The designers

BETTER TO BUILD

THAN DESTROY

By Isla McKechnie

In an industry filled with larger than life characters, Robert Allen is a giant. Allen, and his eponymous firm, Robert Allen Law, has changed our expectation of how law firms work in yachting, bringing with him American boldness, and a style and bombast that’s all Allen’s own.

The man from Palm Beach - or who practices

there at least - has a dry sense of humour. When I ask how he’s built his reputation and such an extensive client list, he laughs that he’ll sue anyone who doesn’t hire him. That irreverent sense of fun however, belies his mission in life, which is a determination to leave the world better than he found it.

“I’d rather help build than destroy,” Allen says.

“I became a lawyer to help people. I went to law school to help people. I realised that helping people with businesses that employ people - just like when I set up my business - helps people live their lives to the fullest.”

He explains that people and businesses file suit if they think rights have been abused, which allows him the satisfaction of coming to people’s assistance.

“If a company has problems, you can defend them and keep people employed and protect the factory, and keep the business going.”

His work has seen him help not only individuals and businesses, but the industry at large, with Allen playing a vital role in working with IYBA (formerly the Florida Yacht Brokers Association) to standardise industry documentation first across the US and then seeking to improve on European standards. His efforts saw him work on a committee to modernise the standard purchase and sale and listing agreements and being instrumental in the development of the nascent International Yacht Arbitration Council. Running in parallel to his IYBA input which was allowing the US industry to grow and prosper, his own company soon became the one of most well-regarded US-based law firms dealing with yacht sales around the world. Now the principal legal advisor in the Americas to several of the largest yachting manufacturing groups in the world and four of the eight largest brokerage houses, Robert Allen Law has a team of lawyers who handle yacht transactions and a significant practice in litigation which might see them cover everything from boat accidents to unpaid brokerage commissions.

As principal of Robert Allen Law which he founded in 1993, he’s able to lead a team which works across a broad range of disciplines within the yachting industry, but Allen himself - and that focus on helping people - has been strongly influenced by a pivotal figure in his own life; his father. Responsible for both his introduction to the ocean, and the world beyond US waters, it’s clear that much of Allen’s career has been shaped by influences in his early life.

Robert Allen Snr was a Merchant Officer in the second world war, with General MacArthur on his return to the Philippines, sailing through the North Atlantic, the Suez, South Pacific, and India before his twenty first birthday. That background set the scene for a childhood of sailing and boating in remote destinations, and charters on the Chesapeake Bay, as Robert Allen Jnr grew up, and it had as much of an influence on Robert Allen Jnr’s eventual career, as his father’s post-war work did. We discuss this at length, with Allen pointing out that the higher the high, the bigger the fall.

“The world is a dangerous place. Who would have thought it would be dangerous to take a ship around Yemen and Somalia again when the Barbary pirates had been put in their place, so to speak, at the end of the 18th century?”

He also warns that new owners to the industry need to take the time to understand the intricacies of yachting.

“After the war, my father became a diplomat. I was born in the Dominican Republic, lived in Mexico, Spain, and Central America, and then studied international relations.” When talking to Allen, it becomes clear how these themes have stuck with him through his life to inform his work. He draws on Robert Allen Snr’s experiences in WWII to foreshadow how we as an industry should prepare for the future; referring back to his determination to help people and taking an international approach to his work.

“The illusion is that buying a yacht is like buying a very expensive vehicle, but a yacht is more like a quarter horse. It needs to be run. If a horse isn’t run, it atrophies. All of a yacht’s “Yachting systems need to run. Exercise the yacht. Maintain the yacht. In a is like house you can go ten years with out painting the walls, on a yacht you’ve got several more layers of getting complexity, everything’s integrated and sophisticated. And it needs to be married.” run.” Through the words of caution his love for the superyacht sphere shines through. Conversation with Robert Allen is an entertaining affair. He speaks at length on the state of the market and peppers those words of caution with anecdotes; pulling out gems like the time the owner of the then most-expensive yacht in the world invited him onboard for a week, and each morning would take Allen up in the chopper to see where the boat would go next. His passion for - and realism about - the industry is evident, alongside that knack for good advice.

“My father told me civilisation is but a thin veneer”, says Allen. He refers to symphony orchestras playing in Austria while the world descended into war and points out that times of prosperity don’t last forever.

“Right now we’re in a profound ‘up' in the yachting sector. I don’t think we’ve seen this before, ever; people who have never owned big boats before are buying megayachts, and people who have never owned boats period are buying superyachts. Counter-intuitively, world instability and social disruption have led more and more people to imagine themselves on the seas and act on those dreams.”

“Yachting is like getting married. You have to give, you have to make compromises. It’s tough. But it’s great when it runs like it should.”

“Yachts are not perfect, but that being said; if you commit to maintaining a yacht like it should be maintained, - you certainly won’t save money on it - but if you commit, you will enjoy it. It’s a relationship.”

MAKING THE MOST OF ALUMINIUM

By Andrew Rogers

Van der Valk is one of the few boatbuilders in the Netherlands that actually creates all its own hulls and superstructure elements in-house. Our dedicated aluminium construction hall measures 60.7-metres by 20.3metres and is also responsible for building and welding each and every supporting component, including masts and hardtops.

Having the unique combination of these first-class facilities and expert craftsmen who are seasoned in working with aluminium as a material offers you a wide range of benefits as an owner. The cost synergies of being able to manufacture everything you need within the same building is obvious and the fact that everything is under our famously stringent control regime is a sure guarantee of quality. Ultimately, however, it is the flexibility that the yard offers by being able to make changes ‘on the spot’ that is most highly valued by Van der Valk clients.

Restyling a la carte

An excellent recent example is a 33-metre custom project called Blue Jeans which is due for completion in the summer of 2022. The owner is a big fan of the 2020 World Superyacht Award finalist Jangada but requested a restyling of the lines. The result is a surprisingly sleek exterior profile for a yacht with extra high ceilings in the main deck and a raised bow. The latter reflects the concealment of the anchor windlasses within the forepeak to generate space on the foredeck for an additional chill-out zone. A pop-up table will be receded flush into the deck here and, when raised, people can sit with their legs inside the vacated space.

More curves please

All this is made possible by building in aluminum, of course, and the same applies to the desire by the owner of the Flybridge motoryacht Valencia for a more curved superstructure above the windshield. As the flybridge ceilings over the cockpit deck do not generally need any support posts this facilitated the cleaner look required.

Even more radical changes were made to the Explorer Seawolf which was extended by two metres after being sold to a client who wanted a larger lazarette, aft deck and swim platform. The flybridge was lengthened by 1.25 metres as these extensions boosted the yacht to a total length of 27 metres, Technical changes and improvements included the installation of an Opacmare transformer within the swimming platform, which would not have been possible with a GRP vessel.

Flexibility first

Moving from the specific to the general, one of the keys to the successful use of aluminium at Van der Valk is the closely spaced latticework of girders and rulers that allow the yard to initially eliminate structural bulkheads in the construction. In addition to reinforcing the strength and stiffness of the hull, and making the hulls very suitable for the most adverse weather conditions, this arrangement gives clients even more options when it comes to arranging a customised layout. Bulkheads are ultimately included as class requires them for watertight compartments, but the initial stiffness and rigidity of the hull makes the actual bulkhead locations subservient to the flexibility on offer to you as an owner.

Last but most certainly not least, aluminium is a more environmentally friendly material. It is recyclable and has a far longer product lifecycle of well over 50 years. There is less waste (with what does remain being returned to the manufacturer for reuse), and hulls can be recycled and even refitted with a brandnew interior. If future-proofing is important to you, aluminium should certainly be given the green light.

ALUMINIUM IS…

• MUCH LIGHTER THAN STEEL/GRP • A VERY STRONG METAL • MORE SUSTAINABLE • NON-FLAMMABLE • SIMPLER AND CHEAPER TO REPAIR • EASY TO SHAPE TO SIZE • AS FLEXIBLE AS YOUR IDEAS

BEFORE THE BIG APPLE:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEW AMSTERDAM By Andrew Rogers

During the Netherlands’ Golden Age in the early 17th century, the Dutch West (and East) India Company established colonies and trading outposts around the world. One of these was New Amsterdam, which we now call Manhattan, the most prestigious borough in New York City.

Between 1626 and 1664, the capital of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was New Amsterdam. In 1609, English seafarer Henry Hudson was hired by the Dutch for a voyage of exploration. He came to North America and sailed up the river that would carry his name. Hudson brought back news of a potentially lucrative trade in beaver furs, prompting several new expeditions to set forth from Holland. These began trading furs with the indigenous peoples along the river and surrounding region and on their 1614 map we see the name New Netherland used for the first time.

Peter Minuit became director-general of the Dutch West India Company in 1626. In the same year, he met with the indigenous peoples and purchased Manhattan for trinkets worth around 24 dollars at the time and not much more than a thousand dollars in today’s money. The land was quickly settled and the area surrounding the newly built Fort Amsterdam became known as New Amsterdam.

The Dutch were enjoying a Golden Age, carrying around half of the world’s trade in their ships. The downside for the new colony across the Atlantic was that few people chose to emigrate. New Amsterdam grew slowly from an initial 270 people to around 9,000 by 1664.

Peter Stuyvesant became directorgeneral of the colony of New Netherland in 1647 and New Amsterdam received its city rights in 1653. The settlement expanded beyond the southern tip of Manhattan, a protective wall was built on Wall Street and a canal constructed that became Broad Street and Broadway.

Stuyvesant turned out to be the final director-general of the colony. On 27 August 1664 four English frigates sailed into New Amsterdam’s harbour and demanded New Netherland’s surrender, which was provisionally granted by Stuyvesant. On September 6, he sent delegates to sign the official Articles of Capitulation and in June 1665, New Amsterdam was reincorporated under English law as New York City. The rest as they say is history…

TAITTINGER CHAMPAGNE: FAMILY FIRST

By Georgia Tindale

With its understated label and discreet bottle style, the Comtes de Champagne 2007, from family-owned champagne house Taittinger stands as the perfect representation of the company which created it.

Despite its accolade as one of the top six Champagne brands worldwide, the owner of the second-largest vineyard in the Champagne region (spanning an impressive 288 hectares) has always stuck firmly to its roots.

First established in 1734 by Jacques Fourneaux, under the direction of Pierre Taittinger, the wine-house relocated to the stunning Louis Quinze-style Château de la Marquetterie in 1932, in which Theobald I of Navarre (1201-1253) had his home. Legend has it, it was Theobald, Count of Champagne and later King of Navarre, who first brought the Chardonnay grape back from Cyprus following his crusade in the Middle Ages.

Known today for the distinctive, elegant and feminine style of its Chardonnay – the taste of which was first defined by Pierre’s son François Taittinger in 1945 – the House was bought by Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger in 2006, who remained at the helm as President until the end of 2019 when he passed on the baton to his daughter, Vitalie Taittinger.