Amels Ilona WINS the ISS 43+ Award!

AMELS’ “ILONA” WINS TOP SUPERYACHT SOCIETY AWARD!​

Redman Whiteley Dixon Design Is “Best Motoryacht Over 43 Meters” ​

Vlissingen, The Netherlands: Amels, a member of the Damen Shipyards Group, is particularly proud to announce that its 73.69-meter ILONA has been selected by the professional jury of International Superyacht Society as “Best Motoryacht Over 43 Meters.” The award, presented February 16 at the Miami International Boat Show (postponed from October by hurricane Wilma), recognizes “the best of the best” in yacht design and construction for 2004.

ILONA, Amels’ second longest build after the 75-meter MONTKAJ, is the first yacht ever built with total exterior and interior design by the talented team of Redman Whiteley Dixon. She was built for clients who had circumnavigated four times. In meeting their brief, the designers aimed at taking them “to the pinnacle of their yachting life,” by incorporating every idea they had developed for previous yachts. (Since attending the 2004 Athens Olympics, where they served a luncheon for 94 guests atop their tent-covered helipad, the owners have now completed their fifth circumnavigation aboard ILONA.)

ILONA is outstanding for her extraordinarily well-balanced exterior, unusual luxury interior, and remarkable engineering. The 33-meter upper deck—“a little yacht within a big yacht”—is dedicated wholly to the owners’ independent enjoyment, with bedroom suite, dining area, massage room, gymnasium, observation lounge, and offices equipped for global communications and video conferencing.

Belowdecks accommodations are for 16 guests in 6 cabins and a crew of 28 crew in 13 cabins. A 14-seat cinema with surround-sound audio is on the tank deck. With the Twin Squirrel helicopter safely stowed in the hangar below, the elevating helipad converts into a huge alfresco entertainment space. (The owners use the chopper widely to reconnoiter anchorages and ferry guests.) In what Justin Redman calls “a miracle of packaging,” the helipad, two tender bays and two side beaches created very large areas of unsupported structure, requiring extensive Finite Element Analysis. A four-fin active stabilization system and extensive noise and vibration abatement make ILONA a comfortable, quiet, inviting experience for the owners and up to 20 guests—ILONA has a passenger-ship exemption. Above all, the owners have a yacht on which they can be intimate with the sea, at the same time they can keep their eye on their grandchildren.

ILONA’s Captain Peter Oddie says: “She has a lovely underwater shape. She behaves well in all weather, has excellent seakeeping, is stable and seakindly, and quite economic. I like this boat a lot. Redman Whiteley Dixon are excellent designers, and Amels is a great shipyard.”

ILONA was previously designated “Most Innovative Motor Yacht” of 2004 by ShowBoats.

For further information please contact:

Amels
P.O. Box 84
4380 AB Vlissingen
The Netherlands

Tel.: +31 118 485 002
Fax: +31 118 485 004
Website: www.*****************

Ilona's "Hide-Away" Heli Platform...

Ilona's Retractable Sunroof...

And rounding out her technical achievements, Ilona's curvaceous Deck-Brows...