The 95 metre multi-award-winning superyacht Palladium has been sold with Merle Wood introducing the buyer, a long-time repeat client of the brokerage firm, and Northrop & Johnson acting for the seller. She has been renamed AV.
Built in Germany by Blohm & Voss and launched in 2010, Palladium's design team at Michael Leach Design (MLD) picked up an impressive four gongs at the ShowBoats Design Awards in 2011, including one for her interior, exterior, bespoke furniture and tender, to complement her World Superyacht Award.
Her organic lines and fine detailing were finessed over the course of five years by MLD, who brought in offshore powerboat champion Steve Curtis MBE to advise on the 40-knot Cougar tender to accompany the mothership. Silverlining Furniture and Metrica were responsible for crafting custom pieces and installing the bulkhead and deckhead finishes respectively.
Accommodation is provided for 24 guests in 12 staterooms and she carries a complement of 33 crew. A six-metre swimming pool, with wave and counter-current system, and spa pool are positioned on the main deck aft which serves as a beach club easily within reach of the garage and sea below. MLD's Mark Smith said the team avoided putting a beach club at water level because "it's often as busy as a Formula 1 pitstop down there with equipment being launched and wetsuits donned."
By night, a DJ operates the lasers aimed at a mirrored disco ball, suspended over the swimming pool, alongside smoke machines.
Forward of the pool is a vast main deck lounge where near floor-to-ceiling windows and low bulwarks offer outstanding views. Forward still is a large multiroom spa to port while the starboard side ushers guests to the six main-deck suites via a spectacular atrium with a glass ceiling that filters natural light through to the guest areas.
Each guest cabin is complete with self-washing windows to give views whether standing or reclined. Instead of baths, the guest en suites have very large Bianco Brazil marble showers (nearly three square metres) with back-lit onyx basins.
The pièce de resistance is the master suite, reached via an 11-metre corridor from the atrium with nanny cabins off it, sporting a massive skylight made of 12 glass panes over the oversized bed. Headroom is staggeringly high at 3.7 metres at its peak and 2.7 metres at the edges. Leach pointed out that the headroom throughout the rest of the vessel varies between 2.45 to 2.55 metres and "styling cleverly disguised the height demanded by the owner – no cake layers here."
Leach spent two days aboard with the new owner in 2022 who did not request a single change to the original design. The yacht then entered a short maintenance period before heading across to the Caribbean. Leach is happy to see the yacht moving about and being seen, after a long period in Ibiza, and said: "It [AV] is still as modern today as 10 years ago with onlookers thinking it is a brand new boat."
The 4,440GT vessel cruises at 16 knots and has a maximum speed of 20 knots.
Palladium was asking €140,000,000.