Benetti’s stylish champion
The Motopanfilo sailed to victory at the Design & Innovation Awards
The Superyacht Design Festival, hosted by media company BOAT International, was held in Milan late last month. It opened with the industry’s Design & Innovation Awards, with all of the nominated yachts having been finished and delivered under challenging circumstances during the pandemic.
The Young Designer of the Year award was one of the more intriguing categories that evening. If you have ever wondered who buys these multimillion-pound boats, the award’s brief gave us a clue. It asked designers to assess how an imaginary client, “a young entrepreneur who had made a fortune in music streaming”, would use their yacht.
The prize went to Spanish designer Ignacio Bourgon for his concept design, AIR. Designed for 65-metre superyachts, AIR seeks to bring on board natural elements over a yacht’s five decks, with, for example, an interior garden in the master suite with two vegetable patches and a centrepiece two-tier waterfall swimming pool on the main deck aft.
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A double award-winning yacht
Benetti was also in celebratory mood. The Italian yacht maker picked up two awards for its 37-metre Motopanfilo yacht (pictured), including Best New Series. It scooped the other prize for its exterior design developed with Italian designer Francesco Struglia. “Classic, elegant and austere” in style, the Motopanfilo’s “bold, clean lines… show off the yacht’s contours,” says Benetti.
The yacht is built from composite materials to a “timeless” aesthetic that is inspired by the concept of past and present, along with the smaller, elegant Benetti navetta boats of the 1960s with their focus on light-filled spaces. The Motopanfilo’s wide terraces, for instance, descend to the waterline, “establishing close contact with nature”. The yacht also comes with an observation deck from which to enjoy the view.
Inside, studio Lazzarini & Pickering designed the interior to be “like the skeleton of a huge whale whose bones give the space its structure and rhythm”.
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Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.
Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.
You can follow Chris on Instagram.
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