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Software mogul Jim Clark challenged Royal Huisman to expand the limits of its capacity and creativity in building his impossible dream: tremendous three-masted schooner Athena.
by Jack A. Somer
photography by Stephane Bravin, Franco Pace, Hans Westerink
03/01/2005
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| Royal Huisman 295 |  |
Seven years ago, the gleaming white 47.4-meter sloop Hyperion – sculpted by
designers Pieter Beeldsnijder and Germán Frers – answered owner Jim
Clark’s
longing for a yacht born of his own fertile
imagination, which
also had spawned
an
astonishing
array of
successful software-driven
systems. Yet, even while
Hyperion
was under
construction at the Royal
Huisman
Shipyard in the
Netherlands, Clark had second thoughts: For
all
her promised
distinction, he
knew Hyperion would
not offer the total
independence at sea he dreamed
of, as
she lacked a theater,
library,
proper
diving
facilities, an appropriate galley,
sufficient
guest
cabins and a helipad. So he asked
Beeldsnijder
–
whose
friendship,
talent, and “impish sense of
humor”
he
had come to value – to sketch
something as large
as
100 meters
overall, perhaps even a motor yacht,
to
embrace
these features.
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Like legions of Royal Huisman clients
before him,
Jim
Clark
was
enamored of the
shipyard and felt
abiding respect
and
affection for
its
eminent
chieftain, Wolter Huisman. “I
don’t think
any
boatbuilder in
the world
does a
better
job than Huisman,”
Clark says. “It is the best,
most
conscientious
organization
to build a boat in the
world.” He
naturally wanted to build there
again.
But when
he
confronted Wolter
Huisman with
the project, alarm
bells
sounded.
Huisman had planned to build
a larger
construction
hall, but only for
yachts up to 60
meters.
And he had hoped that everyone would absorb the
lessons
learned from Hyperion before embarking on a
new
project. He
hesitated, and Clark
and
Beeldsnijder
reluctantly explored
building
elsewhere.
But, as Beeldsnijder
now says, “If Wolter
Huisman has one
major weakness,
it is his inability
to
say
‘No’ to a great challenge.
After a
time, he got used to the
length, and
told
me
he would like to
go
ahead.”
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