OCEAN 41 PUBLISHED JANUARY 2012
Aspiring to perfection
Effortlessly refined, graciously understated and delivered well ahead of schedule, the superb Amels 212 Imagine is further proof that the Netherlands-based yard has got production of its Limited Editions semi-custom range down to a fine art.
Images Amels
A superyacht is made up of hundreds of thousands of individual components, all of which are expected to work perfectly. But work perfectly first time? Only the most unreasonable would expect such a feat, which is why most luxury yachts undergo intensive sea trials before they’re delivered to the client. Even when the yacht is delivered, it’s quite expected for a ‘snag list’ to develop during its first months at sea.
With that in mind, imagine taking delivery of a premium quality superyacht that is not just on time, but three months early. Imagine a ‘snag list’ of just five simple items, two of which were solved within a day.
That might sound impossible, but it’s exactly what occurred with Imagine, the first Limited Editions Amels 212, which was launched in Vlissingen, Holland, in early 2011. For owner’s representative Yavor Nenov, the short snag list was just the icing on the cake of a build project that progressed smoothly from start to finish. “Imagine was completed many weeks ahead of schedule, and so the whole process was very stress free,” says Nenov.
Excellent flow through between aft deck lounge, dining and saloon areas serves to emphasise Imagine’s already generous internal volume.
“There was no last-minute rush such as you’d normally expect with a project of this scale and complexity.”
Imagine comes from Amels’ Limited Editions range of premium semi-custom yachts, designed to appeal to both ‘hands on’ owners who want to be involved in every element of the build, and those who prefer to leave all decisions to the experts.
“Few owners like to start with a blank piece of paper,” says Victor Caminada, head of marketing at Amels. “The designers we commissioned for the Amels 212, Tim Heywood and Andrew Winch, are two of the best in the business. So it makes it easier for an owner to reach a decision much more quickly than if we were starting from scratch. Then again, if an owner has very firm ideas about the design and layout of the yacht, we do everything possible to accommodate those wishes.”
Tim Heywood has taken Amels’ brief for a high-volume ‘big 65-metre’, and created a yacht whose streamlined, sleek lines disguise an impressive gross tonnage of 1503 tons. As Caminada puts it: “Amels doesn’t do wedding cakes.”
Andrew Winch’s understated approach to interior design adds to the feeling of sophisticated refinement.
By comparison with some modern tastes, Imagine’s interior is quite understated, subtle and quiet. Andrew Winch worked on a look that is designed not for show but for relaxed and comfortable living.
“Where the aim of some yachts is to dazzle, the intention with Imagine was quite the opposite,” says the London-based designer. “There is nothing ‘in your face’ about the interior. All the metals are in a matte, bronze finish. The bathrooms are finished in soft, honed marble. Of course you need a polished marble for waterproofing purposes, but as much as possible all the surfaces are non-reflective.”
Understated she may be, yet the interior is a marvel of rare and exotic woods and stones. Eucalyptus paneling and Jotoba floors are complemented by many different kinds of marble and stone, such as Breccia Oniciata, Marron Imperial, Blue Eyes Granite, Levanto Red, Labrador Antik and Pietra Romana.
The bathroom is finished in unreflective, soft honed marble.
“We designed the interior to be easy on the eye, something you can enjoy,” adds Winch. “The crew are lovely people, they are expert at making their guests feel relaxed, and if the interior helps enhance that feeling of relaxation and comfort, then we can say we’ve done our job.”
Even the corridors are relaxing places to be.
Imagine features two VIP cabins on the bridge deck, each with sliding-window access to a private balcony. A centrally-located glass elevator makes for easy and elegant access to all parts of the yacht, including the ‘wet feet’ bar on the sun deck and the large beach club located at the stern. There is ample storage for a range of beach toys and also for two 8.5m tenders. The yacht takes her name from the famous John Lennon song, and there is some rare Beatles and Lennon memorabilia to be found on board, including limited edition 24-carat gold records on the wall.
There are no gaudy frills or dazzling surfaces to be found in Imagine’s spacious master stateroom, which oozes cool, contemporary calm.
Imagine is the first Amels 212, with hull No.2 scheduled for delivery in Spring 2012. Caminada describes her as a ‘go anywhere’ yacht, with a top speed of 17 knots and a range of 5,000 miles cruising at 13 knots. She is being built to Lloyd’s Register Class and in compliance with the MCA Large Commercial Yacht Code (LY2) under Cayman Islands Registry. While Caminada admits there is no such thing as an environmentally friendly superyacht, the Amels 212 has some of the best ‘green’ credentials in the industry, including genset soot filters, and is technically qualified to be awarded a Lloyd’s Register EP (Environmental Protection) certificate. Unsurprisingly Imagine’s British captain, Graham Shorrocks, is well satisfied.
“She’s very well put together, she feels like a ship,” he says. “And she’s very stable. We did some of her sea trials in the North Sea without the stabilisers switched on, and even then the motion was acceptable, but when you have the stabilisers engaged then she is very steady indeed.”
Four arm chairs and two full-sized lounges in the main salon mean there’s plenty of space for every guest to take a load off, in beautifully understated surroundings.
Imagine is fitted with two pairs of Quantum XD stabilisers, and also equipped with a state of the art Voith inline bow thruster. There is none of the customary noise and vibration common to most bow thrusters; hence no struggling to sleep through the rattles, or watching your glass juddering towards the edge of the table.
“The electric motor on the thruster is incorporated in the outer ring of the unit, and having the blades on the inside of the ring means a lot less cavitation and vibration through the hull,” explains the Captain.
That a new yacht such as the Amels 212 should perform so reliably and predictably is no real surprise. Because Amels is part of the Damen Group of shipyards, it can take advantage of Damen Research’s resources, producing hull shapes that have been optimised through advanced CFD analysis (with particular attention to minimising sea-sickness). So despite being the first model in the 212 line, Imagine’s hull shape has in fact already been proven in MY Shanti, delivered in 2007.
The possibilities for customisation of the Amels 212 are extensive. For example, where the layout of Imagine has specified two VIP cabins with sliding doors leading to open-air balconies, hull No.2 is being built with a dedicated owner’s deck. Imagine has been designed for the charter market and the requirements of her two owners, where hull No.2 is designed much more around private use by a single owner.
Over time, Amels has found a number of tried and tested suppliers and contractors. The Andrew Winch interior design is built by a German company, Metrica, who have worked on all Limited Editions yachts. Another Germany company, Flachglas Wernberg, supplies the specially insulated windows. With the exception of the wheelhouse, all the windows are double insulated with an air cavity, and coated with heat-reflective film. Where ‘standard’ yacht glass reduces energy transmission by 30 per cent, Flachglas’s Infrastop glass is more than twice as efficient at 65 per cent.
As you’d expect the audio-visual entertainment system, too, is top of the line, and set up to be as simple to operate as possible, with Crestron hand-held remote control units programmed for one-button commands for ‘cinema’, ‘lights’ or ‘music’. Standardisation of equipment is an important part of the Amels philosophy, the AV system included.
“Wherever possible, we have used the same components throughout the yacht,” says Caminada. “For example there is the same kind of flat-screen TV in the crew cabins as in the guest cabins, so if a guest’s TV has a fault it is easy to borrow one of the crew TVs until the problem is resolved. There are also iPod docking stations throughout, so guests can always plug in their own music to the system if they prefer.”
The philosophy of standardisation might seem strange in a yacht so extensively customised, but over time Amels has realised that while owners and skippers like certain elements to be customised to taste, they crave reliability in other areas. Such are the lessons learned through the evolutionary process of the Limited Editions line, and the reason why that ‘snag list’ was so short.
“It’s typical for a shipyard to take a new yacht out for at least a week of testing before submitting the yacht to formal sea trials,” says Captain Shorrocks. “But with Imagine, the first day at sea was with Lloyds Shipping and the owner’s representative, and everything worked out well. It was not an experimental day. By the end of day two, all the tests and Lloyds requirements were fulfilled, and she was ready.”
Yavor Nenov adds: “We were happy to sign off on things that were not agreed for that day. For example, we didn’t have the carpets fitted at that point, only the underlay, but the noise levels were already 15 per cent below the numbers agreed in the contract. And of course once the carpets were fitted that number was only going to get even better. We were very impressed with the quality and timeliness of the work. Things really couldn’t have gone better.”
Specifications Limited Editions Amels 212
Builder Amels
Year of build 2011
Naval Architect Amels
Exterior styling Tim Heywood Designs
Interior designer Andrew Winch Designs
Length OverAll 65.50 m / 215 ft
LWL 59.20 m / 194 ft
Beam 12.25 m / 40 ft
Draft 3.85 m / 12.5 ft (Full Load)
Displacement 1,400 Metric Tons
Gross tonnage 1,503
Engines 2x Caterpillar 3516C, 2000 kW @ 1600 rpm each
Speed 17 knots
Range 5000 nautical miles at 13 knots
Fuel capacity 155,000 litres
Fresh water capacity 38,000 litres
Grey/black water capacity 30 m3 / 6 m3s
Owner & guests 14
Crew 16 plus Captain
Thrusters Voith extra silent “inline” thruster 180 ekW
Stabilisers Quantum, 4x, zero-speed
Generators 3x Caterpillar C9, 200 ekW each, with suit burners, 1x Caterpillar C4.4, 86 ekW emergency generator
Tenders 2x Yachtwerft Meyer 8 m
Construction Steel / Aluminium
Classification Lloyd’s Register 100A1 SSC Yacht Mono G6 LMC, UMS, SCM
Charter broker Fraser Yachts
www.amels-holland.com/Imagine/Sun_Deck/index.html
