| Heesen 122 |  |
At the dawn of this decade, Heesen Yachts struck out to redefine
its business plan by prospecting for a new type of customer—a client who wanted
an essentially custom midsize aluminum motor yacht without waiting 24 months to
get it. These customers, reasoned Heesen’s Commercial Director Jan Gremmen,
would be younger than typical megayacht owners, and fans of fast cars and
performance yachts. This brief gave rise to Heesen’s 3700 series of totally
turnkey 37-meter (122-foot), 10-passenger, luxurious, MTU-powered sport yachts.
Omega Architects created its sleek profile and standard layout, which
accomplishes the nearly impossible task of incorporating a full-beam main-deck
master suite on a raised-pilothouse yacht. Its semi-displacement hullform is
robust enough to cross an ocean at 10 to 12 knots, slippery enough to rocket
across smooth water at nearly 32 knots, and voluminous enough to incorporate a
tender garage, a pair of 16-cylinder engines and four guest cabins, plus room
for five crew on the lower deck.
| Click on the Spec and Design tab at top to see complete list of resources. |
It was a package so compelling that five yachts sold off the
drawing board before Lady Ingeborg christened the award-winning series in 2004.
With the launch of the sixth yacht, G-Force, in May of this
year, demand shows no sign of stopping. The line is sold out until 2009, and
four hulls of the design’s successor, the Heesen 4400, are already in production
at what has become the world’s busiest shipyard. What perhaps not even Gremmen could have predicted about the
3700s is, except for their sexy trompe
l’oeil profile, every one of
the boats has a strikingly different exterior paint scheme and interior décor.
G-Force, however, takes the package to a new level of elegant
sophistication.
 The yacht’s owner wanted a fast precision
yacht. (Click image to enlarge)
G-Force’s British
owner is a veteran yachtsman whose 12 previous yachts are some of the most
stylish and high profile of the twentieth century. With this project, however, he chose to play
out his fondness for fast precision motorcars with a fast precision yacht. A
property developer by trade, he had his own ideas about the yacht’s layout and
engaged architect Jean Pierre Gilardino to bring an unabashedly high-end style
to the décor. The transformation began by swapping the locations of the
main-deck sitting and dining areas. "It was my client’s idea to put the dining
area aft, and for me this was very exciting because it gave us a bigger salon. I
suddenly got very enthusiastic about using a Venetian glass chandelier over the
dining table and [ebony] art deco niches to frame it. Murano white glass gives a
tremendously chic effect, being both classic and contemporary," says
Gilardino. Placing the dining area aft within the arc of the superstructure’s
sliding, curved aft doors creates an elegant alcove with exceptional views and
brings added privacy to the salon. The entire deck revolves around deco-inspired counterpoints of
black on white with mirrors and silver accents adding sparkle. Although this
London- and Monaco-based architect primarily designs private residences, as
architect of all Graff Diamonds locations worldwide, Gilardino knows all
about sparkle and the value of lighting for effect. In the salon, Gilardino introduced pale sycamore joinery, which carries
throughout the yacht. To enhance the deco theme, a circle design in
hand-stenciled silver subtly ghosts the paneling under the final coat of
varnish. In the master suite, the same technique was used to apply a
diamond-shaped design to the sycamore. In both the salon and the master suite,
ebony planks alternate with a silk-and-wool carpet underfoot. Gloss-finished
ebony is used for furniture, mullions and crown molding, offset by shagreen
inlays and white fabrics in natural fibers.
|
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Email This
Printer Friendly Version
Reprints & Permissions
Most Popular Searches