Reymond Langton Design

Amels' Limited Editions 188 Volpini 2 Represents First Amels Hybrid and World’s First Tier III Superyacht

A closer look at the massive 323-foot M/Y AVIVA.

Hakvoort’s latest launch will make an appearance in Monaco after her maiden voyage through Norway, according to the yard. Apostrophe is the product of Hakvoort and U.K.-based Reymond Langton Design Ltd., both outside and in.

Designers and builders of sailing yachts greater than 100 feet (30.4 meters) are being tasked with creating vessels that not only are beautiful, comfortable and safe, but also achieve a high level of sailing performance. The proliferation of international superyacht regattas has upped the ante for owners who not only like their yachts luxurious, but also like to best their competition on the race course.

The Reymond Langton–designed Excellence V, from Abeking & Rasmussen, is the latest in a series of yachts Herb Chambers has built. Chambers is all about excellence in life, business and yachting.

What sets apart the world’s very largest yachts? In the case of the new Nobiskrug Mogambo, certainly, sophistication does. Like it or not, the slightly masculine contemporary décor by Reymond Langton Design using two primary woods (sycamore and ebonized walnut) is nothing short of perfection.

She is one of a beautiful series of yachts all built on the same platform at the Nobiskrug shipyard. She was known as project 783 (Mogambo, also on this list, was project 782). She has an interior by Raymond Langdon. The resemblance is not a casual one. Kristal Waters built these sisterships, designed, according to their marketing materials, to fill a niche at the top end of the market.

This is another of Abeking & Rasmussen’s 78-meter custom series featuring the shipyard’s own naval architecture and engineering. Under the leadership of the late Hermann Schaedla, who took over the shipyard in 1959, Abeking & Rasmussen developed and built technologically advanced projects. All of the yachts built on this 256-foot platform include a tender-launching system unique to A&R.

Shortly before its 100th anniversary, Abeking & Rasmussen signed a contract for the largest yacht it had built to date. The first of several hulls exceeding 255 feet was launched in 2008. Originally ordered by Connecticut car dealer Herb Chambers, owner of Excellence III, the yacht was reportedly sold in the last few months of construction and launched by her new owner, rumored to be Russian, as Eminence.

This dark-hulled yacht, project 6479, is Eminence’s sistership. Vanity Fair in one its “New Establishment” Lists (their Top 100) identified the owner as a Forbes-ranked Wharton Business School graduate whose diversified investments have fared well this year (he is a Forbes-ranked billionaire). He previously cruised on a 188-foot yacht.

Amaryllis, a yacht by Abeking + Rasmussen launched in fall 2011, features a Reymond Langton Design. She offered quite a contrast to Mogambo, docked next to her at the Genoa Show. Her restrained exterior styling, with a classic navy and white paint scheme, belies an ornate décor inspired by the French Belle Epoque and Art Déco.