Yacht Sonrisa, first Astondoa Ax8, in Action: Sunday Superyacht Video

With design and construction taking place in Spain, the Astondoa Ax8 is what her builder calls a “social cruiser.” Hull number one, the yacht Sonrisa, is finally in her owner’s hands. She’s a blend of a flying-bridge motoryacht and a sporty long-range yacht, with higher-end, custom-yacht touches, too.

Debuting this past September, the Astondoa Ax8 is Astondoa’s largest flying bridge series, at 80 feet (24.46 meters). With styling and interior-design input from Cristiano Gatto Design, though, she breaks out from the constraints of traditional flybridge projects. For instance, she has a wide-open, terraced beach area. While it’s for stowing watertoys, it will really become one of the most social areas when the yacht Sonrisa is at anchor. Further to that point, the beach area is much like a continuation of the main aft deck, with a dining area, since only modest smoked-glass bulkheads separate them.

Since she has a broad beam of 20 feet (6 meters), plus makes good use of large glass panes, the yacht Sonrisa looks and feel more voluminous throughout her interior. Strikingly different décor touches like floating stairs flanked by glass “wall” panels (above) help preserve the open, airy feel, too. These all came from Cristiano Gatto. “With the shipyard, we put in a great team effort to create a modern and contemporary interior design typical of full custom boats, with tailor-made details and finishes of the highest quality,” he says. “I believe this is an absolute novelty in the market for this segment of vessels.”

Some of the novelty design elements include practical needs of the crew. For example, the megayacht has walk-around decks. Additionally, and perhaps most surprisingly, she situates the captain’s cabin aft of the wheelhouse. It’s simply not done aboard yachts in this size range.

With accommodations for eight in the owner’s party and two crewmembers, Sonrisa will soon be enjoying her first holiday season with the owner.

Astondoa astondoa.com

Cristiano Gatto Design cristianogattodesign.com