Ester III
Every project has a story and Ester III is no exception. What made the story of Ester III a bit unusual was the fact that the clients i.e. the family are good personal friends. The relationship therefore wasn’t a regular client/designer relationship. To me this meant both opportunity and risk; opportunity because there was clearly a possibility to have the client’s ear for designing something truly unique and risk because potentially the friendship could be put to a severe test. The latter became a real possibility as the client quickly adopted a very hands off approach once the brief and conceptual design had been defined and the client/friend more and more frequently would say “just do it as if the yacht was for you Espen…….”!
The floor plan of the yacht is somewhat unusual as much as it encompasses a rather large swimming pool for a yacht this size and a helicopter platform located on top of the wheelhouse so as to enable the owner’s family to arrive and leave the yacht by helicopter without interfering too much with life on the aft decks. Also, the tender garage is located on main deck forward to have no freeboard issues during launching / retrieving (frequently a problem when located on lower deck on yachts this size) and to push the owner’s accommodation closer to midship for comfort reasons. This also freed up valuable space in the aft ship enabling the water sports toy store and the spa to be located close to the water with direct access to the stern platform.
The layout reflects the family’s frequent use of the yacht and in particular the intense use of the external desckspaces where meals, entertainment and meetings go hand in hand on a near continuous basis. The decks are laid out to be used in all weather conditions with various degrees of protection from the elements (sun, wind, rain, heat & cold) and offer dining in two external different locations plus of course the inside in the more formal main deck dining setting. Food and hospitality is a big thing for the family and the so the top deck dining is organised around a BBQ and teppanyaki fitted external kitchen which also doubles as a bar. Entertainment on deck includes external cinema and a full blown disco / bandstand as well as amenities for golfing.
Although not apparent at first sight the design features very large windows in many cases full height so as to bring natural light in to the yacht and improve the view out. This, in combination with the near vertical bow and rather angular design of the topsides and superstructure surfaces gives the yacht a unique, distinct and strong character in many ways reflecting my friend’s character and in many ways also the strong heritage of its builder Luerssen Yachts!
A frequent shortcoming on yachts this size is a proper tender offering full protection from the elements when needed. This yacht is destined to spend large amounts of time at anchor so this was an important recommendation from me. Accordingly we allocated sufficient space in the tender garage and designed a bespoke limo tender with a sliding roof structure so as to have the benefits of an open tender when not raining or operating in severe weather. The tender was designed by us to have a certain resemblance with the mother ship and built by Windy Boats in Sweden to very high specifications including all upholstery and fitting specially made by Hermes.
Espen Oeino
For and on behalf of Espen Oeino International s.a.r.l.
