Design Showcase: Tablescapes at Sea
Louis Postel
11/01/2006

Leah double-checks to make sure all six chairs align perfectly and symmetrically with the place settings: chargers, cutlery, plates, stemware and sparkly napkin rings. And on close inspection, there’s not even the most microscopic smudge or fingerprint to be seen. The white napkins, however, will have to be changed because there is an impromptu red sauce simmering in the galley.

As stewardess on the 130-foot (39.6-meter) motor yacht Sacajawea, Leah is the high priestess of a ritual about to take place: a long and leisurely dinner with friends and family—an all-too-rare occasion on land for most of her time-starved charter clients. Indeed, for some, the exclamation, "I must have gained ten pounds on board," is shorthand for just how pleasant these rituals are.

Setting a yacht’s table is an art. (Click image to enlarge)

Once night falls and cocktail hour draws to a close, the first guest descends from the sun deck and emerges on the candlelit scene. The lights in the salon are dim. There’s just the candlelight and the harbor lights, mirrored in the well-polished surfaces of the tablescape.

The napkins replaced, the lovely, Australian-born Leah and her staff await the other guests as unobtrusively as possible. The challenge is before them. How to set a great table with the limited space and restrictions of being at sea? How to complement the menu’s theme while at the same time delivering all the charm and magic that enhances the dining ritual?

To find out, ShowBoats International invited the Providence, Rhode Island–based designer Jay Wayne Luiz to team up with Leah on board Sacajawea. We wanted them to create a sort of test kitchen for successful tablescapes aboard yachts. In addition, we checked out Paraffin, Seven Sins, Crystal Sea and Zoom Zoom Zoom to see how their enchanted evenings are composed.

Color, fresh flowers and reflective surfaces help create the visual interplay that makes a yacht meal a memorable moment. Top photograph by Roy Zipstein. Bottom photograph by Dana Jinkins. (Click images to enlarge)

"Yachts are all about glamour, stepping onto a stage on the water. At night there must be even more glamour, more glitter—and that’s why we didn’t use a tablecloth. We wanted the bright reflections off the glass surface of the table to add everything possible to the sense of glamour," says Luiz.

Luiz brought a sampling of items from his Wayland Square shop Kyureo. "When I first came on board, the dining area was pretty much all beige and gold. I wanted to bring in some color without overpowering it. You could send it the wrong way, so I wanted to be subtle. Just pop some color—basically pink and green pastels. In a tight space such as this, you want as much reflection as possible to make the space look larger—the perfect opportunity to employ candlesticks."

Photograph by Dana Jinkins. (Click image to enlarge)

The candlesticks preside from high aloft the table’s surface, pointed silver spires of art-deco extraction. Luiz chose their statuesque quality for a reason. He was very conscious of the fact that there was no chandelier hanging over the table. It was important for the candlesticks to bring up the table height, to hold the dining space as a unified whole. The high candlesticks created a virtual wall between the stairs and the salon, defining the space as well as softening it. Without the candlesticks shining like beacons, one’s eye would range all too quickly from the main salon past the dining area to the hallway and staircase. The visual appeal of the dining ritual would be over before it began. (Click image to enlarge)Luiz carries the tall, tapered candles from Denmark in his Kyureo shop along with the candlesticks. They’re dripless, he says, except in drafts and hurricanes. Luiz also offers multi-colored faux grapes, which he has tied to the stems of the glasses. The grapes let each guest know whose glass belongs to whom. "It’s one of those things that brings a smile, starts a conversation," says Luiz. Because the seashell theme is very hot this year, says the designer, he brought along napkin rings made of polished shells embedded in stamped sterling from the Philippines.

The Paraffin crew establishes a bond between the food and the serving ware. Photograph by Dana Jinkins. (Click image to enlarge)

The silver on the table is Italian and stainless. The stylish handles come in 12 different ABS (plastic) colors, including a copper and a blue (until very recently, Neiman Marcus had a lock on the pink). Luiz readily demonstrates their perfect balance upon an outstretched finger. To keep things looking fresh over the course of a charter voyage, there’s necessarily a lot of mixing and matching going on, which makes this silver with its array of colored handles very attractive. "You can mix different colors as long as you have some matches," says Luiz, "like a blue charger, a blue dish, blue glasses and copper candles. After all, blue is the dominant color of the universe."

Every dinner is special on a yacht, but some are more special than others. "For a seven-year-old’s birthday party, for example, I’d want to bring in animals, but in an upscale, not childish way: some whimsy, some elegant animal candleholders perhaps," says Luiz. "And for an anniversary, I think diamonds, sparkle, icy crystal shapes, diamond napkin rings, tassels, fringe….For New Year’s I might try Venetian masks, masks at every place setting, and sensual finger foods like chocolate-covered strawberries.

Every meal is special on a yacht. The best settings are "thought- stoppers" that create lasting impressions. Photographs by Dana Jinkins. (Click images to enlarge)

"No matter what the occasion, I like contrast as well as elements of interest. Anyone can create something that’s pretty, but I like people to stop and say, ‘What is that…how did they do that?’ Often it’s a matter of taking just one extra step, the adding of a few extra touches that mean so much to people. It’s like wrapping a gift: the bow, the card."

In Luiz’s design for the table set for lunch on the aft deck, there are a number of his "elements of interest," or what Luiz interchangeably calls "thought-stoppers." The candleholders are silver sea urchins on linen tablecloths with matching runners, which are patterned in a floret print—"seaweedy but not too seaweedy." The real flowers are ginger and glossy pink anthuriums from Hawaii. The pop of color energizes the scene. The chargers on the aft-deck table are covered in faux leather that, Luiz says, makes them easy to wipe down with a wet cloth. On top of the chargers are metal-rimmed dishes that he recommends covering with clear glass plates; again, for easy cleaning. The blue-and-brown color palette here is one of Luiz’s favorites.

Photograph by Dana Jinkins. (Click image to enlarge)

We found innumerable "thought-stoppers" on other megayacht tables as well—too many to detail in this space. Memorable among them are the cheery gold-tasseled napkin rings on Crystal Sea that play off seriously red linens, which take their cue from a bird-of-paradise centerpiece and red and gold chairs. Blue candles and blue in the plates and wall painting add the necessary punch. We found a fiery dragon that has a walk-on part as a centerpiece on the aft deck of Seven Sins, and on Zoom Zoom Zoom we found what are arguably the world’s tallest, most glittery glass goblets. (Click image to enlarge)

There is much more to tell, but clearly the moral of this story is that all of these "elements of interest," when tastefully arranged, create the glamorous dining rituals that are so central to the yachting experience.