In June 2015 it was announced that yet another superyacht with a name inspired by a James Bond movie would be built, the 66-meter Spectre. Commissioned by American businessman, John Staluppi, the superyacht is set to become his 7th yacht.
Active in the automobile industry since the 1950s, Staluppi is best known for building the fastest yacht on Earth, the 40-meter The World is Not Enough along with the rest of his Bond fleet that keeps growing in length.
Moving up from an 18-meter Viking boat, Staluppi commissioned the 36-meter For Your Eyes Only from Denison as his first yacht. The semi-displacement yacht was eventually launched in 1985 and became the first motor yacht to have a combination of MTU engines with water-jets in the US, which allowed it to reach a top speed of 30 knots.
In the late eighties, For Your Eyes Only hit a sandbar which led to her taking in water from a crack in the engine room. The yacht was eventually salvaged, refitted and renamed with some speculating that the following alleged legal actions, combined with the sinking of two other Denisons within a short amount of time, led to the bankruptcy of the US shipyard.
In 1988, Octopussy was launched as Staluppi's second yacht in a successful attempt to build the fastest yacht in the world. A defining moment for Heesen Yachts, Octopussy had to reach 50 knots in order for Staluppi to take ownership of the boat, which it ultimately did, reaching a top speed of 53 knots. Staluppi eventually sold the 44-meter yacht after having used her for close to a year in and a half, which allowed him to start working on his next project, Moonraker.
A fast cruising trideck, Octopussy now features an interior by Art Line. Fully refitted by her current owners in 2015, the 44-meter now has a sundeck with a Jacuzzi and raised sun pads. On the upper deck, she features a sky lounge and her sporty bridge along with two dinning tables to her aft.
Down on her main deck is the yacht's main lounge with a myriad of seating areas, tall windows, a bar area and a TV screen that slides out amidst ship. Towards the yacht's aft is a dinning table for 12 guests that can be either opened up in good weather or closed down with glass panels. Forward of the deck is the main cabin with four additional guest cabins on the lower deck. The yacht's current owner's are selling it at $4,995,000.
By the time Octopussy was sold, HH the Aga Khan, was building a yacht to overtake the crown of the world's fastest yacht. Staluppi therefore set out to build an even faster one and the 36-meter Moonraker was eventually delivered in 1992 by Norship with a design done by Dutch-based Mulder.
In 1998, Staluppi set up his own business in yachting, Millenium Superyachts that was to handle his project in the superyacht industry. In 2004, the newly created label delivered The World Is Not Enough, a 40-meter yacht with 20,600hp that could reach a top speed of 70 knots but couldn't steer past 66 knots according to the owner.
In October 2007, Staluppi acquired a project in-build from Henry Luken, co-owner of Christensen Shipyards. In 2008, the 49.6-meter Casino Royale which can cruise at a more regular speed of 12 knots, was delivered to her new owner. Built out of composite, the full displacement yacht came in at just under 500GT. It was later listed for sale in December 2008 and sold in April 2009 to Californian businessman, David McDonald.
Built with a more traditional, American audience in mind, Casino Royale features a straightforward layout with a full-beam master cabin forward of the main deck, 2 guest, 2 twin and one VIP cabin on the lower deck. With two tenders and three jet skis carried onboard, Casino Royale features a lounge on the main deck and a sky lounge as well.
In July 2009, Staluppi acquired Midlandia, a 52-meter Benetti with an asking price of €19,950,000, which he renamed to Quantum of Solace and extensively refitted. In August 2009, he listed the boat for sale again at an asking price of $24,995,000 and eventually sold it, two years later, in July 2011.
Designed with Italian roots at its heart, Quantum of Solace has a layout more typical of yachts found in the Mediterranean. Its main tender is brought into a tender garage aft of the lower deck, with a foldable platform for swimming. This clears out the sundeck for lounging, sunbathing, casual dinning and leaves enough space up there for a Jacuzzi.
In a configuration that has proven popular for charters, Quantum of Solace's main deck features a main salon and dinning room with an outdoor lounging area towards the aft. Up on the second deck is a large sky lounge with a playing table, bar area, lounging area and large outdoor dinning table.
In November 2011, Diamonds are Forever was launched for Staluppi who had acquired the yacht whilst in-built, 18 months prior to its delivery. Throughout the construction project, Staluppi made several substantial improvements including the addition of an extra top deck.
Originally intended to be chartered out by its owners, Diamonds are Forever was listed for sale in August 2012, asking $63 million. In October 2012, her asking price was reduced to $59.5 million and she was eventually sold in December 2013.
With a number of features mirroring the Quantum of Solace, such as the large bar area in the sky lounge, Diamonds are Forever became a refined version of Staluppi's previous builds. The main attribute that set the yacht apart from other Benetti's of her size is the addition of a fifth deck to act as a sunbathing area, creating a second master cabin on the upper deck and pushing the bridge up to the third deck.
Born in Brooklyn in 1947, Staluppi started as a mechanic at 16 years old with a life long passion for cars during the golden era of automobiles. His first business became a Sunoco station, which he established thanks to a loan that his father took on.
After establishing a chain of gas stations, Staluppi risked bringing on an unknown car manufacturer at the time to the American market, which is now known as Honda. After 10 years, Staluppi established 20 dealerships of Honda cars in the United States. After Honda, Staluppi established a network of dealerships of Hyundai cars.
An avid collector of cars, Staluppi had established a museum around cars from all eras and an extensive personal collection. In 2012, these cars were put up for auction by RM Sotheby's in Palm Beach and generated over $11,5 million in sales revenue.
"John Staluppi is larger than life and well known in the collector-car hobby. His collection reflects a very precise collecting philosophy, focused on securing only the very best." said Donnie Gould of RM Auctions at the time of the auction.
Commissioned in July 2015, Spectre will become Staluppi's seventh superyacht named after a James Bond film and will also be designed by Mulder.
Italian shipyard’s ambitious superyacht project launched on February 5, 2019 at the company’s Livorno facility has been yet christened Project ZOZA. This 107-metre yacht with a displacement of more than 5,500 GT, and a 17-metre beam was reportedly thought over by the owner, an Australian billionaire James Packer, nine years ago. Photo: Instagram/@giorgio_casettaThe concept was developed in cooperation with Burgess Technical Services from the start on. Different designers were involved in the planning of exterior design concept that required a long process. Hugo van Wieringen from Azure Architectes and Reymond Langton Design, as well as Benetti’s designer Giorgio M. Cassetta had contributed to the project, while Zaniz Jakubowski from Zaniz Interiors finalised exterior and interior outlines of the yacht.The core idea of design concept was creation of see-through spaces, which would have given unhindered panoramic views from any part of the vessel. Significant amount of glass used in the construction and simplified structures serve that purpose on the vessel of steel hull and aluminium superstructure. Moreover, ZOZA’s six decks provide many alfresco zones in the sun or in shade. On the main deck, guests will find dining and lounging spaces, under the shelter of superstructure, while a private deck leading to the helicopter pad with a refuelling station, is located above. ZOZA operates on diesel-electric propulsion system with 2 Azipods and 2 massive bow thrusters. The propulsion package is based on the most modern technologies and allows vibration-free navigation in complete silence. The yacht can silently operate on her batteries for up to 12 hours without an engine running. The air conditioning system is something to be mentioned, too, as it is regarded one of the biggest fitted to a vessel of that kind, with cooling capacity of nearly 3,000 KW. In order to enable construction of superyachts of that size, Benetti have invested a lot in their yards recently, meaning the infrastructure, organizational, safety, and security matters. The company has added a two-shed expansion to their Livorno construction facility and have also set up the Giga Yacht Construction Programme attracting expert employers to the brand.
February 15, 2019
Dutch shipyard Heesen has revealed more information on their current 55-metre project scheduled for delivery later this year. The yacht christened Vida had been launched in January under a former name Project Antares. At the moment, her systems are coming through the commissioning phase while the yacht is to proceed with sea trials shortly.Vida is the third project in Heesen’s fast displacement hull form (FDHF) steel class series, featuring muscular exterior outline by Frank Laupman, Omega Architects. One of the distinctive hallmarks of the vessel’s layout are french windows designed to get the most of the natural light on-board. The shipyard has customised the yacht in a narrow cooperation with her owner, whose sport fishing hobby required some particular design features. Thus, Vida has a technical ability to recharge and refuel two sport fishing boats, enabling the guests and the owners to spend several days offshore without returning to the base.As to interior concept, the owner commissioned Be Design Associates, a design bureau based in Florida, for whom Vida became the first new-build yacht project. The designers chose natural environmentally friendly materials to prevail in the inner decoration. Meanwhile, the colour palette has been mainly based on warm and soft colours. The main saloon is decorated with an impressive backlit onyx arch. The vessel can accomodate up to 12 guests on-board within five cabins at the lower deck and a 80-squere-metre master suite at the main deck.The yacht’s interior volume amounts to 740 GT. With a maximum speed of 16 knots, Vida features economic fuel consumption and offers a range of 4,500 nautical miles at cruising speed of 13 knots.Vida’s sea trials will take place in the North Sea. With her delivery to the owner scheduled for spring 2019, she will make her official debute at the Monaco Yacht Show later this year. This launch is the first one in a series of five planned by Dutch company in 2019, contributing to Heesen’s busy year ahead. Among the others, the yard’s largest project so far, a 80-metre yacht Cosmos is now getting ready for launch.Photos via Heesen
February 15, 2019
Piracy, an extremely rare, yet often talked about hazard in the boating space, has yielded few solutions other than armed security whilst cruising in dangerous areas. The real estate market has come up decades ago with the concept of a panic room where owners could hide in the event of an armed robbery. How could this actually work in yachting?Simon Rowland, CEO of Veritas International Consultants, indicates that while the general concern with security matters in the world is growing, it is not surprising that these issues transmit into the yachting industry. “If you go back five years, it would have been a hard justification to have a panic room on board, but now it is becoming more of a requirement,” claims Rowland.There are two significant functions that a panic room should perform. It should not only support life, but also enable communication between the sheltered ones and the outer world. That is why the consultants from Veritas company normally recommend to locate a panic room at the crew mess, and it is important to think over all security measures on design stage. It is also cheaper to equip a safe room within that area, as a lot of important facilities such as water supply and toilets are already fit into the mess room.However, the locations, where a completely secure room can be equipped, are not limited to the crew mess. Rowland reports that they have advised several clients to equip their room or bathroom as secondary safe rooms, so that they could hide themselves in case they feel anxious or if the boat is being robbed.It is natural, that most of the owners would not stay on board while the boat passes through dangerous zones, therefore panic rooms are in a greater degree a measure aimed to protect the crew rather than the owners. The yachts themselves might be comparatively vulnerable against piracy, as conventional defense mechanisms applied to many vessels do not seem that effective. For instance, many rely on razor wire, but in fact this measure would not normally prevent the criminals from getting on board.That is why the need of taking security measures on-board is becoming more vital these days. Rowland stresses, that it is much more common to have a fully equipped safe room on larger vessels of 70 metres and above, as it might be quite problematic to fit such room onto a smaller yacht. All in all, the danger of piracy or any other form of attack on a large vessel is very low in our time. Nonetheless, panic rooms have become one of the latest trends the owners would not want to overlook in their superyacht design.
February 14, 2019
Oceanco’s new project currently named Y716 has been demonstrated for the first time earlier today, moved within the company’s facility at Albasserdam, Netherlands. Official launch and delivery of Y716 to her owner is scheduled later this year.Photo by Tom Van OosanenNot so much information on the project has been revealed so far. Y716 is trademarked with aluminum superstructure featured with teak decks on a steel hull within a 14,2-metre beam. Additionally, her interior volume will make 2950 GT. Her top speed will reportedly be reached at 20 knots, with cruising speed of 18,5 knots.Photo by Tom Van OosanenThe yacht will be equipped with spa zones, swimming pool and Jacuzzi, beach club, underwater lights system, tender garage and helicopter hangar. Accommodation capacity will make 23 guests and up to 33 crew members onboard. Photo by Tom Van OosanenIn contrast to her 90-metre forerunner Dar, that featured extravagant black-and-white contrasts resembling killer whale colouration, new superyacht’s exterior designer Espen Oeino has limited her surface outfit to classical white colour.Dar (90m), OceancoY716 is announced to be the only project to be launched by Oceanco in 2019. Meanwhile, the company has received several design industry awards for their project Black Pearl.
February 13, 2019
The story behind Oceanco’s 91,5-metre luxury superyacht Equanimity takes another twist. According to Malaysian lawyer Jeremy Joseph, parties potentially interested in purchasing Equanimity can bow approach the government or 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) alongside the yachts’ broker Burgess. Burgess though retain their right to be considered an exclusive central agent. It was earlier announced, that the auction for Equanimity will take place in March 2019.Mr Joseph, who represents both 1MDB and the government, reports that prospective buyers can negotiate directly with them from that moment on. The main purpose of this decision is to increase potential sale opportunities of the vessel. At the moment, the government of Malaysia allocates $500,000 monthly for Equanimity’s maintenance, according to Bloomberg. The yacht has been reportedly remained in a good condition under a supervision of 21 crew members.Burgess is determined to sale the superyacht at a price not lower than $130,000,000, which halves her initially estimated price of $250,000,000. The main concern of potential purchasers remains the vessel’s undesirable past, that could potentially cause trouble to owners once they leave Malaysian waters, as several claims from other countries have been already levied against Equanimity. However, Sitpah Selvaratnam, consultant at Tommy Thomas Advocates and Solicitors, disproves those risks. The judicial sale would determine an official start-over of the yacht’s history and wipe out her notorious background, he claims.
February 13, 2019