JOHN ROSATTI YACHT: 213-FOOT (65-METER) CODECASA

| Perini Navi | 124ft. 8in. (38m) Dahlak marks a milestone for Perini Navi, being the 60th yacht the Italian builder has delivered. Second in Perini’s 38-meter performance series, she has systems that let her owner sail her single-handed from the cockpit. Electric captive winches have joystick control. She has a lithium polymer battery system that allows her to be sailed without the need for a generator. perininavi.it

DAHLAK SHAMANNA

Shamanna, the newest Swan 115 FD (flush deck), is an evolution in Nautor’s racing/cruising line. German Frers designed this supersailer with maximum waterline length for optimal speed. Her decks are uncluttered, and her interior is trimmed out in teak with an oil-wax satin finish. She has a carbon fiber hull and push-button sail handling.

KAMINO

Feadship’s Kamino is the second of three 34-meters designed by Feadship’s De Voogt Naval Architects as a commercial yacht (LY3). The design has more glass than any other Feadships as a proportion of her exterior profile, making the interior feel even more voluminous. Interior design is by Bannenberg & Rowell.

MCY 105

The MCY 105 is the largest yacht in the Monte Carlo Yachts collection. As with all MCY yachts, the 105 bears the distinctive design mark of Nuvolari Lenard. A raised pilothouse with flybridge, she offers exceptional exterior and interior space. The décor is replete with exotic woods, white alabaster, multiple types of marble and handmade Venetian Murano glass mosaics. She delivers a maximum speed of 27 knots. I HAVE ABOUT 50 CARS, COUNTING THE CARS I USE AND KEEP AT MY HOME AND THE ONES I KEEP AT OUR CAR MUSEUM. MY FAVORITE IS THE ROLLS-ROYCE WRAITH BECAUSE IT’S FAST LIKE A RACE CAR AND RIDES LIKE YOU’RE ON AIR.

CROSSBOW

Crossbow is the fifth in the SWS’s 30-meter miniseries. A composite performance sailing yacht, she has considerable volume for her size. Her garage can stow a 13-foot-9-inch tender. She has naval architecture by Farr Yacht Design and general concept including exterior and interior design by Nauta Design.

BAR TBouwhuis was frustrated. The 170-footer’s transom, on paper, didn’t look right. It was a big project for Vripack, the firm he cofounded. And now the 73-year-old owner of the yacht was standing in the office growing frustrated, too.

“He doesn’t have an iPad,” Bouwhuis recalls. “He doesn’t have Internet. He says he doesn’t like it. I said, ‘Wait a minute, Jack; I have a solution, but you have to come with me and have an open mind.’”

Bouwhuis led the owner into a room where Vripack, earlier this year, had set up one of the yachting industry’s first true virtualreality experiences.

“Wow, this is cool!” the owner cried out. “Now I can see my boat. Now I understand what you were talking about. Can I see more? Can I see it from the front? What else can I see?”

It was a good question, one that even Bouwhuis couldn’t completely answer. Vripack is one of several companies at the forefront of bringing virtual reality to the yachting landscape, where the technology’s capabilities remain nascent, and where even the leading players aren’t quite sure what the future will bring. Only one thing is certain: The experience of buying, designing and building yachts is already changing, and likely for the better. One of the things that makes today’s virtual-reality experience possible is computer-aided design (CAD), which began to appear in the 1970s. CAD eventually led to such advancements as the photorealistic drawings of yacht concepts we all know today. It also led to the yachting industry’s first documented use of what’s known as augmented reality, which enhances the existing environment, While virtual reality is all the rage right now, augmented reality is in some cases still a highly valuable tool for yacht owners.

“They’re both huge things,” says Gregory C. Marshall, a naval architect based in British Columbia. “The virtual reality requires a 3-D model to be inside of. In a yacht, we 3-D model the whole thing, so it’s easy to put you inside of it. But with augmented reality, let’s say your sundeck on the yacht you already have looks boring and you wanted to do a refit. You want new furniture. You’re wondering, ‘What would it look like if I put this chair right here?’”

Using augmented reality, you can stand on your sundeck and hold your smartphone over a piece of paper with a code that tells your screen to create a true-to-size image of the chair. Or, perhaps, six different chairs you’re trying to choose among.

“You can go, ‘Okay, I can see it right here,’” Marshall says. “You basically print out six pieces of paper, and each paper has a little code on it. You can decide and say, ‘That lounger is too big.’ So you take away that piece of paper. It’s like you’re shopping for the chairs from six different stores right there on your sundeck.” — compared with virtual reality, which outright replaces that environment all around us.

Some owners may have encountered augmented reality as far back as 2011, when Texas-based Hidden Creative Ltd. uploaded a YouTube video showing how an app could make a yacht brochure look like it was “coming to life” in 3-D. By 2013, Fraser Yachts and Sunseeker had their own augmented-reality experiences. That same year, at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Lürssen began to blur the line between augmented and virtual reality. The builder digitally unveiled 282-foot (86.1-meter) Quattroelle by taking photographs of the new build in Europe and offering show-goers in Florida a set of goggles. People could “walk through” the yacht in a way that felt like walking inside still photographs. At the time, Lürssen Sales Director Michael Bremen said he thought it was the first use of virtual-reality technology in the yachting industry.

Fast forward to this year’s boat shows in Miami, Düsseldorf and Dubai, where a pair of open-top pods appeared at the Dominator booth. They were made of carbon fiber, stainless steel and leather. The Italian builder invited guests to choose one of 40 pairs of Prada loafers with sensors across the soles. Next, a guest placed an Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset over her eyes. She then stepped into the pod, whose circular, treadmill-type floor would respond to the shoe sensors, making her feel as though she were walking inside a yacht, taking her wherever she looked with the headset.

What she actually was doing was “walking” inside the photorealistic, 3-D CAD drawings of Dominator’s 85-foot (26-meter) Ilumen concept—a yacht that does not exist in real life.

“Oh!” one woman exclaimed, reaching from the aft-deck entrance toward what she perceived as a salon window. “I can see the sea!”

Dominator staff could see in real time, on a flat-screen television, the 2-D version of whatever the guest saw inside the headset. When a man reached out toward the lifelike hors d’oeuvres on an aft-deck table, a Dominator employee in real life held out a tray with actual nibbles. The same thing happened when goggle-wearers reached out to grab what they perceived as glasses of champagne.

“Moët & Chandon is our global champagne partner, so we have