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| Boats & Yachts |
Bespoke Customization
Michael Verdon
06/01/2004
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Joe Vittoria does not see himself as a cathedral builder
(although he designed his head-turning sailboats, all named Mirabella, to be as
graceful as they were dramatic), but rather a sailor in a world of motor yachts.
In the mid-1990s, the then-chairman of Avis wanted to build a 100-foot
single-masted sloop—which would be the world’s largest—but there were no yards
willing to take on such a radical design. So Vittoria turned to a friend of his,
the founder of sailing yacht builder Nautor Swan in Finland, who had begun
building boats in Thailand. “The original design was called the Concorde 100,
but by the time we built her, she measured 131 feet,” says Vittoria.
 | | “THESE BIG yachts have everything to do with passion and personal
expression, and not much to do with utility.” |
Since
completion of the Concorde 100, Vittoria has continued designing record-smashing
yachts. This year, his 247-foot Mirabella V, the largest single-mast sloop to
date, was launched from the U.K.’s Vosper Thornycroft shipyard. It was slated to
make its debut at the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo this year.
There are only a
handful of yards like Lürssen and Vosper Thornycroft that fully customize huge
yachts like Octopus and Mirabella V, and certainly a handful of customers who
can not only afford these yachts, but want to spend three years building them.
More commonly, says Phil Friedman, president of Port Royal Group, a consulting
firm in Fort Lauderdale, custom builders tend to rely on proven designs that are
not too extreme. “Many custom yards like to repeat hull forms,” he says. “The
hull is usually seaworthy, and will save them on engineering costs. For the
yard, more customization equals a greater degree of risk. They often have to eat
cost overruns for new designs that may not go according to schedule.” Typically,
these yards incorporate custom interiors and specially shaped superstructures to
set the yacht apart from any other on the water.
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