Aboard some yachts, the interior decor is the big story. For others, meanwhile, it’s the watertoys. With the VSY Atomic, the heart and soul is a custom dive center with a set of 24 scuba tanks. Really, it puts typical lazarette setups to shame. But, as incredibly avid divers, the owners wouldn’t have it any other way.
While this was the first time working with VSY, which delivered the 210-foot (64-meter) yacht earlier this year, the owners and their team brought in design and outfitting professionals with whom they had already collaborated. In fact, the husband surprised his family in 2014 with a custom 147’5” (44.95-meter) yacht constructed in Turkey. One of the contributors to that project, and for the current Atomic, is Franck Darnet, of Darnet Design. Therefore, Darnet and his studio knew what to suggest to fulfill the design brief for a cozy, ageless interior drawing inspiration from marine life.
“The key design words were elegance, warmth, and natural,” says Darnet. “An elegance that is expressed through simplicity and understatement.” Accordingly, light-tone American walnut sets the backdrop, with beige and mushroom tones on leather upholstery. This is not to say, though, that simplicity means plainness. Rather, you’ll find polished nickel inlays on some furniture facings as well as floors—in the shapes of grooved brain corals.
The cozy warmth continues in the main-deck master suite. The wife loves to read, so she has a comfy alcove—with a view, of course—to curl up with a good book. Notably, the suite also sits half a level up from the rest of the main deck, for better views overall. Additionally, two inside-outside balconies were special requests. One is a further reading lounge, while the other is an alfresco shower.
As warm and welcoming as the interior is, however, the dive center aboard the VSY Atomic is a showpiece of form and function. While both the husband and wife are avid divers, the husband has a longstanding business passion for it, too. He therefore was heavily involved in the brief for the layout. The specialist company Moondog devised the layout with him and constructed the setup. For starters, six mechanically ventilated lockers, with keypad locks, stow the sets of dive bottles. Separate lockers handle stowing and charging electric dive gear, holding drysuits, and holding spearguns. Backlit glass on the lockers draws extra attention to the colorful array, too.
Enhancing function, the dive center is accessible internally from the yacht—rarely, if ever, requested by other owners. Further of note, it has a central bench for dressing. Handily, a platform has separate custom-made dive ladders to allow guests to keep their fins on when entering and exiting the water. Since guests of varying age and ability will dive and cruise aboard, this was especially important. Two bottle-filling stations are in here as well, with a third connection at the stern. This way, one remains dedicated to long and/or deep dives, while the other two can address charging bottles in a dive boat moored alongside the swim platform. Finally, for an emergency, a portable hyperbaric chamber has a computer that automatically can send a doctor ashore vital details, to assist the crew.
PHOTOS: Jim Raycroft
When the full owners’ party of 12 is done diving for the day, the VSY Atomic treats them to quite the show. More than 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) of LED lighting inside and outside creates different moods. For instance, 161 OLEDs comprise the dining-area chandelier that Darnet Design penned. Furthermore, lighting within the sundeck pool especially creates “amazing colors at night,” Darnet says.
From bow to stern and mast to hull, Atomic reflects a love affair with the water, and the outdoors. Specially selected mechanical systems, such as Dynamic Positioning, ensure she leaves as little a footprint as possible, too.
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