Largest Superyacht Conversion: Luxury Explorer Yacht ‘Oceanic’

This interesting luxury explorer yacht conversion project will make motor yacht ‘Oceanic’ one of the largest private luxury yachts in the world with ocean-going ‘go anywhere’ capabilities and an ice class hull (classed to Germanische Lloyd).

At 87 metres the Icon Yachts and Three Seas ‘Oceanic’ yacht conversion is a large and very impressive project. The companies are converting the huge 87 metre “Oceanic” superyacht from a commercial tug boat which was originally built in Germany in 1969.

Oceanic

This massive superyacht will not only be a rugged work vessel that can take her owner anywhere but she will also provide the luxuries of a private superyacht with a exterior & interior design proposal by Felix Buytendijk, Netherlands . Features will include versatile and large Tender storage, water and land ‘toys’, a submarine or day sailor boat carrying capacity, a helicopter pad option to MCA, a 12 metre main deck pool option and of course a stern bathing platform.

Oceanic Tug in heavy weather before conversion by Icon Yachts

Motor yacht Oceanic has a top speed of 20 knots with her 2 x DEUTZ Diesels engines (SBV 12 M 640) which are supercharged and producing a total of 13,200 bhp. Each engine is geared to single shafts with win variable pitch propellers in fixed kort-nozzles.

Three Seas, Hamburg,  is a German project management company which has already completed some very impressive superyacht conversions – they have also conveted the explorer yachts ARCTIC P, LONE RANGER, and KHOZAM. Icon Yachts are already well known as a large luxury private yacht design and build company whih is baed in Holland.

Palmer Johnson World Yacht

Palmer Johnson has now introduced a 82 meter Ice Class superyacht design – Palmer Johnson World – a new design concept which combines the ability to cruise in remote destinations with exceptional sea keeping capabilities, in a variety of demanding conditions, otherwise know as an expedition style yacht. Of course the private yacht luxury and elegance of the highest level will remain available to guests in this large and impressive expedition style superyacht. The new yacht is the Palmer Johnson World superyacht with an article found here at LiveYachting.com.

Italian designers Nuvolari and Lenard have created a concept for the six deck interior and exterior living areas that is to a high level of comfort and luxury – the Palmer Johnson World superyacht.

The luxury motor yacht contemporary emphasis on a healthy and balanced active living and as such there is the ample use of large open spaces and extensive panoramic sea views.

Alloy Yachts launches 52m luxury sailing yacht Mondango

luxury yacht mondango

Alloy Yachts (from New Zealand) and Dubois design (England) has once again teamed up to create another very significant large sailing superyacht.  Her interior design is by Reymond Langton and features contemporary styling utilising oak wood and macassar ebony timbers. Mondango is the fifth yacht over 50m built by Alloy Yachts and she was launched on Thursday, 18 September 2008 in Auckland. She has a beam of 10.2m (33.5ft), draws 4.9m (16.1ft) and a displacement of 350 tonnes. She is built to Lloyds Classification and the Large Commercial Yacht Code LY2.

The 52m (170ft) flybridge ketch riged luxury sailing yacht Mondango built for an international businessman and his wife. Mondango is another successful Dubois Naval Architects design and her her dark blue hull is similar to the recent sailing yacht Red Dragon. Another difference between the two recent yachts is the ketch configuration (2 masts) which makes the yacht ideal for long distance cruising.

Also her superstructure extends further aft, creating a large cockpit area, and her side windows and the curved rear window of the cockpit open and close at the touch of a button allowing the cockpit to be climate controlled, or open to the sea breeze.

Mondango was launched in the traditional way with champagne across the bow and then made its way under the control of two tugs from the yard to the Viaduct Basin in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour. In the following weeks, the carbon fibre Southern Spars masts were stepped and engine and sailing trials were undertaken.

Sails are by North Sails and are handled by 18 captive and eight vertical winches, all of which were designed and built by Alloy Yachts. The triple headsails furl on Reckmann furlers.

The main engine is a 3412D 1200hp caterpillar and she is fitted with two 90kw Northern Lights generators.

The Massive Maltese Falcon Sailing Yacht

This is a poster size image - courtesy of Doyles Sails!

There has been much written about the huge modern square rigger sailing yacht Maltese Falcon.  This superyacht was a massive hit when launched due to her amazing innovation and uniqueness. 

There is heaps of material – just search in Google for instance – but I just wanted to show you this beautiful video I came across of her a sunset in St Tropez France, in the French Riviera.

There are also some more pics and info here at the official site.

Actor Johnny Depp Owns a Luxury Yacht!

Luxury Yacht vajoliroja in Elba Italy

Johnny Depp purchased a luxury classic motor yacht and he called it Vajoliroja.  The yacht is a modern classic luxury superyacht 47m (156ft)  long and was built by Proteksan Turquoise Yacht built in turkey in 2001.

The name Vajoliroja is a combination of Johnny’s family’s names, Va for Vanessa, Jo for Johnny, LiRo for his 9 year old daughter Lily Rose and Ja for his son Jack. If you say it just right, it sounds like ‘The Jolly Roger’.

Jonny Depp on his yacht

He was seen on the yacht with Vanessa in the Mediterranean island of Elba.  Elba is an Italian Island near of Sardinia between the Island of Corsica (belonging to France) and the mainland of Italy, near Pisa in Tuscany.  The island is famous as the one that Napoleon was excelled to.

Johnny and Vanessa together on the yacht

Vanessa Chantal Paradis is a French singer and actress. She recently won the 2008 Victoire De La Musique Female Performer of the Year and Pop Album of the Year.  Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp have been in a relationship since 1998.

Luxury Yacht vajoliroja

This is a great recent aerial clip of Johnny’s yacht the Vajoliroja docked in Florida, USA last week. Johnny was there with his family for the Sheila Witkin Memorial Concert.

Superyacht Vajoliroja in Florida

Palmer Johnson’s new PJ 170 motor yacht

American luxury super yacht brand, Palmer Johnson, have released their new flagship PJ 170 motor yacht.  The superyacht will be released in the spring of 2010.  Palmer Johnson is again setting an amazing styling standard with the aesthetic design interpretation of the ultimate modern performance yacht.

PJ 170 motor yacht

The 170’s combines strong and powerful lines without losing the sleek sophistication of the famous 150’ HOKULANI. The yacht offers vast open spaces and with the foredeck swimming pool and lounge area.
Modular construction ensures the 170’s creation is one of unrivalled accuracy and efficiency and the new yacht will introduce breakthrough engineering elements and design features unique to the Palmer Johnson brand. The Palmer Johnson’s build process will allow different aspects of the yacht to be built concurrently instead of the traditional time consuming linear approach.
The first PJ Sport performance yachts began in 2004 with the first 120ft vessel. This design won instant acclaim for its distinctive style, innovation and build quality. The “family” has continued to grow with the successive 135 and 150 models and now the 170’ showcases Palmer Johnson’s advanced engineering expertise and progression in design excellence.

Palmer Johnson 170

The Latest Yachts Blog will cover the 170’ actual launch in a couple of years.

Horizon Yachts Goes Luxury

This week was an exciting week for the Premier Shipyard, member of the Horizon Group, as the General Manager, James Fwu, announced the recent sale of a new construction position for a Premier 130+ Motoryacht to a US client. This is the fifth in the 130 series to be sold and is scheduled for delivery in May 2010.

 
After delivery of the first 130 this April, the second Premier 130+ just finished her formal sea trial with satisfactory results in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and will be shipped to her owner in early August 2008. Both of the first two 130+ are for owners located on the East Coast of the US, and the next two are destined for European deliveries.
 
Meanwhile, there is another Dynasty 120+ project under construction in Horizon Shipyard. One 130’ deal pending for a Southeast Asia client. The Horizon Group sees these as a very positive sign in the megayacht market and is looking forward to taking orders for the new Premier 160+ Series that is currently in development.
 
While many may be concerned about how the current economy might impact the megayacht market, the CEO of the Horizon Group, John Lu, is continuously devoting all efforts of the entire Group to the improvement of yacht building technologies and craftsmanship. In spite of the economic turmoil, owning a luxury megayacht is a lifelong dream for many and they will continuously turn this dream into reality. When it comes to choosing the right megayacht, these customers will attach great importance to the range of a shipyard’s services and the quality of the yachts. “Therefore, we have to prepare ourselves and be ready at all times. The megayacht building business is looking bright for us.”  John Lu concluded.

Luxury Sailing Yacht Red Dragon & Pirates

Here is a very interesting account of an encounter with pirates by the crew of a new sailing yacht on her first voyage from New Zealand, where she was built by Alloy Yachts, to the Mediterranean.

“Whilst transiting through the Gulf of Aden, we had three people on watch at all times as during the previous few weeks the Somalian pirates had been very active. Whilst in a position of approxi-mately 13 degrees North and 53 degrees East, we saw a large dhow change course at eight miles from us and head towards us. At four miles, they stopped and launched six fast boats with about three people in each towards us. This certainly got the heart racing and adrenalin pumping.

On arrival, they were surprised to find eight people in flak jackets with guns awaiting their arrival and decided that they would do better to wait for an easier, less prepared target. Six hours later a merchant vessel came under fire in the same location and 24 hours after that three ships were also hijacked in the same area and are at the time of writing all off the Somalian coasts awaiting ransom negotiations.

We then had a brief stop in Rhodes before heading to Istanbul in Turkey for a trip with the boss. At present we are cruising the Greek islands with the boss on board and everywhere that we stop there are lots of admiring faces and questions.”

About the Red Dragon:

Red Dragon is a 52m flybridge sloop designed by Dubois Naval Architects and built by ALLOY YACHTS and launched in February. From September 24 – 27, Red Dragon will be on display as part of the Alloy Yachts presence at the Monaco Yacht Show. See more info here.

DILBA Lürssen luxury yacht

DILBA Is a magnificent new 110m Lürssen luxury motor yacht launched in June 2008.  Previously the project for the massive megayacht was known as Project Opal – hull number 13648 - by Lurssen shipyard of Germany. This giant new superyacht has a length of 110m which makes her the World’s 17th largest private luxury yacht.

Tim Heywood designed M/Y DILBA which is owned by a Russian.  This man also owns the beautiful 66m Oceanco motor yacht Dilbar launched in 2005. When completed later this summer, the new 110m Dilbar will be delivered to her owner one month ahead of schedule which is a testament to Lurssen ship building ability.

DILBA is currently off the German coast where she will start her sea trials.

Latest New Zealand Sailing Yacht Bristolian II

The latest construction from Yachting Development in New Zealand has just been launched. Bristolian II, a Philippe Briand design, was built for a very experienced owner and, as can be seen from the images, this is shown in her lines and style.

Philippe Briand explained:

The first meeting with her owner took place on board his previous Bristolian off Dubrovnik in Croatia.

To sum things up, top on his list of specifications was: a very different yacht from the others!. But he already wanted a yacht which performed every bit as well as the Bristolian No. 1 and which was every bit as sensitive. So I pushed for a carbon composite boat with a lifting keel, with modern hull lines. Our reference was the Hamilton II design, wow, increasing the waterline due to a more vertical bow.

The deck saloon concept, common to all our designs was also accepted right away, but with a difference. The owner wished to have the advantages of a low saloon below the deck which was wider and to port whilst having a higher panoramic dining area to starboard.

This led to the design of the original asymmetrical deck saloon which is in fact rather ingenious.

The most difficult stage was designing the deck lines. Owner specifications were for “out of the box” lines, based on a voluminous and panoramic coach roof. Both pods were particularly important to him, as they have to protect two watch areas, but they have to suggest the profile of the Maserati on the 1950’s circuit. He also attached a great deal of importance to a minimum superstructure height throughout the whole length of the cockpit in order to facilitate the view of passengers when lying down on the seats. Creating a deck with a large central volume, with two boxes abaft with nothing to link them was no mean feat.

After a great many sketches and lots of thought, a particular form suddenly became clear : the bionic form of the coachroof and the Maserati form of the pods are two independent forms which stretch out their arms to encircle a large cockpit in the middle.

Designing the Bristolian II was one of the most challenging projects, not only for me but also for the builder Yachting Development, and for the project manager, Peter Tabone.

All together have achieved a yacht with a unique DNA.