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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.

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

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.

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.

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.