Superyachts, 4WD Debate

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TWEET YOUR TWITTER SERIOUSLY PLUS: SUPER YACHTS, COOKING, TRAVEL & AUTO

LEISURE

Hello SAILOR! Money, power, prestige – whatever floats your boat. Journalist and closet ship-spotter RODERICK EIME lifts the lid on some opulent vessels to see who’s at the helm.

There are boats and there are superyachts. When you turn up in your multi-million dollar cruiser, you have certainly arrived. But who are the folks behind these grand expressions of success and wealth? Often their owners are surprisingly shy, choosing the wings instead of the limelight, while others are more than happy to put it all out there.

WHAT MAKES IT A SUPERYACHT?

TRUE BLUE BEWDIES Not to be outdone, Australia is also manufacturing seagoing toys for both our own rich list and export. Western Australian custom aluminium boatbuilders Hanseatic Marine proudly constructed two magnificent 73.3m masterpieces in 2007 and 2009. MY Silver and MY Silver Zwei were designed by Espen Øino to strict environmental standards and with slender lines and sleek profile, they depart the ‘higher and wider’ trend seen in so many modern yacht designs.

QUICK GETAWAY Topping the timesheets for the world’s fastest superyacht is the 42.4m Dutch-built, Frank Mulder designed World Is Not Enough. At 70 knots, this 2004 vintage vessel is the only such boat to have reached the magic mark thanks to its two 4000kW Paxman 18VP185 diesels and twin Lycoming TF 40 jet turbines kicking out over 20,000 old-fashioned horsepower. Fuel consumption doesn’t bear thinking about, but at least 2000 litres an hour is believable.

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Above: ‘World is Not Enough’ in full flight.

Main photo: The Australian made ‘Silver Zwei’.

Right: ‘Artic P’ bought by Kerry Packer in 1969.

With the three water jet propulsion units squirting her along, ten guests can relax in superyacht comfort with the doting owner, rags-to-riches John Staluppi, who launched the first Honda dealerships in the USA and now owns Millennium Super Yachts in Florida. Named after, you guessed it, the James Bond movie, Staluppi no doubt thought it summed him up perfectly.

AUSSIE ADVENTURER Australia’s most colourful media mogul, gambler and polo player, the late Kerry Packer, took delivery of the 1969built former ocean-going, ice-strengthened tug Arctic P in 1995 and refitted it for private expeditions under the direction of naval architect Claus Kusch. Certainly not the most glamorous vessel on the seas, this utilitarian superyacht nevertheless features among the world’s top 50, based on size (87.6m) and 2600 GT. Of course, there’s room for your helicopter and 12 guests.

The younger sister, by the way, is up for sale by her owner, German energy and technology billionaire and founder of Hanseatic Marine Guido Krass, who is asking a cool US$85 million for this world Top 100-listed craft.

Krass uses Hanseatic as much as a showcase for his technological prowess as a factory for playthings. His next project, just hull #4 for now, is what he calls a “crossover vessel”, sort of like an SUV with both pleasure and commercial applications.

The term ‘superyacht’ has only been with us for a decade or so and is used to describe the super luxury power or sailing boats owned by the world’s rich elite. As such, the true description of a superyacht is a developing measure but generally agreed to be from around 50m, with permanent crew, at least three decks and with four or five cabins accommodating ten or more guests.

More recently, the terms megayacht and gigayacht have appeared to describe the massive private vessels that transcend the mere superyacht. These typically measure at least 100m and come equipped with hangar space for helicopters, swimming pools and five or more decks.

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LEISURE

Clockwise from left: ‘Project Sigma’ or ‘A’ has futuristic submarine qualities, while luxurious ‘Eclipse’ commands a staff of 70 and the majestic ‘Savarona’ was built in 1931.

BIG, BRASH AND EXPENSIVE

Above: The 88m ‘Maltese Falcon’ is certainly a head turner.

Right: The ‘Asean Lady’ turns heads for her unique design.

FULLY RIGGED WONDER

GOLDEN OLDIE

Quite possibly the most advanced and stunning private sailing ship on the world’s oceans is the 88m Maltese Falcon. She set the yachting world abuzz when launched in 2006, mainly due to her superior design and advanced sail mechanism which includes a pioneering rig comprised of three unstayed carbon fibre masts with yards fixed to rotating masts. All of this is monitored by a sophisticated computer system using optical fibre strain sensors as part of the DynaRig installation.

Not all the world’s fleet is made up of hi-tech carbon fibre and aluminium superyachts. Several of the most prominent privately owned vessels are glorious heirlooms, lovingly cared for and tended to by owners who don’t worry how much it costs to keep them seaworthy.

Maltese Falcon was commissioned by ageing American venture capitalist Tom Perkins and constructed in the Italian shipyard of Perini Navi in Viareggio, using composite (carbon fibre) materials. The vessel cost somewhere between US$150 and US$300 million to complete and was sold by workaholic Perkins in 2009 to Greek-born hedge-fund manager Elena Ambrosiadou for a reported 60 million UK pounds, just under US$100 million.

For fun, it carries two 10m Pascoe rigid inflatable tenders (with water skis), four Laser sailing boats and a 6m Castoldi tender. The yacht once had a minisubmarine but Perkins is keeping that.

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STRANGEST THING AFLOAT While certainly not the largest and most expensive waterborne palace, Asean Lady ranks #37 in the international list of superyachts and made this list because of its bizarre design. Owned by Singaporean entrepreneur Brian Chang, the vessel was built in his own Yantai Raffles Shipyard, with the interior designed by his wife Annie, who made use of traditional Chinese art, designs and woodwork.

The main hull is a ‘proa’ or outrigger style with a smaller hull for stability – which seemed to work well enough when she was moored off Phuket during the 2004 tsunami. Asean Lady has an impressive range of 10,000nm at 12 knots and 20 guests can be accommodated. Visitors to Singapore will often see her tied up at Raffles marina.

Designed by US naval architects Gibbs & Cox in 1931 and built by Blohm + Voss for American heiress Emily Roebling Cadwallader, the sublime MY Savarona is still one of the most beautiful vessels anywhere despite her age. Costing US$4 million at the time ($57m today), she was acquired by the Turkish government in 1938 as a state yacht for the ailing leader Mustafa Atatürk. After his death just six weeks later, it passed to the navy which neglected her rather badly and in October 1979 she was gutted by fire. Rescued from an ignominious demise by wealthy Turkish businessman Kahraman Sadıkoğlu in 1989, she underwent a $35 million refit which included the replacement of her original steam engines. At 124m, she is still in the world’s top 10 largest private yachts.

The prize for biggest and most ostentatious certainly goes to Chelsea Football Club owner and Russian squillionaire Roman Abramovich. The largest vessel in his fleet, Eclipse, does just that with every other private vessel on the planet. With a personal fortune of over US$13 billion according to Forbes Magazine, a US$500 million plaything is no impediment. Built under great secrecy in 2010 by in-demand German shipyard Blohm + Voss, Eclipse weighs in at 13,000 Gross Tons (GT) and stretches out to 163.5 metres. The high security vessel has bulletproof glass, intruder alarms and motion scanners as well as two helicopter pads, 24 guest cabins, two swimming pools, mandatory hot tubs and disco. Three tenders and a miniature submarine are among the fun accessories, while 70 full time crew members are required to maintain and operate the ship.

JUST PLAIN WEIRD Resembling a nuclear submarine with its aggressive axe bow, the 119m radically designed A was built from a whimsical sketch by Philippe Starck and converted into a functioning vessel by technical designer Martin Francis under the codename Project Sigma. Owner, Russian under-40 billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, took delivery of A in 2008 after construction at Blohm + Voss.

There’s room for 14 guests in predictably over-the-top penthouse-style luxury while A ambles along at just under 20 knots with a crew of 37 to mind her. Two magnificent 10m NZ custom built tenders do the short-haul work. ■

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AUTOMOTIVE

The Great

Dinosaur of the road or trusted workhorse?

Suitable for outback driving … or inner-city motoring.

RODERICK EIME wades into the discussion about the merits of four wheel drive vehicles.

4WD DEBATE There are some things that should never be discussed at dinner parties – politics, religion and four wheel drives.

One sets brother against brother and turns normally meek, lawabiding citizens into brawling, foul-mouthed hooligans - the others might make you want to vote for the Greens and join a monastery.

As a pre-pubescent car-spotter – and we’re talking 1960s here – I recall all 4WDs were Series I or II Land Rovers driven by sunripened blokes with full beards and crinkled khaki shirts. Now they are driven by primary school mums, urban entrepreneurs and even nanna, complete with bull-bar, high power ‘spotties’ and snorkel.

Why? Tom Elliott, former Honda North American Executive Vice President, suggested that folks who buy 4WDs for urban commuting instead of minivans prefer image over functionality.

It’s true. What began as a utilitarian workhorse with buckboard comfort for farmers and men-on-the-land has somehow evolved into a plush, kid leather-lined, all-terrain luxury cocoon with Mack truck hauling power and TARDIS-like navigational ability. Even the largest “full size” 4WDs have multi-airbag safety systems, crumple zone monocoque construction and even proximity warning devices. Yet one side of the debate labels them “urban assault vehicles”, especially lethal when pitted against pedestrians.

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“4WDs have a higher centre-of-gravity but, thanks to improved technology, they no longer feel like trucks to drive. This car-like feel can lull a driver into a false sense of security and it’s common for 4WDs to tip over when the driver inadvertently takes the vehicle out of its equilibrium zone.

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AUTOMOTIVE

Shock jocks, environmentalists and the car industry seem locked in a perennial debate, invectives flying back and forth. But is there an unemotional explanation to this often overheated argument about whether the 4WD is suited to city driving?

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, popular scientist and debunker, says: “4WDs have a higher centre-of-gravity but, thanks to improved technology, they no longer feel like trucks to drive. This car-like feel can lull a driver into a false sense of security and it’s common for 4WDs to tip over when the driver inadvertently takes the vehicle out of its equilibrium zone. In 2004, The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration put 4WDs through rollover tests and found them more likely to tip over than regular cars.”

This predicament was vividly illustrated in the Ford Explorer/Firestone debacle in the US at the turn of the century.

Keith Bradsher of the New York Times and author of “High and Mighty: SUVs – The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way” looks at the drivers as well as the machines. He says: “A growing body of research by automakers is finding that buyers of these two kinds of vehicles are very different psychologically. Sport utility (4WD) buyers tend to be more restless, more sybaritic (indulgent), less social people who are “self-oriented”, to use the automakers' words, and who have strong conscious or subconscious fears of crime. Minivan buyers tend to be more self-confident and more “other-oriented” – more involved with family, friends and their communities.”

Along with Bradsher is the US-based “Detroit Project”, whose goal, said co-founder Lawrence Bender, a movie producer whose credits include “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting, “is not to demonise people who drive SUVs, rather, we want to point out how our driving habits at home are fuelling oil money to Saudi Arabia.”

John Cadogan, editor of the not-for-profit e-newsletter, Crash Prevention News, offers some balance to the debate: “I'm not an apologist for 4WDs, but in my view the socalled 4WD 'issue' is not one that relates directly to road safety. There are other 4WD issues, however; 4WDs and their capacity for profligate energy consumption are quite anti-social in this climate of peak oil production and global warming, for example. Safety is often used to inappropriately prosecute 4WD hatred.”

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The respected Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC), recent report states: “Despite their established high aggressivity, 4WDs appear to impose relatively low injury risk overall to their own occupants, to other road users and occupants of other vehicles per year of exposure on the road and adjusted for distance driven.”

To clarify, the term “aggressivity” used in the context above refers to “how badly the vehicle is likely to harm other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, in a crash.” It is an empirical term, not an emotive one.

Some points to note: Fact: 4WDs are prone to rollover, especially in inexperienced hands.

Fact: 4WD occupants are safer in a collision, but not in a rollover.

Fact: Big 4WDs are fuel inefficient.

Fact: Big 4WDs are dangerous to other road users in a collision Fact: Smaller 4WDs are increasing in popularity and decreasing in accident statistics Conclusion (MUARC): There does not appear to be a major road safety problem emerging from the burgeoning 4WD fleet for reasons apparently related to the way 4WDs are being used and by whom they are driven.

What does emerge is that drivers who own high aggressivity vehicles are prone to drive them inconsiderately and selfishly. A case of “never mind the dog, beware of the owner!”

A comprehensive Victorian Government report into road rage agrees. “There are actually two elements underlying this argument. Firstly, it is contended that those who feel a sense of power due to the nature of the car are more likely to become angered or frustrated by those who ‘get in their way’. Secondly, the power of the car may contribute to the likelihood that the driver will react violently, due to the feelings of invincibility and protection the car may offer, as well as the capacity to quickly flee the scene.”

The same report contends that drivers of 4WDs can be unfairly demonised simply by driving them. “This will especially be the case if pejorative views held about certain vehicles come to be associated with the driver of such vehicles,” the report states.

Allan Pease, known to TV viewers as “Mr Body Language” and a best-selling author on the subject, laughs aloud when asked about drivers of 4WDs. “It’s just like a fancy dress party. When you dress up as a policeman, a clown or as 007, you take on that persona – you act the part. Get behind the wheel of a big, nasty 4WD and the same thing happens, you become invincible!”

Back to the oil issue - and the growing trend among the high-profile glitterati to stow gas guzzlers and be seen in their environmentally responsible Toyota Prius and Lexus Hybrid. Suddenly the once macho Hummer H2, Dodge Ram and Chevy Suburban are image liabilities.

Enter the Premium Compact 4WD. In an attempt to assuage the concerns of an apparently eco-conscious market, the motoring industry is witnessing the birth of a new genre of motor vehicle: the Premium Compact SUV. Some buyers are arriving at dealers with more money and higher expectations but are also sensitive to outdated,

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In an attempt to assuage the concerns of an apparently ecoconscious market, the motoring industry is witnessing the birth of a new genre of motor vehicle: the Premium Compact SUV.

carbon-belching, grandiose expressions of status.

Consequently, top-shelf manufacturers are finding ways of packing high end accoutrements into smaller vehicles, in particular the 4WD. Factor in the GFC, sensitivity on reliance to Middle East oil and tsunami-affected production in Japan and you have a market in flux – to say the least. But, flying in the face of what one might predict, gas-guzzling V8 4WD sales are booming. Toyota’s famous LandCruiser topped 750,000 all-time unit sales in Australia last year and the trend is still upward.

So, as your hostess prepares dessert, how will you conclude the evening’s discourse? Good friends can agree to disagree, so this writer’s advice: stay friends! ■

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