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A Herculean effort on the part of Alfa Four’s design-and-construction team turned Theodore and Gianna Angelopoulos’ newest yacht into a gold-medal project.
by Jim Gilbert
photography by Ed Holt (Exterior only)
01/01/2005
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| Alfa Four |  |
The story of Alfa Four is really a tale of two yachts. It also reflects
another chapter in the 15-year history of her builder, Oceanco.
At the center
of these stories are Alfa Four’s owners, Greek yachtsman and entrepreneur
Theodore Angelopoulos and his wife, Gianna, whose most recent accomplishment was
last summer’s extremely successful Athens Olympics, over which she presided as
president of the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee. The Olympic Games, in
fact, played a major role in the evolution of Alfa Four, whose first mission was
to serve as a high-profile entertaining platform for Olympic VIPs.
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Alfa Four
began life at Oceanco code-named Ambrosiana, a near-sistership to Lady Lola,
winner of the 2003 ShowBoats Award for Best Full-Displacement Motor Yacht over
38 Meters (SBI May ’03). As 60-meter Ambrosiana, originally contracted for a
German client, she was conceived with a Terence Disdale interior. About halfway
through construction, the project came to a halt. Neither Oceanco, which at the
time was going through a management and ownership change, nor her original owner
was able to carry on with construction. Meanwhile, Angelopoulos, or “Mr. A,” as
he is often called, had sold a 66-meter yacht he had been building at Feadship.
In search of a replacement, he had been negotiating with Richard Hein, then part
owner and CEO of Oceanco, to build a 60-meter yacht. That was 18 months prior to
the start of the Olympics. Both Mr. A and Oceanco feared that such a large
project could not be completed in time for the event.
During his discussions
with Hein, Mr. A developed an interest in acquiring Oceanco and became Hein’s
partner in mid-2003. Hein’s interest was purchased a year later, leaving Mr. A
as sole owner of the company. Still looking for a yacht for the Olympics, Mr. A
next turned his attention to the unfinished hull of Ambrosiana. Not only was she
capable of being completed in time for Olympics entertaining duty, but she also
offered the opportunity to serve as a showcase for the standard of quality that
Mr. A hoped would be incorporated in Oceanco’s future projects. Still, with less
than 10 months until the required June 2004 delivery, getting the renamed Alfa
Four finished was no mean feat. Making her completion even more problematic was
the Angelopoulos’ decision to develop an entirely new interior scheme, and to
make the yacht capable of helicopter operations.
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