Once the luxury of a select few, the not-so-humble helipad is having a bit of a moment. With the explosion of interest in the explorer yacht market, a touch-and-go landing pad is becoming more of a necessity than the extravagance it once was. Sure, a tender will get you from shore to superyacht in good time, but there's nothing that quite compares to touching down on the bow. We take a closer look at some of the best helidecks afloat...
Espen Øino designed the 72.25 metre Abeking & Rasmussen explorer yacht Cloudbreak with a cinema lounge right next to the helipad, so returning heli-skiers could step straight inside from the Bell 429 Global Ranger and watch GoPro footage of their day’s performance on the slopes.
The fully certified helideck on board Madsummer is located at the bow and capable of supporting an EC135 helicopter, which weighs around three tonnes. Elsewhere on the 95 metre Lürssen is a seaplane berth on the sundeck. The superstructure had to be strengthened to support the 590kg weight of the Husky A-1C 200 seaplane.
Yacht designer Espen Øino re-imagined the typically utilitarian helicopter deck on VSY’s revolutionary 72 metre superyacht Stella Maris. Øino envisioned a superyacht helipad that was a focal point. Rather than trying to disguise the helicopter deck, it defines the exterior profile on Stella Maris, jutting out on the upper aft deck. When not welcoming helicopters, the huge deck is put to good use as a space for sunning and socialising.