The completed 42m motor yacht Star, designed by Vripack to allow the owner to travel with his family, has been unveiled at the Hainan Rendez-Vous in China.
The dark blue and off-white yacht left the Kingship yard at Zhongsan in the Pearl River Delta, travelling south, via Hong Kong and Macau to Sanya on the Island of Hainan.
An experienced Dutch owner commissioned the design for a classic gentleman’s yacht from Vripack, and the project is the fourth collaboration between the Dutch design studio and the Chinese yard (after 26.76m Columbus, 42.06m Kingship 138 and 33.63m Kingship M110).
‘He wanted a yacht in which to show his kids the world,’ says Bart Bouwhuis, Vripack director of design, ‘so we developed this project in very close co-operation with the family, for this specific purpose.’
Because long periods of time would be spent on board, the yacht required good-sized living spaces for both guests and crew, something that Bouwhuis points out ‘is not really easy on this size of boat’.
‘This meant a flexible layout,’ he says. ‘We have sliding bunks – the double beds can be separated – and in long cruising the forward starboard guest cabin can be shut off from the guest compartments and added to the crew accommodation.’
The study next to the owners’ cabin also has multiple uses, with furniture arranged in a lesson-style formation to allow children to continue their education on long voyages.
The engineer’s cabin is sensibly placed aft in the yacht and crew spaces are well laid out. Staff are also well routed around the boat, because as Bouwhuis says, ‘If you’re going to do long cruising you’re going to live very intensively with the crew.’
A dedicated tender storage deck leaves the upper decks free for socialising, while extensive tank testing was carried out to optimise sea-keeping and manoeuvring. Star has a steel hull with an aluminium superstructure and twin Caterpillar 3412E DI-TA engines.