Q: Several features aboard the yacht are unusual, perhaps most notably the video wall. What inspired you to create it, versus install an incredibly large (say, 103-inch) TV?
A: The philosophy we formulated to guide the building of Big Fish – which is the same philosophy we are embracing for Aquos Yachts – is to seek innovative, technologically and ecologically sound solutions for all the issues and challenges of designing and building a large, safe, luxurious, long-range yacht. Very early on in the design and build process of Big Fish, we learned that we were attracting a big following for our ideas, most importantly perhaps that we were attracting the attention of a new generation of yachtsmen and women, people who wanted a certain barefoot luxury, who valued technology and new design concepts, who had an edgier, not-your-father’s-yacht sense of styling and esthetics. The video wall is an excellent case in point. Originally we had specified a fantastic art wall for the central atrium staircase space. In fact, the 12-foot by 20-foot video wall we ended up using was not even available when construction of Big Fish began. When none of the art ideas we had kicked around resonated with me and my team, Greg Marshall, our talented designer, offered the idea of the video wall. After doing a bit of research, we found a company who had just installed two of these walls – consisting of many TV monitors married seamlessly and driven by a massive server – one in the Pentagon, the other as the giant scoreboard in the brand-new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. We decided with a giant video screen we could run or project any kind of art we wanted, as well as movies, photos of the day’s fun, TV shows from the satellite hook-up – whatever we or our charter guests wanted. The technology allows the screen to be segmented so that three or more different media or programs can be run simultaneously. While enormously expensive, the video wall to me represented the heart and soul of what we were trying to achieve with Aquos Yachts – using creativity, innovation to expand the enjoyment of a yacht.
Q: So far Big Fish has undertaken an ambitious cruising schedule, with tens of thousands of miles covered. What are one or two of your favorite destinations thus far, and why?
A: Big Fish has cruised more than 28,000 nautical miles in her first nine months of life. We left Auckland, New Zealand, in late June last year and immediately cruised to Tahiti for the summer, where we enjoyed a busy charter season, and where I joined the yacht for my first cruise. I arrived at Papeete in the evening and my first cruise was to nearby Moorea. It was absolutely breathtaking and gratifying to raise the curtains in my stateroom the first morning and awaken to the glorious site of the spectacular peaks surround the lagoon in Moorea through my full-height stateroom windows. I thought, ‘Yes, this is what we were trying to achieve the past three years! This is what the next age of yachting looks and feels like.’
From Tahiti we went to the Galapagos, then to the Cocos Keeling Islands, then through the Panama Canal on to Fort Lauderdale for the big boat show last fall. From Fort Lauderdale Big Fish went back through the canal, and went straight down to Antarctica, where she spent the month of January. This May, she completed the circumnavigation of South America by returning to Florida for some maintenance work. This summer we have numerous charters booked in Northern Europe and the Arctic Circle. By the time she visits the Mediterranean to attend the Monaco Yacht Show, we estimate she will have cruised 40,000nm, nearly two times the circumference of the planet at the Equator!
As for my favorite destinations, I have to say I enjoyed visiting Antarctica (see photo below) – how many people get to enjoy this spectacular destination aboard their own yacht? – and the Galapagos. But I must say, I also enjoyed the week we spent in Fort Lauderdale during the yacht show, where more than 1,500 guests toured Big Fish. I was extremely gratified and encouraged by the extraordinary reception received there by Big Fish and Aquos Yachts.
Q: You have a new yacht, StarFish, in the works. Considering that Big Fish set the bar pretty high, how do you outdo yourself with StarFish?
A: It’s interesting that when I started Big Fish, I told my project team, ‘You know how to build a boat. You won’t see me much during construction – just let me know when you need my decisions here and there, and we’ll have a great party all together when she’s launched.’ What actually happened was that the more involved I became in the project, the more I grew to like the building process. There are so many decisions, new things, solutions that had never been attempted before in the industry.
Not only do we have a second boat under construction and ready for delivery at the end of next year, we have a third yacht well along in design stage. Our second yacht, StarFish, is 50 meters, five meters longer than Big Fish, has six staterooms, and carries two additional crew above Big Fish’s service complement. Our owner’s deck – 38 meters long! – has two private terraces, and the ability to locate the master cabin either forward or aft, or to configure the deck as a dual VIP stateroom deck. All this, and she is still within the 500-gross-tonnage limit. Having built Big Fish, I can say that there is absolutely no end to the opportunity to keep raising the bar for yacht design and construction with every yacht built by Aquos Yachts. Not only do we have emerging technology to use and incorporate, but as with Big Fish, each yacht provides an extraordinary platform to test what works and what can be improved. We could easily have rested on our laurels after Big Fish – and certainly we would love to build another edition of that design – but my passion, and the philosophy of Aquos Yachts, is to keep reaching new heights to make yachting even more enjoyable for experienced yachtsmen and women, while at the same time making yachting more appealing to the next generation.
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