Yacht Everest

On my kind of yacht (Pandora, not Victoria) the lifeboats will not be so high, why the free fall is not so scary. On cruise vessels you can not use them because you can not instruct all passengers how to embark and be seated, but on a pleasure yacht it is pretty easy to have such an excercise with your guests.

As you say, this kind of lifeboats are safer in that they are released from the ship without risk of being tangled. You may have seen lifeboats hanging in one wire on the side of abandoned ships...

My point of faster delivery over low prices, is just about what K1W1 is saying. There is no need to cut corners, rather to add more hours into each project. But getting started before you get a slot at the more busy established builders could be valuable, we all want to have our boat as soon as possible when the decision is taken...

Well said K1W1...!

I'd like to add... this is an issue that is becoming more apparent. As we all know, Lars specifically, there are some serious buyers on YachtForums. People with the means to commission any boat, at any cost. I've found myself in the position of answering inquiries, too numerous to count, by members looking for direction... privately.

One recurring concern is the arrogance of certain yards. While they may be steep in tradition, they are loosing customers because they are unwilling to recognize a changing marketplace. Today’s buyers don't have the same preconceived notions as the generation that preceded them. Today’s buyers are not as traditional and they often have a better understanding of technology. More importantly, they have a wide variety of choices that never existed before.

Not too long ago, certain builders were held in great esteem. But… times change, technology marches on and competition evolves. Inside of a decade, we have seen a century of heritage challenged by previously unheard of builders. And the results are nothing short of expected. That said… with complacency comes competition. And with arrogance comes resentment. While builders have flourished in the new economy, don’t bet on heritage carrying hallmarks into the future. That legacy will belong to the savvy.

Personally I believe that most commercial yard will have trouble with building interior to yacht standards. It is not easy.

However, building luxury yacht is nothing new to the Taiwanese. I think they are the 5th largest exporter of yachts 80 foot+ last year. They also did the refit of Caravelle for the chairman of LVMH, it was done by a daughter company of JSSC. So, I certainly have confidence in them, but I would expect to pay less compared to NA and European yards.

They are facing many problems though. One being that they don't have a domistic market, you simply can't register a boat as a pleasure craft there. That's why M/Y Evergreen is registered in Singapore. This is slowly changing but I think the China market has more potential anyways.

Another very interest problem is that they can build fast, but they can't get shipping vessels to transport the yacht frequent enough. I read on the news that they had a 128 footer sitting there waiting for transportation for months.

Anyways, this is getting offtopic. Personally I will feel more comfortable with a liferaft located higher up midship. I mean if the stern is flooded too quicky maybe the liftrafts won't be so useful after all when they are located lower at the strn. JMHO. I am certainly no expert, just a prespective buyer that's all (of course nothing close to a mega yacht).

Especially when you see what is coming out from many yards today...

But there are exceptions and these top quality builders has all been very openminded to build from my designs; Abeking & Rasmussen, Blohm+Voss, Burger, Moonen, Royal Huisman and Perini Navi.

They would certainly build good enough for any client...

No offence

Lars might kill me for some of the things I say here. First... Everest and both Pandoras... YUK!!!!! I may be a bit naive here, but those designs do absolutely nothing for me. Bulbous and fat with no nice lines. I'm a potatoes and bangers and long and sleek type person. Hence OceAnco. Long and sleek. They did break the mold with a few designs and have matured recently to build the more adventurous designs. So, think Yacht lover would be right there with his comments. For me, one of the nicest is the yacht under Lars's Link.That... I love! We have had a couple of discussions as to his design work and for the most we agree. I envy his talent to be able to do what he does. You should really push the bigger stuff. I like them. All mine are locked in my head. Long and sleek has its problems though, soon as you extend the bow for the right look, the owner always wants to push the superstructure fwd to increase accommodation. (Personal experience)

As for the 200+ yachts and one I think Lars posted here. THEY ARE NOT YACHTS. Sorry Lars but they are Mediterranean Cruise Liners. Nice ... but not a yacht in my heart. `

As for the Feadship scenario. Well, De Vries will always stick to the traditional and boring. If you look back over the last 20 years they hardly changed. Van Lent... well, they've broken the mold several times and I have a lot of times for them. I recently got a glimpse at the latest concept. Don't think its the same as the one mentioned earlier. But this was amazing. I'd love to post it here. But I think Heine would rip me a new one. Maybe later when it goes Public. I turned round to a designer there and commented. "You do still work at De Voogt don't you? ! "

But back to the thread... NO!!! Everest and Pandora would NEVER get my vote as yacht in the true sense. Mega doesn't actually mean Big!!

Maybe I will kill you for using too many emoticons, but not for saying things about my designs...

I think Mega means big. Giga means even bigger and I agree, yachts of 200 meter should rather be called ships. This is also why I designed the Victoria more like a classic ship instead of a Sunseeker on steroids.

My designs are all conceptual, not locked in one style as some other designers are. I am trying to do something good looking within each concept, it can be classic, contemporary or futuristic. But even if I try to make them pretty timeless, some styles do fade faster than others.

Mega Giga

Thats fine and I look forward to seeing them all.. But I still wouldnt put them in the class of a Yacht.. OK one of the biggest and most famous was Britannia.. Now that I accepted as a yacht... But like (i think) Lars said.. They are ships not Yachts.. I would never call any of these beuties a ship.. Yacht always stirs up a deep emosion in me... Ships...I just design them..

I think if we were to all put our heads together we should build a new company to put all the others to sleep.. Shocking outrageaous designs but with taste... What does anyone think would be the best Line-up to build such a company... We hace concept designers ,, engineering designers..Rich people( for initial funding) . Captains.. Owners ... everything you need to make the best of the best... Personally Lars ,,you can do the concept and more.. Stan can do the sea trials with me and more(30 yrs of sea trial rep for me)... Now all we need is volenteers to build the longest and best..smiley,,hum! shal I.. Sorry ...

I think somebody once said; As long as you know the names of each crew member, the yacht is not too big...

Yep

Think you may have hit the nail on the head there Sir. Mind you I have had that from a lot of the captains I've associated with... The nice thing about a Yacht say upto 1100-110 Mtrs is the Family close Knit attatude amongst the crew and the attitude of the owner to the crew.. The captain of one of the Yachts I worked on had trouble remembering some of the crews names for some time.. That was only 98Mters... These big ones would have no personality between the crew and owners... So Lars Chief Concept Designer and co owner!!!/???

I have to wonder how big, is too big? I think most of the “Gigayachts” lack being able to moor in quiet little seaside ports making them to big for me.

I had heard this was the one thing Larry Ellison doesn’t like about “Raising Sun”.

That being said, I have to admit, I find Lars’ “Pandora” design pretty sleek. Could use a little more open space on one of the levels below the double helicopter-pad or are the glass panels designed to be retracted to allow a nice cross breeze while at anchor?

Cheers all

You can have both more space and windows that can slide open. There can also be chilled air curtains surrounding the decks.

But remember this boat is huge, the open space is already about 300 sqm on each of those decks...

'Chilled-air curtains' opens up an entirely new vanguard for me. What a way to enjoy the humid weather. ..Imagine their walk-in freezers!

Hi MaxR, this is standard even on my old 50 meter yacht Chianti...

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/5239-post5.html

Feadship

I do not recall that we spoke before. In any event, in Makkum we build yachts up to 3000 GRT and I guess yours is (much) bigger
the big boss

Hi Big Boss

Sorry that my design didn´t make a lasting impression, but I think she would fit in with what you can build. About the same size as ICE, which is just over 3.000 GRT.

Did you check the link in the post you refer to?

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6792/garbolmfd6.jpg

Best regards
/Lars