MARILYN M. MOWER

Benetti Ambrosia III The 213-foot Ambrosia III, completed last May, is the most technologically sophisticated Benetti ever and perhaps the most advanced yacht delivered by any yard in the past year. The six-deck, steel-and-aluminum vessel, built by the Benetti Darsena shipyard in Viareggio, Italy, is the company’s third-largest craft, behind the 282-foot Kingdom and the […]

After Christensen Shipyards introduced its Custom Series in 2001 with a 155-foot motor yacht, customers responded with requests for grander spaces and more amenities, and last year the company obliged. The Christensen 157 Marathon (360.695.3238, http://www.christensenyachts.com) exhibits all the features that make the series so appealing, including well-engineered systems, flawless woodwork, and shortened delivery time. […]

The 220-foot Nobiskrug Triple Seven (+49.4331.207.221, http://www.nobiskrug.com) is an astonishing boat, especially considering that the German commercial builder had completed only one other custom yacht and one refit before delivering it. But the yard encountered the owner of a 180-foot Oceanfast who was looking to step up and step out—into the sun—and Nobiskrug accommodated his […]

An architect by training, Nicaraguan-born Juan Carlos Espinosa—JC to the yacht world—discovered his talent for yacht design while working on the first American-made jetboat, the 126-foot Time built by Palmer Johnson in 1987. Now he applies that talent to the designs of megasportfishermen, custom craft that are longer than 100 feet. His stylings combine exterior […]

“If you think about an object’s function,” Ferdinand Alexander Porsche once observed, “the form sometimes creates itself.” Certainly this dictum applies to his brainchild, the Porsche 911. But for this designer, cars were only the beginning. In 1972 he founded the independent Porsche Design Studio to develop consumer products that, like the 911, look beautiful […]

Venus Rising In the 1880s, in Sarnico, Italy, Ernesto Riva became the first boatbuilder to fit piston engines to boats. As the years passed, the Riva family company continued to introduce technical and design advances, first as a raceboat maker, then as a builder of pleasure boats that were embraced by jet-setters of the 1960s. […]

Four to six years typically pass from design to delivery of a custom superyacht. But the Amels boatyard in Vlissingen, Netherlands, has reduced that time to 24 months or less. Amels builds its Limited Editions, a new series of 171-foot yachts, with standardized dimensions, engineering, and accommodations, but it also allows owners to incorporate their […]

To explore the Queen Charlotte Islands two years ago, Massachusetts businessman Bernie Blum had his 43-foot Cheoy Lee shipped overland from Florida to British Columbia. Blum then set his sights on the Baltic, but transporting his yacht there proved to be more complicated. “The big yacht transport outfits don’t go to the Baltic,” he notes. […]

When he took delivery of his second Blue Moon, a 165-footer, in 2000, Richard Duchossois had no doubt that he would be back for another: He loves the building process as much as he enjoys yachting. But with his new 198-foot Feadship, he finds it difficult to imagine any improvements. Like Duchossois’ previous vessel, this […]

Naval architect Luca Brenta calls Ghost an “ocean runner,” a term he uses to describe a very fast yacht capable of comfortable passage-making. However lyrical the coinage, it fails to fully convey the brilliant innovations that his vessel represents. Brenta and Luca Bassani, who coinitiated this Wally concept, enlisted  builder Vitters, designer Kitty Hawks, and […]