SKAT YACHT FULL

The bridge was mocked up 1:1 for example so he could see exactly where everything would be before we built it. It became a mark of pride with the build team. “We had never had a client show that much attention to the process before,” Buttscher says. One of the granular details of the build was how few changes were made to the specifications and design once construction started, despite the fact that the owner visited the yard monthly.

SKAT YACHT FULL

Unlike matte-finished naval ships, it’s full gloss topped with a clear coat. SKAT may be grey, but there are actually two tones. “We used a technical material we had used before but on other yachts we probably used about 60 per cent of the amount we used on SKAT.” The proof is in sound levels that measure far lower than most owners demand or yards deliver: 34dB in the master at cruising speed. “We insulated the entire two-level space from the rest of the yacht’s interior,” Buttscher says. All conduit, pipes and exhaust lines running from the equipment on the raft were isolated as well. The raft was in turn floated off the structure of the engine room’s lower level on shock mounts. Elastic mounts were specified based on the frequency of each engine or machine. ” This included the engines, generators in their soundboxes, watermakers, air compressors – virtually everything that produced noise and vibration. We designed the engine room so that all of the equipment would be elastically mounted to a steel raft. “We knew reducing noise was very important so we approached it in two ways, and yes, we used military technology.

Lürssen’s project manager, Jörg Buttscher, elaborates.

When I finished, I think I pushed the drawings towards him and waited in silence. “I wasn’t so confident then as I am now,” says Øino, laughing at the memory. The next thing, everyone was crowded around and I was making my presentation to all these people. All of a sudden, it started raining and everyone rushed inside. He invited me inside and we sat at a table reviewing my plans. “I arrived and there was a party going on, the boat was full of really important people. It was the week of the Monaco Grand Prix and the client had chartered a 50-metre yacht. Øino was given four weeks to prepare a concept and he shares that on the flight home, reflecting on the client and the scope of the project, “I wondered what I had gotten myself into.” Precisely four weeks later a meeting was arranged in Monaco. SKAT was first delivered in 2002, but refitted in 2019 and is now on the market for the first time. I did explain that for the sake of hydrodynamics there would have to be a few curves in the hull surfaces.” Read More / Amadea: On board the 106m Lürssen superyacht complete with a dedicated party deck

He said if we are working with steel and aluminium, let’s respect the materials. We talked about the boat, how he expected to live on it and that he likes circles, arcs, flat planes and straight lines – nothing extraneous. He was so gracious and showed me every detail of the extraordinary house. It was the end of April when I flew to meet him in the Pacific Northwest. I won, and that’s how Stuart, who was also that owner’s broker, saw how I work.” Larsen briefed Øino on a project that as yet had few boundaries, “other than something about not wanting a boat looking like it was carved out of a block of cheese – and that I needed to see the client’s house to understand. “Lürssen had held a competition to see who would design Octopus. “It would have been the Octopus connection,” Øino notes. I thought about who was young and thinking outside the box and I suggested contacting Espen Øino. He was ready to build a yacht and he asked me who I thought we should ask to design it. “His concept was so visionary that there was nothing on the market to satisfy the amazing futuristic needs of how he felt he should live on a yacht. “He reached out to me through a mutual connection,” says Stuart Larsen of Fraser Yachts, the client’s broker. The aft deck is a flexible space, with a passerelle that doubles as diving board and loose furnishings that can be arranged to suit the occasion.

Skat yacht