They say the third time’s the charm, so if that’s true, then Moonen Shipyards and the owners of Livia have a lot to look forward to. She marks the third Moonen 97 to hit the water since the series was introduced with Darsea in 2008.
Livia bears the same styling as her predecessors, from the drawing boards of René van der Velden. Diana Yacht Design contributed the round-bilged hull form, also the same as the previous two Moonen 97s. The idea is for more comfort on long voyages, even transatlantic ones, given her 28,000 liters (about 7,397 gallons) of fuel. While vibration attenuation is always a concern for builders, Moonen strove to damp it further by providing 50 percent more clearance between the propellers’ tips and the hull bottom. Compliance with Lloyd’s and MCA rules lends peace of mind over engineering and construction as well.
Peace should rule inside Livia, too. The decor, from Art-Line Interiors, is said to mimic a beach house in New England. There are statrooms for six guests plus the owners.
The launch comes shortly after news of another of the builder’s “pocket-size superyachts,” Etoile d’Azur (above), marking a significant first: becoming the first Moonen 84 to cross the Atlantic on her own bottom. The seventh in that series, Etoile d’Azur departed her homeport of Monaco at the end of October 2009, arriving in Sint Maarten 15 days later. While she stopped in Gibraltar on her first leg to take on some portable fuel tanks, she never ended up using them. It’s worth noting particularly because Etoile d’Azur encountered some pretty rough weather over the course of 12 hours en route to the Azores, taking on waves that sometimes rose as high as the bow.
Over the past two years, Etoile d’Azur has put more than 17,000 nautical miles under her hull. On the owners’ itinerary for this year: cruising the Caribbean and Central America. She’ll head to Bermuda after that, then make a return journey to Europe in 2011, following a northern route.
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