the submarine – with all fuel lines in stainless steel and double-filtered, and a small catwalk in between for the engineers. The automatic anchoring from the console is provided by the Lewmar Profish 700 anchoring system. The custom dive ladders, built to Probst’s specifications, fold down on the stern and are removable; a third ladder fits into the stanchion holes by the boarding area so that the dive master can get into the boat on the side, then come around to help guests get aboard at the stern. And she may get her own registration as an extra bureaucratic advantage when on distance explorations up remote rivers. >> THE SUPERYACHT REPORT | ISSUE 128

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ABOVE: THE MAIN SALON BELOW: GUEST AREA COMPANIONWAY

Design & Style of the Living Spaces The main salon is quite a big (800sqm) open-plan space with a wet bar, dining area, lounge area and cinema/big-screen projected TV in the four quadrants of the room, which also holds cards and games tables. It’s a very casual but useable space that opens up to an equally large (900sqm) al fresco area on the aft deck complete with solar blinds and windbreaks so that the owner can leave the doors open and use the whole space as one large living and entertainment area. The sundeck, above the main salon, features an observation lounge forward (above the wheelhouse), which is a luxurious space with a Portuguese bridge forward with a sun seat that’s conceived and designed entirely for the enjoyment of scenery outside. Directly aft of the observation lounge is the Jacuzzi and gym area, which can be enclosed by sliding doors. Aft of this is the helideck/sundeck.

impressive. Because of its vertical distance from the engine room, it’s also very quiet. Aft are the owner’s balcony and his office, which offer commanding views of the surrounding scenery. The desk area in the office is atop a 22cm riser so that when he’s at his desk, the owner can see out of the windows clearly – a key consideration in the original designs. Forward is the bedroom and bathroom, where large skylights above the bed and bathtub (a nearly one-tonne half-orb of carved limestone) continue the theme of visual access to the natural world outside. Flemming points out that while it’s unusual on yachts for the owner to have the top deck, it’s essentially a penthouse. “The owner deserves the best view in the house,” he says. This owner is used to the sea, so for him, concerns of movement weren’t an issue. “The owner is used to conditions that one would normally associate with delivery crews,” Probst points out, “so he’s totally fine with it.”

The top deck on the vessel, is

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The Bridge The finish on the bridge is sleek and well-designed. The wheelhouse is both wide and long, being on the same level as the salon, with two decks above it. The captain and his first officer had gone up to Kongsberg to train on the integrated bridge and dynamic positioning systems and then the Kongsberg people came down to work with the team to get the layout Probst wanted. There’s a walkaround feature forward of the main control screens and consoles enabling easy access to the back of the consoles, and fold-out wing stations that are integrated into the bulwarks of the bridge deck with conning screens tied into the bridge and camera interfaces. AV/IT & Lighting Pegaso is a media platform, and as such has a heavy-duty set-up for video editing capabilities, including an AV/IT room with independent air conditioning for, among other equipment, the Apple Mac Pro server running Final Cut Pro. There’s a 9 Gigabit fibre-optic link between

the editing lab and the office in the owner’s suite, (that network is also run to each cabin). Wireless is via a Cisco frequency-boosted radiating cable throughout the vessel.

ABOVE: OWNER’S STATEROOM, WITH SKYLIGHT BELOW: sky lounge bottom: owner’s companionway

The owner is a Mac guy, so all the lights, blinds, air conditioning, sound system, exterior door locks are controlled by iPad, with the work done by AVIT in Palma and the electromechanical control done by KNX – an IP driven control system that’s being deployed aboard a vessel for the first time on Pegaso. MTN is supporting both C and Ku-Band VSAT systems on Pegaso, which will provide the vessel with global coverage, with the exception of the poles. MTN will also be hosting a fixed TVRO system at its Miramar facility in Florida, enabling Pegaso to stream premium cable networks via satellite to the vessel’s onboard TVs. The Engine Room The resounding feature of the engine room is the commercial standard in which it is designed and constructed. >>

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SPECIFICATIONS Shipyard Freire Shipyard, Vigo, Spain Freire project number C700 Construction start date October 2007 Launch date 17 March, 2010 Delivery date 8 September, 2011 (final completion of post-delivery works, November 2011) DESIGN

This was where Freire engineering was able to proceed without as much yachtdesign direction as elsewhere, and it’s clear by the size and robust look and feel of valves and other general components. Pegaso is running two Caterpillar 3516C engines providing 4700kW through a pair of Reintjes LAF 1173L gearboxes to the Berg 4-blade variable-pitch props. She has a pair of Quantum QC-2200XT 9m2 zero-speed stabilisers, and (as of this writing) replacement Van der Velden EPS thrusters, 400kW in the bow and two 250kW at the stern. There are three main generators (Caterpillar C-18s with 450kW) in the engine room and an emergency generator (another C-18 at 275kW) concealed starboard aft on the sundeck.

CONCLUSION “This wasn’t the typical case of a shipyard that gets involved in this kind of project and goes bankrupt after delivery because the numbers didn’t fit at all,” Freire said. “Our expectations for the budget were certainly better, but the real numbers aren’t bad.” There’s a lot the yard learned during the build of Pegaso, and Freire believes there are plenty of reductions in cost that could be applied to a similar kind of vessel. The yard spent hours of engineering and production time that wouldn’t need to be repeated. “I think we would produce a second Pegaso-type vessel at the same price, but at reduced cost.” Freire said that the Freire family and the shipyard in Vigo want to take the Pegaso experience and continue to develop their ability to produce highquality oceanographic yachts. Prior to

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2008, the yard was actively shopping its services to the yachting community, “but when the crisis came, everything was different,” Freire explained, with a sigh familiar to the breadth of the industry. “Once orders were cancelled at the big yacht shipyards, and space was available again there, it became very difficult for us to compete. But we had Pegaso.” Owners and brokers who read and hear about this remarkable project can only know that the owner had placed his trust in the yard. They have yet to see the final product and judge for themselves whether the yard is up to the standards they expect. Shortly before this article went to print, the owner, team and yard decided not to try to rush the final stages of the yacht’s completion and proceed to the Monaco Yacht Show. Instead, they chose to complete the project in the spirit that it was conceived, and will continue to be run and operated: with an audacious confidence in the idea, and as a legacy for a pioneering captain and friend. The partnership of the Pegaso team and the Freire shipyard looks set to continue, in the knowledge that once fully operational, this boat will attract all and sundry with her lithe looks and powerful capabilities. She is, with little doubt, bound for fame. Both the Pegaso team and the Freire shipyard are now, finally, ready to show the superyacht world what they can do. At TSR, we’re standing by for her completion and will be bringing you updates on her and her itinerary as they become available. g

Hull lines BMT Nigel Gee & Associates Naval Architect Sermarine SL Design concept Pegaso Marine Interior styling Mark Berryman Design Ltd Exterior Styling Andy Moore Design Flag Malta Classification Lloyd’s 100 A1 (research vessel) ICE Class 1D +LMC +CSS, UMS, MCA LY2 unlimited LOA 73.6m (241’) Beam 13.2m (43’) Draught 3.8m (12’) Gross tonnage 2,059 tonnes PERFORMANCE Cruising speed 14.5kt Maximum speed 18kt Maximum range 10,000 nautical miles (14.5kt) TANKAGE Fuel tanks 342,690 litres Water tanks 67,610 litres Images: Pegaso Marine and Chou Pesqueira. To comment on this article, email [email protected] with subject: Pegaso

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THE BLACK SUBMARINE Pegaso’s owner was so passionate about undersea exploration, he signed the contract on this five-person diver-lockout VAS submarine before the contract for Pegaso.

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he technology and pedigree of the VAS submarine are highly impressive. Built in the industrial heart of Italy by Dr Giunio Santi, a Renaissance man with 35 years’ experience building submarines for global military and industrial applications, the VAS is the ultimate ocean explorer’s tool: she’s fast (six knots), efficient (eight hours mission time), safe (96 hours life-support, RINA classed and CISR compliant) and smart (distortion free optics, side scan sonar, HD camera systems, sub-to-diver communications, iPod stereo, and WiFi). Divers can exit the submarine underwater, conduct a dive and re-enter the submarine again, decompressing in a dry environment with the submarine underway. And she’s obsidian black. “It’s not the easiest colour, but it’s the sexiest by far,” Sean Dooley of Nautilus, the company that provided the sub to Pegaso explained, laughing. “A lot of smaller submarines are painted international distress orange because it is easy to see. The client wanted black and, underwater, it’s going to be just epic. This submarine is going to look amazing in a picture surrounded by sharks or next to a shipwreck.” And while the media buzzes about Branson, Cameron and Schmidt planning dives nearly seven miles down to the dark and cold Challenger Deep, Pegaso’s owner will be exploring the vibrant and colourful waters of the undersea world from inside, and outside, his submarine.

THE DIVER LOCKOUT Using technology perfected over the last 35 years for the military, the diver-lockout design is a key feature of this sub: it enables divers to exit the submarine through a side hatch and conduct their dive. Guests enter the lockout compartment from the main passenger compartment through a watertight bulkhead that, when closed, creates two separate environments. The forward chamber contains all the electronics and batteries, is always dry, and remains at one atmosphere

(1ATM) of air pressure. The diver lockout is designed to accommodate three divers with rebreather equipment and cameras. When fully flooded, the top third of the chamber remains an airspace, allowing divers to speak to one another prior to diving. There are shelves to hold sandwiches and bottled water for the divers to have post-dive or during any required decompression time. Upon completing the dive, the divers re-enter the flooded lockout chamber and close the side hatch. Seawater is pumped out, allowing the divers to remove their gear and begin their ‘ascent’ in comfort and safety. Since dive computers measure pressure, either dry or wet, the divers slowly adjust the internal air pressure inside the submarine to replicate an in-water ascent. The ability to manage the internal pressure of the diver lockout chamber allows it to serve double-duty as a recompression chamber.

The VAS ingeniously solves any issues of distortion by using flat optics, which produce a true viewing experience for the passengers...“Seeing a true image is not only the main point of being in a submarine, but is also a major safety issue when you are piloting in close proximity to objects or using manipulators.”

The owner of Pegaso is an expert rebreather diver, and will be using mixed gas in his future deeper dives. Deeper depths increase the risk of decompression illness, but with the integrated recompression options of the VAS, the safety of divers is optimised – ideal for an owner who will be conducting three-hour dives in remote locations. The lockout chamber drains quickly, shedding the weight of water from the sub, which is then able to surface from the dive for any reason. Once at the surface, passengers can disembark from the forward compartment while the divers remain safely under pressure. There is a manual back-up pumping system for safety.

ZERO-DISTORTION OPTICS Probably the most obvious, and yet very clever, feature of the VAS is its windows. Having your own sub means being able to travel through and see, firsthand, the undersea environment. Therefore, maximum consideration should be placed on the ability of the passenger to view sea life in its truest form. The majority of submarine designs use curved, hemispheric acrylic for their viewports or pressure hulls; but the laws of optics need to be respected as much underwater as in

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air: a hemispheric window with water on one side and air on the other acts exactly like an optical lens, distorting the path of light.

BRING ON THE SCIENCE The owner of Pegaso, whose passion for undersea exploration is riveted into every feature of the yacht’s concept and design, wanted to provide access to the vessel and her capabilities to ocean conservation groups. So he hired Ocean Preservation Alliance (OPA), founded by Sean Dooley and Bryce Groark, to act as their bridge to the ocean science and exploration communities. The yacht chooses a region and OPA then asks their science and exploration partners: “What important work can we achieve in this location?” Options are collected, reviewed and presented for final selection based on merit and interest to the owner. OPA then provides coordination and logistics to ensure the expedition – whether for wildlife and habitat research, submarine and diving operations, surveying marine protected areas, seabed mapping, historical shipwreck location or documentary and other media production – is efficiently organised and executed. “OPA is about getting the owner and crew involved in the process of ocean science and exploration,” Groark said. “When it is personal and exciting and relevant, people begin to realise they can make a difference.” OPA has decades of diving experience and has led expeditions around the globe with superyacht owners. “We realised that connecting with, and ultimately bringing, scientists on expedition enriched the owner’s experience,” Dooley said. “The owners and the scientists both loved it: a real win-win.”

The VAS ingeniously solves any issues of distortion by using flat optics, which produce a true viewing experience for the passengers. The VAS’s main forward viewing window is a flat 1.4m acrylic optic at 20cm thick (costing about e60k) and, like the smaller flat windows along the sub’s side, is protected by acrylic protectors embedded in the sub’s exterior hydrodynamic envelope. As Dooley pointed out, “Seeing a true image is not only the main point of being in a submarine, but is also a major safety issue when you are piloting in close proximity to objects or using manipulators.”

Since Pegaso’s mission is ocean diving and exploration, a larger than standard team of divers and pilots has been selected to support the submarine. Max Depth

The manufacturer of the VAS can make submarines that can go as deep as 2,000m; however, the Pegaso team preferred to build their submarine within the guidelines provided by the US Navy diving manual (the global gold standard for diving). According to the manual, the maximum depth for a mixed gas rebreather diver is 170m, which means that’s the maximum safe depth Pegaso can send a diver to physically assist the submarine. One issue that any submarine must consider is entanglement, and while the VAS has jettisonable fins and prop, there is no substitute to physically sending a diver down to visually evaluate and assist in untangling the submarine. “And besides,” Dooley

There are thousands of conservation and research projects waiting to happen. “For scientists, getting to sea usually involves months of grant applications, scheduling and politicking,” Dooley said. “We offer them a path that cuts through all of that, and we end up having access to world-class projects and people as a result.” OPA have worked with several yachts on these types of expeditions in the past, but many are not interested in the limelight and ask to remain anonymous. “The owner of Pegaso is one client who has given us full permission to share their experience and help give OPA an exciting, visible platform,” Groark said. “It’s a beautiful match.”

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pointed out, “at 170m, even in the clearest water in the world, you wouldn’t see much without big lights.”

SAFETY Setting the maximum depth at 170m was one operational advantage that Dooley and his team employed to ensure the safety of the guests and crew. From a mechanical perspective there are no safety ‘options’ on the VAS, as the decision was made from the beginning to include all safety systems as standard. The VAS is equipped with a 250m spectra cable (with breaking strength 10 times the diving weight of VAS) attached to a buoy containing an EPIRB (distress beacon)and a strobe that can be launched from within the sub in an emergency. This emergency equipment provides divers a guide straight down to the submarine, and can be used to pull the VAS to the surface using the yacht’s windlass. As further back-up, Dooley claims his team can scramble a rescue operation that can be at the sub anywhere in the world within 36 hours. All of this safety and rescue planning is required to properly insure the submarine and its occupants.

LOADING & OFF-LOADING The design of the VAS enables guests to board her when she is sitting in the water. The VAS is the only submarine offering stairs, as opposed to a ladder, for an easier and more elegant entry and exit. The stairs were originally designed to unload six commandos,

their weapons and an inflatable in less than 60 seconds. The advantage of not spilling a cocktail upon entry seems like a more likely application. Its 14gt weight and freeboard push surface waves around the submarine, preventing the typical surge up and down of a tender. Once launched, it can be set up at the swim platform for guests to board, it can be towed to the dive site (max tow speed is eight knots) or it can drive to the dive site under its own power and wait on the surface for the guests to arrive. At the swim platform, where there can be significant difference in movement, a ‘horseshoe’ collar – a three-sided surface float made of same material as RIBs – can be used to pull the VAS to the surface using the mother ship’s windlass. Once on the dive site, the owner and his guests can arrive in a tender, pull up next to it, step on the submarine and be down on the dive site in minutes. Once the dive is completed, the submarine can return to the surface and the guests can jump into their tender or simply board the yacht and have lunch and relax.

DRIVING IT Learning to drive the submarine requires the completion of a fourweek pilot’s course, partially done in the 60,000-gallon test tank at the factory and the remainder done at sea. Since Pegaso’s mission is ocean diving and exploration, a larger than standard team of divers and pilots has been selected to support the submarine. The owner is also scheduled to get his pilot rating in the

The stairs were originally designed to unload six commandos, their weapons and an inflatable in less than 60 seconds. The advantage of not spilling a cocktail upon entry seems like a more likely application.

MANSON SUPERYACHT COLLECTION • Sizes 10 - 4300 kg • Stainless or galvanised • Six different type approved Superyacht anchors in range • Handcrafted in New Zealand since 1972

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[email protected] | www.mansonanchors.com FORT LAUDERDALE: 754 Builders tent. METS: 02.222 Hall 2 TSR128 pp90-97 Pegaso Sub final dm'd.indd 95

BOWMASTER BOLLARDS

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[email protected] | www.bowmaster.co.nz FORT LAUDERDALE: 754 Builders tent. METS: 02.222 Hall 2 06/10/2011 16:05

yacht report | The black submarine

A Luxury Version (VAS LE) A new 130m+ yacht is taking delivery of a luxury version of the VAS in a few months. This model replaces the diver lockout with an enormous central lounge to provide a relaxing area for passengers. All the sub’s batteries were moved aft to provide a large forward passenger compartment featuring an enclosed bathroom, minibar and two refrigerators. The interior is by a well-known Italian design firm. Dooley believes this luxury version will comprise the majority of future orders, as most people aren’t technical divers and “would just want to go for the ride to see the marine environment from a navigable undersea lounge”. Nautilus is currently developing a 10m, eight-person luxury VAS design for a 90m+ vessel.

Systems are centralised and routed through the onboard computer, which allows the pilot and passengers to view up to four monitors of systems information and underwater camera angles.

VAS, and he will likely have the luxury of getting his final ocean training in the south Pacific. The interior of a submarine is compact and finite. There is always a certain amount of equipment that has to be incorporated into the available space, and the challenge is to keep it ergonomic, comfortable and efficient. The analogy to car interior design is very apt, and indeed the VAS utilises seating based on the SmartCar seats. With their comfort and low volume, the decision was unanimous to adapt them into the design. The design of the VAS interior places a strong emphasis on streamlining and simplifying, at least to the observer. Many control systems are centralised and routed through the onboard computer, which allows the pilot and passengers to view up to four monitors of systems information and/or underwater camera angles. Making one valve perform the functions of four required a lot of design and customisation, but like a high-end automobile, the beauty is in the details. Steering is ‘fly-by-wire’, with two joysticks providing steady and smooth operation. The VAS utilises a complex proprietary system of sea-water and fixed-weight ballast and foam and air-bank buoyancy, all of which can be either electronically or manually

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controlled (every electronic system on the VAS has a manual counterpart for safety). The ballast system allows the VAS to adjust its pitch and roll underwater to maximise viewing options. For instance, when the VAS is hovering above a shipwreck, an adjustment of the system enables the sub to pitch down and roll sideways to allow guests to clearly see below them while comfortably still in their seats. The VAS aboard Pegaso will enable an entire family to participate in a truly unique and adventurous underwater excursion. The ocean is an integral component of yachting; being able to explore the world beneath the hull seems only natural. g

Images: Nautilus To comment on this article, email [email protected] with subject: The black submarine

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SPECIFICATIONS Dimensions/Weights 8.4m L, 2.5m H, 2.5m W, 14 metric tonnes (displacement 14.9 tonnes). Interior standing height of 1.8m. Certification/Classification RINA Capacity Five persons (up to three divers for lockout). Operations 525ft (170m) maximum operating depth, 200ft (60m) maximum diver lockout depth. Eight-hour mission time with 96-hour emergency life support. Six knots top speed 25 nautical miles capable range Manipulator and high-definition u/w video cameracapable. (The Pegaso team is adding these in 2012 to allow for the very latest available technology.) Special Features Diver lockout Zero-distortion optics Emergency surface buoy Side scan sonar: for mapping the seabed and/or looking for wrecks. Underwater communications: Ability to communicate with surface (tender and/or mothership) and divers outside the VAS. WiFi: Why not? Useful for an owner who wants to check his e-mails between dives without leaving the VAS. (VAS has to be within 1,000m range of Pegaso or the support tender.) Price Current pricing for a VAS like Pegaso’s is approximately €5 million.

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Numptia The choice of a relatively unknown designer and shipyard was a brave decision for an owner determined to build his fully custom 70m yacht in Italy. The result has drawn accolades throughout the industry, confirming his faith and all the time that he invested in the Numptia project. The owner talked about the project with Jason Holtom.

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It is refreshing to hear about a relatively unknown Italian yard and unknown interior designer producing a significant large yacht of obvious quality and elegant style that was developed as a total custom project.

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t was interesting to listen to the favourable comments at the Monaco Yacht Show from respected yachting professionals who had been aboard the recently launched 70m Numptia, built by Rossinavi in Viareggio. In an age when the leading yards seem to be mostly promoting concept yachts drawn by the well established designers or semi-custom series designs, it is refreshing to hear about a relatively unknown Italian yard and unknown interior designer producing a significant large yacht of obvious quality and elegant style that was developed as a total custom project. The lead in this case was an Italianborn owner from the USA who had a very clear vision of what he wanted and was willing to put in the necessary time to achieve his desires. Hearing that Numptia’s owner had spent over a week of every month in Italy over the 38-month build, preceded by an exhaustive nine-month development period prior to signing the contract, it is easy to see that this is not the route to yacht ownership that would suit every superyacht buyer, even if they could spare the time.

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A WORK OF PASSION ‘Passion’ is the word that seems most appropriate when describing the build of Numptia, and when TSR was shown around the yacht in Naples by her owner it became clear why. “Naples is my hometown; this is where I was born. I left here for America as a young boy when I was 14 years old. Which explains why I chose to build Numptia in Italy,” he declared with an infectious laugh and clearly proud smile. Lying serenely at anchor in the early morning on a mirror-glass sea off the Neapolitan coast, the clean flowing continuous longitudinal, vertical and transverse curves of the upper decks lend softness to the profile with the slope of the dark blue sheer line of the hull amidships curving gently down towards the sea. It is not surprising, surrounded by his friends and family, that this owner is justifiably proud and emotional about his return to his hometown with such a major statement of achievement, not just in yacht building, but also in his life. And the passion is not just for Numptia, but also for Italy. After a

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period of chartering, he built his first yacht, a 61.3m, at CRN in Ancona in 2000, with Paolo Scanu exterior styling and a François Zuretti interior. Surprisingly, he sold her just a year later when showing her for charter at the Monaco Yacht Show. “A gentleman came onboard and asked the captain would I be interested in selling? Within two weeks the gentleman owned the boat. Yes, it was a profitable venture.” His project manager on the CRN build was Marco Martinelli and it was not until 2007, after he had sold his business, that he decided to build again. “I really wanted a project that would occupy my time and give me the pleasure that I had on the previous build.” Central to this vision was the importance of achieving a totally custom build with a shipyard in Italy. “There are many points of views about the best place to build; Holland, Germany, Italy, the USA. When we look at the machinery onboard it’s all international, the same products. I think there are as fine engineers and electricians in Italy as there are

in Holland or in Germany. It is not just all superbly crafted veneers and marble,” said the owner. “I could not be convinced that in Italy we do not have the skilled labour or the talent to do quality electrical, plumbing, piping, and engineering... in my eyes you can’t tell me that Italy is inferior. And maybe it’s because I was born and raised here; don’t get me wrong, but there are boat-building traditions that go a long way back,” he added.

OPPOSITE: ALL THE OUTDOOR FURNITURE WAS CUSTOM DESIGNED BY SPADOLINI AND BUILT FOR THE SPECIFIC DECK LOCATIONS. TOP: THE SHEER LINE AMIDSHIPS CURVES GENTLY TOWARDS THE SEA. BELOW: SPADOLINI DESIGN DETAIL FOR THE LATERAL STAIRWAY.

PLANNING THE SPACE Martinelli was drafted in again and recommended working up the general arrangement drawings and external styling with Tommaso Spadolini of Florence and naval architecture with Horacio Bozzo of Axis Group Yacht Design in Viareggio for a 60m yacht. The owner was specific in his desire to build a boat that would be comfortable for all the generations of his family. In the interior space planning it was important that the crew could run the yacht efficiently with fast and discrete access to guest accommodation and dedicated service areas on the main and all upper decks including coffee-machines, pantries, fridges >>

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and storage for wine, tableware, linen and glasses. All five decks were to be served by a food lift with a Norwegian carbon filter extractor in the galley to eliminate galley odours. He had started to develop the plans for his first yacht with the late Jon Bannenberg, but the design had not gone ahead, partly because Bannenberg had wanted to build in Australia. He liked the timeless elegance of the design influence of Bannenberg like Carinthia and Limitless and this was the starting brief for the external styling for Spadolini.

“We could have written a book on the mast design alone...”

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Once Spadolini started looking at the owner’s brief for the interior, including the importance of the ease of movement around the yacht with adequate room to pass on the stairways with 1.05m width and a central glass passenger lift serving all the the decks

from the foyer, he realised that the original brief for a 60m yacht was not sufficient and presented a 65m plan. Over the nine months of this initial planning period before the contract was placed with the shipyard, the yacht grew to 70m, just about the largest that would fit in the their shed. When the owner was happy with the interior space, Spadolini developed the exterior styling. “We could have written a book on the mast design alone,” said Spadolini. “We went through 27 different iterations and part of the mast was modelled at 1:1. Around Viareggio, people joke that it is more like a piece of sculpture than a yacht mast. The design of the continuous curves of the upper decks was to create the feel of a gentle cascade of water ‘like the Trevi Fountain in Rome’. We built a 1:50 scale model, around two metres >>

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long, that we used to develop the lines,” he added. At all stages, the owner was always thinking about the details of the space and was asking for very small and often subtle changes, for just about every part. “He was from the US and was thinking in inches, and we were in centimetres. This was a big problem,” said Spadolini, laughing.

“There was no compromise on achieving the very best technical specification,” said Bozzo. “The owner was as involved with every detail of the engine room layout and equipment as he was with the guest accommodation.”

“He was a very demanding client, but he was willing to give us a minimum of one week a month, in Florence, or Rome or Viareggio, to work together, which is perfect for the architect because then there is a very short time from asking the question to receiving the answer,” said Spadolini. “I finished a 45m in Spain last July, and I only saw the owner three times in two and a half years and he always said ‘you decide’. There was no stimulus for my work. It is far more satisfying to work with a demanding client.” At the same time, Horacio Bozzo was working on the hull design and the engineering specification. “There was no compromise on achieving the very best technical specification,” said Bozzo. “The owner was as involved with every detail of the engine room layout and equipment as he was with the guest accommodation.” The project involved totally original naval architecture with careful analysis of the weight distribution of the superstructure and tankage to ensure the correct trim. Stability, seakeeping and performance assessment was studied with tank testing at the INSEAN facility in Rome at 1:5 scale and in the sea trials Numptia achieved 1.5 knots more than the contract specification.

An Italian affair

ABOVE: Salvagni designed chairs with Loro Piana fabric. OPPOSITE TOP: Owner’s study. opposite BELOW: Owner’s chaise longue.

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Parallel with the development of the design was the brief to find an Italian shipyard that would offer the opportunity for full customisation with owner participation and the ability to offer top quality at a fair price. Martinelli recommended Rossinavi, a family-owned Viareggio yard with three brothers that was well established in metal fabrication with over 30 years’ experience building sub-

contract hulls for other shipyards like Codecasa and Benetti. Even though the largest sub-contract hull that they had built was 70m back in 2000, they had only started offering complete yachts in 2007, and the largest they had built was the 53.2m M/Y South in 2008. Fortunately, the owner found immediate rapport with commercial director Claudio Rossi. “Mr Rossi is a boat builder, knowledgeable, everything goes through his fingers, nothing escapes him,” said the owner. “He’s very demanding and at the same time I found him a man of his word; if he told me he would do something he would. Not once did I have the concern that he would skimp – not once did I fear, ‘Oh gee they’re going to try to pull something, let’s keep an eye open.’ It was always: ‘We changed it because we think it’s better’. “Maybe it’s my luck or maybe it’s the fact that I’ve come to these shipyards at the right time” added the owner. “Ferretti purchased CRN and I don’t know if CRN is the same as it used to be. You’re not talking to the shipyard owners anymore, you’re talking to the managers and it’s a whole different approach and I don’t know that I could work well with a yard like that personally.” In order to allay some of the concerns about putting trust in a new yard with a project way larger than they had ever handled before, Martinelli identified all the best sub-contractors in the area. “We met with each sub-contractor individually and when we signed our agreement with Rossi we said ‘These are the sub-contractors that we will accept’,” the owner said. “Ten or 15 years ago if you wanted to build totally custom you could go almost anywhere, but the industry has changed. Everybody wants to standardise their procedures, they want to shorten the timeframe and at the same time streamline the process of building a yacht with the explanation that it will be faster with semi-custom or series lines,” observed the owner. “But in reality, in my opinion, it just reduces their costs and allows them to make more money.

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I think they quote time as an excuse but I don’t think that’s always the case, because construction-wise 70m in 38 months for the fully customised Numptia is not a lot of time,” said the owner. “I think they were all surprised when I went to Rossi. I think if I hadn’t met Mr Rossi I probably wouldn’t have done it. The name on the door doesn’t mean as much to me as having met the man, understanding what he stands for, understanding what his purpose in life is. Of course it’s to make money, but it’s also to produce good quality.” The quality of the Rossinavi workmanship is evident throughout Numptia. In particular, the polished custom stainless-steel work of the oval handrails, the stairs, the bollards and throughout the interior.

A flair for design The unusual approach of hiring new Italian talent also extended to the interior design. The owner specifically did not want to work with a well-established design house. “We all know the names of the big guys. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of them – they’re all wonderful. Martinelli and I talked about it and of course each one comes with a price tag and each one comes with their own baggage,” said the owner. “These people have had so much success, adding one more yacht to their list isn’t going to change their life. So we felt that we would like to work with a new upcoming designer, who would add value with enthusiasm and go that extra half mile. >> THE SUPERYACHT REPORT | ISSUE 128

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“In this project we tried to melt together the contemporary sensation with the classical evocation.”

TOP: A sinuous stainless-steel-topped bar for pre/post dinner drinks links the main saloon with the formal dining room entered through wide metal wrought sliding doors. BELOW: The huge day bed for the cinema lounge.

“Marco Martinelli suggested Achille Salvagni for the interior. He’s young and works in Rome. I think what really motivated me is when I went to his office and I saw what he had done with almost an antique space. He’d designed it with mezzanine levels. I walked in and I thought, ‘some pretty talented guy’.” Salvagni had only limited yacht experience having only worked on the refit of a 47m and designed the interiors for some semi-production Otams and Canados motoryachts up to 35m. There is no doubt, however, that it is the inspiration of Salvagni’s designs that has produced some of the most admiring comments and the accolades that Numptia will no doubt receive in the future. At the same time contemporary, the interior has a feeling of quiet, calm and timelessness that is very hard to describe. “I feel that my projects should not just be for a client, but also designed around a client,” said Salvagni. “I knew the owner was used to a much more classical style and I did not want to lose this feeling

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he had in this environment, but at the same time he understood that nowadays the luxury style and the sense of wellbeing are not exactly connected with classicism, but connected with something that makes you feel good. “In this project we tried to melt together the contemporary sensation with the classical evocation. So around the boat you will find some pieces of art or furniture that remind you of an earlier age and some evoke what the future could be and together they create a balance of calm and quietness. The goal was to reach an everlasting ageless theme. Big toys are very strictly linked to momentary emotions and their moment can easily pass. I did not want this boat to pass. I very much wanted to design something that would last over time, which was why I tried to merge the eras to create the right balance,” said Salvagni. “All pieces of art and furniture have been expressly designed for this boat with the echoes of the past and the future in terms of wellbeing, in terms >>

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Everywhere the very best materials are used, from the solid marble in the steam bath to the ultra-hard-wearing quartz floors, harder than granite, in the galley that will not mark or stain.

of textiles, materials and vision,” added Salvagni. Every single piece of furniture and artwork, lamp and door handle, bed and basin, table, chair and sofa, even the door hinges, has been custom designed for Numptia. Salvagni’s studio created over 10,000 3D renderings for the project, refining each piece with the owner, sometimes over 100 times before it was finally signed off. These are complemented by the finest custom silk carpets woven in Tibet and Loro Piana cashmere, silk and velvet fabrics for the custom designed chairs, sofas and beds. The overall feeling is calm, relaxing and understated, there is nothing ornate or over embellished. All the wood is solid teak or ebony with no wood veneers. Everywhere the very best materials are used, from the solid marble in the steam bath to the ultra-hard-wearing quartz floors, harder than granite, in the galley that will not mark or stain. An element of industrial finesse is introduced with the 12-seat oval dining table covered in riveted alpaca nickel silver, looking like the polished wing of a spitfire. In his pursuit for the very best quality

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and advanced technology, the owner specified LED lighting throughout, which reduces power consumption and heat at considerable cost. Even though not a great enthusiast for watching TV, the owner contracted Videoworks of Ancona to install a state-of-the-art entertainment system with central Kaleidescape audio/video on demand server and iPad room controls. The very large owner’s suite forward on the main deck is a haven of peace and relaxation with a perfectly dimensioned office leading through to the bedroom divided into a reading area to starboard, central sleeping area and television area with comfortable chaise longues to port. Forward, there is a white bathroom with bronze ceiling panels and a free-standing oval bath carved out of a solid piece of white marble. On the bridge deck the captain has a dedicated chart, radio room and office with solid ebony desk. The bridge itself has distortion-free curved windows and a walk-around helm console and guest sofa to enjoy observing the yacht in action. Above the bridge Numptia has a

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dedicated spa deck with hair dressing salon, massage room, gym, marble Turkish bath, sauna and restaurant bar with both fore and aft sunbathing areas. This is sure to be a popular spot for charter guests. At the top, the combined pool deck and party deck has an infinity pool with powerful stimulating overhead fountain showers and hot tub underwater pressure jets. The forward part is a touch-and-go helipad and sunbathing area which can be converted into a disco with built-in lighting. Like the interior, all the deck furniture was custom designed, with different themes on each deck with teak and stainless steel and built-in hidden under-lighting.

Total commitment Every new build project is different. An owner’s input can vary greatly depending on the available time, energy, passion and experience. In the case of Numptia, a truly committed owner was willing to personally put in the necessary hours and days to achieve a totally unique, totally custom design with an all Italian team. He put his trust and confidence in a

relatively young yard and designer and then forged a relationship that has produced a remarkably accomplished 70m yacht in just 38 months. The whole team pushed itself to achieve the highest quality, often in disregard for the hours involved. The owner gave them a fantastic opportunity to excel, to showcase their talents, and was willing to take the risk and to back them with his time and money. What he expected and received in exchange was 110 per cent commitment, great value and premium quality.

LEFT PAGE: Owner’s suite king size bed. Central passenger lift serving all five decks. Note the symmetry in the design with the fan shape brushed marble flooring mirroring the teak ceiling. ABOVE: Detail of owner’s private dressing room.

“I will always be grateful to the owner because he gave me the chance and trusted me,” said Salvagni. “It took at least four or five times the hours I expected. At a certain point I understood that this was my occasion. I did what I needed to do to be seen in the large-yacht market. I was simply astonished by the seriousness of this man and realised that he was the right person for me to take a chance.” g An interview with Numptia’s owner follows on page 112.

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An interview with Numptia’s owner Having tasted the heights of working with the genius of the late Jon Bannenberg, the owner of Numptia was looking for something very special with his second new build. Jason Holtom talked to him aboard Numptia about shipyards, designers and conventional wisdom and just why he was so determined to create an all-Italian masterpiece and why he was willing to commit so much of his own time to the project. Where was your first cruise on Numptia?

Were you chartering slightly larger boats each time?

Did you go back to any particular boats?

The yacht picked us up in Porto Cervo and we cruised the Sardinian waters and then to Naples, where I was born.

Yes, slightly bigger. I think the first one that I’d been on was maybe a 100-footer (30.48m) and then we tried a 40m and 50m after that.

No, I think at the time we were looking to experience chartering and wanted to try different boats.

And your previous boat was also built in Italy by CRN in Ancona and before that you chartered?

Yes. A friend of mine introduced me to yachting a long time ago. It was the most relaxing vacation that I’ve ever had. I didn’t pack, unpack, run here and run there. I just sat and cruised the Caribbean. I think everything looks much better from the water.

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“I love the opportunity to sit down with a piece of paper and a pencil and start to begin something special.”

So were you looking at the charter brochures and did you say, “Oh, we like this one”?

Of course. You start off by looking at brochures and at the time I was new to the market and didn’t understand much more than what you see in the picture and sometimes the pictures cannot tell the whole story.

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And were you studying the boats technically at the same time?

Exactly. Every time we’ve been onboard I was always thinking: “Wouldn’t it be nice to own a yacht”. One year we were vacationing in Sardinia and I saw this yacht come in to the harbour and I said, “What a wonderful yacht. Tonight we’ll go down to the harbour and take a look at it up close”. So when I was flying back home I bought a yachting magazine and I saw the very same yacht being advertised for sale. When I looked at the boat I knew it wasn’t for me. It was a nice boat, it looked good but it needed a lot of love and care. We kept looking at different yachts. And at the end of the day we found a yacht that my wife and I liked, built by CRN in Ancona. I said “I will buy this yacht but we will need to bring it back to the CRN shipyard and plan on doing some renovation.” When I got to the shipyard the owner made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse he said “I will build you a new one.” Then we started looking for designers and that’s how we met Jon Bannenberg. I’d seen one of his boats in Holland called Cleopatra C [1985 built 57m Amels ex-My Gail III, Ed] – a beautiful rounded stern yacht. So I went to London and met him. I said, “Jon, can you build a traditional classic yacht?” We went to see one of the yachts that he was working on at Devonport in the UK (Talitha G) and I was convinced that we were in good hands so we engaged him. I felt I had reached the top. I really enjoyed the experience of working with him. He wanted to build the yacht in Australia and I wanted to build it in Italy so we did not proceed. George Nicholson, the broker and a close friend with the owner of CRN, agreed to oversee the construction with our project manager, Marco Martinelli who is a long time friend. Paolo Scanu picked up the project from Jon Bannenberg for the naval architecture and external styling and we brought in François Zuretti for the interior. So there was a very nice team of people. >>

Rossinavi – the builder

Rossi was established by three brothers in the 1970s in Viareggio as a metal fabrication facility. In the 1980s they built inland and coastal commercial passenger vessels and started to build sub-contract steel and aluminium hulls and superstructures for other shipyards in the Viareggio area including Codecasa and Benetti. The sub-contract work expanded into supplying piping and engineering. They have supplied 12 motoryachts between 38m and 72m to local yards. In 2007 the brothers established the Rossinavi brand and started to build under their own name. The largest complete project before Numptia was the 53.2m M/Y South launched in 2008. Currently under construction under the Rossinavi brand are two steel yachts; a 45m yard number FR024 and a 46m yard number FR025, both due for delivery in mid 2012. These will be followed in early 2013 by two aluminium yachts, the 48m Ketos FR026 and 47m Prince Shark, yard number FR027. TSR: Why has the yard changed from sub-contractor to new build? Rossinavi: The change happened because of our healthy ambition. We started to become so big that we were no longer as competitive as smaller suppliers. We understood, at a certain point, that we were building ships almost in their entirety and so we didn’t find a reason to not convert our activity. TSR: What size would you like to/are able to build? Rossinavi: Currently, we are focused on construction under the 500 tonnes GRT limit, ideally with yachts of about 45m to 48m with interior volumes that are used ‘to the brim’, up to the last cubic metre. We have the capacity to build up to 75m. TSR: How did the yard become involved with the Numptia project? Rossinavi: The client asked his project manager to find a shipyard that offered full customisation, flexibility and the possibility for the owner to take an active part in the project and we were that shipyard. rossinavi.it

For more on Rossinavi, please see Justin Ratcliffe’s special report on the yard (issue 122, page 79) of TSR.

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So you were quite determined to build in Italy at this stage?

There are many points of view about the best place to build; Holland, Germany, Italy, the USA. When we look at the machinery onboard, it’s all international – the same products. I think there are as fine engineers and electricians in Italy as there are in Holland or in Germany. And maybe it’s because I was born and raised in Italy, that I chose to build there, but there are boat building traditions in Italy that go back a long way. So you had the enjoyable experience of four years building the first Numptia at CRN? [61.3m now renamed New Sunrise, Ed]. Why did you sell her so quickly?

We used her for family cruising the first year and we were thinking of chartering the second year, so Burgess said: “Let’s have the boat at the 2001 Monaco Show.” We went there and a gentleman came onboard and said “Would the owner be interested in selling?” So what was it? Was there a profit in it or was it that you wanted to make a change?

Yes, it was a profitable venture.

“Mr Rossi is a boat builder, knowledgeable, he’s got his hands right into the company, everything goes through his fingers nothing escapes him. He’s very frugal, he’s very careful with his money. He’s very demanding, and at the same time I found him a man of his word; if he told me he would do something he would.”

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You’ve just spent four years building your ‘dream boat’ and then you sell it?

Yes, I am an individual who enjoys the challenge of building and creating. I love the opportunity to sit down with paper and a pencil and start designing something special. So, finally after another 10 years of chartering, you decided to build another boat?

I was involved in business, quite frankly the time wasn’t available, but as soon as I retired I said, “I’m going to do it again”. I had a wonderful experience in Italy. I met some great people;– the technicians, architects and craftsmen. Maybe it’s my luck or maybe it’s the fact that I’ve come to these shipyards at the right time. Ferretti purchased CRN and I don’t know if CRN is the same as it used to be. You’re not talking to the shipyard owners anymore, you’re talking to the managers and it’s a whole different approach and I don’t know that I

could work well with a yard like that personally. So when you started looking to build a new boat what was the process? Did you start with the size first or the designer or the yard?

Marco Martinelli said, “I really think Fratelli Rossi would be the right people to work with.” Mr [Claudio] Rossi is a knowledgeable boat builder, he’s hands-on and everything goes through his fingers nothing escapes him. He’s very frugal and fair. He’s very demanding and I found him to be a man of his word; if he told me he would do something he did. And not once did I have a concern or the fear that he would skimp. It was always “We changed it because we think its better.” And that’s the way it should be done and it was that kind of a relationship that just grew and grew. Martinelli identified all the best subcontractors in the area; electrical, plumbing, HVAC. Having knowledge of construction, if you have the right subcontractors you will build a good product. They will advise you if you are doing is wrong. We met with each sub-contractor individually, and when we signed our agreement with Rossi, we said: “These are the sub-contractors that we will accept.” Did you get the job priced at a Dutch yard or at CRN, or did you just carry on this route completely by yourself?

Ten or 15 years ago if you wanted to build totally custom, you could go almost anywhere, but the industry has changed. Everybody wants to standardise their procedures, they want to shorten the timeframe, and at the same time streamline the process of building a yacht with the explanation that it will be faster with semi-custom or series lines. But in reality, in my opinion it just reduces their costs. Construction of a 70m yacht in 38 months for the fully customised Numptia is not a lot of time. I wanted to build in Italy, I wanted to build with Martinelli, I wanted to build in Viareggio and I wanted fully custom and, at the end of the day, we didn’t have too many choices.

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But did you go and talk to some of these other yards at all?

No. I had met them previously on other occasions. I think if I had not met Mr Rossi I probably wouldn’t have done it. The name on the door doesn’t mean as much to me as having met the man, understand what he stands for, understand what his purpose in business is. Of course it’s to make money, but it’s also to produce great yachts. Were you on a fixed-contract price or did you work out an agreed cost-plusprofit level and how did you price the change orders?

I would say at the end of the day this was a combination of fixed and cost plus. Because there were quite a number of design elements which weren’t clear at the beginning. If we don’t know what the carpet is going to be we can’t fix the price on that. The important thing is to be fair to the shipyard, at the same time protecting your interest.

“I have a pretty good mind for looking at space and looking at dimensions and feeling comfortable or uncomfortable and can say, “It’s too tight, there’s not enough room”. Space planning is perhaps one of my best strengths.” And at the end, did you feel it was a fair deal? Were you both happy with the result?

I think so. I would gladly go back and build with these people again. They’re gentlemen; they are men of their word. And they delivered 110 per cent of what they told me. They always said, “I wish I had more clients like you who knew what they wanted.” Were you managing to make decisions on your side quickly enough for them?

One hundred per cent. I think that’s part of the advantage that we brought to this scenario. That’s why you could build a boat like this in the number of months that we did. I would come to the shipyard for a week or more almost every month.

And we’d go right into meetings and we’d talk about the smallest thing, whether it is a colour or a detail. We would spend from morning ‘til late afternoon, the architects would come in, samples are brought in, things to discuss, renderings are produced, and decisions are made.

Achille Salvagni – The interior designer

And so you didn’t keep changing the design?

There was always time for reevaluating but once you make a final decision you have to let it go and hope you made the right one. I have a pretty good eye for looking at space and dimensions and feeling comfortable or uncomfortable. I can say “It’s too tight. There’s not enough room.” How has your business experience helped in this process?

I have built restaurants in my business life. You have to appeal to the senses and aesthetics, this is a huge part of why we choose a restaurant. I think if you’re creating a 70m yacht you really have an opportunity to create something special and out of the ordinary. Sometimes when designers are working on behalf of a shipyard creating a new model they go through a process called ‘value engineering’. Value engineering is what can we take away to save money, so value engineering is the danger point. Because then you start reducing what the architect meant to do – this is too expensive, we can’t afford to do that or you’ve got to get rid of this curve because it adds so many hours of labour. And that value engineering to me is what reduces the value of what some of these architects are capable of doing. When we started on the exterior styling of the yacht with Spadolini. We said: “OK, what are some of the yachts that we like? What are some of the yachts out there that we appreciate and admire?” A couple of them came up; Limitless and Carinthia.

Achille Salvagni was at university in Rome and completed his masters degree in Stockholm. After working in London with architects Hopkins Architects (formerly Michael Hopkins and Partners), he moved back to Italy and opened his own design office in Rome and has nine staff. His design work is primarily residential commissions. The first marine design in 2004 was for the Canados 116 Mikymar. He has completed interiors on the Canados 76, 86 and Open 90 also the Otam 58 and 65 HT. In 2007, he worked on the refit of the 47m M/Y Out and has completed 15 yacht projects. salvagniarchitetti.net

At what stage did you bring your interior designer in?

Martinelli was very instrumental putting this team together and suggested Salvagni for the interior. He’s young and very creative. He also has an office in Rome. I think what >>

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Superbly polished Rossinavi stainless-steel fabrication of the Spadolini designed rail and stairways.

really motivated me is when I went to his office and I saw what he had done with an antique space. He’d designed it with mezzanine levels. I walked in and I was very impressed. You just went completely on your own feeling with a relatively new designer. You did not talk to the main design houses or think of going back to François Zuretti again?

We all know the names of the big guys. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of them– they’re all wonderful, they’re all great. They have been so successful; adding one more yacht to their list isn’t going to change their reputation. So we felt that we would like to work with a new upcoming designer, who would add value with enthusiasm and go that extra half mile. Who signed off the boat as it progressed?

Martinelli did it as the project manager and Sparkman Stephens from New York came in on a quarterly basis as an independent surveyor.

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How does the warranty work?

For the most part, we have a two-year warranty from the shipyard. For the first season we agreed to stay in the Mediterranean to allow easy access for the yard. How do you look at the running costs of owning such a large investment?

These costs are no secret. You know upfront what it will cost to staff a yacht with 18 crew. And if you want highly qualified people, you have to pay them well. The running costs are the running costs. The fuel, the oil, the insurance and, of course, the maintenance. At this point, maintenance is low because we’re under warranty and everything is brand new. But we all know that in four or five years we have a whole list of work that will have to be done. So how did you go through the process of finding a captain after a 10-year break?

Captain John King came through Burgess and they now manage the yacht and the crew. Our focus has been to have a five-star ship with

experienced crew. We interviewed four at the end and we chose one. John had the experience that I wanted in the charter world. And what made you go for the choice for this captain?

I think its chemistry number one between two people. I think it’s very important and I feel I can communicate well with John. Did you get involved in the rest of the crew selection?

No, John did, once John came onboard he worked with Burgess in recruiting the entire crew. We were only involved in the principal positions like the chief steward, the chef and the engineer. As you have been in the restaurant business you could perhaps have found the chef yourself?

No, because a yachting chef is different from a chef on land. I would never hire somebody who’s a chef on land. They’re not used to the confined contd on page 120

>>

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clockwise from top left: Bridge deck cinema lounge with 103” screen. Owner’s bathroom with solid white marble bath. Spiralling stairway between decks in stainless steel made in-house by Rossinavi. Restaurant area forward on the spa deck. Docking helm station.

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clockwise from top left: The design of the radar mast went through 27 iterations. Docking console. Bridge with walk around helm console. guest observation seating & curved glass. Rossinavi bollard. Skydeck with infinity spa pool, bar & disco lighting.

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quarters. They’re used to working their hours and going home at night. This is a particular lifestyle. Once I hired what I thought was a top chef from Siena and I had nothing but problems. Great chef, but he was threatening to quit every other day. Do you feel that charter guests put more pressure on the crew than the owner in their expectations?

Honestly, I don’t know. I think for the crew having the owner onboard must be the most pressure because everything is much more personal when we’re onboard. We expect everything to function 100 per cent. Especially if you have built the yacht yourself. Charter guests might be more preoccupied with having a good time than getting into all the details of the operation of the yacht. I would imagine that a lot of people we attract are people who’ve been onboard these yachts before and they know what’s good service and what the facilities should be like. I think that that’s without doubt a part of the expectations. J

An interview with Numptia’s captain follows on page 123.

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Captain John King interview When looking for a captain, the owner of Numptia was specifically looking for someone who had charter experience and enjoyed looking after guests. With a full complement of 18 crew, Captain John King explained to TSR why he prefers skippering a charter yacht. The owner was very keen to build in Italy?

He believes in Italy, he believes in Italian engineering. He’s very proud of his Italian roots and he wanted to have as much Italian input as he could. And that’s paid off, I think. I’m not an Italian, but this yacht has completely changed my view of what Italian shipyards can do. He has personally driven the build from the very start and he’s been in attendance regularly in the yard. And he was in attendance for the last two months of the build, so his personal stamp is everywhere. OK, we’ve had the interior designers and the exterior designers do the work but it’s his vision, absolutely his vision. He has been involved in every decision. How have the first sea miles worked?

As you would expect we’ve had teething troubles with things that you don’t know until you use them. We’ve got pretty standard 3516 Caterpillars and three Caterpillar C9 generators. All proven technology everywhere and it has been well installed. Rossinavi have been very proactive, their men came with us from Malta back to Port Cervo and two people were waiting on the dock when we arrived at Naples. Burgess put you forward because of your charter experience?

I was captain of Samar [77m Devonport, Ed] before this. She’s now with Burgess but she was with Frasers at the time. And otherwise, I’ve always been a Burgess captain. I was on Indian Empress, a 95m, who’s

chartering, but she is converting this summer to a full SOLAS passenger ship so I think she can take 34 or 36 guests. And I don’t have a passenger ship licence, I have a yacht licence. Indian Empress was over 3,000 tonnes, but Isle of Man was happy for me to take charge because I’d come from the navy where I’d been captain of much larger vessels. Isle of Man didn’t have an issue with the size, as long as she was a still classed as a yacht. Do you prefer working on a charter yacht?

Yes, I do. Keeping private crew motivated and occupied is more difficult. It’s much better to get charter crew, particularly the younger crew, because they all want sea time because they all want my job. Sitting in a port somewhere polishing is not going to get them anywhere – the quality people need to be active, they want to get their tickets and move up in the world.

“Enthusiasm is infectious, you know. If we are enthusiastic, the charter guests become enthusiastic very quickly and we are particularly at this moment very blessed to be in this industry.”

What form was the interview with the owner?

He was in Marco Martinelli’s office in Viareggio, so I was flown down to Viareggio and I spent about two hours with him and we had lunch. He was interested in the ability to organise a team and the general ability to make people feel at ease, at home, welcomed. He relayed some charter experiences where the boat was beautiful but every time he asked for something there was a sort of a wince from the crew, and it was all a bit difficult. And he couldn’t wait to get off it. He said, “It’s all wrong that I’d paid

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a fortune to go on this beautiful boat for a week, and then I was made to feel uncomfortable.” The attitude of the crew does come from the captain, absolutely. And sometimes you forget and sometimes say something unguarded and I find that it’s affected the crew. So as a captain you should never underestimate that the crew subconsciously completely follow your lead. Enthusiasm is infectious, you know. If we are enthusiastic, the charter guests become enthusiastic very quickly and we are particularly at this moment very blessed to be in this industry. So how did you go about selecting the rest of the crew?

All my crew decisions go through Burgess. They helped me find a lot of them; seven crew have come because I asked them to come – they followed me from other boats. The owner specifically wanted to interview the chefs and the chief steward. So we put the candidates forward to him and he personally chose them. The owner said he was quite keen to have a dedicated spa person.

Yes we’re a bit heavy on the interior side for a 70m as we have one girl who’s dedicated to the spa deck which will get used continuously. She will be busy as a massage and beauty therapist. She won’t have time to participate in the

rest of the stewardessing rotation when we’re on charter because for so many charter guests the spa deck is the luxury they’re here for. You went to Malta to change flag from the Caymans to the Isle of Man?

Yes so we’re now imported into the EU. We’re now EU flagged, Isle of Man flagged. The Italian authorities have been unhappy with Cayman Island vessels chartering in Europe. We are told that technically they are wrong but that doesn’t help you if you get arrested and you’re stuck in Naples for three months during the summer. So we’d only just got the certificates from doing our Cayman survey because we’re brand new and then we go down to Malta and we do all our surveys again. They delegate a lot to Lloyd’s so you don’t have to do absolutely everything again but it’s quite a long, convoluted and expensive process nonetheless. The owner did not want bureaucracy to in anyway inhibit our ability to charter. Your first charter is from Naples for one week. What are the plans?

We will cruise locally. So we go from here to Positano, then Capri, Ischia, Ponza, Porto Cervo, Bonifacio – nice, a bit of a milk run, but yes fine. So I’m looking forward to it actually. The guests like going ashore here in Italy. Positano’s very nice for shopping and then there is a great restaurant called Quattro Passi. On the backside of Capri

there is a lovely anchorage for a swim. Then in the evening we come round to the front side of Capri and then they go up the cable car to Capri Town which is high up and they have dinner up there. It’s very much a combination of about half the nights we’re at anchor and half the nights we are in harbour. But you run the fin stabilisers at anchor?

We do, yes. They’re a bit over-powerful with all four. They almost make it a bit jerky, so we’re going to try to get the software changed and just run two, the aft pair only. Do you always fill up with freshwater for the pool on the top deck?

We can do either. We tend to use fresh because the guests like freshwater. Sometimes we will use sea water. The water we make is soft and lathers very well. You can’t make your own water close to harbours because it’s too dirty. And so usually within two miles of the coast we don’t run the watermaker. We were in a harbour in Sardinia for four days because there was a Mistral blowing and at the end of the four days our tanks were full of shore water and when we filled the pool it was slightly yellow. You don’t notice in a glass but when you fill the pool it shows. So that was a bit off-putting. We flushed out two tanks and then refilled them with water out to sea and then of course it became clear again. g

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SPECIFICATIONS

Communications: VSAT, Inmarsat FleetBroadband, GSM

Length: 70.0m (229ft 8”)

Entertainment: Videoworks

Beam: 13.2m (43ft 4”)

Guests: 12 (1 master, 4 double, 1 twin)

Draught: 3.2m (10ft 6”) Displacement: Full load (with extra fuel) 1,333T Gross tonnage: 1,642GT Construction: Steel hull, marine grade aluminum superstructure Year: Built 2011 Builder: Rossinavi, Italy

Crew: 18 Classification: MCA (LY2) compliant, Lloyd’s 100 AI SSC Yacht (p) Mono G6 LMC UMS, RNA Green Plus TENDERS/WATERSPORTS 1 x Colombo Super Indios 24SL (7.2m) (8 guests) 1 x Castoldi Jet (7.1m) (12 guests)

Engines: Caterpillar 2 x 3516B rated 2,525kW/each @ 1,800rpm

1 x NDM rescue tender

Generators: Main 3 x 200kW Caterpillar C9

2 x Sea-Doo Explorer 2 Seabobs

2 x Yamaha VX Cruiser jet skis

Emergency: 1 Caterpillar C4.4 82 ekW Cruising speed: 16 knots (max speed 18.5 knots)

Owner’s Project Manager: Marco Martinelli

Range: 7,500 miles @ 12 knots

Construction Surveyor: Frederic De Clercq, Sparkman & Stephens ,NY

Stabilisers: Zero speed NAIAD 4 x 4.17sqm Air conditioning: Condaria

Naval Architecture: Horacio Bozzo, Axis Group Yacht Design Exterior Styling: Tommaso Spadolini Interior Design: Achille Salvagni

Images: Carlo Borlenghi & Massimo Listri 0511_01_YT_Advertorial_210x147_01_2011_Layout 1 17/05/2011 12:54 Page 1 To comment on this article, email [email protected] with subject: Numptia

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Sailing is a passion, and any opportunity to participate is rarely passed up, even though time is rarely on my side. When Perini Navi’s CEO, Giancarlo Ragnetti, sends a personal invitation to sail at the 2011 Perini Navi Cup in Porto Cervo, it’s impossible to say no. Martin H Redmayne reports.

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C

This has to be one of the most successful brands in the business, and it shows its strength at the Cup.

rystal blue water, azure skies, Sardinian breezes, a dark-hulled fleet of 17 majestic yachts, a few hundred or so equally passionate ‘yachties’, and one of the most exclusive and luxurious yacht clubs on the planet – the perfect equation for a few days of fun and enjoyment. After looking at my agenda, I blocked off the end of August and beginning of September to make sure I was a part of this private gathering. The beauty of the Perini Cup is the people and the players who attend; having seen the variety of cups, buckets and regattas over the years, this one is high up on the list of favourites, owing to the fact that the Perinistas (the team that makes things happen) make everything look effortless. Imagine a gathering of 17 owners, 17+ captains, 17 entourages of friends and

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business contacts of the 17 owners, a dozen or so potential owners, 17 teams of hired race crew, 17 teams of fulltime crew, not to mention a gang of demanding journalists and sponsors, all wanting attention and time with participants in order to get the best stories or exposure. Not knowing how the sponsors got on, but as member of the journalists’ pack, there were several stories floating around the event – and not just the event itself. A regatta/fleet race is neither new nor interesting to the typical reader of a superyacht magazine; it is, rather, the visual feast it offers that is worth publishing – in theory, to inspire and excite with the world of potential in the Perini brand. After all, this has to be one of the most successful brands in the business, and it shows its strength at the Cup. >>

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The spirit of the brand flows through everyone who gets close to any one of the 51 yachts built by this prolific yard and that is always evident by the relationship the Perini management enjoys with the clients and the crew. While racing is the focus of the Perini Cup, we must all be honest with ourselves that these are not the lightweight thoroughbreds that were due to participate at the Rolex Maxis the day after this cup had finished. Perinis are evolving and performing well in today’s regatta market, and with the right handicapping system, they often do well. However, the Perini performance is weather-dependent, and with very light airs, it feels like the yacht can be cruising to a standstill. In fact, on day two, when the everchangeable fickle breeze off Sardinia fluked and flicked the vast sails like laundry, we ended up crossing the line

at less than a few knots of boat speed. It was interesting to see the variety of characters at play throughout this gentle race, with the various race teams making judgement calls, almost based on dinghy or higherperformance fleets; tacking or gybing in single-digit gusts is painful at best and can take an age. Perhaps the race committee might have considered shorter courses. That aside, spirits remained high and the camaraderie was still positive, with VHF announcements jokingly calling for water at the handful of marks, while the fleet was several hundred metres apart. With sunshine and cold drinks, coupled with good conversation and incredible cuisine, this is racing at its finest, in quality terms. I know the rails hardly submerge themselves and the deck >> team invariably rely on pushing

The spirit of the brand flows through everyone who gets close to any one of the 51 yachts built by this prolific yard and that is always evident by the relationship the Perini management enjoys with the clients and the crew.

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buttons from the cockpit, but when the breeze climbs to double digits, and the fleet comes closer together, you feel a level of excitement that matches normal yacht racing. At one stage during the race there was a wave of interest from the owner of the yacht I sailed on (name withheld, but you can assume it was a Perini owner). The race ‘hotted’ up to the point that he was down below on the salon deck, working on his laptop and while looking up from the financial screens, could see a fleet of 15 yachts behind him. In fact, he stood up to count them. Once he had worked out the size of the trailing fleet, he almost ran up the teak steps to the flybridge to ask his captain how they were doing. When he realised that they were doing rather well, he decided to stay up top to keep an eye on their success in the fleet. However, after 15 minutes of looking interested, he passed out on the sun pad behind the helm station with his wife for an hour-long snooze, only to wake up when the boom swung to port during a tack, shading the sun from their faces and his wife bemoaned the fact that the UV rays were blocked by the manoeuvre.

>>

When the breeze climbs to double digits, and the fleet comes closer together, you feel a level of excitement that matches normal yacht racing.

This is typical of the variety of the enthusiasms that exist within superyacht regattas: some are absolutely hands on and want to crush their competitors with the heartpounding exhilaration of 11-knot wind speeds that struggle to push the fleet around the course, while others are overheard to say, “Why are we doing this race again?” Without being derogatory, these yachts are never built to race, but cruise the

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globe and explore what the world has to offer: one of the fleet, S/Y Perseus, had just returned from a circumnavigation and made a breakneck passage from Alaska to Porto Cervo, to arrive just before the start of the race. The owner was so proud of the journey, he explained to his friends and guests, that he was the proud owner of a piece of blue-white iceberg in his deep freeze, fresh from the Arctic circle (see below). Perfect for a very exclusive vodka luge, I thought.

The Perini success is to be admired and applauded, the brand is stronger than ever and anyone in the new-build sector should look closely at the way they run their operations and nurture their client relationships. While conditions were never ideal for the Perini Cup, with light airs and pressurised storm clouds building coupled with desert rain leaving streaky, golden abrasive blobs all over the topsides, the spirit of the event never dropped below ‘fun’ on the scale. Even after crossing the finishing line at less than two knots, and queuing for an hour to tie up to the dock at the Yacht Club, yacht teams and guests still found time to fire water bombs or turn up the volume on their music systems to start dancing, polishing and ‘shimmying’ to the sounds of the Beach Boys,

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amongst other tracks. This is what makes the Perini Cup fun and an event to be part of. As a journalist, however, there is more to observe and listen to than just sitting patiently watching the crew call the shots and jockey for position. If every person there that talked about new yachts or building something bigger, better or faster actually follows through with what they said, then Perini Navi’s cup may, indeed, ‘runneth over’.

If every person there that talked about new yachts or building something bigger, better or faster actually follows through with what they said, then Perini Navi’s cup may, indeed, ‘runneth over’.

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The fleet of 51 Perinis will potentially pass the 60-plus mark in the next few years, and having listened to the variety of conversations, 60m-plus will be the favoured new size too – including, we hope, a new 65m Falcon rig, super-efficient project, with plenty of green credentials. Judging by the winning streak that the Maltese Falcon has been on with regattas over the years, it is about time that someone else challenged the ‘big bird’ and built a smaller, faster Falcon. Even though the weather was unkind to the Perinistas and the final day’s racing was called off, the event programme, the high-quality hospitality and the social spirit guaranteed that those fortunate enough to have been part of the event will remain part of the family. While racing is not the current purpose of the Perini fleet, it is apparent that things are changing, and when one

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hears that contracts are being drawn up with speed clauses inserted to the effect that ‘this has to be the fastest Perini ever built’, one can see that they have formed a bond with their owners to stay within the family and not hunt out lighter-weight performance builders in the Baltic region and southern hemisphere. The Perini success is to be admired and applauded, the brand is stronger than ever and anyone in the new-build sector should look closely at the way they run their operations and nurture their client relationships; it really makes good business sense, and even better products for the future. Here’s to more Perini Navi Cups. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if one sprung up on the horizon in US or Caribbean waters, judging by the plans of the Aga Khan and his yacht club franchise, and the number of US clients Perini attracts. If I’m invited, I’ll be there. J Images: Perini Navi & Justin Ratcliffe To comment on this article, email [email protected] with subject: Perini Cup

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The 20-year solution

For the best part of the past two years the J-Class JK4, better known as Endeavour, has been out of the public eye, undergoing a major refit at Yachting Developments in New Zealand. Twenty-one years after her restoration at Royal Huisman the iconic yacht was in need of a major refit to upgrade her systems and ensure her smooth running over the coming 20 years. Ellie Brade reports.

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Owning a yacht like Endeavour is also like owning a tangible piece of living yacht history. Imagine, then, the pressure on the refit team to get this project right.

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ny 18-month refit is a demanding task, but when the refit is on a classic yacht that is nearly 80 years old, the challenges for the refit team are even greater. Working with Yachting Developments on the project was an extremely experienced international team, led by Jon Barrett, who has been in an owner’s project management role on the yacht for 25 years now, and Simon Lacey, captain of Endeavour. Design work was undertaken by Dykstra & Partners, who worked on the 1989 refit, and who played a big role in the design of the new sail plan, deck layout and structural engineering. Interior design was by John Munford Design, also a veteran of the 1989 refit, together with Adam Lay. Endeavour needs little introduction, but by way of a short history, she was built in England by Camper & Nicholsons, having been commissioned by Sir T.O.M. Sopwith to challenge for the America’s Cup in 1934. She enjoyed an illustrious racing career, despite never actually

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winning the Cup, up until the onset of the second world war, and was laid up in 1938. She subsequently passed through many hands over the next half century. Throughout this time she was left in varying states of disrepair and in the 1970s even sank in the Medina on the Isle of Wight. Endeavour’s redemption came in 1984 when she was bought by American Elizabeth Meyer, who undertook the gargantuan task of restoring Endeavour, in a five-year project carried out by Royal Huisman. At the time of Meyer’s purchase Endeavour was little more than a wreck, with no keel, rudder, ballast or interior. Her relaunch in 1989 after this huge undertaking of work by the yard team saw her sailing again for the first time in over 50 years and is seen by many as the inspiration for the revival of interest in classic yachts. Her very existence today is due to the remarkable commitment made by Meyer, whose efforts were lauded in May 2011 when she received the Legacy Award at the World Superyacht Awards.

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Since 1989 Endeavour has logged over 214,000nm and is a well-known figure on the sailing-yacht circuit. Indeed, growing up, we had a J Steven Dews painting of Endeavour racing Velsheda off the Needles on the wall. Although my family wall is by no means a yardstick of international yacht notoriety, she is a yacht I have always known about and, like me, many, many people around the world know and love her. The current owner himself grew up admiring Endeavour, one of the reported reasons behind his desire to purchase her. Owning a yacht like Endeavour is also like owning a tangible piece of living yacht history. Imagine, then, the pressure on the refit team to get this project right. After being sold by Meyer in 2000, Endeavour, was then sold on again in 2006 to her current owner who, according to Lacey, will “never, ever, ever sell”. Over the first four years of ownership the owner spent time getting to know and enjoying the yacht. There was always the knowledge that a refit would have to be undertaken eventually,

and Lacey, who joined the yacht in 2008, began to prepare a provisional list of work that same year. “That list just kept on growing,” said Lacey. “The main factors that necessitated such a major refit were the 20-year-old technology through the deck, the large amount of use the yacht had undergone over the previous 20 years and the number of leaks through the deck. Together these combined to make a lot of work needing to be done.”

As it was such a specialised refit, the five yards that were approached to quote on the refit were all experts in classic and J-Class yachts.

With the decision to commit to a refit made, it was set in stone that the owner wanted the refit completed and the yacht back in Europe in time for the 2012 J-Class regattas alongside the Olympics. This timeframe left the team a workable amount of time to complete the project in, even accounting for a possible extension of the time the yacht was in the yard. Six months prior to the start of the refit, the management team endeavoured to put together a detailed full spec document of the refit work with costs and timings to make sure there >> would be no hidden surprises or

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cost escalations once the refit was underway. The only real unknown was the level of corrosion to the steel, which couldn’t be calculated until Endeavour was out of the water [in the end, the corrosion impacted the refit schedule very little and the two-month extension of the refit work, from 16 to 18 months, was mostly due to the need to carry out steel structural stiffening to accommodate the increased loads and new load paths. Ed]. With the contract finalised with Yachting Developments (YD), Endeavour was lifted from the water and arrived at the yard in February 2010.

The intention of this refit was to see Endeavour through at least 20 years more active use, without another major refit needing to be undertaken before then. Thus, every piece of the work on the list was undertaken with this in mind. On the yard selection process, “A refit of this size meant that there was a limited number of yards that were able to undertake the project to choose from,” said Lacey. As it was such a specialised refit, the five yards that were approached to quote on the refit were all experts in classic and J-Class yachts. “In the end we went with Yachting Developments. Ian [Cook, MD of Yachting Developments] is so passionate about classic yachts: this shone through and won the owner’s heart.” Cook himself owns the 18.3m classic yacht Ranger of Auckland, launched in 1938, which he restored after purchasing her. Touring the yacht with the refit team, the phrase “20-year solution” came up many times. Twenty-one years on from her 1989 relaunch, the intention of this refit was to see Endeavour through at least 20 years more active use, without another major refit needing to be undertaken before then. Thus, every piece of the work on the list was undertaken with this in mind. If a piece of equipment would

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deck structure necessitated had to be carried out with some of the existing interior fittings in place, which was a big challenge for the team. The forestay chainplates and foundation were relocated, due to the new and more powerful rigging.

All of the steelwork that the changed deck structure necessitated had to be carried out with the existing interior fittings in place, which was a big challenge for the team.

only last five years, it was flagged and something with more longevity considered instead. The list of work done across the yacht is extensive. More than 80,000 manhours have gone into the project, and 40 tonnes of material came off the boat throughout the refit. Although a different system from their own, Yachting Developments adopted the yacht’s existing coding system throughout the refit, which helped to keep track of everything and meant that some of the original drawings were still applicable. Once out of the water the hull was refaired: there was remarkably little steel on the hull plating to replace and the team looked closely at where the leaks were and eliminated the holes by welding, rather than bolting, in fittings. The headstay was made longer, with the headstay load increasing from 14 tonnes maximum weight load (MWL) to 23 tonnes MWL, changing the whole of the deck structure. Previously, Endeavour was rigged with upper and lower runners, which required a minimum of four crew to operate during a tack or gybe using manual winches. The new system uses a combined modern runner and checkstay set-up, tensioned by a hydraulic winch, to support the increased headstay loads, meaning it may now be possible for just one person to operate the runners. All of the steelwork that the changed

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A Southern Spars high modulus carbon fibre mast, weighing under three tonnes, has been installed with North Sails 3DL sails. This replaced the old aluminium rig, which was stayed with nitronic rod rigging and a wire headstay that weighed in excess of five tonnes. She will also have cruising sails in addition to her racing set. The height of the new rig was increased to bring it in line with the maximum allowed under the J-Class Association rules. This added a further two metres to the rig height overall but increased the headsail hoists by approximately three metres. The new mast is stayed with EC6 continuous carbon rigging. “We have maintained the history of the boat but also enhanced her performance as well,” said Lacey. “All the other Js have been modernised with carbon rigging, so we have brought her up to date with her peers.” The new mast and deck layout configurations mean that she will now only need seven crew, instead of nine, with simplified sailing being the order. There are now 14 winches, down from 28 before. All winches are hydraulic, by Harken, with some customised deck fittings by Yachting Developments. The halyard winches feature special encoders, which monitor drum speed, providing a boost of pressure in high speed for greater pulling capacity (see side bar on page 155). The Harken deck gear is titanium, which saved some weight. The owner took a real involvement in selecting the deck gear, attending METS 2010, meeting with Peter Harken and going to the Harken factory himself. A custom block design was developed especially for Endeavour: the owner chose an early Harken design, which was then modified slightly. Leaks through the deck of the yacht had caused multiple issues over the years. Where salt water had got into the

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steel, corrosion had set in and and the team wanted to prevent any water getting into the yacht in the future, minimising the elements susceptible to corrosion wherever possible. “You have to treat Endeavour as a submarine,” said Lacey. “She dives through the water when underway so it has to be assumed that everything will get wet when she is in use.” Not helping the situation, her freeboard is just 1.2m, so much smaller than most yachts of her size. Specifically, the ventilation system had historically been a major cause of leaks, with a lot of investment made before the refit trying to address the problems caused. Lacey was keen to get to the bottom of the problems once and for all, and the system has been completely re-engineered to

If classic yacht enthusiasts are alarmed that Endeavour’s charm and history may have been lost in the course of such a major refit, the opposite is the case. remove all chance of water getting into the hull by this route. It had previously been very difficult to keep water out of vents, and one of the solutions that was developed to avoid this was to use the mast, essentially as a submarine tower, for fresh air intake and outtake in the crew area, it being the one structure on the deck that actually goes up high. For this system, the air flows out at the first spreader and is hauled in through the halyard slots. The amount of air that can go up the mast is limited, meaning that there will be some restrictions on the amount of air supply when the yacht is on deep-sea delivery. Throughout the guest area, the fresh-air make-up and extraction comes through new deck dorades incorporated in the teak superstructure. The engine room ventilation is also through louvred ventilation ducts in the doghouse exterior and deck combing. The complete teak and plywood deck was taken out and replaced. Whilst her sister J Velsheda has a teak deck laid on

aluminium plate, Endeavour’s new deck features transverse steel beams, with two layers of plywood and then teak on top. The plywood has been sealed with epoxy and e glass, making it extremely waterproof. The old deck structure had aluminium upstands on to the steel deck, which also caused huge corrosion but now, with the plywood/ epoxy deck, the glass fibre extrusion upstands can be laminated on to the plywood layer, keeping the water out. Endeavour’s owner took a keen interest in the whole aesthetic look of the yacht, requesting that the aerodynamics be as simple and clean as possible. The yacht now has a much cleaner look and in an attempt to return her to original look the dorades and cowling have been removed from the forward deck. At the owner’s request, concealed hatches were fitted, which helped to declutter the decks; the use of carbon hatches also means the number of elements able to corrode and let water in has again been reduced. If classic yacht enthusiasts are alarmed that Endeavour’s charm and history may have been lost in the course of such a major refit, the opposite is the case. “During the refit great care has been taken to preserve the historical integrity of the vessel,” said Cook. Although changes have been made, the entire process was very sympathetic to her origins, something that was as important to Cook and the Yachting Developments team as it was to the owner. “When planning the refit, the owner told us: ‘Don’t remove every last dent, I don’t want the boat to lose her character’,” said Lacey. For example, the owner’s cabin in the interior, which is in the style of an Edwardian gentleman’s club, was left unchanged from the 1989 Munford original. Although the style and trim were maintained, 2,000 hours of joinery work went into refurbishing and restoring the owner’s cabin alone. The only major change to the owner’s cabin design was the installation of a shower, as in the original plans, in place of the bath that was previously in the owner’s heads. To ensure continuity, Munford was once again contracted to work on the crew

Endeavour’s Winch Encoders Following her refit Endeavour will feature a new technology: winch encoders that, when the yacht is in racing mode, monitor drum speed and accordingly boost the load pressure to obtain maximum speed and pulling force in higher gears. The team working on Endeavour had conceived the idea of such a system as a useful tool. Fortuitously, Harken had been working on plans for a similar system for some time. The installation of the system onboard Endeavour is the first time it has been put in place onboard a superyacht. A manual control to achieve the same ends had been considered, but it was concluded that this would rely too much on the operator being an expert. Should the encoder break or become faulty, control will automatically revert to the standard winch control system. How does the encoder work? When race mode is engaged, an electro-mechanical device, called a rotary encoder, or shaft encoder, reads and monitors the speed of the winch. Once the encoder establishes that the RPM of the winch are well within the speed of first gear, it allows an increase of oil flow to keep the winch running faster at higher loads. When the encoder registers that the winch has changed into a lower gear, and is therefore running significantly slower, the pressure is then automatically reduced to prevent the winch gears from overloading at the higher torques. Why use an encoder? In high speed, when using the winch to raise the spinnaker, the objective is, of course, to get the sail up as fast as possible. Normal hydraulic pressure for the load the winch is rated for in its lowest gear is not sufficient to raise the sails to the top of the mast fast enough. By knowing specifically which gear the winch is in (via the encoder) it is possible to make sure the winch only has pressure applied that is appropriate to the gear it is in. This ensures the winch is performing to the maximum, and appropriately to the gear it is in, rather than always being limited to the loads of the lowest gear. With thanks to Peter Harken

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area redesign, together with Adam Lay, to ensure the entire interior worked together. Liking the 1930s’ look, the owner also requested that an aft butterfly hatch be added to the main deck, and a replica of the 1934 helm pedestal installed, replacing the three more modern pedestals that were there previously. A major piece of work was the refitting of the crew area, which the owner hadn’t liked, and forward of Frame 31 was completely gutted in order to make the area more comfortable for the full time crew. Previously, the bowthruster had run through the space, with no crew mess and just a table forward. Now everything has been placed below the floor, including the auxiliary systems. Yachting Developments used a 3D model to visualise where everything should fit in the underfloor space, much like fitting together a jigsaw puzzle. The owner had requested a separate laundry area and twin cabins for the crew, as previously there were just eight cots forward. The new twin cabins are convertible, with the centre bulkhead able to be removed to create one large space. Ten layouts of the galley/crew area were designed; the yard went to build on version eight and then along the way changed to versions nine, then 10, which incorporated a slightly changed galley. The current layout is not too different from the original, but with more space and counters. Now during racing there is the option to have three spinnakers, one stored in the crew mess, one stored in the crew cabins (with bulkhead out) and one below the flush hatch above the crew area. “It is a big bonus to be able to store the spinnaker below deck when racing,” said Lacey, who is clearly looking forward to getting Endeavour into action on the racing scene. There is now also enough space to repack a spinnaker in the crew area, making the whole racing process much easier. The complete deckhead was replaced to be more

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We think about theM all the tiMe, So You Don’t haVe to. Poorly planned and managed yard periods, accidents and incidents on board, crew disharmony and replacement, unplanned downtime from badly maintained machinery can all add to running costs.

The engine room has been stripped back and everything reinstalled, with the owner’s engineer working with the build team throughout the refit.

Svitzer provide management and shore support services for large, busy superyachts.

accessible, fresh and new. It now can be easily removed without damaging the paintwork. The large winch buckets take up a lot of the deckhead space, which is all steel still, but utilising glass fibre to make complex ducting to fit around the new steelwork. “This was a bonus of working with Yachting Developments, who were very good at creating composite housings in awkward shapes,” said Lacey. Many parts that were previously rotting have now been replaced with composite to prevent this recurring. The engine room has been completely stripped back and everything reinstalled, with the owner’s engineer Kat Bruce working with the build team throughout the refit. Every system onboard the yacht, bar the propeller, was replaced. A completely new rudder was also built, and improvements were also made to to the propeller aperture. The ventilation system again provided challenges and ducting was added to improve airflow. The amount of absolute hydraulic power has been increased: originally there was a DC system in place, now there is an AC powered pump for small hydraulic operations but three Power Take Off (PTO) Pumps mounted onto the main engine and genset diesel engines, which can all be used in race mode. A Scania engine has replaced the CAT that was installed previously, with power-to-weight ratio a large driving factor in this decision. The traction system of the reduction gearbox is already designed to have hydraulic power take offs, so the model fits very well with the requirements for hydraulic power. A branch system, rather than ring main system, will power zones of the yacht, rather than the whole yacht, also reducing noise. The team worked with Marshall Day, a NZ based acoustic consultancy, and created better sound shields which were installed around the generators as part of an initiative to reduce noise onboard. A PLCbased Vessel Control and Monitoring System (VCAM) from Kiwi company Cervina was also installed. Cervina and YD also designed the entire new electrical

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system, a major factor of the whole refit, which had to incorporate some wiring which was still integral to the guest area and remained intact. The black- and grey-water systems have been changed, utilising a polyethylene composite tank tank with stainless-steel top. Previously, the black-water system was based on holding tanks that needed dockside pump outs on a regular basis. Now, a sewage treatment plant, compliant with MARPOL requirements, has been added to allow for longer independent cruising in coastal areas where permitted. One final new feature on the yacht, which has been promised as the biggest surprise of the refit, will be seen at the

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top of Endeavour’s mast. No more can be revealed for now, but suffice to say fans of Endeavour should look to the tip of her mast when they see her next. Endeavour’s relaunch took place on 8 October. With the conclusion of the project near, Cook described working on Endeavour as: “an honour. She is something very special, everyone involved has put their heart and soul into the refit, I think the care and passion are very evident in the end result.” Barrett, too, is pleased with the outcome of the project: “I am proud to see Endeavour back in first-class shape again. She was put into beautiful shape 22 years ago, time took its toll, and now we got to do it again. It’s an amazing

thing, she looks better than ever.” The yacht is now undergoing two months of sea trials, before spending a month cruising around New Zealand. She will then board the Dockwise to Florida in February before making her way to the UK in time for the Olympic regattas where, in her full glory, she will be racing against her sister Js once again. The legacy continues.  Images: Yoichi Yabe/Endeavour and Yachting Developments. To comment on this article, email [email protected] with subject: Endeavour – the 20-year solution

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