Justin Ratcliffe visits the Royal Huisman headquarters in Vollenhove to take an exclusive look at project Phi, its second motor yacht and one of next year’s most eagerly awaited superyacht deliveries.
The Greek letter known as phi (ϕ) is used to describe the golden ratio in nature, art and architecture, magnetic flux in physics, the Fibonacci sequence in mathematics, flight dynamics, probability theory and even the stock market. In other words, it is at the heart of just about everything in the world as we know it.
The custom yacht, with exterior styling by Cor D. Rover and interior design by Lawson Robb, has been a long time in the making. The owner, an experienced yachtsman, spent several years carefully studying neighbouring vessels wherever his current yacht happened to be anchored.
“He would pass comment and ask questions, which led to long conversations and preferences began to emerge,” says Capt. Booth. “He likes military looks, but not overtly so, a sense of movement even when sitting still, and feminine lines, but in a dangerous way like a hissing cobra or a lioness.”
Rover had already consulted with naval architect Perry van Oossanen and his design is based on van Oossanen’s Fast Displacement XL hull form, which instead of prioritising volume aims to optimise hull length and performance within a given gross tonnage. The next step was to find a shipyard to build the yacht. After talking with top yards in Europe and beyond, Royal Huisman emerged as the ideal marriage for several reasons.
“We had some disappointing meetings with yards who wanted to push their own platforms, but Royal Huisman is accustomed to building aluminium sailing yachts that are completely different from one another,” says Capt. Booth. “They were also keen to build another motor yacht and most of the people who work there are passionate about sailing. When the boss visited the shipyard he knew they could build his dream boat.”
“A motor yacht is generally simpler to build than a sailing yacht because it doesn’t have the heeling angles or sail handling systems and the hull structure doesn’t have to withstand the same loads,” says Jeroen Heemstra, one of Royal Huisman’s project engineers. “On the other hand, we are less accustomed to working with the complex shapes of the superstructure, stabiliser systems and features like the 16-tonne capacity swimming pool.”
There is not a single straight line among the compound curves that make up the exterior styling of Phi. The hull sheer was inspired by the hood of an angry cobra and when combined with the ‘eyes’ of the forward fairleads and sea-blue Awlgrip paintwork with a hint of battleship grey, the yacht has a slightly menacing appearance. 
Another challenge was keeping the gross tonnage below the 500GT threshold and some ingenious solutions have been integrated into the design to exclude certain spaces from the volume calculations. Large fashion plates, for example, can add gross tonnage by partially enclosing the aft deck, so Phi has stylised fashion plates with ‘fingers’ of polished stainless steel inspired by T-1000, the shape-shifting android made of liquid metal in the Terminator franchise. In addition, the glass windbreaks between the fashion plates and the main salon reach only part way to the deckhead to avoid an enclosed space. 
Noticeable by their absence are the engine room ventilation shafts, which usually create a bottleneck at the entrance to the main salon. Phi’s engine room is quite far aft of the deck and the baffle-protected air intakes emerge outboard in the hull below the fashion plates. The surprisingly small ducting is the result of studying exactly how much air is required for the engine combustion.
Stabilisation at anchor and under way is provided by two VEEM gyros in the engine room. Numerous options were studied by van Oossanen, including two pairs of fins and multiple smaller gyros. There are pros and cons associated with gyro stabilisers, but Capt. Booth was already familiar with them from previous yachts and the VEEM configuration provides the highest performance given the expected operational profile of the yacht.
Another first is the exterior accent lighting powered by lasers. Such lighting usually relies on LEDs, but when they fail they leave unsightly gaps. Phi’s system comprises over 1,500 metres of optical fibres that are evenly illuminated by lasers. The only components that can fail are the lasers, which are housed inside the yacht and can be easily replaced.
On Phi there is just one circular dining table on the main deck positioned partly outside the salon and half enclosed by six sliding panels of curved glass made by Rondal, Huisman’s sister company. When the watertight panes are automatically stacked out of sight in side-compartments (individual panes can also be opened depending on the wind direction), most of the dining table sits outside on the covered aft deck. Similar glass doors in the forward-facing master stateroom on the owner’s deck provide direct access to a private foredeck veranda.
Details of the interior by UK-based Lawson Robb have not been released, but the outfitters claim it is one of the most complex they have ever built and Capt. Booth insists it will be “very special indeed”. However, we can reveal that a highlight is a 300-bottle wine cellar under the corridor linking the five guest suites on the lower deck. The corridor floor is one-way glass while the base of the wine cellar is of mirrored glass, so the effect looking down will be of an endless array of wine bottles. 
“In the owner’s experience, entertainment systems on yachts are too complicated,” Capt. Booth explains. “For him it’s not a question of cost, but reliability, value for money and ease of use. We have off-the-shelf components that we can buy anywhere without having to call in a specialist technician, but the quality of experience for the user is exactly the same.” 
This article was first featured in The SuperYacht Times newspaper. Subscribe now to receive your copy straight to your door and never miss another issue.