Some builders stray too far from their primary focus when they launch their largest-ever megayacht. Such is not the case, thankfully, with Couach Yachts and its 5000 Fly series. The French shipyard has built a reputation on lightweight, strong yachts with a good turn of speed, and which can take on seas that may make other yachts remain at the dock. Couach Yachts’ newest delivery, the 162-foot (49.5-meter) La Pellegrina, keeps this tradition going.
Drawing upon its heritage of building patrol boats and workboats (which it continues to build today), Couach designs and engineers its yacht hulls for good performance in a variety of conditions. La Pellegrina is said to be capable of a 28-knot top speed and a 25-knot cruise. While the photo here shows her in a bit of a chop and how her bow parts the waves, you’ll get an even better idea of her performance in the video embedded at the end of this story. Regardless of La Pellegrina running at top speed or a more efficient 12 knots, for best transatlantic range, twin MTU 20V 4000 M93 diesel engines provide the muscle, complemented by composite and Kevlar construction. Couach additionally uses carbon fiber in some structural areas for additional strength without adding weight.
Of course, a strong megayacht can also have a softer side, and here’s where La Pellegrina’s interior comes into play. The owner selected Jean-Pierre Fantini to create an atmosphere that is at once casually cool and sophisticated. Bright white surfaces and fabrics adorn essentially every room, from the saloon (above), which is open to the dining area, to the guest accommodations.
Speaking of the accommodations, in taking a look at this full-beam stateroom forward on the main deck, you may conclude it’s the master stateroom. You’d be wrong—but you’d be in good company, as it fooled a few media who toured La Pellegrina at her boat show debut during the Monaco Yacht Show. The megayacht’s owner actually made this the VIP stateroom. The location and vertical ports looking out over an alfresco dining area farther forward should make a guest feel Very Important indeed.
So, then, where is the master suite exactly? It’s one deck up, where other megayachts place the skylounge. La Pellegrina’s owner arguably has the best view in the house, outside of the vistas from the sundeck. Though it’s not visible in this image, the suite actually has a small entry area, on the opposite side of the opaque panel behind the bed. The head and walk-in wardrobe are in separate rooms flanking the entry. You can make out a games table and chairs to the far left in the photo, too.
Other accommodations and general guest areas aboard La Pellegrina, which bears a beam of 30’5″ (9.3 meters), seem pretty straightforward. Four guest staterooms—three queens and one twin—are arranged around a traditional lower-deck lobby. Each has its own accent color scheme, still preserving the all-white decor of the rest of the yacht. This will certainly appeal to charter guests as well as the owner’s party. Up top, the sundeck has all of the alfresco creature comforts that megayacht guests come to expect, such as a dining table large enough for everyone to gather together, either under the sun or under the stars. Other features on the sundeck include a hot tub flanked by sunpads, plus additional sun lounges (though, one of them, to starboard of the dining table, is pretty small, and only usable if the door to the stairs below is closed). But, just as the VIP suite is a pleasant surprise, La Pellegrina has one more trick up her sleeve. Take a close look at the mural here along the stairway. It’s one continuous image rising all the way up to the bridge deck. It depicts a handful of paint brushes, their tips perfectly pointed as if ready to dip into the ink of the ocean below.
Here’s more of La Pellegrina out on the water.
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