Forever the one
A yacht broker with Camper & Nicholsons International, David Seal has been working in the yachting industry for over 15 years and writes a blog charting his observations and experiences. Here he shares some insights into the design, brief, owner and build of ISA's latest launch, Forever One.…
A yacht broker with Camper & Nicholsons International, David Seal has been working in the yachting industry for over 15 years and writes a blog charting his observations and experiences. Here he shares some insights into the design, brief, owner and build of ISA's latest launch, Forever One.
About one third down the Adriatic coast of Italy lies the city of Ancona. A small bump in the otherwise fairly straight coastline, it was originally a Greek settlement – as a matter of fact ‘Ancona’ is a word in ancient Greek that means ‘elbow’. At the heart of Ancona lies a busy port, with Ferry services taking tourists to Croatia and bringing trucks from Greece, and directly behind the port is Via Enrico Mattei.
Via Mattei is to superyachts what Saville Row is to men’s tailoring. CRN, Ferretti Custom Line, WIDER, and Cantieri delle Marche all have their production facilities here, and at the end of the road lies a series of impressive buildings belonging to the International Shipyard of Ancona, the birthplace of such magnificent yachts as the 63m Kaloha, 50m Belle Anna and more recently the glorious 41m Aziza.
I visited ISA just a few weeks before Christmas 2013, keen to inspect a 140’ pre-owned vessel they had for sale and curious to see the progress they were making on their Grande Turismo range. Hein Velema, the new CEO, greeted me with the kind of wonderful hospitality that ISA has become renowned for and enthused about one of the projects they were building at the time in collaboration with my colleague Fernando Nicholson. It was easy to see why Hein was so enthusiastic: the 54m Forever One is one of the most exciting projects to have been built in Italy in recent years and the story behind its conception is quite inspirational.
Anybody who knows Fernando Nicholson will know that passion for yachts simply oozes from him. He loves to talk about yachts, he loves to spend time on yachts and he loves working in the yachting industry. This uncontainable passion led him to talk to naval architect Horacio Bozzo one day over lunch one year at the Monaco Yacht Show. Fernando wanted to design a yacht that would challenge the habits of traditional yacht-building and offer his clients something that would be truly unique and supremely practical. Fernando and Horacio spoke together about basic dimensions, styling, performance, tender storage and crew accommodation. They drew sketches, made notes, debating and collating ideas over weeks and months. And Fernando continued to talk. He talked to colleagues and acquaintances, family and friends, but above all he talked to his clients and listened carefully to their observations and feedback as the project developed and took shape. Fernando’s clients themselves became intrigued by the potential of the yacht and happily contributed their ideas and suggestions, almost as if it were being built for them personally.
“Actually it became a bit of a problem,” said Fernando with a chuckle. “I had two clients that really wanted to build the yacht for themselves, but eventually one of the two made the decision to go ahead with the project and to move on to the next stage.”
Now the project had not just an owner, but also a name. “Forever One,” as the owner explained, is dedicated to his wife who is “The One … forever”. An experienced yacht owner, he planned to use the vessel for about six months every year and had very clear requirements for Horacio and Fernando to implement. His new yacht was to be cosy and homely, with great crew facilities and a large tender. Functionality and practicality were paramount.
Fernando immediately set about finding a team to make Forever One a reality. “I am crazy about soccer,” he told me, “I said to my client, 'You are Abramovich and I am Mourinho. Let me find you the very best players so that you have the greatest team available. I want the best project manager, the best interior designer, the best chief engineer, and the best chef working on this yacht for you'.”
His first challenge was to find a shipyard capable of building a fully customised yacht to the standards that were required. This is not as simple as it may sound, most of the large superyacht shipyards work from established naval platforms using hulls and propulsion systems that have already been tank tested. Horacio and Fernando were proposing a new naval platform. A number of shipyards were approached, and eventually ISA was selected. I asked Fernando whether the price quoted by ISA influenced this decision, but it appears that actually the build price had very little influence at all. “I had worked with ISA on other projects,” he explained. “It was always a great experience. They do what they say they are going to do, and have a very positive approach to any problems that arise during the construction process.”
Fernando would need this tried and tested cooperation from the builder with such a very unique project. Rather than being a cookie-cutter yacht, this is a yacht with personlised design solutions that make this an extremely distinctive project. The brief to ISA was generally just “keep it simple”. This kind of instruction to a shipyard is truly refreshing in its simplicity. “We were not looking to win any Awards,” said Fernando. “We just want a yacht that works and that the owner can enjoy with his friends.”
To visit David's blog, Yachts for Sale: A Broker's Blog, click here. To watch a video of Forever One's launch, click here.
An interview with the owner of Forever One and closer look at the yacht will be appearing in Issue 14 of The Superyacht Owner, out September, which features the owner on the cover. To become a member and receive this issue as well as gain access to past issues of the magazine online, click here.
About one third down the Adriatic coast of Italy lies the city of Ancona. A small bump in the otherwise fairly straight coastline, it was originally a Greek settlement – as a matter of fact ‘Ancona’ is a word in ancient Greek that means ‘elbow’. At the heart of Ancona lies a busy port, with Ferry services taking tourists to Croatia and bringing trucks from Greece, and directly behind the port is Via Enrico Mattei.
Credit: Justin Ratcliffe
Via Mattei is to superyachts what Saville Row is to men’s tailoring. CRN, Ferretti Custom Line, WIDER, and Cantieri delle Marche all have their production facilities here, and at the end of the road lies a series of impressive buildings belonging to the International Shipyard of Ancona, the birthplace of such magnificent yachts as the 63m Kaloha, 50m Belle Anna and more recently the glorious 41m Aziza.
I visited ISA just a few weeks before Christmas 2013, keen to inspect a 140’ pre-owned vessel they had for sale and curious to see the progress they were making on their Grande Turismo range. Hein Velema, the new CEO, greeted me with the kind of wonderful hospitality that ISA has become renowned for and enthused about one of the projects they were building at the time in collaboration with my colleague Fernando Nicholson. It was easy to see why Hein was so enthusiastic: the 54m Forever One is one of the most exciting projects to have been built in Italy in recent years and the story behind its conception is quite inspirational.
Credit: Justin Ratcliffe
Anybody who knows Fernando Nicholson will know that passion for yachts simply oozes from him. He loves to talk about yachts, he loves to spend time on yachts and he loves working in the yachting industry. This uncontainable passion led him to talk to naval architect Horacio Bozzo one day over lunch one year at the Monaco Yacht Show. Fernando wanted to design a yacht that would challenge the habits of traditional yacht-building and offer his clients something that would be truly unique and supremely practical. Fernando and Horacio spoke together about basic dimensions, styling, performance, tender storage and crew accommodation. They drew sketches, made notes, debating and collating ideas over weeks and months. And Fernando continued to talk. He talked to colleagues and acquaintances, family and friends, but above all he talked to his clients and listened carefully to their observations and feedback as the project developed and took shape. Fernando’s clients themselves became intrigued by the potential of the yacht and happily contributed their ideas and suggestions, almost as if it were being built for them personally.
“Actually it became a bit of a problem,” said Fernando with a chuckle. “I had two clients that really wanted to build the yacht for themselves, but eventually one of the two made the decision to go ahead with the project and to move on to the next stage.”
Now the project had not just an owner, but also a name. “Forever One,” as the owner explained, is dedicated to his wife who is “The One … forever”. An experienced yacht owner, he planned to use the vessel for about six months every year and had very clear requirements for Horacio and Fernando to implement. His new yacht was to be cosy and homely, with great crew facilities and a large tender. Functionality and practicality were paramount.
Fernando immediately set about finding a team to make Forever One a reality. “I am crazy about soccer,” he told me, “I said to my client, 'You are Abramovich and I am Mourinho. Let me find you the very best players so that you have the greatest team available. I want the best project manager, the best interior designer, the best chief engineer, and the best chef working on this yacht for you'.”
Credit: Justin Ratcliffe
His first challenge was to find a shipyard capable of building a fully customised yacht to the standards that were required. This is not as simple as it may sound, most of the large superyacht shipyards work from established naval platforms using hulls and propulsion systems that have already been tank tested. Horacio and Fernando were proposing a new naval platform. A number of shipyards were approached, and eventually ISA was selected. I asked Fernando whether the price quoted by ISA influenced this decision, but it appears that actually the build price had very little influence at all. “I had worked with ISA on other projects,” he explained. “It was always a great experience. They do what they say they are going to do, and have a very positive approach to any problems that arise during the construction process.”
Fernando would need this tried and tested cooperation from the builder with such a very unique project. Rather than being a cookie-cutter yacht, this is a yacht with personlised design solutions that make this an extremely distinctive project. The brief to ISA was generally just “keep it simple”. This kind of instruction to a shipyard is truly refreshing in its simplicity. “We were not looking to win any Awards,” said Fernando. “We just want a yacht that works and that the owner can enjoy with his friends.”
To visit David's blog, Yachts for Sale: A Broker's Blog, click here. To watch a video of Forever One's launch, click here.
An interview with the owner of Forever One and closer look at the yacht will be appearing in Issue 14 of The Superyacht Owner, out September, which features the owner on the cover. To become a member and receive this issue as well as gain access to past issues of the magazine online, click here.
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