Yachts International Winter 2021

turn on, tune in and enjoy the show

kwooton@aimmedia.com The America’s Cup is a whole new game—again. After decades of effort, those behind the Cup have completed a task once perceived to be impossible. They’ve transformed Cup racing from an arcane, participantcentric enterprise into a thrilling, must-watch spectator sport that even the uninitiated can understand and enjoy. When I started working for yacht magazines in the late ’80s, I’d already been a Cup fan for a decade, although I preferred—and still do—the more laid-back varieties of the sport such as cruising and performance day sailing. But, just as motor racing fans love the pinnacle series such as Formula 1 and IndyCar, I loved the Cup. It represented the spearpoint of skill and technology. The first time I watched an America’s Cup regatta live was the 1987 event in Fremantle, Western Australia.…

license to thrill

Standout features include an automotive-style grille in the bow that invokes a sports car aesthetic, and winglike arches that extend and anchor the lines of the raised pilothouse to the main deck. Creating a new flagship is always a challenge, especially for a brand that shares the name of a ballistic missile in an eco-sensitive world. So the pressure was on for the Ferretti Group to outdo the 40-knot Pershing 115, the previous top-of-the-range model, in a way that would favor efficiency and comfort over raw speed. Enter the Pershing 140, which the Ferretti Group Product Strategy Committee (led by Piero Ferrari, son of Enzo) developed alongside the group’s Engineering Department and designer Fulvio De Simoni, who has styled all the Pershings to date. A full 25 feet longer and twice the…

italian spirit, american accent

EIV LOA 160ft. 1in. (48.8 m) BEAM 29ft 2in. (8.9m) DRAFT (full load) 7ft. 6in. (2.29m) CONSTRUCTION aluminum GROSS TONNAGE less than 500 SPEED (max./cruise) 19/15 knots RANGE 3,600 nm @ 10 knots NAVAL ARCHITECTURE Arrabito Naval Architects EXTERIOR DESIGN Team for Design Enrico Gobbi INTERIOR DESIGN Team for Design Enrico Gobbi BUILDER Rossinavi Last year was a bumper year for Rossinavi. EIV (pronounced Eve) was one of three superyachts the custom builder launched in the space of five months, all of them around the 160-foot (50-meter) mark. The racy trideck designed by Enrico Gobbi of Team for Design represented a challenge for the company as it seeks to respond to growing demand from the U.S. for its one-off yachts. “This boat is a step change for Rossinavi,” Federico Rossi, COO of the family-run shipyard, said after the launch of EIV. “With the increasing and significant interest the shipyard is receiving from the American market, we…

turn up the volume

Not many owners would go through the trouble of a new-build project that was a mere 3 inches longer than their first custom build, but there’s more to Dave and Cheryl Copham’s story than length overall. Like most longtime boat owners, the Cophams started small, with a 37-footer. Over the years, their aspirations grew with each yacht, culminating in a fully custom build. With Cor D. Rover, DLBA Naval Architects and Burger Boat Co., they embarked on a three-year project in 2005 that gave them the 101-foot, 6-inch (31-meter) Tò-Kalòn, which they thoroughly enjoyed over 10 years of cruising, including two trips to Europe. But during that decade, their priorities shifted. Performance was the focus of the first Tò-Kalòn. Now in their retirement years, they’re thinking about space and comfort. They wanted…

evolution at sea

Princess Y85 LOA 86ft. (26.2m) BEAM 20ft. 8in. (6.3m) DRAFT (full load) 5ft. 9in. (1.77m) CONSTRUCTION GRP DISPLACEMENT 75.2 tons (approx.) SPEED (max./cruise) 28/25 knots NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND STYLING Bernard Olesinski DESIGN CONSULTANT Pininfarina INTERIOR & EXTERIOR DESIGN Princess Yachts BUILDER Princess Yachts Comparing profile views of the Princess Yachts Y85 and the British builder’s retired Y82, it looks like an artist had a hand in the transformation, redrawing the 82 to blend the superstructure into the hull, and adding sexy, swoopy curves. And that’s pretty much what happened. Princess engaged the Italian design firm Pininfarina to work with British naval architect Bernard Olesinski and the Princess team’s interior and exterior designers. “Most companies have one great designer or design team. Princess has three very talented design houses,” says James Nobel, vice president of Princess Yachts America. The Y85 first appeared in America at the 2019 Palm Beach International Boat Show, where the builder…

enlightened spirit

It’s safe to say that the Spirit 111 Geist is unique, a quality that is a lot rarer than the yachting industry’s love affair with hyperbole might have you believe. Spirit Yachts in the United Kingdom built this modern classic of wood and epoxy. She is a masterpiece of sustainability and a work of art. Gobsmacked is the colloquial British expression that best describes how I felt when I saw her. Geist (German for spirit or ghost) is thought to be the largest wooden sloop built in Britain since the 1930s. She was designed for a European owner in his mid-30s looking to up-size. He is a repeat client of Spirit Yachts, which also built the 54-foot sailing yacht that James Bond steers up the Grand Canal in Venice in the…