Series/Production

FrontRunners October 2014 MACHINES AND GEAR

Space Ship Foster and Partners is known best for its unconventional architectural projects, including the under-construction Apple headquarters, which, because of its circular shape and mile-long circumference, has been likened to a giant spaceship. The British firm has also dabbled in boat design, creating vessels that are as distinctive as its buildings. It worked on […]

Boating: Pace and Space

Two years ago, Finland’s Nautor’s Swan replaced its venerable fiberglass-hulled Swan 82 sailing yacht with the carbon-fiber-hulled Swan 80FD, a lighter 80-foot vessel with a flush deck—thus the FD designation. Now for sailors seeking a yacht with a greater emphasis on comfort, Nautor’s Swan has added the 80S to its Maxi collection of high-performance sailing […]

Boating: Breaking the Mold

The Turkish shipyard Vicem Yachts is one of the few major builders that still produce boats with hulls made entirely from mahogany. The cold-molding construction method required for such hulls is a labor-intensive process that involves coating layers of mahogany strips with epoxy laminate and bending them around a frame, thus creating a naturally insulated […]