What do you want?
Megayachts

What do you want?

Mini stateroom for monkey, anti-aircraft installation on upper deck, catamaran on legs. The top managers of the shipyards tell about the crazy wishes of the clients.
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Francis and Michael Hovart asked the big bosses of the yachting industry what the most delusional requests they received from customers. The most interesting answers made it to this list.

Jonathan BeckettOnathan Beckett), CEO of Burgess.

The strangest and craziest wish we received from a wonderful client. He suddenly decided that an English park with a real lawn should be laid out on deck. What for? To make his family's dog feel at home! We even had to buy a lawn mower and hire a gardener!

Maurizio Magri (Maurizio Magri), Chief Executive Officer of Kaiserwerft

Once a buyer who adored his wife explained to me why, despite his feelings for her, he wanted to have separate cabins with her on opposite ends of the corridor.

«She walks in her sleep," he explained, "and although she doesn't remember it the next morning, she can beat me when I walk.

If her cabin is on the other side of the wooden corridor, I will hear her steps and prepare myself».

Rodney Martin (Rodney Martin), managing director of Fitzroy Yachts.

At the last stages of construction, a representative of the client came aboard with the words that the cabin is not high enough for the cowboy hat owner, and asked us to raise the roof by 100 mm. It was worth several hundred thousand to do it - and the next day the owner approved the changes!

Vincenzo Poerio, CEO Benetti Yachts

A case from 2005 comes to mind. The owner of Ambrosia III was passionate about astronomy and wanted to have planetariums on the boat. The ceiling of the salon imitated a real starry sky with planets and constellations. And they had to change and move depending on the real location of the boat, taking into account the latitude and longitude.

Of course, we did it, at the same time gained a deep knowledge of astronomy!

Francis Lapp, president, Sunreef Yachts.

I remember one day a client came to me with a laptop and showed me a video where one of our big catamarans literally comes out of the water on huge legs and walks on the beach. He said it was his dream to have a boat like that, and he wanted Sunreef Yachts to build it. For obvious reasons, it was impossible, but we all laughed together.

Marcel Onkenhout, CEO, Oceanco

In the early design stages, our naval architects and designers discussed with the client how to position the helicopter deck and pool. They couldn't come to an agreement when the client finally stood up from the table and stated:

«

Make the pool bigger, we'll put the helicopter in it!»

The rest is history.

Roland Kruger, CEO of Newcruise

Life is never boring when you design megayachts, but one of the most curious requests we have received from a very serious client. He wanted so badly to keep himself safe from all kinds of threats that we even designed a stylish transport in case he and his family had to run away from

the yacht during an attack. The mission was to create a high-speed vessel with a Kevlar armoured lining that would be resistant to chemical, biological, nuclear and missile attacks.

We even analyzed where to put an anti-aircraft system on the upper deck.

Eventually the project was cut down when he realized how much it would cost him, not to mention the legal burden that would fall on him!

Rupert Mann, Rainsford Mann Design Ltd.

There have been many large-scale and complex projects over the years, but usually there was a bit of common sense in them. The bar was raised when a client asked us to make a mini version of the master suite for Bart, his hand-held monkey! The suite became known as the "Simeon Suite" and had a separate galley where Bart's favorite snacks were to be prepared. Unfortunately, due to international quarantine rules, the idea remained on paper.

Tim Saunders. Tim Saunders Yacht Design.

I remember one day I joined a client aboard his private jet to visit a yacht in Turkey he was planning to remodel. On the way he wondered what design I would offer him if he was building a new boat. I pulled out a notebook and started painting. Three hours later, when we landed in Turkey, I handed him my first sketches. At the shipyard he st

u

nned everyone, including me, when he turned down the project to remake his yacht. Holding my sketches in his hands, he said:

«

Gentlemen, we are going to build a

»new 50-meter yacht, and this is what it will look like.

The original was published in the July issue of MYS 2013.

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