A year ago,
we featured the groundbreaking 88-meter The Maltese Falcon on our
cover—the be-all and end-all of innovation and design in a mega-sailing yacht.
She was unquestionably the "it" yacht of the year. Now on our cover, you see the
82-meter Alfa Nero, previously known as Y702, the build name during her
construction at Oceanco. In seven consecutive installments called "On the
Horizon," we tracked significant stages of the yacht’s design and build process.
Working with Eel Kant, managing director at Oceanco, and design firm
Nuvolari-Lenard, contributing editor Bill Ando followed the conceptual thinking
that determined the fully realized yacht you see in the pages of this issue.
 Photograph by Pamela Jones. (Click image to enlarge)
In many ways, Alfa Nero is this year’s The
Maltese Falcon. She is beautiful, but not bulky, with a sleek profile and
stunning accommodations. Artwork abounds, not only on her walls and in the
stunning execution of her interior features, but also in the design of her
exterior, with its sculptural overhangs and intricate stainless steel railings.
Even her extraordinary engine room would not seem out of place in New York’s
avant-garde Chelsea gallery district.
The wow factor of this yacht is immediate. She has a swimming
pool with a horizon waterfall-cum-helicopter pad on her expansive main aft deck,
as opposed to the sun deck where most helipads are positioned. The visual
artistry the yacht exhibits, especially at night, is pure magic. At the Monaco
Yacht Show in September, her owner confided in me that he was offered a
staggering amount of money for the yacht, in excess of what has been published
regarding the costs of building The Maltese Falcon. But he told me, with
a twinkle in his eye, he couldn’t possibly consider the offer now. For starters,
he had just taken delivery and wanted to savor his creation. For another thing,
he said, his wife would kill him. She hardly had time to enjoy the boat before
the show, and she was determined that the family be able to spend time together
aboard. From inception to launch, this yacht is a resounding success.
Owning an 82-meter yacht is not as uncommon as it used to be.
Oceanco has four more yachts under construction right now, three of which are in
excess of 85 meters. The demand for 80-meter-plus yachts is stronger now than
ever in history, as witnessed by our 17th annual Global Order Book,
in which we track the number of yachts 80 feet and up being built around the
world.
Eighty-footers, once considered large yachts, are a shade on
the small side these days. For the sake of consistency, we have maintained that
starting length because we have used that number for the last decade as our
launch pad. Writer and researcher Louisa Beckett and our team of editors have
done a formidable job of canvassing the world for information to make this
account as universal and up-to-date as possible. This is no small order. As
we’ve done for the past 16 years, we solicit every yachtbuilder in the world for
their current build orders in our quest to track trends and bring to you a
snapshot of the yachting industry. One trend we’ve flagged this year is that an
increasing number of custom builders are bound by confidentiality orders from
their owners. This made it more difficult to collect the data and often caused
us to resort to secondary sources for the information, but we’ve not been
deterred.
The fundamental issues are irrefutable. The number of yachts on
order has increased. In last year’s Global Order Book, we registered 777 new
yachts in build. As of September 1, 2007, we show 916—a nearly 18 percent
increase. The average size of yachts on order continues its march to
ever-greater heights as well. This year’s Order Book reports an average
new-build size of nearly 124 feet, a more than two-foot increase from last
year.
Suffice to say, the large-yacht industry is healthier than
ever. But quantitative measures don’t tell the whole story. When innovative, new
designs such as Alfa Nero and The Maltese Falcon appear on the
scene, we’re left believing the industry is headed in exciting new directions
that bode even better for its continued growth.
 The 2008 Global Order Book
Highest Technical Achievement in a Sailing Yacht: The Maltese Falcon
The 2005 Order Book
The 2006 Global Order Book
Waterfront: Perini Navi's Cutting-Edge Clipper
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