FRANK Magazine Issue 2 | Denison Yachting

DENISON YACHTING DEMANDS THE FINEST To Infinity and Beyond Fabien Cousteau on building underwater station Proteus The Eyes of the Canoe The art of celestial navigation is enjoying a starlit revival Ocean Symphony How to silence the noise of humans underwater

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Editor-In-Chief Josh Valoes Editor Julia Zaltzman Art Direction and Design Stuart Tolley Proofreader Marina Nazario Advertising Enquiries Jennifer Welker Peacock

Jen@DenisonYachting.com +1 954 763 3971 Front cover illustration Nathalie Lees

www.NathatlieLees.com Contributors

Juliet Benning, Ellie Brade, Sally Elford, Rachel Ingram, Marilyn Mower, Chadner Navarro, Anna Parini, Josh Sims Transmission Design takes care to ensure that all facts published herein are correct. In the event of any inaccuracy please contact the editor. Any opinion expressed is the honest belief of the author based on all available facts. Comments and facts should not be relied upon by the reader in taking commercial, legal, financial or other decisions.

Articles are by their nature general and specialist advice should always be consulted before any actions are taken.

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Contents Issue 02 10 Crew survey The real-life answers about being crew

12 Frankly speaking Ken Denison takes a retrospective look at where it all began…

14 At the center of it all The essential New River in Florida, a river that almost wasn’t…

20 The illusion of time Watchmaker Maximilian Büsser is unforgiving in both his creativity and views

28 Ocean symphony Human underwater acoustics are causing chaos for ocean creatures…

32

32 To infinity and beyond Meet Fabien Cousteau, the aquanaut who’s building the world’s largest underwater research station

38 Stepping back in time Ever dreamed of following in the footsteps of Indiana Jones?

Then a world of archaeological sites accessible by boat awaits

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46 In vino veritas When oenophiles and quaffers transform interior spaces to house increasingly outlandish wine storage solutions

54 Dive, shoot, sleep, repeat FRANK goes behind the scenes of the work and life of British photographic journalist Will Appleyard

28 32

72 Rock on Architect David Rockwell ponders the serious question: Why does he, like so many other designers, only wear black?

80 The final frontier FRANK MAGAZINE ISSUE 02 FRONT COVER BY NATHALIE LEES

Somewhere inside Silicon Valley, billionaires are planning to live forever. Is it super cool or prone to thaw out?

Contents Issue 02

86 A pink explosion Volcanic wine regions are shaking up the world of rosé with flavorsome minerality, a bit of salinity and a hint of oyster shell

94 The eyes of a canoe In some corners of the world, the old art form of celestial navigation is enjoying a starlit revival

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102 From the galley FRANK asked five seasoned yacht chefs what makes their hearts sing when cooking and for tips on how to keep charter guests smiling with their stomachs

112 Spread your wings Calling all twitchers! Think you’ve seen every flock, wing and nest out there? Think again.

New Zealand’s remote Subantarctic Islands offer remarkable sightings of land and sea birds rarely seen

124 The outer limits A round up of FRANK’s top five extreme sports to get the heart pumping and adrenaline rushing

132 Concept yachts: Friend or foe?

For better or worse, most yacht concepts never come to fruition, leading many to beg the question: Why?

142 Yacht broker survey The real-life answers about post Covid yacht sales

The Survey The Crew IS THE REALITY TELEVISION SHOW BELOW DECK A GOOD REPRESENTATION OF YACHTING?

Crew can make or break an owner or charter guest’s superyacht experience. They’re renowned for delivering exemplary customer service and keeping their opinions to themselves, but what do they really think about the world that they work in? And is all publicity good publicity? FRANK surveyed Denison Yachting representatives to find out.

HOW

OFTEN DO YOU WATCH BELOW DECK? 03% Every day, I’m hooked!

15% I record it and catch up when I can 59% I’ve seen a few episodes 23% I’ve never watched it

IS THE PROGRAM A TRUE

01

DO YOUR GUESTS WATCH BELOW DECK? 03% Yes, they’re obsessed 17% They tune in for a laugh 63% They’ve mentioned it in passing 17% They don’t know what it is

04

10 — 11

02 00% 30% 30% 40%

HAS BELOW DECK HELPED TO BOOST CHARTER INQUIRIES? 42% It’s put yachting on the map 12% It’s tarnished our reputation 46% It’s had no impact

05

03

REFLECTION OF CREW LIFE? It’s like holding up a mirror to 31% my daily life 44% It’s exaggerated but truthful It has a passing resemblance 11% It’s a load of fictional garbage 14%

IS ANY EXPOSURE GOOD EXPOSURE? Absolutely, bring it on At least people are talking about yachting It shows the worst side of yachting No, it’s too removed from reality

WOULD YOU APPEAR AS CREW ON THE SHOW? 21% Yes, it looks like a lot of fun 24% I might consider it 55% Never would I ever

06

Where Members Enjoy a

Safe, Sound and Secure Way of Life.

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Contact us today to discover our unique way of life and to schedule a private showing of your new ocean front estate.

Molly Taylor | Eric Woodward +1 508.524.4633 | +1 305.394.4461 molly@oceanreefclubsir.com | eric@oceanreefclubsir.com

oceanreefclubsir.com Russell Post Licensed Real Estate Broker. Each office is independently owned and operated.

Words Ken Denison Photography Denison Yachting

Frankly speaking

From the very beginning of their boatbuilding career, Frank and Gertrude Denison walked a fine line. Now speaking in his own words, their son Ken Denison reflects on the brave decision to buy a yard and the strength that saw them through.

As the title of this magazine suggests, our publication’s reference to Frank Denison serves as a standard for us to inform and to speak, quite frankly, about all things yachting.

As a preacher friend of mine always says, “The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.”

Frank Denison would often, whether on the shop floor with his crew or in a sales situation with clients, quickly cut to the heart of the matter like a surgeon wielding a scalpel.

While some were offended by his ‘frank’ talk, his intention, I believe, was a reflection of his personality and work ethic that would ultimately credit him to be known as a production genius in large ship and custom yacht construction.

I believe that the success of Broward Marine, as well as the yachts that were built, reflect his basic and core trait. And while custom yacht building certainly can’t be described as a “plain thing”, Frank and Gertrude made sure that, within the basic construction and design of these yachts, there was a simple and understandable design that would allow their owners to enjoy their boats, maintain them and, in the end, continue in this sport of yachting.

They did this by keeping the boat designs manageable and 12 — 13

built with an understanding of how their owners would use and enjoy them.

From the very beginning of their boatbuilding careers, my parents’ baptism into this industry could have easily failed. Almost immediately after buying the yard in 1948, they bid and won a contract for the U.S. and Dutch Navies for seven 144’ minesweepers and four 172’ minesweepers.

Contractually, these had to be launched every 45 days for the smaller class ships and 90 days for the larger ones. Neither of them had experience in this kind of construction, nor did they inherit a workforce that did. Only 25 employees were at the yard when they bought it and it grew by several hundred, along with an equal amount of Navy personnel a year or so after they closed on the yard. Within four years they were the largest employer in Broward County and the largest defense contractor in the state of Florida.

While they were in the middle of this program, John Wells, the preeminent naval architect and yacht designer in the U.S. at that time, visited the yard. He was impressed by the quality of the minesweepers and the workforce that seemed perfect for what would become his design for Elmer

“ The Broward standard was to continually grow to incorporate the latest technologies, designs and layouts.”

Bobst’s ALISA V, a 96’ striking design that would be the largest yacht built in the U.S. since WWII. The same keel and frame designs that were laminated for the Navy served as the yacht’s construction standards. After ALISA V was launched in 1956, the yard used these military service standards for all of its designs moving forward.

For five decades, up until the yard’s sale in 1999, this mantra of “never building the same boat twice” was not about keeping each one different, but rather based on the philosophy that the yard’s ability to refine their product could never grow or stay ahead of the competition without learning how each boat could be improved. While other builders rested on their standards, it was a well-known fact that the Broward standard was to continually grow to incorporate the latest technologies, designs and layouts.

In 1993, it led the yard to hold the largest order book in the world for large yacht construction, the first U.S. yacht builder to receive this distinction.

We hope to bring you more insights in each edition of FRANK, to speak frankly about the industry of yachting and our family’s place in it.

Words Marilyn Mower Photograph Florida Photographic Collection

At the center When Frank and Gertrude Denison purchased the 18 acres of Dooley’s Boatyard on the New River in 1948, they were part of the post-WWII boom that set the city on a path to stardom. The New River has been an essential factor in the city’s success and in no small measure contributes to its economic strength — yet it is a river that almost wasn’t.

of it all 14 — 15

Most rivers are meanderers, flowing great distances to lower ground along ancient natural depressions to lakes or the sea.

On the other hand, the New River is wholly contained in Florida’s Broward County, a factor that is in itself unusual.

And as all of Broward County is just a few feet above sea level, there isn’t much in the way of gravitational flow. The New River is, in geological terms, new, yet much older than the man-made canals and sea walls would suggest.

All South Florida sits on a seeping soft oolitic limestone floor above a giant freshwater aquafer. Historically, freshwater flowed south from the springs of Central Florida to Lake Okeechobee then spread out across a marshy basin called the Everglades – aptly named the River of Grass by Marjory Stoneman Douglas – to drain into the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Over time, the basin began to stand higher than the surrounding sandy loam, retaining significant water.

During heavy rains, it would spill beyond its rim forming creeks and push through weak spots below ground making temporary springs.

For centuries, possibly more than 2,000 years, the original native Glades Culture people, and later the Tequestas, adjusted by living on high spots called hammocks. During one rain period (exactly when is not known because the earliest inhabitants had no written language), the terrified people experienced a prolonged shuddering and shaking of 16 — 17

“ All South Florida sits on a seeping soft oolitic limestone floor above a giant freshwater aquafer.”

the earth and sounds as loud as crashing thunder. When the phenomenon ceased and daylight came, they discovered that, overnight, in front of their huts, was a distinct deep river of clear water flowing toward the coast, creating a sound (a narrow passage of water between the mainland and an island) behind the beach. The Indians called it himmarshee or “new water”. Geologists today agree that it probably did happen overnight due to a shallow earthquake caused by the collapse of the limestone or coral roof of an underground river draining from the Everglades.

But as the entire system was more estuary than river, the meander of the river’s two forks and a smaller stream called the Tarpon River, along with the inlet between the ocean and the sound, shifted almost constantly, much to the chagrin of the Spaniards who tried to fix it on their maps in the 1500s.

It may have first been called Rio Salado (salty river) by the Spanish in 1513, but it was identified as R. Nova on maps dating to 1631. It was a wild thing with surprising fluctuations in depth, whirlpools and eddies indicating submerged springs, and on-again-off-again inlets breaking through the sand barrier anywhere from Hillsborough to Dania Beach under the influence of hurricanes. Its first permanent inlet was not cut until 1930, establishing Port Everglades.

The name Fort Lauderdale came from the structure built to defend white settlers during the Second Seminole

Indian war in 1838 and was named for its commander, Army Maj. William Lauderdale. Despite the fort, for many years the area was simply called New River Camp for the place where travelers gathered waiting to ferry across the river on their way to or from Miami. Frank Stranahan, who arrived in 1893, managed the tent camp near today’s U.S. 1 tunnel where passengers on the mule-drawn wagons on the “hack line” from Lantana to Lemon City (North Miami) spent the night and crossed the new river. A round trip cost $15.

Although the railroad arrived in the 1890s, the first bridge over the New River was not constructed until 1904. Just to the west, Stranahan established his trading post and later his home with his wife, Ivy, which still stands at 335 SE 6th Avenue, the banks of the river being preferable to the mangrove-choked edges of the sound.

Fort Lauderdale seemed to attract people with a cando attitude. When the county told Stranahan it couldn’t afford $500 to build a bridge over the Tarpon River in 1923, Stranahan chided them saying he could build it for $80.

They scoffed and told him to go ahead. So, he did, with one helper, thus establishing western access to the growing town. Cost of materials? $45.

Despite the two bridges, most goods and people traveled by boat. One of the early (1933) boat repair facilities on the river was C.R. Breckenridge Boat Yard and Lauderdale

Yacht Basin, next to the rail line that parallels today’s I-95 bridge. Henry Summerfield, who had sailed from Toledo to Fort Lauderdale, traded his boat for the yard in 1940 and renamed it Summerfields. During WWII he serviced Navy patrol boats, many of which were built at Paul Dooley’s Basin and Dry Dock across the river, which had opened in 1937. Dooley’s delivered 100 ships for the U.S. effort during WWII, from 110-foot sub chasers to harbor patrol and air-sea rescue boats.

Like Summerfield, Bob Cox arrived on his boat in 1946 and discovered that there was no dockage for deep draft sailboats except for the port and one spot at the end of 15th Street where the Navy had a secret torpedo test site. Looking for opportunities, Cox guessed that the city’s waterfront would be lined with homes and docks one day and that the area was a natural for recreational boating. With no fuel docks between Miami and Palm Beach, he saw his opening – establishing a commercial fuel dock at the former torpedo site on what is now called the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) using tanks the Navy had installed. In 1949 he added a boat dealership and more docks. Not only did his Lauderdale Marina become a prominent fueling spot, but his Boston Whaler dealership and service facility was also one of the most successful on the East Coast. Cox served on the City’s Marine Advisory Board and encouraged the city to deepen its shallow canals and build 18 — 19

“ No doubt the largest player in the New River’s maritime development was Frank Denison, who spotted Dooley’s while honeymooning with his wife, Gertrude.”

LUIZ CENT

marinas. A champion of promoting the city as the Yachting Capital of the World, he served as mayor for five years.

No doubt the largest player in the New River’s maritime development was Frank Denison, who spotted Dooley’s while honeymooning with his wife, Gertrude. He bought it and renamed it Broward Marine. Denison, too, obtained a Navy contract from 1950 to 1958 to build minesweepers; he began building yachts in 1956, first using wood and then switching to aluminum. The Denisons built a home on the site and raised their family there. Gertrude started her own business called Yacht Interiors. With Broward Marine launching ever more yachts, an entire network of services and suppliers sprung up in the neighborhood. With so many services and suppliers, Fort Lauderdale became a natural stopover for boats heading to or from the Caribbean.

Most of those countless suppliers were mom-and-pop businesses in the 1950s and ’60s. Cox and other boating pioneers, including the Denisons and the local Evinrude and Chris-Craft dealers, founded the Marine Industries Association in 1961. In 1966, the Bradford family opened hurricane-safe storage and yacht repair just about as far up the south fork as possible. This was followed a few years later by the former boat painter Bob Roscioli, who established the westernmost service facility in 1969. Elmer Strauss, an ex-Pacemaker executive, helped establish a number of those

smaller operations from the 1970s, including Cable Marine, BOW and D.S. Hull.

There were, of course, larger cities and ports in Florida, but the heart of Florida’s marine industry was established on the banks of the New River. The river has seen a lot of changes: yachts and jet skis replaced dugouts and wooden barges. Broward Marine is now Lauderdale Marine Center, one of the largest yacht service facilities in Florida and some of the smaller companies are now corporate-owned.

The Marine Industries Association is now a tri-county organization and the largest marine trade group in the U.S. In Broward County alone, the estimated income from the marine industry is about $9 billion.

After years of neglect, in 1986 the city and county decided to focus on its waterfront roots and work to connect the city’s arts and entertainment district, the historic downtown area and the Las Olas shopping and beach district. The centerpiece was the Riverwalk project, which runs along the New River from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts to the Stranahan House, extending to chic Las Olas Boulevard. The Museum of Art | Fort Lauderdale and the Museum of Discovery and Science became cornerstones of the riverfront rival. Upscale high-rise residential towers followed, making the New River, once again, the center of life in Fort Lauderdale.

Words Rachel Ingram Photograph MB&F

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“Nothing turned out the way I planned it,” says Maximilian Büsser, arguably Switzerland’s most eccentric watchmaker.

As a child, he dreamt of becoming a car designer, but upon studying engineering found it too impersonal and creatively restrictive. Instead, he discovered freedom in the meticulous world of watchmaking.

Büsser founded MB&F in 2005, a brand now synonymous with avant-garde, futuristic timepieces. Every one of his Horological Machines is a wearable work of art designed to stretch the limits of timekeeping, and a love song to himself. “I call them my psychotherapy,” he says. “I revisit my life and craft 3D sculptures that are all about me. It’s very egotistic in its creativity, very exuberant.”

Ranging from the bizarre to the downright whacky, each creation – be it a spaceship, a plane or a panda – is a product of Büsser’s effervescent imagination. A one-man exhibition destined for center stage. Conversely, the Legacy Machines pay homage to the great designs of the past. Though they appear more conventional, they remain far from it. “The watches are my way of saying thank you to the forefathers who created our industry – the 18th and 19th century watchmakers who everyone copies today.”

And then there are the Performance Art exhibits, which showcase the brand’s partnership with selected artisans, such as the MoonMachine with Finnish watchmaker Stephan Sarpaneva, revered for its frog-esque silhouette and innovative complication.

Each piece pushes the boundaries of horology, but Büsser believes his clients are also drawn to the brand’s central philosophies. “The ‘why’ of the company is as important as the ‘what’,” he says. “Our collectors, who we call the ‘tribe’, love what we do because we are the only ones in our field who think and create that way. And that resonates with them.”

Büsser’s story is one of fate, risk and reward. He grew up in Lausanne, amid Switzerland’s exceptional ski slopes.

While carving up snow one day in 1991, a chance encounter with Henry-John Belmont, the then managing director of watch manufacturer Jaeger-LeCoultre, changed the course of his life.

At the time, the global mechanical watch industry was in turmoil. Belmont was leading the recovery of JaegerLeCoultre after coming close to bankruptcy, at the same

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time, Büsser was finishing his masters and contemplating his future.

“Henry-John was someone who took enormous chances with emerging talent. He saw things in me that I didn’t see in myself,” says Büsser. “He asked me: ‘Do you want to be one amongst 200,000 people in a big corporation or one amongst three or four who will save Jaeger-LeCoultre?’ He took a gamble on me, and that gamble changed my life.”

While working under Belmont – who he refers to as his “surrogate dad” – Büsser learned the foundations of his craft. “It was a romantic time for watchmaking,” he says.

“It was all about the product. There was no money, no glitz, no glamor – it was just crazy geeks talking to crazy geeks, and I loved it.”

After seven years, Büsser was approached by Harry Winston Fine Timepieces and offered the role of CEO at the eyebrow-raising age of 31. He joined just before Harry Winston (the brand) was sold and faced the immediate challenge of saving his division from bankruptcy.

“The first 12 months were the hardest year of my life.

It took 18 months just to make the company viable,” he reflects. “And then, from 2000 to 2005, we multiplied the revenue – and the team – by 10.”

It was during this time that Büsser created the branddefining Opus line, now credited for putting Harry Winston on the watch map. The next defining moment came in 2001 when Büsser’s father passed away and he turned to therapy.

24 — 25

26 — 27

“We spoke a lot about regrets and one day I broke down and realized I had sold out. The young, creative artist I’d been as a kid had become a marketeer – I was creating timepieces because I thought they’d sell, not because I liked them.”

Ignited by a fresh sense of ambition, Büsser left Harry Winston and founded MB&F with two guiding principles.

The first, to create without being influenced by what the market wants. “We only create what we love, and we don’t give a flying f**k if people actually like it.” The second, to only work with likeminded people. It’s a belief that inspired the company name, an acronym for ‘Maximilian Büsser and Friends’. “Everyone told me it’s the worst name ever, but I didn’t know how to create a name from ‘Max Büsser and people who share the same values!” he jokes.

Büsser put his savings into the “leap of faith” business, which he ran from his flat. After two “insanely complicated” years, he delivered his first two watches. Fast forward 16 years and Büsser and his team of 30 have created 19 unique movements. These include the new 2021 release of three colorful updated editions of the LM101: the illuminating sapphire-clad HM9 SV; the FlyingT in malachite; and the 10th anniversary edition LMX, featuring a new movement reinterpreting the original LM1 in 3D. In an industry where the meaning of ‘luxury’ has been lost, Büsser believes having creative freedom is a luxury in itself. “The industry has become polarized. On one side, you have miniature, artisanal companies like ours. On the other, you have highly-industrialized companies creating uber-marketed products. The big boys have taken over a large part of the market, which has increasingly become about status. It’s attracted hundreds of thousands of new clients who are not interested in watchmaking. And that’s dangerous because if this new breed of client isn’t interested, it’s difficult for them to understand or recognize quality. If you can’t taste luxury, you’re at risk of being fed all sorts of different foods.”

That said, he hopes the pandemic may inspire a shift in attitude. The last two years were MB&F’s most successful to date: “I think Covid has, in some cases, allowed people to refocus on what’s fundamentally important to them.

Showing off becomes less appealing when in lockdown. It’s also when the real, emotional link to what’s important in your life resurfaces.”

Words Juliet Benning Illustration Sally Elford

Ocean

symphony Human underwater acoustics are causing chaos for ocean creatures, but how do we keep the peace? FRANK dives beneath the waves to find out more about the sound of silence.

When Jacques Cousteau made the pioneering underwater documentary The Silent World in 1956 he brought the colors and sights of the ocean into living rooms around the world.

But despite its ground-breaking progress, scientists now consider the title to be misleading. The planet’s oceans are in fact accompanied by a rich soundtrack. These noises are essential for sustaining marine life and need to be protected.

Professor Steve Simpson has been listening to the sea since he was a young graduate student and is an agent for positive change. “What’s exciting about working on ocean noise pollution is that we’ve identified the problem, we know where it’s coming from and most people producing the noise have an affinity with the ocean and want to do what they can to improve the situation,” he says.

28 — 29

Encouragingly, the sectors contributing the loudest noise often have the best resources, notes Professor Simpson.

“With offshore renewable energy, commercial shipping or the oil and gas industry there are generally lots of engineers who love problem solving and looking for solutions.”

The impact of human noise pollution is generally measured by population sizes for fish or signs of stress in whales and dolphins. An altered soundscape can make animals and fish less aware of their predators and can also have a detrimental impact on breeding, as well as the ability to find suitable habitat.

“Whales can communicate over hundreds of miles as they interact with each other,” says Professor Simpson. “Fish speak by making popping, grunting, whooping and trumpeting

30 — 31

“ Fish speak by making popping, grunting, whooping and trumpeting sounds to warn each other about predators…” sounds to warn each other about predators or calling each other over when they find food. There are breeding songs love songs, even. Sound is essential to their lives.”

With each decade of economic growth, scientists have found a 3.3dB rise in ambient noise levels largely attributed to commercial shipping. What’s encouraging is that the volume can be turned down. In an academic article published in Science entitled ‘The Soundscape of the Anthropocene Ocean’, scientists led by Professor Carlos Duarte discovered that amid the global pandemic a slowdown in trade caused the volume to reduce by around 20%. During lockdowns, the recovery of habitat was dramatic. The report notes that with approximately 58% of the global human population indoors, marine mammals and sharks were observed in previously busy, noisy waterways. “This unusual behavior has been linked to reduced anthropogenic noise during human confinement,” the report states.

In Canada, progress has been made simply by slowing commercial shipping speed limits and creating reduction zones for whales to breed uninterrupted. In recreational yachting, the building of new marinas, as well as noise from engines and water toys, are the main contributors. That said, Professor Simpson has discovered that some marine animals can become habituated and “tune out” noises, such as generators in marinas.

“There are several strategies for tackling marine noise pollution,” he advises. “The first is technological innovation, the second is spatial management and the creation of a buffer zone around sensitive habitat, and the third is temporal. So, if you know there’s a season when noise is going to have an effect, you move the noise elsewhere.”

Simpson has been working with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to create quiet sail and paddle only zones. “We also have a PhD student measuring the acoustics

of sailing regattas, perhaps not from the sailing yachts themselves but from the support and spectator vessels. We’re looking at ways to engage with people who care about the ocean and use high-profile events for promoting best practice.”

Marine species will also benefit from yacht owners demanding increasingly silent yachts, with some shipyards investing in a dedicated acoustic department. Oscar Propulsion is a UK-based environmental technology company engaged in the development of a noise-reducing propeller whereby holes called PressurePores are drilled into the blades to reduce tip vortex cavitation (the noise made by collapsing air bubbles).

The engineering and testing have been carried out together with several of the UK’s leading universities.

Full-scale sea trials have shown a 10dB reduction in noise levels, validating the results from model tests in cavitation tunnels. The impact on efficiency is considered very small, and the option to retrofit propellers on commercial vessels and superyachts is promising.

“We are working with the leading propeller manufacturers, and existing propellers could be made less noisy by drilling them with a carefully calculated pattern of holes,” says Oscar Propulsion director Lars Eikeland. “Ultimately, it’s the ship owners we have to convince.”

In contrast to our global carbon footprint, ocean noise pollution can be dramatically improved in a relatively shortterm future. For a well-managed healthier ocean, Duarte’s report suggests less ship traffic, quieter propellers, floating turbines, quiet AUV and a seafloor-based seismic survey.

“It’s an obvious issue with a fairly obvious solution,” concludes Professor Simpson. “With the desire to change we will see an improvement quickly. I remain optimistic about the ocean. It’s a phenomenal self-healing ecosystem.”

To paraphrase acid jazz group Freak Power, it’s down to us to tune in, not cop out.

Words Fabien Cousteau Photograph Joe Pugliese

To

infinity and beyond

Meet the aquanaut whose family name is the stuff of legend, a whisper on the lips of all who venture out to sea. Fabien Cousteau, the third generation in a family of ocean explorers, spent his childhood summers with his fabled grandfather Jacques, aboard his world-renowned boat CALYPSO. Now, in his own words, he explains the quest he is on to bring about Proteus, the world’s largest and most advanced underwater research station.

32 — 33

→ F abien as a young boy with his grandfather Jacques Cousteau

Something that my grandfather imparted on me, which was a quote that he repeated throughout life, and something that I feel is a philosophy we should all follow, is simply summarized as: “People protect what they love, they love what they understand and they understand what they’re taught.”

By being able to share stories and impassioning people to care about our life support system, we stand to tackle a lot of the problems that we face in today’s society. Today, we don’t have much time left. We’ve been talking about climate change as early as the 1950s and the over consumption of natural resources, but we face some fundamental challenges.

Some estimate that the ocean – our life support system – has an economic value of $24 trillion per year or 5% of global GDP. But in my opinion, that is a gross underestimate because we don’t think about what the ocean really offers us, both tangible and intangible, like every breath that we take, every glass of water that we drink and virtually all of the weather patterns that we are subject to.

We cannot continue to irreversibly damage our planet before we even know what’s there. After all, we’ve explored less than 5% of our ocean world to date. This is Pandora’s Box of life, and yet we haven’t even scratched the surface.

My grandfather built some of the earliest underwater habitats in the 1960s. One of them - Aquarius - was the subject of an Oscar award-winning movie called ‘The World Without Sun’. But those days are long gone. Aquarius is today the only functioning marine laboratory, and it’s over 30-years-old. It’s antiquated and only 400-internal-squarefoot. Today, we have no modern marine habitat to conduct time intensive research. A state-of-the-art marine platform is our missing tool in the toolbox of ocean exploration. After all, you don’t see astronauts flying to space ships that are over 50-years-old. So why are we doing that with the ocean?

We’re dedicating our lives to the next evolutionary step in ocean exploration. That is my vision. I’ve been scuba diving since I was four. I’ve been on countless expeditions since I was seven-years-old, scrubbing the hull of CALYPSO for my summer job and working my way to the night shift at the helm and beyond. But it wasn’t until Mission 31, the longest mission ever to happen at the only under sea marine laboratory Aquarius, that I truly 34 — 35

understood the impact that living and working in our ocean can have and the assets that it brings. One of the biggest challenges is the limit of time underwater and the tangibility of that research onsite.

Proteus is the first underwater habitat that will have a multipurpose use. It’s a platform for collaborations; a public private partnership that allows for us to cater to a number of different entities, from governmental and private, to researchers from all over the world. It’s a platform that enables resident aquanauts to be based at the final frontier.

They can venture forth to conduct their research virtually unlimited, without decompression obligation until the end of the missions.

With Mission 31, we were able to carry out over three years’ scientific research in 31 days. The first Proteus will be installed in two to three years in Curaçao, one of the few remaining pristine, healthy coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean. We’ll be in a marine-protected area and we’ll be able to deploy pristine biodiverse underwater sanctuaries within the islands. We envision multiple Proteus habitats to be strategically placed around the world to create a comprehensive information-gathering platform for our life support system. Proteus will be modular and upgradable, so that we can continually keep up with future demands.

Proteus will be 10 times the size of previous habitats, nearly 4,000 square foot. It will be based at three atmospheres, which is the maximum allowable for a longterm exposure to multiple atmospheres of air, so that we can cater to the largest group of researchers. The state of the art wet and dry labs will be modular themselves so that we can continue to upgrade the internal infrastructure,

Images from Mission 31, the longest mission ever to happen to date at the under sea marine laboratory Aquarius

CHRISTOPHER MARKS, FRANCIS CHOI,

“People protect what they love, they love what they understand and they understand what they’re taught.”

as well as being modular on the outside. We’ll be able to accommodate the largest group that’s ever been, which is at least 12 people, for months at a time. And it will have the first full broadcast production studio underwater, which will allow us to communicate and connect the above sea world with the undersea world.

Data gathering is going to be crucial, but as we saw with Mission 31, unfortunately it’s disparate and dysfunctional.

Proteus will be an on-design platform that will be able to gather that data and organize it in a way that is palatable and usable for any entity. It’s also a platform for extreme environment testing. Imagine, for example, a space entity, be it NASA or other, that can use this as a payload model to train their future astronauts, because there are a lot of similarities between the undersea world and the outer space world. That’s why we call Proteus the international space station of the ocean. There’ll be many products that can come out of this for space exploration and colonization or practical use, like we saw with Mission 31, such as the edgertronic camera, which can shoot 20,000 frames a second to look at biomechanics, biomimicry and things the human eye can’t see.

01

02

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01. T he onsite state-of-the-art labs will facilitate processing of organic samples that can be studied in real time 02. T he Proteus marine research platform will enable the discovery of new species of marine life, create a better understanding of how climate change affects the ocean, and allow for the testing of advanced technologies for green power, aquaculture and robotic exploration 03. Proteus allows divers to spend an entire day conducting research on the ocean floor because they are saturated (when the bloodstream is equalized with suitable gasses at the pressure of the surrounding water), enabling them to live, work and explore underwater

03

“ Let us not forget that the ocean is the only reason that we exist.”

Nearest and dearest to my heart is being able to tell the story; to be this undersea broadcast station so that people can view what’s happening at Proteus...The most important thing is the human ocean connection. It goes back to what my grandfather said, people protect what they love. They love what they understand, and they understand what they’re taught. We have, unfortunately, become terrestrial beings in the evolution of our species, but let us not forget that the ocean is the only reason that we exist. It is the universal connector. It is responsible for everything that we cherish and depend on. And with that, we must be more connected with it in order to be able to generate the solutions and implement the solutions for the future of humanity.

Words Ellie Brade Photograph Sam Power

Stepping back

in time

Curiosity about the past – those who came before us – is a natural part of being human. But if your childhood dream is to follow in the footsteps of Indiana Jones, then a world of archaeological sites accessible by superyacht awaits. Here are FRANK’s five enticing options.

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Rapa Nui Easter Island, Chile ABOUT

For the truly adventurous who are armed with a hardy yacht, Rapa Nui is hard to resist.

The infamous monolithic ‘moai’ – meaning statue – are dotted around the island in the hundreds. Created between 1250 and 1500 AD

by Polynesian settlers, it is a mystery how these vast human figures were carved and moved around the island. The quarry at Rano Raraku (a volcanic crater) is home to nearly 400 statues in different stages of completion.

BEST FEATURE

The moai, with their characteristic oversized heads, stand with their backs to the sea. The tallest moai erected (now toppled) called Paro was almost 33-feet high and weighed 82 tons; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki weighing 86 tons.

WHEN TO VISIT

YOKO CORREIA NISHIMIYA, SOPHIE YOGIS

During the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months from January to March to enjoy dry and warm weather.

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Delos Cyclades, Greece ABOUT

BEST FEATURE

In a country steeped in history, Delos takes the title of being one of Greece’s finest historical locations. The island is only accessible by boat and considered to be an archaeological site. Believed to be the birthplace of twin Gods Artemis and Apollo, Delos is today a living museum housing an incredible range of antiquities, from white marble colonnades to an intricately mosaiced floor in the House of the Masks depicting Greek god Dionysus sat astride a panther.

The Sacred Precinct and the Terrace of Lions carved from white marble are must-sees, while the sculpture collection in the island’s museum is spectacular.

WHEN TO VISIT

May to October when it’s awash in yellow, red and purple wildflowers.

Ġgantija Temple Malta ABOUT

Named after the Maltese word for ‘giant’ because it was once believed to have been built by giants, the Ġgantija Temple is a short drive inland.

The site is home to two temples dating between 3600-3200 BC, with huge megaliths over 16-feet long. A large limestone terrace at the front of the UNESCO World Heritage complex is thought to have been used as a ceremonial gathering place; animal remains on the site suggest some form of ritual sacrifice.

BEST FEATURE

Ġgantija is considered one of the oldest freestanding monuments in the world.

WHEN TO VISIT

Spring and early summer to catch ambient temperatures while avoiding the crowds.

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Skara Brae Orkney, Scotland ABOUT

As one of the most exceptional stone-built Neolithic sites in Europe, Skara Brae provides an incomparable insight into life in Scotland 5000 years ago. Pre-dating both the Egyptian Pyramids and Stonehenge, the semi-subterranean village is remarkably well preserved after being buried in sand for over four centuries. It comprises eight houses built from flat stone slabs, linked by roofed passages. It was uncovered by a storm in 1850 when high winds whipped the grass away to reveal prehistoric abodes fitted with stone beds, dressers and seats.

BEST FEATURE

Sometimes referred to as “The Pompeii of Scotland”, the scale of preservation at Skara Brae is an impressive feature. A rich catalogue of finds includes jewelry, dice, tools, pottery and even wooden furniture.

WHEN TO VISIT

KO HON CHIU, VISITSCOTLAND _ KENNY LAM

Summer, to seize the chance to further explore the surrounding sandstone cliffs and seal colonies.

Kourion Cyprus ABOUT

Kourion was once a powerful kingdom dating back to the 8th century BC. Boasting temples, baths, a Roman market, stadium, treasury, theater and early-Christian basilica, Kourion shares a tangible glimpse into life inside the busy city. Several buildings have surviving mosaics in situ, including The House of Gladiators, with a mosaic scene of two gladiators. Vast in its entirety, visitors should allow plenty of time to explore the entire site.

BEST FEATURE

Step back in history with an open-air concert in Kourion’s restored Greco-Roman theater.

WHEN TO VISIT

Between May and June or September and October, early in the morning or later in the afternoon to avoid large crowds.

CYPRUS DEPUTY MINISTRY OF TOURISM

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Beneath the Waves The ocean holds a treasure trove of archaeological sites – perfect to explore by snorkeling, scuba diving or the ultimate water toy, submarine. For some yacht owners, maritime archaeology is a true passion.

The owners of 130-foot SILENTWORLD established the not-for-profit Silent World Foundation to help discover, support, promote and preserve Australasia’s rich maritime archaeology, history, culture and heritage. Each year the Foundation undertakes an expedition in search of ships of historical significance, using SILENTWORLD as the expedition base. Notable exhibitions include diving the wreck of the HMS BOUNTY of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.

For those keen to catch a glimpse of the past, a must see is the incredibly preserved merchant ship PERISTERA in Greece, which is now open to

recreational divers. Dubbed “the Parthenon of shipwrecks”, the PERISTERA sank loaded with thousands of wine amphorae (long-necked bottles) in c.425 BC. For a bigger scale site, Baiae is a Roman settle– ment at the bottom of the Gulf of Naples. Once a popular spa retreat for wealthy Romans drawn by thermal springs, Baiae gradually sank beneath the waves after volcanic activity shifted land levels.

Now designated an Underwater Archaeological Park, there are eight key dive sites to explore.

Equally as eerie and thrilling is Kekova in Turkey, a Roman port city, which also submerged after an earthquake in 240 AD. Diving is not permitted, but crystal clear waters allow you to kayak over the sunken city and gaze down on its remains frozen in time.

Words Julia Zaltzman Photograph CellArt

If your idea of a “feature wall” is painting it in a dazzling shade of pink, think again. Wine enthusiasts (and quaffers) the world over are transforming interior spaces to house their growing collection of bottles. What was once the reserve of sprawling private residences has elbowed its way to the forefront of yacht design, paving the way for increasingly outlandish works of art.

In vino veritas When the owner of 130-foot yacht ENDLESS SUMMER was forced to choose between a wine cellar or butler’s pantry, he unsurprisingly gave the linen the heave-ho. The bespoke teak cellar — built to honor his passion for fine wines — holds 432 bottles, 60 magnums and was incorporated in the interior design before the yacht began construction.

“The intention was always for the cellar to be a focal point given its location at the top of the stairwell to the bridge deck.

It’s most certainly on show,” says Captain Tony Hodgson.

Concealed lighting illuminates the labels he’s collected from vineyards across the globe, including a 1996 Pinot Noir from Burgundy. Kicking back on the aft deck with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc in hand has long been central to the superyacht life, but the line between functional storage and sculptural design is becoming a little fuzzy.

“Wine is very personal. Many owners today want to make the selection and pouring of wine part of the superyacht experience,” says Marc Jessing, head of yacht interiors at Lürssen. “When an owner sacrifices space on board for what’s essentially a drink, they want to give it a huge amount of attention.”

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Aboard SEA RHAPSODY, a cool Chablis and a few New World Sauvignons are mainstays, though the owners have a preference for Italian white and oaked Chardonnay.

Sparkling wine is limited to Moët and Dom Perignon in both white and rosé – “We have access to most other Champagnes quite easily, regardless of where we are,” says Captain Cameron Moore.

The cellar has capacity for 405 bottles in the main fridge and a further 38 in the Eurocave fridge, which features a custom-built rack made from marine-grade stainless steel to avoid a varying temperature against the bottles. Though the cellar can accommodate magnums, nothing over 750ml is kept in stock, partly to optimize space for the main affair – Old World reds.

“The owner has a preference for reds to be within 10 or so years, so whilst we do have some beautiful old vintages on board, these are not necessarily the owner’s first pick,” says Captain Moore. “We carry most of the super-Tuscans in stock, as well as the big reds, such as Sassicaia, Masseto, Petrus and Rothschild. We also have a small selection of reds from Australia.”

“ We carry most of the super-Tuscans in stock, as well as the big reds, such as Sassicaia, Masseto, Petrus and Rothschild.”

Examples of inventive storage solutions used to house such collections include 10-foot floor to ceiling, glassfronted “wine walls” as found on Lürssen’s TIS, and integrated display units that can be pulled forwards and upwards into the more decorated areas of the boat.

Aboard conversion yacht RAGNAR, there are three separate spaces entirely dedicated to wine, the largest being the main walk-in cellar, followed by a glass display cabinet close to the indoor bar and specific aging coolers for the more temperature-sensitive varietals.

“Decorative wine storage is now a prominent feature required by many owners,” says Stephan Vitus, head of project development at ICON Yachts. “We’re currently working on a refit project that holds one of the largest display cellars ever found on a yacht. Another owner requested a large glass-encased cellar to feature as a centerpiece in the middle of the main salon.”

Such transparent designs can create issues around UV exposure and concealing the inner mechanisms, such as insulation, de-humidification and climate control measures, all of which are important factors in wine cellars. Jessing

→ Fade Out designed by Frédéric Cordier for CellArt

disregards the need for cantilevered shelving to counter any onboard rocking motion – “The wine is consumed too quickly for this to affect its condition,” he says – but aboard ENDLESS SUMMER, an air-conditioning expansion unit serves as a back-up should the main HVAC system shut down. Neoprene-lined shelves sit at a seven-degree slant to keep the corks in constant contact with liquid and the bottles “sea fastened”. If it gets really choppy at sea, large panels of clear acrylic are placed hard up against the cellar wall.

The issue of noise is another factor to consider. “When wine used to be tucked away on the lower decks, the noise produced by the cooling system wasn’t a problem,” says Jessing. “But moving the cellar into the guest area means the noise comes too. It’s not without its solutions, but it can be complex.”

That said, it’s not all about the mechanics. Canadianbased CellArt’s custom-designed nautical wine cellars are more akin to bespoke artwork, with deep navy-blue lacquer casings and golden metallic inserts. Its tasting rooms serve as an oenophile’s playground. Manufactured inhouse, CellArt’s solutions bring stylish storage spaces once reserved for private vaults and vineyard displays into focus aboard yachts and private jets, and owners are developing a real taste for it.

“The price point is always increasing,” says Jonathan Primeau, founder of CellArt. “When we started it was about $2 per bottle space, but now it’s averaging $2,500.”

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“ It’s about finding a space to showcase the art, rather than fitting storage into an existing environment.”

Each CellArt concept monitors 13 different elements, from noise and vibration to humidity and light, but clients’ primary concern is aesthetics. To this end, its geometric sculptures, developed in partnership with artists Frédéric Cordier and Mathieu Beauséjour, travel far beyond the realms of storage and offer endless possibilities.

Cordier’s artistic vision for his wine sculpture ‘Fade Out’ is a deconstructive interpretation of a traditional wine cellar grid that sees the uniform sequencing disturbed, resulting in a “total degradation of the pattern”. Alternatively, ‘Flux’

by Beauséjour refers to the concept of a wave suspended in time: “I wanted to invest in the concept of repetitive circular motions and lines…the diagonals and rays are the structural elements of the cellar offering multiple possibilities to present and showcase wine collections.”

For Primeau, it’s about making a statement: “My approach to art storage is to flip it on its head. Instead of taking custom orders, we commission artists to produce bespoke works of art that need to be accommodated onboard the yacht. It’s about finding a space to showcase the art, rather than fitting storage into an existing environment.”

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↑ F lux designed by Mathieu Beausejour for CellArt

Dive, shoot, sleep,

Dive, shoot, sleep, 54 — 55

repeat

repeat

Will Appleyard is a British photographic journalist, published author and qualified diver. His adventure-inspired photography has appeared in National Geographic Traveller and national press. Climbing and mountaineering activities have taken him around the world, from the Arctic Circle to the wilds of Canada’s British Columbia. His third book – Wild and Temperate Seas published in 2020 – lists over 50 of his favorite dive sites at some of the UK’s most popular underwater destinations.

Interview Julia Zaltzman Photography Will Appleyard

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DAMAI I and DAMAI II at Misool in the Raja Ampat Islands in West Papua, Indonesia

Serua Island

YOU’RE A TRIPLE THREAT BUT WHAT CAME FIRST, PHOTOGRAPHY, WRITING OR DIVING?

Photography for sure. I took photography as a side subject at school. I feel quite privileged to have been around before the digital camera age and to learn how to shoot and develop film. Writing came to me decades later (at school I was only interested in art and drama). Diving found me when I was in my 20s. Once I had qualified, I wanted to give my experiences some purpose and to tell others about my adventures. But I probably first took a camera underwater after my 100th dive.

WHAT SUBJECT MATTER DO YOU MOST ENJOY PHOTOGRAPHING?

I enjoy including people in my shots, with both topside and underwater environments. I like to give the scene some perspective and enjoy documenting a sense of our insignificance on the planet. When you capture a person being active in the mountains or hovering over a giant shipwreck deep in the ocean, perhaps engulfed in a cloud of fish, I can really appreciate how small each one of us is. I like that. It makes my problems feel small as well.

Spice Islands and Raja Ampat. I have never seen such a rich underwater ecosystem in all of my time. It reminded me of how an ocean should, and would, have looked before we ravaged her elsewhere in the world. During that trip, we were eight divers aboard a traditional wooden Phinisi boat and, in the most part, were the only dive boat exploring the area. That felt like pure exploration.

Another time, I joined a group of journalists to dive and photograph shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea. We explored wrecks in Sweden, Finland and Estonia. The First World War wreck of a Russian submarine, about two hours under motor off the coast of Estonia, stands out as a highlight. The sub was completely intact and the visibility was incredible.

The cold water was challenging, but that just adds to the adventure for me.

WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOUR HAPPIEST?

Outside! I love hiking and paragliding and, of course, being in or on the water. Spain is home for me now and I feel my happiest here for sure. This country, I believe, has everything – great mountains, varied diving locations, friendly people and delicious food.

WHERE HAVE YOU TRULY RELISHED SHOOTING?

WHAT IS NEXT ON YOUR BUCKET LIST?

In late 2019, I was lucky enough to visit Indonesia. We sailed over 900 nautical miles through the Forgotten Islands,

I’ve been looking at the Azores as a diving location. I love islands and having read about this place, it sounds fabulous.

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From the bridge on DAMAI I

WHAT IMAGE ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been experimenting with a drone. I took a shot of our dive boat in Indonesia with the drone, with one of the Forgotten Islands on the horizon.

The sea looked like ice and the boat looked so small in the vast expanse of sea. This image was shortlisted as one of six finalists for the Explorers Against Extinction Photographer of the Year. They auctioned off the finalists’ images as prints to raise money for the charity.

YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT WHEN DIVING?

A few years ago, I was invited to dive in a geothermal cave system in Tuscany, Italy. The entrance to the cave system is situated under a spa hotel and the underground lakes and steamy dry parts of the cave are said to be good for the body. There are two small geothermal pools under the hotel as well, used by the spa guests for bathing. At the bottom of one of these pools is a small hole, just large enough for a person to fit through, which is the entrance to the cave system. The water is 97 degrees Fahrenheit, about the same as the average normal body temperature, and so it feels neither hot nor cold. We explored the underwater cave system for about 40 minutes, checking out interesting rock formations. It’s not a dive that most divers would want to do, especially those with claustrophobic tendencies. I had to keep my nerve in there, for sure.

YOUR MOST TERRIFYING MOMENT WHILE TRAVELING?

In 2004, I was among a group of divers exploring the Similan Islands in Thailand; nine uninhabited islands roughly eight hours sailing from Phuket across the Andaman Sea. On our way back to mainland Thailand, after about three hours sailing, the boat began to list heavily to port side. We were slowly sinking. The radio wasn’t working and mobile phone coverage was virtually non-existent. We stupidly decided to make for the nearest island, now a speck on the horizon, using the tender. With the sun beating down on us, limited water and fuel, I genuinely thought I was going to die that day. We would never have made it to the island. To our relief, and after two hours bobbing about under motor, we were picked up by another dive boat on its way to Phuket.

I learned a lot from that trip, particularly some important lessons about preparation.

ONE SINGLE MEMORY GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOU SMILE?

Landing on the island of Saint Helena, a remote British island in the South Atlantic. It’s a difficult place to get to and owing to its ever-changing weather, airplanes are never guaranteed to land – some get turned back to Cape Town, which is four hours away. I was very happy to have made it. The diving was fabulous and I spent time in the water with whale sharks.

A battery of barracuda

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Batfish

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↑ A n olive sea snake at Manuk Island → D iver with an oceanic manta ray

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↑ T he West Pier on Britain’s Hove beach → A n aerial view of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean

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Exploring by sail

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A 23-foot whale shark

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Ro 72 — 73

k

c

on

←M anhattan Grand Central Terminal passengers sitting in armchairs or buying food and drinks from one of the central counters in the dining area

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David Rockwell, arguably the U.S.’ foremost architect, ponders the serious question: Why does he, like so many other designers, only wear black?

Words Josh Sims Portrait Brigitte Lacombe

“Well, part of the answer is that if you have a basic uniform it’s one less thing you have to think about. And I have moved on from black...to blue,” Rockwell chuckles. “But I also love texture, so if you simplify the visual that allows you to focus more on that aspect. I’m actually meant to be going to a party at the weekend at which the theme is ‘The Great Gatsby’ so I’m not sure how I’m going to make a black t-shirt work at that one. I’ll just add a scarf.”

Rockwell typically gives his creativity much greater consideration. The architect who has designed airports and holiday resorts, hotels, public institutions and even playgrounds, who pioneered the restaurant as a design hotspot (especially for the Japanese Chef Nobu) and restored New York landmarks FAO Schwarz and Grand Central Station, typically studies a new category of project for years before embarking on it.

“Part of what I think is critical in a design process is to do as much research as you can and at some point then taking that information and, with a beginner’s mind, to think about an approach that might be a unique outgrowth of all of that research,” he explains. “I do think the idea of

Susan Sarandon and David Rockwell co-curate artwork to be displayed in the Architectural Digest Greenroom at the 86th Academy Awards on February 4, 2014 in New York City

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the beginner’s mind, that ability to stay curious, is really important. It’s a toxic thing to think you know the answer to a new project before you start it. [That said] a friend of mine, who’s a musician, says that at some point you have to conjure a solution.”

Indeed, it’s an approach Rockwell takes with his personal life too. He starts his day with an iced cappuccino and an hour of piano practice. He played as a child, lost the habit as his architectural studies took over, and four years ago decided to take to the keys again. He found nonagenarian pianist maestro Seymour Bernstein, persuaded him to become his teacher and now spends four months to a year working on a piece of classical music before, as his friend might put it, “at some point putting that preparation away and [recognizing that] you have to play the music.”

But ‘conjure’ is an apt choice of words, not least because Rockwell collects vintage illustrations of the workings of stage illusions, though concedes that he’s no magician himself. “When my kids were little I’d do these terrible tricks and I’d say, ‘I’m not going to tell you how that was done’ and they’d say, ‘We don’t even care, it was that bad’,” he says. Some 15 years after founding his design studio, which now employs around 250 people, his career found a second string in stage design. He’s since created the sets for plays and hit Broadway shows including Hairspray, Tootsie and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Rockwell has been awarded the Presidential Design Award and a Tony. “And the Tony Awards is a much more fun event,” he laughs.

That Rockwell segued into the theatre world might, were his life-story to be made into a movie, give it a recurring theme. His mother was a vaudeville dancer and choreographer. He and his four older brothers amounted to what he calls a kind of “very hyper theatre group”. And one of his foundational experiences was, at the age of 12, being taken to New York to have lunch at Broadway restaurant Schrafft’s and then to see Fiddler on the Roof.

“I became obsessed with the idea of theatre. I went all the time,” Rockwell says. “I’d sit there criticizing the sets.

In fact, later I went to one show with a lighting designer and after I was giving my critique when he said to me, ‘Well, if you’re so smart, what would you do?’. Let’s say it took me a while to answer that one.”

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AL POWERS, POWERS IMAGERY LLC, OFF-BROADWAY PRODUCTION OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (2017) / PHOTOS © JOAN MARCUS

OMNIA, nightclub, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, 2015 (top) A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, New York, 2017 (bottom)

Inevitably perhaps, in this Rockwell biopic, there’s a neat overlap of his designs for the theatre and his more ‘conventional’ architectural projects, as is explored in a new book on his work, Drama (published by Phaidon). Rockwell once joked how some architects seem to idealize their buildings as unsullied by those messy things called people.

Conversely, as in the theatre, so in architecture, Rockwell sees the idea of the audience as essential.

“If you look at the built world through the filter of theatre you have to acknowledge that if there’s no audience there’s no drama,” he explains. “In theatre you have to seduce the audience and you need to do that too with architecture.”

“The toolbox is different [for theatre and architecture] but both also need to bring together various people, each with their own expertise, but which have to work together as an ensemble,” he adds. “And another intuitive example is movement or choreography in theatre. Similarly, in architecture, we define spaces by the doors, by that sense of transitioning from one space to another.”

His theatre design work might be said to have given Rockwell an unusual perspective on his architectural work too. If most architects design with something of an Ozymandian viewpoint - expecting their buildings to last forever - he’s fascinated by the idea of the transitory. He’s designed a pop-up stage for the TED Theater, for example, and a mobile kitchen for British chef Jamie Oliver. Rockwell puts that ease down to the circumstances of his childhood – his father died when he was three, and the family moved around a lot, from Chicago to New Jersey to Mexico...

“Well, if you ask whether I want the buildings we’ve designed to last forever, of course I do,” Rockwell laughs.

“But I do think that the goal in much architecture of being permanent sometimes gets in the way of looking at it in other ways. I think that notion of the ephemeral that’s so powerful and visible in theatre really inspired me. In a two hour theater experience, there’s something there that will never happen that way again. And I think that idea of the unique experience is very important when thinking about how we create the built world around us, and design from the audience out, not the facade in.”

It’s an approach that will no doubt inform the many kinds of projects he’s yet to take on, but which remain on his hit-list and which he regards as ripe for reinvention: the hospital, opera house and public park among them.

And ever the man who loves a show, perhaps an Olympic opening ceremony.

“Yeah,” he says, “I’d love to try one of those because, you know, I love the small, intimate scale of everything...”

Drama by David Rockwell with Bruce Mau, edited by Sam Lubell, is published by Phaidon, £39.95 (phaidon.com)

The Final 80 — 81

Frontier

Somewhere inside Silicon Valley, billionaires are planning to live forever. Perhaps they’ve signed up to a plan with Dennis Kowalski, president of the Michigan-based Cryonics Institute, a non-profit organization that vitrifies and super-cools dead people who hope, one day, to be thawed out and revived. It’s an idea, he concedes, that’s easy to mock.

Words Josh Sims Illustration Anna Parini

“If you suggested 100 years ago that you could bring back the dead by pounding on their chest and giving them electric shocks, people would have said that was Frankenstein stuff. And that’s routine now,” notes Dennis Kowalski. “Cryonics is the same – we know that we can retain the flesh even if we can’t yet revive it, or don’t know if consciousness would survive. But this is a Pascal’s Wager - there’s the sense that reviving might be possible at some point in the future, so there’s nothing to lose.”

Kowalski is not the only one who sees potential in the idea of greatly extending human longevity, even if a study this year by the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo concludes that “physiological resilience” – our ability to bounce back from illness, injury or stress, which declines with age – gives us all an “absolute limit” of around 150 years. Those in the life extension game (businesses, scientists, intellectuals) might point to all manner of breakthroughs that suggest the potential for extended lifespans. And that’s beyond achieving that anyway through better nutrition, wealth and health education, which will see one in three American girls born today live to see 100.

There’s the idea, for instance, of replacement body parts. These may be technological. The bio-hacking community – self-experimenters including those who boldly, or, crazily, have fitted modifications to their body to allow, for instance, for the hearing of color or the sensing of electromagnetic radiation – has arguably set on the road to what cyborg expert Dr. Patrick Kramer calls “humans 2.0”.

Or they may be organic. “And if organ supply is no longer limited, why not get a new organ? Why wait until the one you have gives out?” asks CEO of BioLife4D, Steven Morris. BioLife4D has developed a system that tricks white blood cells into behaving like stem cells, uses those to create what Morris calls a bio-ink, and then uses that with an adapted 3D printer to print a functional human heart, albeit, for the time being, only a miniature version. “And if you’re replacing an organ, there’s the question of why not improve it too? Why not give a kid a heart with 30% more capacity, so he’s the star athlete at school? It creates all sorts of ethical issues.”

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“ How would our relationships fare with each other and the many generations that would be thrown together? What would you do with all the time?”

Similar tech has already successfully printed the first cornea, with the printing of skin also close. No wonder Yuval Noah Harari argues in his book Homo Deus that some combination of genetic manipulation, nano-tech or cloning (even some form of existence in cyberspace, as Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov’s 2045 Initiative aims to achieve) points to extended human longevity becoming a reality. It’s all about seeing death less as an inevitable, unavoidable process, and more as a disease that needs to be tackled like any other.

That’s the thinking of maverick independent biologist Aubrey de Grey. His California-based organization SENS, or Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, is working to combine technologies – some practicable, some still theoretical, some in clinical trials and some, skeptical detractors say, the stuff of sci-fi – to counter the cellular damage that accumulates until the point we die, “like a car initially gets harmless rust, and then keeps getting rust until the doors fall off,” as he puts it.

Don’t just replace the doors, de Grey argues, because it’s not possible to separate the process of living from the cellular damage caused. Instead, develop therapies that roll back that damage, so a 90-year-old is more like a 60-yearold, and so on down the age span. The initial intention, he says, is not to buy immortality, but a couple more decades. “You’ve bought time - but that’s time also for scientists to develop the next generation of the therapy, and eventually you get to postpone the pathology of old age faster than the pathology comes on.”

De Grey calls it “longevity escape velocity” and takes a punt on reckoning that there’s a 50% chance of this therapy becoming a real thing, at least for those who could afford it, within the next couple of decades. And this immortality through periodic renewal is not just for those who can afford it. It would also, of course, be for those who want it, because underpinning this fledgling science of life extension is the assumption, somewhat taken for granted, that it’s what people want.

Yet that’s not clear, as surveys often show. Most people, it seems, can see the appeal of a couple of centuries perhaps. But immortality? A New Scientist study has suggested only one in five people would want it. After all, what impact would all these extra perma-people have on employment, government coffers or pollution? How would our relationships fare with each other and the many generations that would be thrown together? What would you do with all the time? What value would living actually have? What if you lived on but your loved ones checked out?

Good or bad, Dennis Kowalski is keen to find out. He’s spent $20,000 for his body to be cryogenically stored. “It’s not so much that I’m afraid of death,” says the one-time firefighter and serviceman, “more that I’m optimistic and a bit of a futurist – and I want to be around to see what comes.”

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A PINK EXPLOSION Volcanic wine regions are shaking up the world of rosé with flavorsome bursts of minerality, a bit of salinity and even a hint of oyster shell.

Words Chadner Navarro Photograph Rui Soares

When you think of rosé wine you might be transported to a sunbaked aft deck in the Mediterranean, sipping on a pale pink from Provence with a dry, crisp and fruity finish. But why not fantasize about meandering around black, volcanic rocks on the Azorean island of Pico where the rosé is just as pink, but the flavors of fruit are dynamically layered.

As rosé consumption all over the world has risen, so has the number of winemaking styles reaching the market. That classic Provençal expression is still wildly popular, of course, but it’s now being joined by a gamut of others, showcasing how versatile and exciting the world of rosé can be. And some of the most delightful varietals are being made in wine countries where volcanic soil often leads to unusual and thrilling flavors, especially when it comes to the pink stuff.

Like any type of wine, rosé hailing from lava lands offers incredible variety; elevation and soil composition differ depending on location and yield grapes that represent the destination. Sicily’s Mount Etna won’t guarantee the same type of wines as Oregon’s wine country just because their farms are both impacted by volcanoes. After all, volcanic 86 — 87

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obsidian and basalt in the grape-growing farms, which are tucked on rugged, high-elevation plots of mountainous land. The grapes grow so beautifully that a notable number of wineries based in Napa and Sonoma actually source some of their fruit from Lake County.

Many of the designated American Viticultural Areas (or AVAs) in Oregon, including Umpqua Valley in the middle of the state and the now world-famous Willamette Valley to the north, are similarly volcanic (mostly basalt). Those looking at the region’s prized Pinot Noirs should also consider how local winemakers are turning the grapes into expressive, vibrant rosés.

Regardless of where you look to for a sip of volcanic rosé, it is best to keep an open mind. These grapes can often be wild with a good amount of refreshing minerality and acidity; some can even delight with a jolt of saltwater, because at the very least, a glass of rosé should always remind you of a summer by the sea. Here is FRANK’s list of some of the best pink wine hailing from volcanic locales.

RUI SOARES

terroir can be composed of ash, lava, obsidian and other types of soil. Mount Etna’s wine producing areas, for instance, are treated to the most active volcano in Europe.

Located on the eastern edge of the island of Sicily, the volcano has been erupting almost annually since 2001, and thus, the soil there includes a medley of basalt pebbles, pumice and black ash. Most of the vineyards on Mount Etna are terraced high on its northern slopes, creating rosé wines that are aromatic and complex.

Sicily, the Canary Islands, and Pico, roughly 1,000 miles west of Lisbon, are famous for their volcanoes.

But there are countless other wine countries that feature volcanic terroir that might not immediately spring to mind.

California, for example, has both active and extinct peaks, and its two biggest winemaking regions (Sonoma and Napa) feature fertile volcanic soil. But Lake County, a geothermal hotspot north of Napa, is home to Mount Konocti, which most recently erupted 11,000 years ago. (This is considered young as far as volcanic activity is concerned.) You’ll find

NATHAN DEHART FOR THE LAKE COUNTY WINEGRAPE COMMISSION

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Azores Wine Company Rosé Vulcânico, Pico, Portugal

Sol Rouge Rosé Lake County, California

With a winemaking legacy that dates back to the 15th century, Pico’s stark-black basalt soil is unlike any other wine country. Look at the walls that surround each planting block; they’re there to protect the vines from the strong winds that charge around the island. A medley of four iconic Portuguese grapes (saborinho, agronómica, touriga Nacional and aragonez) harvested yards from the sea enrich this rosé with unmistakable salinity and minerality; mixed with tropical fruits, it delivers the ideal summertime wine.

Some of the grenache used in this wine is actually planted on a 50% slope on a southwest patch of Mount Konocti, much steeper than the 20% limit in California, thanks to the former walnut plantation on the farm. According to winemaker Bryan Kane, it’s this combination of unique volcanic terroir, high elevation, and aggressive slopes that helps create the bright and fruity yet weighty profile of this rosé.

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Irvine & Roberts Vineyards Rosé of Pinot Noir Rogue Valley, Oregon

Bodegas los Bermejos Rosado Canary Islands, Spain On Lanzarote, the Canary Islands’ easternmost pocket, eruptions as recently as the 19th century have blanketed most of the soil with black ash. This not only shapes the gorgeous landscape but also ensures winemaking success: The ash helps with moisture retention and temperature regulation. This refreshing, mineral-forward rosé from an indigenous, stunningly dark grape called listan negro is as complex as it gets: Berries and tropical fruits eventually give way to a finish of smoky, savory salinity.

GREGOR HALENDA PHOTO

This winery-at-elevation crafts an elegant, medium-body rosé that combines sharp acidity and easy minerality with vibrant, fruity aromas and summery freshness of berries.

A silky mouthfeel completes its crowd-pleasing profile.

Irvine & Roberts is located in southwest Oregon, close to the border with California, in a rugged, forested valley at the convergence of two mountain ranges (the Cascades and Siskiyous).

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Gérard Bertrand Château La Sauvageonne La Villa Rosé Languedoc, France

Broc Cellars White Zinfandel Berkeley, California

Like many of the wines with grapes cultivated in volcanic soil, there’s great acidity and a flash of saltiness to this mostly grenache and Mourvèdre rosé. But the rather surprising inclusion of viognier (just around 3%) adds a beautifully floral bouquet and velvety texture to every sip, making this the perfect food-pairing rosé.

Featuring zinfandel grapes – picked before they’re fully ripen – primarily sourced from Arrowhead Mountain Vineyard, a steep, organic farm with volcanic terroir in Sonoma County. This wine comes with zippy acidity and minerality complemented by unusual flavors that reminds Broc Cellars general manager Bridget Leary of French blackcurrant tea.

Murgo Brut Rosé, Mount Etna, Sicily This centuries-old, family-owned operation on the eastern face of Etna has been producing some of the region’s most esteemed sparkling vintages (through Methode Champenoise) for ages, and this brut rosé handmade entirely from nerello mascalese, a lighter-bodied red that primarily flourishes on this mountain, is a marquee creation: salmon-pink, fine bubbles, bracing zest and great fruit.

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GILES DESCHAMPS, GEOFFREY LUCAS

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THE EYES OF THE CANOE

“ Fix your course on a star and you’ll navigate any storm,” wrote Leonardo Da Vinci. Since the days of the earliest travelers, mankind has looked to the sky as a guide to lead them home. Today, with modern electronic navigational tools, we rely on satellites more than stars. But in some corners of the world, the old art form of celestial navigation is enjoying a starlit revival.

Words Ellie Brade

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The story of celestial navigation begins many thousands of years ago when man first set out to explore the world by water. Polynesians were some of the earliest wayfarers, although their largely oral culture means there is little written record of their achievements as skilled navigators.

What we do know is that around 5000 years ago they began progressing across the Tropics, migrating southeast, moving from island to island. “I haere mai tatou I tawhiti – We come from far away,” wrote master storyteller Witi Ihimaera in his book Navigating the Stars.

Celestial navigation is the art of using measurements between celestial bodies – the sun, moon, planets and stars – and the horizon to establish your position. This is usually achieved in conjunction with practical tools such as a sextant, as well as a keen awareness of the surroundings.

The perimeter of the oceanic homeland where early Polynesians settled was triangular, with three island groups making up each corner. Often known as the ‘Polynesian Triangle’, it includes Hawai’i in the north, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the east and Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the far southwest.

“Within this triangle were over 1000 islands, including Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Rarotonga and Niue,” says Ihimaera.

Little wonder that the ocean, and navigating around it, was so important.

The Polynesian Triangle is a crucial part of the story.

It is central to modern efforts to reclaim the celestial navigation talents of those ocean-going ancestors whose skills were honed and passed down through generations.

Following European colonization of Polynesia, traditional voyaging and celestial navigation sharply declined and these skills fell out of use. At one point, the practice was in such decline that there were many who didn’t believe it was even possible for the early settlers to have sailed the longer distances between key points of the Triangle.

Recent years have seen a renaissance in the practice of wayfaring. Significant actions include building traditional canoes and undertaking voyages around and between each point of the Triangle. In 1976 HŌKŪLEʻA, a Polynesia ocean-going double hulled canoe, successfully traveled 96 — 97

from Hawaii to Tahiti using celestial navigation alone, proving that it was possible to navigate without modern instruments. In 1985 HŌKŪLEʻA then underwent a twoyear journey from Hawaii around the Pacific and to New Zealand before returning home. In 1999 HŌKŪLEʻA once again helped close the Triangle by sailing from Hawaii to Easter Island and back. And finally, in 2012, two waka hourua (double-hulled sailing canoes), NGAHIRAKA MAI TAWHITI and TE AURERE, built by the late master waka builder Sir Hekenukumai [Hek] Busby, sailed from New Zealand to Easter Island in an epic four-month journey that covered 4000 nautical miles.

New Zealander and waka (canoe) master Stanley Conrad was one of the lucky few on the 2012 voyage. “At the beginning of the voyage, setting out and knowing you

“ For our people, the knowledge of how to navigate was put aside and not practiced, but the genealogy was always there.”

had to find your own way was daunting, but really it made me feel so proud to be walking in the steps of my ancestors and honoring their achievements,” he says.

In the days of the early wayfarers, the master navigator played a key role in any journey. “Crew on these expeditions have basic knowledge of the sun, skies, courses and duration, but traditionally a canoe would carry one or two trained navigators – the eyes of the canoe – who would work alongside the skipper.”

Across Polynesia, work is now being done to preserve and celebrate these old skills. This includes the in-build Kupe Waka Centre in New Zealand’s Northland, which was the brainchild of Sir Hek. “The new center is fulfilling Hek’s wishes that there be a dedicated whare [home] where wayfaring knowledge could be taught and celebrated,” says

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Training crew in the pure art of sailing is a passion on board 212-foot ADIX. “We certainly encourage celestial navigation when we are training our team,” says Captain Terry Gould. “The lovely thing about stars is that they give you an instant fix on where you are.” The yacht also enjoys making use of paper charts in conjunction with electronic charts for planning and for navigation.

“We are very much ‘spirit of tradition’ on board ADIX.” To make your own start in celestial navigation, simply look to the North Star, which sits above the North Pole and is an unmovable reference point towards true north. While surrendering a superyacht to celestial navigation alone is an unlikely prospect, superyacht owners will certainly understand the call to explore the world by water, even if superyachts feel a world away from the humble seafaring canoe.

DANIEL LINCOLN

Conrad. “For our people, the knowledge of how to navigate was put aside and not practiced, but the genealogy was always there and was very much present in carvings, songs, charts and storytelling. What we’ve tried to do with these voyages, and by building the new center, is rebirth that knowledge and take it back on the water.”

So, what place does celestial navigation have on board superyachts? Although electric charts and navigational tools are the norm, celestial navigation is often used in complement to other navigational methods to ensure accuracy. For those venturing offshore, it is considered an invaluable skill. Several qualification tickets, including the RYA Yachtmaster Ocean, require a paper on celestial navigation to give sailors a solid grounding in the basics of navigating by the skies.

EMPIRE OF THE SUN Author and ocean mariner Phil Somerville began teaching the MCA Masters Celestial Navigation in 2017, following years of tutoring the UK’s Royal Yachting Association’s Astro Navigation Ocean course. His first book The Practical Guide to Celestial Navigation published in October 2021.

WHERE DID IT ALL BEGIN FOR YOU WITH CELESTIAL NAVIGATION?

In the same way it starts for many others, a requirement to obtain an unlimited license. I also had a distant fascination with the concept of celestial navigation. A part of me didn’t feel like a ‘complete’ mariner, I craved independence from a reliance on GPS. WHAT IS THE HARDEST ASPECT TO LEARN?

Perhaps the most difficult aspect for superyacht captains is that they must complete the examination without any templates or proformas.

This requires an in-depth understanding of the underlying principles.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE STAR?

Yes, our Sun. Everyone associates celestial navigation with star sights, but they have limited windows of opportunity each day. The Sun presents itself as the easiest and most readily available celestial object in our sky.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT WHEN NAVIGATING USING CELESTIAL?

In 2013 I completed a three-week Southern Ocean crossing. Each day I took sights and fixed our position using celestial navigation whilst a crew member made a note of our position from GPS. We experienced very high winds and sea states on the crossing and several days with cloud cover. When comparing positions at the end of the voyage, it could be seen that at one point my plot was over 30 miles out. However, due to the fascinating way in which celestial works, the process selfcorrected and by the time we reached Cape Town, my plot was within three miles – Not bad over a 3,000-mile crossing.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE A BOOK?

I always promised myself if I ever had the time, I’d write my own book.

Covid 2020 gave me that opportunity. It’s aimed at those who crave independence from GPS navigation but have little time to invest in learning or keeping their skills current. This book facilitates practical position fixing using the Sun whilst at the same time giving the reader the foundation knowledge to expand their use of other celestial objects in the future should they desire.

Advertorial

ALPHA MADE In September 2021, Denison embarked on their annual shipyard tour in Europe.

Past years took a team of yacht brokers to Italy, Germany and Holland. This year, they visited Turkey, home to some of the most prestigious shipyards in the world.

Visiting nine shipyards in five days can get repetitive. But that’s what Denison did on their mammoth Turkish road trip, stopping in at RMK Marine, Sirena Yachts, Evadne Yachts, Turquoise Yachts, Dunya Yachts, Bilgin Yachts, Mengi Yay, Numarine and Alpha Custom Yachts. The team stayed in Istanbul and learned about Turkey’s history and geography along the way.

The tour was about helping Denison yacht brokers to gain a deeper understanding and first-hand experience with new

SPRITZ 102

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products so they can recommend certain brands or models to clients. But it was a new shipbuilder, visited on the last day of the tour, that exceeded expectations and stood out as a new force in the yachting industry: Alpha Custom Yachts.

It’s unusual to encounter a new superyacht brand these days. Some of the most established and successful shipyards made a name for themselves because of their long-standing experience in the industry. In many ways, yachting embraces legacy, making it almost impossible for

newcomers to step onstage. But in the thick of established yards in Turkey, Alpha broke through the wall to challenge the stale and safe designs of traditional yachts.

Alpha is a new, family-owned luxury yacht builder established by veterans of the industry, Roberto and Jorge Aboumrad. As experienced yachtsmen, the Aboumrad brothers noticed a gap in the market — traditional yacht designs did not always reflect the way the owner used the boat. In 2017, Roberto and Jorge partnered with experienced boat builders in Turkey and Italian interior designer Giorgio Cassetta to establish Alpha Custom Yachts with the vision to challenge the status quo of yacht design and build yachts that are beyond our time.

“When you walk into Alpha, you immediately notice that it is an organized and high-level shipyard — it’s clean, professional, friendly and approachable,” says Denison yacht broker David Johnson. “The yard provides comfortable conference rooms and offices to welcome buyers and create an inviting environment for working together.”

SPRITZ 102 Fly Bridge

ALFRESCO 125 Dark Blue

Alpha Custom Yachts designs and builds boats that prioritize outdoor spaces, comfortable cabins, innovative amenities and an overall user-friendly experience. The Spritz 102 was awarded Best Deck Design by Design Et Al in the 2021 International Yacht and Aviation Awards.

The shipyard currently offers a standard package for each model and size including the Spritz 102, Spritz 116, Alfresco 110 and Alfresco 125. An owner can work with the shipyard to brainstorm, envision and create the yacht of their dreams by adding specific custom features.

Both Alpha Custom Yachts and Denison are family-run businesses with a shared goal to connect owners with the sea. David Johnson is the representative of Alpha Custom Yachts in North America, promoting all sales for the Al Fresco and Spritz lines and offering full support for clients.

His first-hand experience at the shipyard in Turkey and his long-standing relationship with Roberto Aboumrad make him an excellent point of contact to inquire about owning a yacht of tomorrow.

FROM THE GALLEY It’s often said that “real” cooking is more about following your heart than following recipes, so FRANK asked five seasoned yacht chefs what makes their hearts sing when cooking onboard and for tips on how to keep charter guests smiling with their stomachs.

JULIE M. VIGNEAULT YACHT CURRENTLY WORKING ON

S/Y BUNDALONG, 78’ Sunreef YEARS WORKED IN THE YACHTING INDUSTRY

I am fairly new to the industry with two years of experience.

Prior to that I worked at my own B&B in Costa Rica, which I still own and operate from afar.

FAVORITE CUISINE TO COOK

Fresh produce from the sea.

BEST INGREDIENT TO WORK WITH

As a freediver and fisherwoman, there’s nothing more exciting to me than bringing aboard food I harvested myself. Being able to offer a reef-to-table experience is what truly makes me happy.

FAVORITE PLACE TO SOURCE FRESH PRODUCE

The sea, and I always try my hardest to find the local farmers and source fresh produce made with love. Microgreens are my current obsession.

SIGNATURE DISH TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

Sushi, sushi, sushi WHAT NOT TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

Hard boiled eggs MOST POPULAR FOOD REQUEST

Fresh ceviche PROUDEST MEMORY IN THE GALLEY

When Paris Hilton told me that my lasagna was #sliving [Editor’s note: a term coined by Hilton in 2019 to mean “slaying” mixed with “living my best life”.]

TOUGHEST MOMENT IN THE GALLEY

Finding out I am intolerant to dairy. I mourn cheese every day.

HAPPIEST TIME ABOARD A YACHT

Any day in The Bahamas WHERE/WHO TAUGHT YOU THE MOST ABOUT FOOD

My partner is my biggest critic, he also happens to captain the boat, so I try to listen.

FAVORITE FOOD TO EAT

Anything truffle 102 — 103

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where we do schnitzels, spaetzle (a type of small noodle or dumpling made with fresh eggs), traditional red cabbage, apple strudel, etc. So far, it’s always been a big hit because it’s not the everyday cuisine you get on board a motor yacht.

WHAT NOT TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

In my opinion, it’s all about the freshness of the food.

There’s nothing worse than getting served a nice great tasting meal with an old, wilted salad on the side.

MOST POPULAR FOOD REQUEST

Sushi. We always do a big spread with lots of different varieties. Alongside other delicious things like Japanese A5 Wagyu beef, dumplings and edamame.

PROUDEST MEMORY IN THE GALLEY

NADINE IMFELD

When I go to see the guests during a meal and see them sitting there, with a big smile, devouring my food and leaving an empty plate behind, that’s when I know I can be proud of myself.

TOUGHEST MOMENT IN THE GALLEY

Five years

When I got the call that one of my family members had passed away and it was in the middle of the breakfast rush.

Even though things like that hit you like a rock, there is just no time to have a moment to yourself. So, you have to set it aside, and keep pushing through to keep your guests happy.

FAVORITE CUISINE TO COOK

HAPPIEST TIME ABOARD A YACHT

I really enjoy cooking all the cuisines around the world, because I feel with every dish that you make, you get to know the culture as well, and it’s just fascinating. If I had to narrow it down, I would say Mexican and Asian.

It was on one of my first boats in yachting. We had a season in New York and it was a crazy busy boat, but we had this one afternoon off in Sag Harbor and the whole crew went to a vineyard. It was the most beautiful place ever with an amazing crew that turned into family. And it was just one of those moments where you sit back, look around and realize you’re truly happy.

YACHT CURRENTLY WORKING ON

M/Y ANDIAMO, 150’ Palmer Johnson YEARS WORKED IN THE YACHTING INDUSTRY

BEST INGREDIENT TO WORK WITH

Cacao – it’s such a versatile ingredient. I’m into baking and desserts and cacao is a big ingredient, especially for all of us with a sweet tooth. But then you can go into the savory direction as well where you make cacao chipotle salsa or a balsamic cacao sauce.

FAVORITE PLACE TO SOURCE FRESH PRODUCE

If I have time I really like going to farmers’ markets. It’s truly the best spot to find amazing products and support local farmers.

WHERE/WHO TAUGHT YOU THE MOST ABOUT FOOD

I learned the most about food at the culinary school I visited in Ireland. Everything was from farm to table, growing their own fruits and vegetables. It’s small things – such as having to get up at 6am to harvest your own vegetables in the morning for cooking later on that day – that make you appreciate and understand everything way more.

FAVORITE FOOD TO EAT

SIGNATURE DISH TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

I am originally from Switzerland. That means I grew up with a lot of traditional German dishes. We decided to factor that into our charter program with a little beer garden night

I don’t think this page is long enough to add everything I like. I am a true foodie. I love to try new things and eat all day, every day. My favorite food is, and will always be, my mom’s cooking.

WHAT NOT TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

Frozen and/or pre-made food. Our guests spend a lot of money to have an amazing experience, so every detail makes a difference.

MOST POPULAR FOOD REQUEST

As soon as guests hear my French accent they immediately want a taste of French cuisine. So, most of the time they ask for traditional French food.

PROUDEST MEMORY IN THE GALLEY

ANTHONY IRACANE

When all the guests come to congratulate me after dinner.

For me, it’s not about cooking, it’s more about creating emotion; my goal is to make people happy. I love working on yachts as every trip/charter is like cooking for my family and friends and I love seeing my loved ones happy, so I always do my best.

YACHT CURRENTLY WORKING ON

M/Y ODIN, 126’ Trinity YEARS WORKED IN THE YACHTING INDUSTRY

About two. Before that I owned a restaurant in France in my hometown of Nancy. It was a tapas restaurant and bar.

I really like the fact people can sit together and share life moments. I truly think the best memories are found around a delicious dinner with a blend of colors, textures and flavors and, of course, great wine.

TOUGHEST MOMENT IN THE GALLEY

An event where I had a four-course dinner party of 30.

I didn’t have a sous chef to assist with plating, so the challenge was making sure all plating looked perfect, while ensuring all courses went out to the guests in a timely manner and cold courses were crisp and hot dishes were steaming. However, at the end of this dinner, I could not have been more pleased with the way everything turned out. Powering through the stress is what makes this job so gratifying in the end.

FAVORITE CUISINE TO COOK

French modern with added inspiration from Mediterranean cuisine. I’m French/Italian so maybe that’s why. And I enjoy working with bright colorful ingredients. I don’t really follow a recipe, I prefer to listen to my heart. I like to say I make my plate as an artist who paints a canvas. I just follow my instincts.

HAPPIEST TIME ABOARD A YACHT

BEST INGREDIENT TO WORK WITH

WHERE/WHO TAUGHT YOU THE MOST ABOUT FOOD

Every ingredient is the best to work with if you know how to use it. A good chef can make miracles with nothing.

My love of food came at an early age. When I was a little kid I was always cooking something for my parents. My dad worked all week, so Friday night when he finally got home I was so excited to make him something special. I was very young, so my mum was always making a double dinner, mine and hers, but they played the game. My dad passed away and didn’t get to see where I am now. So, every day, every meal, I try to do my very best to make him proud of me.

FAVORITE PLACE TO SOURCE FRESH PRODUCE

Little markets like those that we have in the south of France.

I enjoy the array of colors from different veggies where you can be in contact with the produce.

When I stop what I’m doing for a moment, open my eyes, look around and take in the incredible views outside the galley, and realize how amazing it is to have a career enjoying these incredible experiences.

SIGNATURE DISH TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

Steak au Poivre and Crispy Duck Breast with a Black Cherry Sauce. I also love to make multiple course tasting menus and work with smaller portioned plates.

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FAVORITE FOOD TO EAT

Mediterranean. Be happy, eat healthy. Like I say, show me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.

SIGNATURE DISH TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

I like to tell the story behind the dish. Grandma’s Meatballs has gotten me a lot of marriage proposals, of which I accepted three and went through with two. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson loves my Balsamic Seared Beef Tenderloin.

Dan Marino and his family are all about my Chicken Milanese, which I let rest on the cutting board that I just minced garlic on.

WHAT NOT TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

Anything not discussed with the guests. I like to have a quick menu pow-wow each day with our guests to make sure I’m preparing a menu they will all enjoy. Preference sheets don’t always give me the information that I need.

I also say to them, “I’m like a Vitamix food blender, but with better moving parts.”

MOST POPULAR FOOD REQUEST

ELISA ELIOT

Salads. Creative and different salads are always a hit.

Caesar Salad is super popular; I make my own dressing and croutons, use aged Parmesan Reggiano and twist it up with Arugula and hearts of palm.

PROUDEST MEMORY IN THE GALLEY

YACHT CURRENTLY WORKING ON

M/Y PLAN A, 130’ Westport

I’m proud of every moment. It’s not an ego thing because I shed that years ago. It’s just about being present on a yacht and the creation of gorgeous, delicious food.

YEARS WORKED IN THE YACHTING INDUSTRY

Three years in yachting, with another 40 years cooking for amazing clients, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his family while running my own large scale catering business.

FAVORITE CUISINE TO COOK

TOUGHEST MOMENT IN THE GALLEY

It’s always a push through the weeds of the 27 courses that I generally cook each day. But last night, I was behind the power curve and the frustration kicked in. Tears just fell from my face as I cooked my ass off for about 20 minutes. But it turned out delicious, and that’s all that counts.

Asian fusion, French, Italian and Tex-Mex. HAPPIEST TIME ABOARD A YACHT BEST INGREDIENT TO WORK WITH

Garlic. The real kind, with skin on. I like to finish sauces and soups with a little bump of fresh minced garlic.

I learned this trick while getting into Asian fusion, but it totally works with every genre of cuisine.

Right now! I’m so lucky to have such an awesome chief stew. Yes, owners are great, the captain is wonderful, my bunk bed is big and comfy, but my best times are when I click with the chief stew.

WHERE/WHO TAUGHT YOU THE MOST ABOUT FOOD

FAVORITE PLACE TO SOURCE FRESH PRODUCE

Baldor Specialty Foods while up in New England. They offer locally grown produce from various farms in the region. Yacht chefs often need to use provisioners to get that quick one-stop shopping experience. Shoreside Support is also great for high-end specialty items such as caviar and Wagyu beef.

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My clients, 100%. I was so fortunate to start out as a personal chef. Clients over the years have shared all of their family recipe gems.

FAVORITE FOOD TO EAT

Tacos from Jack in the Box! I don’t live near one now, but I remember them from when I was a kid.

JUST BREATHE

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THE SIMPLICITY OF SNORKELING MEETS THE THRILL OF SCUBA DIVING

Battery life 45-90min User friendly & portable Airplane travel friendly

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TYRON HARDIE

YACHT CURRENTLY WORKING ON

I’m freelance, so move around a lot.

YEARS WORKED IN THE YACHTING INDUSTRY

12 FAVORITE CUISINE TO COOK

PROUDEST MEMORY IN THE GALLEY

Asian fusion

Teaming up with a best mate and smashing 11 charters in one season. That was the best, most creative season to date.

BEST INGREDIENT TO WORK WITH

Top quality microgreens TOUGHEST MOMENT IN THE GALLEY

Holland

Having to allow another chef (who traveled with the charter guest) into the galley.

SIGNATURE DISH TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

HAPPIEST TIME ABOARD A YACHT

I love raw fish dishes, especially the idea of fast curing and ceviche fish with a vibrant sauce or cold, zesty broth.

The Bahamas charter season, with time off to enjoy spearfishing and fishing.

WHAT NOT TO SERVE CHARTER GUESTS

WHERE/WHO TAUGHT YOU THE MOST ABOUT FOOD

It depends on the location, but I think snails are a no go.

Traveling around the world doing numerous cuisine specific courses.

FAVORITE PLACE TO SOURCE FRESH PRODUCE

MOST POPULAR FOOD REQUEST

Sushi or Mexican

FAVORITE FOOD TO EAT

Pizza and Asian cuisine 110 — 111

(954) 233-0717

SPREAD YOUR WINGS Calling all twitchers! Think you’ve seen every flock, wing and nest out there? Think again. Dubbed the “Galapagos of the Southern Ocean”, New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands are some of the most remote archipelagos in the world and home to a remarkable group of land and sea birds.

Words Ellie Brade Photograph J Hiscock

Set in the unforgiving Southern Ocean, the five groups of New Zealand’s windswept Subantarctic Islands – Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Bounty Islands, Campbell Island and Snares Islands – are closely protected UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with very limited and strict access requirements*. If you choose to experience them aboard a hardy expedition yacht, you will find yourself in the heart of an undisturbed avian kingdom. Best visited in peak summer, from December to January, make sure to ready your sea legs – this Southern Hemisphere ocean can be wild!

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Snares crested penguin

DAY ONE

Bluff, Invercargill

Albatross

An overnight cruise from Bluff, New Zealand’s southernmost settlement, will take you towards The Snares – named because they were once believed to be a dangerous snare for passing ships. They sit some 200km south of Invercargill. Settle in on board and brush up on the many bird species you’ll encounter over the coming weeks. First up is the great-winged northern royal albatross, which you can expect to see gracing the skies on your approach.

DAY TWO

Snares Island tomtit

“ The Snares have never had mammals introduced and are a complete haven for seabirds.”

Completely uninhabited, The Snares have never had mammals introduced and are therefore a complete haven for seabirds, many of whom use the islands as a breeding spot. Because of this, it’s not possible to land on any of the five islands, but if weather permits you can get up close to the shoreline

by Zodiac and try to spot the endemic Snares Island tomtit (the Australasian robin) and Snares Island fernbird.

More than a million sooty shearwaters arrive at The Snares each spring for breeding season, while another prolific bird is the diving petrel. You will likely even see Snares crested penguins swimming alongside you as you approach the shoreline – they have over 100 colonies on the islands and are unique to this small 4km landmass.

DAY THREE

Enderby Island, Auckland Islands Leave the Snares behind for the Auckland Islands, which lie 465km south of Invercargill. The Auckland Islands are the remains of two volcanos 114 — 115

GREAT SOUTH, DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION

The Snares

Light Mantled Sooty Albatross

Yellow-eyed penguin

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and warrant a visit of several days as they are the largest of the Subantarctic Islands. Home to both land and sea birds, these islands are an important breeding ground for many species. Start your Auckland Islands experience by stepping ashore to visit beautiful Enderby Island, which is notable for its population of the rare and shy yellow-eyed penguins. Spot the Auckland Island flightless teal too, and perhaps a majestic royal albatross.

DAY FOUR

Auckland Island, Auckland Islands

Campbell Island snipe

JEREMY PIERCE, J HISCOCK, DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION

Auckland Island, namesake of the island group, boasts imposing cliffs and glacier-carved landscapes. Anchor in Carnley Harbour and travel ashore to explore the island, which promises sightings of many birds including the Auckland shag and the sooty shearwater. Of note, a shy mollymawk albatross colony can be found on South West Cape. Look above you and you’re likely to spot the wandering albatross soaring over the island.

DAY FIVE

Campbell Island Campbell Island is the furthest south of the Subantarctic Islands – 700km south of Invercargill. Once a remote settlement, today Campbell Island is a densely covered haven for wildlife and seabirds. Look out for the long-beaked Campbell Island snipe, which was only discovered in 1997, and the Campbell Island teal. The island is home to six types of albatross including the light-mantled sooty and the Gibson’s wandering albatross. If you’re lucky you’ll witness “gaming,” where two albatross meet in the air in a type of courtship display, which is a marvelous spectacle.

Southern Royal Albatross

“ If you’re lucky you’ll witness “gaming,” where two albatross meet in the air in a type of courtship display.”

DAY SIX

Campbell Island Spend a second day on Campbell Island and walk along the Col Lyall Boardwalk to reach the breeding grounds of the southern royal albatross – 99% of this type of albatross breed on this island.

“Incubating albatrosses sit for weeks, mostly in a state of broodiness or torpor to conserve energy,” observes specialist bird photographer Cliff Beittel, who visited Campbell Island in 2012. “It’s strange to see these avian athletes so inactive; When they’re not nesting, southern royals circle the globe, feeding not only off New Zealand but off South America and the Antarctic Peninsula.”

Alternatively, take the longer option of a hike from Northwest Bay. Enjoy the scenery and look for Campbell Island shags and nesting giant petrels. Cruise overnight back towards Bluff.

DAY SEVEN

Campbell Island Shag

“ Incubating albatrosses sit for weeks, mostly in a state of broodiness or torpor to conserve energy.”

Finish the long journey back to port. It’s not farewell to your new winged friends just yet as you’ll be joined by seabirds as you cruise. The trip back is a good opportunity to reflect on the special range of species you witnessed in their natural environment. They don’t call the Subantarctic Islands one of the world’s best kept secrets for nothing. *All vessels looking to access the coastal marine area around the Subantarctic Islands must undergo a clean hull inspection to be assessed for biosecurity risk and will require a coastal permit.

All detailed requirements can be found at:www.doc.govt.nz/about- us/ourrole/managing-conservation/coastalmanagement/regional-coastal-plankermadec-and-subantarctic-islands/

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D FREEMAN, J HISCOCK, DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION

Bluff, Invercargill

Southern Royal Albatross and chick

Auckland Island flightless teal

FUN FACTS

Fernbirds – named kōtātā or mātātā in Māori — have a gamey smell, which makes them irresistible to dogs trained for game hunting or as conservation dogs

05

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Diving petrels use their feet and tail as rudders; experiments have shown that the common diving petrel can dive to 210 foot

No one knew there was such a bird as a Campbell Island snipe before November 1997. For about 170 years they had been confined to a tiny, sheer-sided rock stack off the south coast of Campbell Island.

They were discovered by chance when three explorers landed by helicopter on Jacquemart Island searching for Campbell Island teal and their three trained birdlocater dogs found the snipe

03

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Yellow-eyed penguins are known for being shy. In fact, unlike other penguin species, they don’t nest within visual sight of each other

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The Auckland Island flightless teal is actually a duck, a species of dabbling duck, and can be found on Adams Island, Enderby Island and the ominously named, Disappointment Island 120 — 121

The wandering albatross has the longest wingspan of any bird, measuring up to 11 foot

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The Snare Island snape is nocturnal. When nesting, the couples share parenting duries; the male looks after the first chick to leave the nest, while the female takes care of the second

LEON BERARD

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TRANSFORMING THE BOATING EXPERIENCE “The misery I endured from sea-sickness is far, far beyond what I ever guessed at,” Charles Darwin wrote to his father in 1832. “If it was not for sea-sickness, the whole world would be sailors.”

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The term ‘motion sickness’ was first introduced by Hippocrates over 2000 years ago when he wrote, “Sailing on the sea proves that motion disorders the body.” The primary signs and symptoms of seasickness are nausea, vomiting and cold sweats. An estimated one in three people experiences motion sickness; women, children and those who suffer from migraines are the most at risk.

There’s ongoing speculation about why some people are more likely to get sick on boats. But some theories suggest a common theme that the dissonance between what the body is used to (land) and what it’s experiencing (boat roll) can cause dizziness, headaches and nausea. We use our eyes, ears and feet to stay balanced. But if your eyes are seeing one thing (such as the inside of a boat cabin) and your ears are hearing another (such as the roaring engine) and your feet are feeling the waves underneath the boat...well, that’s a recipe for seasickness.

Research is divided on the effectiveness of seasick medication, Scopolamine patches, sea bands, habituation exercises, looking at the horizon, and consuming gingery foods because everyone reacts differently to prevent or ease symptoms. Although, one preventative method is consistent: boat stabilization technology.

Seakeeper uses innovative gyroscope technology to eliminate up to 95% of boat roll and can be installed virtually

anywhere on any boat that’s 23 feet or larger. Humphree creates compact, customizable fins and interceptors to trim and stabilize vessels, efficiently enhancing boat performance at all speeds. Both products can work together or separately to create an unbelievably smooth boating experience.

A combination of Seakeeper and Humphree stabilizers is optimal, but which yacht stabilizer you need depends on a range of factors including the activities you use your boat for, the speed at which you travel, your budget and the boat itself.

Unlike research surrounding why people get seasick and how to prevent it, the effectiveness of stabilizers is scientifically proven, fully predictable, and measurable with a high level of accuracy. Stabilizer manufacturers simulate the way your boat will respond in a variety of sea conditions using detailed boat-model data. They can predict the percentage at which different stabilizers of different sizes will reduce motion on your boat. That’s something over-the-counter medication just can’t guarantee.

Rather than attempt to remedy your body’s reaction to motion sickness, upgrade your boat to include stabilization technology so that you don’t feel uncomfortable boat movements in the first place. True stability at sea is something Charles Darwin could only dream about — with Seakeeper and Humphree, the whole world can be sailors.

THE OUTER LIMITS If your preferred recreational activity involves speed, height and a high degree of risk, then there’s a high probability that you’re an extreme sports enthusiast. There are about 100 recognized extreme sports throughout the world, each one as thrilling as the next. Here are FRANK’s top five choices to get the heart pumping and adrenaline rushing.

Words Julia Zaltzman

WINGSUIT FLYING

In a direct copy of flying squirrels, the risky sport of wingsuit flying involves wearing a webbed suit with “wings” to create drag and glide through the air. Unlike squirrels, wingsuits have air pockets that also provide lift.

This means those brave enough to try it are able to fall slower with a surprising amount of precision. It typically takes place from mountainsides in a controlled free fall through ravines. The longest wingsuit flight ever recorded is nine minutes, six seconds by Colombian Jhonathan Florez in 2012 (who tragically died in a BASE jumping accident on Mount Titlis, Switzerland, in 2015). The first electric powered wingsuit flight was achieved by BMW Designworks and air sports expert Peter Salzmann in December 2020. Salzmann was dropped by helicopter at 10,000-feet over the Austrian mountains clocking speeds of up to 186 mph.

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VOLCANO BOARDING

When skiing or sledding on snow isn’t extreme enough, it’s time to take a trip to an active volcano. The art of boarding down the side of a volcano that’s covered in cool cinders is a risky business. One of the most popular places for the activity is the Cerro Negro near Leon in western Nicaragua. It’s Central America’s youngest volcano, not to mention one of the region’s most active, last erupting in 1999. Typifying the extreme sports now sought after by those with a life-affirming wanderlust, and reasonably easy to access for those not afraid of hiking, the art of surfing Cerro Negro’s black ash is fast becoming a popular stop on a yacht charter itinerary.

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HIGHLINING

What could make walking a tight rope harder? When that rope isn’t actually taut. It’s more commonly recognized as slacklining, when flat webbing (a woven fabric used in place of rope) is tied between two trees. The major difference is that slacklining removes the possibility of falling very far.

In the extreme sport of highlining, the webbing is set up between high-rise buildings or cliffs and crossed without a safety net or pole for additional balance. The only thing preventing death is intense balance, a strong core and a small harness. The world’s longest recorded highline stretched 5,453-foot over the Navacelles valley in France.

The world’s highest urban highline was set at 1,145-foothigh by German slackliner Friedrich Kühne in 2019, tied between two skyscrapers in Moscow, Russia.

Freediving is the art of diving underwater and ascending to the surface on a single breath of air.

The extreme element comes into play when you introduce serious depth into the equation. The pressure changes of deep diving paired with the physical exertion and mental endurance make this sport far more than simply holding your breath.

Herbert Nitsch is the current freediving world record champion and “the deepest man on earth” after he dived to a depth of 702 feet in 2007. To put that into context, most scuba divers only dive as deep as 130 feet, while technical divers certified to explore deep wrecks average a depth of 130-330 feet. In other words, don’t try this at home without qualified supervision and training!

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MARCO ASSMANN, SEBASTIAN PENA LAMBARRI

FREEDIVING

PARASKIING

NRKBETA

As if heli-skiing on powder snow wasn’t extreme enough, there are some thrill seekers who push it even further.

Paraskiing is a combination of skiing (or snowboarding) and parasailing, where the skier picks up enough speed to lift off the ground and start soaring. Some parasailers fly for the entire run while others bounce back and forth between sailing and skiing. It essentially combines two top extreme sports into one ultimate hybrid. Of course, there’s always another level, which in this case is called speedriding. It’s paraskiing on steroids, giving those who try the highspeed, high-stakes sport access to a whole new world of terrain previously considered “unrideable”, such as the towering peaks and massive glaciers of the Alaska Range.

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CONCEPT YACHTS: FRIEND OR FOE? Giant swans and moon pools may sound like props in a science fiction movie, but these are very real concepts imagined by some of the world’s most innovative superyacht designers. Concept yachts often come with shock factor as designers allow their imaginations to run free without considering the technical requirements of a shipyard build. For better or worse, the majority of designs never come to fruition, leading many to beg the question: Who are the designs for and what is their purpose?

Words Rachel Ingram

FG Concept designed by Feadship. Honeycomb view

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The yachting industry has a love-hate relationship with concept yachts. Amid the global pandemic, a raft of abstract designs washed ashore as designers made the most of lockdown and got creative. The most controversial was undoubtedly Avanguardia by Lazzarini Design Studio; constructed in the silhouette of a swan, the superyacht’s “neck” bends down to touch the water, and the “head” detaches and transforms into a tender.

It’s a design that was five years in the making, admits the Italian studio’s founder Pierpaolo Lazzarini. And while it works in theory, bringing the swan to life will require the skills of an innovative shipyard.

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“ If somebody says, ‘No, this is too difficult,’ that makes the yacht builder happy.”

← Avanguardia by Lazzarini Design Studio ↓ P op-up ping pong table as seen on Project FG designed by Feadship

“The yacht builder is always looking for a new challenge,” says Lazzarini.

“In the nautical world, if somebody says, ‘No, this is too difficult,’ that makes the yacht builder happy; to create something that nobody else has done before.”

Shipyards have also caught the concept bug. Dutch builder Feadship unveiled a series of concept yachts in the past year taken from its design team’s formerly secret archives. Unlike Lazzarini’s work, each Feadship concept is based on disruptive, future-oriented technologies presently available to its team.

“What makes a Feadship future concept stand out is the fact that we are actually able to build them,” says Farouk Nefzi, CMO at Feadship. “The idea is to gauge reactions to different radical designs and innovations that might be used as a showcase for a client’s yacht design. A good example is the famed Nemo lounge on SAVANNAH, which was first shown in a concept called Eon.” Feadship’s latest series unveiled a number of incredible designs illustrating pioneering ideas. The moon pool on ESCAPE – a seawater pool from where you can swim directly into the ocean, launch a submersible or create a safe sealed off swimming area – carries real wow factor. Other examples include the pop-up ping pong table as seen on Project FG and a striking 213-foot pool on the hull of the all-aluminum sports yacht concept named Project 3073.

Nefzi’s hope is that these concepts will inspire the future of yacht design: “Our concepts have been remarkably prescient in foreseeing a growing interest among owners in aspects such as glass construction (X-STREAM), hybrid propulsion (F-STREAM), low fuel consumption (BREATHE), eco-friendly design (AEON), facilities for younger owners (QI), the desire for privacy (RELATIVITY) and the art of entertainment (ROYALE).”

It’s a mindset shared by other industry leaders including Netherlands-based shipyard Oceanco, which used its 2021 concept KAIROS to test reactions to sustainable solutions. Created as part of Oceanco’s NXT initiative, which sets sustainability benchmarks for the industry, KAIROS aims to “recalibrate yacht design” through its E-Hybrid propulsion system using batteries as the primary source of energy. It’s hoped that by demonstrating state-of-the-art technology through concepts, owners and shipyards will gain the confidence to actualize and normalize such features.

That said, there are some designers who play the concept game to inspire innovation on a purely creative level. Take Gresham Yacht Design, creator of the Hydrosphere, a glass lift that emerges from the bottom of a superyacht to create a 360-degree observation deck.

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“ By demonstrating state-of-the-art technology through concepts, owners and shipyards will gain confidence.”

↓ T he greenhouse in FG Concept designed by Feadship → K airos designed by Oceanco → M ain salon designed by Gresham Yacht Design

“From science buffs to tech-savvy entrepreneurs, anyone who loves the sea and wants to immerse themselves in their environment will be attracted to the Hydrosphere,” says founder Steve Gresham. “More often than not, advances that push boundaries are brought into reality by visionary clients who aren’t scared of new and bold ideas.”

“Concepts are an important exercise to push the realms of possibility and to challenge the market on what could be done,” he adds. “As a studio, we like to study and review the ways in which time is spent on board and how the enjoyment of a yacht can be enhanced.”

If you rolled your eyes at the thought of a floating swan, American designer Steve Kozloff’s controversial GOLIATH Series might just tip you over the edge. His concepts aren’t designed to be built, but empower blue sky thinking.

Kozloff’s ARCTIC OWL, a hybrid scientific exploration yacht with a retrofuturistic aesthetic, is designed to sail 6,000 miles on a single tank. His Spanish Armada-inspired GALLEON will likely never see the light of day, but this doesn’t matter to the intrepid designer.

“Designing yachts gives me great pleasure,” he says. “It’s a win-win either way – it’s only a plus if I sell a design.”

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“ Anyone who loves the sea and wants to immerse themselves in their environment will be attracted to the Hydrosphere.”

↓ G ALLEON designed by Steve Kozloff

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A WORLD-CLASS DEALERSHIP Imagine opening a brand new 206,000-square-foot luxury car dealership facility in January 2020, with elevated vehicle display platforms, private delivery theaters, a chandelier inspired by the historic Silverstone racetrack, cascading water features and mosaic art walls. And then a global pandemic hits...

The all-new Holman Motorcars dealership, located at 900 East Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a stunning, state-of-the-art facility that provides a lifestylefocused experience. It blends the renowned Holman customer service with the iconic luxury of Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls-Royce brands. But when a global pandemic takes away the customer experience and adds a level of uncertainty for employees, what do you do as an automotive business?

You trust the process.

“Our business went from being fully opened and operational to not a phone ringing,” says Holman Motorcars Fort Lauderdale General Sales Manager, Ralph Avila. “But fear can bring people out of their comfort zone and, frankly, we have to believe in something. As a company, we agreed to strictly follow and trust local government and CDC guidelines, and made changes to our business accordingly.”

February to April 2020 was a scary time for Holman Motorcars. The car manufacturers that stock the new showrooms halted production of their vehicles as thoughts of the 2008 financial crisis loomed in the back of peoples’ minds.

How do you face something like that? Holman Motorcars was the only local auto-dealer group that fully shut down the sales department during the height of the pandemic. As a familyrun business, their top priority was to make sure employees remained safe and healthy.

“Toward the end of April 2020, we were able to bring back sales associates one at a time. And we saw some movement,” says Avila. “Customers were indoors for almost two months, and they just wanted to go somewhere and to do something.

Our new facility provided a safe and new experience for them.”

Great car dealerships rely on providing excellent customer service. Throughout the pandemic, Holman Motorcars embraced safe and effective ways to bring customers into 140 — 141

their new state-of-the-art facility. They took cleaning to another level, they introduced self-test driving cars and provided contactless delivery. The service department remained operational, and they simplified the paperwork signing process. They did everything they could to make the customer feel comfortable and happy with their services.

And it worked.

“Considering what the experts were forecasting about the doom to the automotive industry, well, it went in the opposite direction for us,” says Avila. “We stayed true to Holman’s mission and expectations. We promised a world-class experience for our customers and that’s what we gave them.”

Holman Motorcars is home to the full lineup of ultraluxury vehicles including Aston Martin, Bentley and RollsRoyce. Today, customers can expect the same lifestyle experience of Holman Automotive in a gorgeous new facility that’s worthy of international luxury brands. If the Silverstone racetrack chandelier doesn’t stop you in your tracks, the cars certainly will.

The Survey Yacht Brokers IS THE POST-COVID SURGE IN YACHT SALES A SHORT TERM THING?

01 63% 25% 07% 05%

AVE YOU SEEN AN H INCREASE IN SALES IN THE LAST YEAR? Sales have gone through the roof It’s steadily growing It’s up and down Nothing to report

HAT’S THE MOST W POPULAR SIZE CATEGORY? 82% 80-100 feet 10% 120-180 feet 08% 200-260 feet 00% 214-295+ feet

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02 23% 23% 28% 20% 06%

The yachting industry has experienced an unprecedented postpandemic boom in the past year. Shipyards are full, brokerage inventory is in demand and there are more first-time buyers stepping aboard than ever before. But is this a knee-jerk reaction to a temporary state of affairs or will the surge in yachting keep on growing? FRANK surveyed Denison Yachting representatives to find out what they think…

WHY IS YACHTING 03 BOOMING POST-COVID? More first timers People can’t wait to get away 10% It’s the safest form of vacation The YOLO effect 45% Other

DO YOU THINK THE SURGE IN SALES WILL LAST? 13% or sure 33% Slowly but surely 52% It will probably plateau soon 02% It’s already over

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WHAT’S THE MOST POPULAR TYPE OF YACHT? Explorer yachts, everyone wants to travel remotely Displacement motor yachts, it’s all about comfort 33% Fast planing yachts to cover lots of ground 12% Sailing yachts, it’s the best way to connect to nature

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