Measuring 42 metres, the dark blue hull and off white superstructure friendly covers the shapes of a rather traditionally styled luxury yacht. Some would say a Gentleman’s Yacht. Star is the brain child of the Dutch designers and naval architects of Vripack, who literally did not leave one millimeter of the yacht untouched. Inside and out Vripack designed it all and went as far as picking the cutlery and designing her logo.
"Star is one of those unique yachts where the synergy between all parties is so good that great things happen", Marnix of Vripack proudly says. "Our team spent more than twelve thousand hours to design every little detail of her fuel efficient hull, the no nonsense systems, her chic interiors and the low production building kit."
"Some of her unique features are the control room and engineer cabin in the aft ship, both uncommon on yachts these size. Although she is classed with unmanned machine space (UMS) this yacht is designed to sail across the globe on her own keel which means you need to provide room for the crew close to their work space. So the captain is next to the bridge and the engineer next to the engine room. Star's whole layout is set up this way, smart and lean."
A happy Bart from Vripack continues, "The 51 years of yacht design and naval architecture experience of Vripack is seen throughout this yacht. A striking example is the little bench right next to the aft deck entrance door. When you walk up the passerelle, swim platform or wait for the tender to pick you up it's nice to sit down and take off or put on your high heels before you go to the club."
Vripack designed the social areas on the bridge and fly bridge deck leaving the aft deck for two 6 meter tenders. "We designed butterfly doors for the sky lounge which can open full beam allowing the outer and inner deck to merge to one large open space. One straight stair connects it to the fun deck on fly bridge level. A full size jacuzzi, sun pads for the family, open bar, grill and a lounge area should allow for numerous new Family memories."
The design of Star is a Dutch minimalistic-meets-homy statement by the Vripack Design Studio, Marnix continues. "It is too easy to fit out a Gentleman's yacht with teak or other wood structures. So we refrained from using it anywhere. The base of every inside area is off white and we very carefully built up the material choices and color schemes from there. Especially the use of softer furnishings like calf skin and Alcantara next to the fine glossed perfectly square panels makes sure you get an interior in which you can walk off the beach with sand on your feet and not worry to sit down."
"I am sure we have driven the Kingship team who built her to close madness. This is the fifth boat we are co-operating on and she is the best boat we have seen coming out of Asia so far. That there is more to that than meets the eye, Kingship proved when we conducted the sea trials. Due to Chinese New Year the yard had no chance to trial her before our team of Naval Architects came on board. I was personally one of them and witnessed one of the best sea trials we’ve ever had. Performing as she should with not one alarm! And yes, they were working." concludes Marnix with a big smile.