MASTERPIECE ON WATER
Tankoa Yachts’ superyacht Solo is a design marvel – a reflection of the owner’s vision of a luxurious floating abode while incorporating advanced technologies, precision-rich specifications, and new innovations.
With its lavish staterooms and leisure spaces, Tankoa Yachts’ superyacht Solo is a thing of beauty and luxury
A72-metre super yacht described as a “cruising mansion” set sail from Genoa, Italy on her maiden voyage into the Caribbean with a 2018 World Yacht Award for “Most Eco-Friendly” and “Most Efficient” already in her wake; a feat that had her creators, Tankoa Yachts S.p.A. thrilled with these early accolades.
The applause across the yachting world for Tankoa S701 Solo is not just for her efficient exterior lines and naval architecture but for her carefully designed interiors that maximise the use of her spacious decks, including ocean views with cutback-bulwarks and large glass windows.
While still on her maiden voyage, Solo was nominated in five categories including Best Interior Design and Best Exterior Styling at the 2019 Boat International Design and Innovation Awards held end-January 2019 in Cortina de Ampezzo, Italy.
A design marvel
For Tankoa, Solo is indeed a bright feather in their cap and fitting celebration for their 10th anniversary: In a relatively short period of time the yacht builder in Genoa has won acclaim for its limited productions of 50- to 90-metre yachts that incorporate advanced technologies, precision-rich specifications and new innovations.
Michel Karsenti, Sales & Marketing manager says Tankoa prides itself on its ability to customise to meet the rigorous demands of owners. The company works with design experts, Francesco Paszkowski Design (FPD) S.r.L in Florence, Ruggiero Studio for naval architecture and FPD together with a team led by designer Margherita Casprini for the interiors.
“Although Tankoa is a 10 year-old shipyard, we have a management team that has been in the industry for many more years. This coupled with the true ‘Italian DNA’ for luxury and design and flexibility in terms of the construction process has given the company a strong competitive edge.”
For example Tankoa has a super yacht captain on its team to support the owner’s captain: Solo’s captain Renzo Chelazzi says he was pleased to be involved right from the inception of the project. “They gave me the possibility to voice my needs and the result is a very work-friendly yacht with easy circulation for the 18-member crew and the possibility to work while always protecting guests’ privacy.”
For Karsenti quality and on-time delivery are crucial: “To speed up delivery of the 50-metre range, we always have a spec hull being built at the facility in La Spezia where all the metal work including, hull, deck and super structure are completed on a 100-metre barge and transported to Genoa for fit-out and trials.
This ensures the completion-shipyard in Genoa remains spotless.”
Cruising mansion
Karsenti describes the 72-metre yacht as a whole “different animal” compared, for example, to Vertige, its jewel in the 50-metre range launched in 2017. “Solo has three times the volume of Vertige and we went all out to take advantage of its 1,541 Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) including new systems and technologies that even anticipated future emission rules, making her truly environment-friendly.”
From a design standpoint, Francesco Paszkowski says the exceptional volumes freed their design hand to embrace all the luxurious features in the spec including spacious accommodation and lounge facilities, helipad and swimming pool. The technical team at the Tankoa shipyard then integrated all of this with extreme flexibility and expertise, says Paszkowski. The usual design challenge is to get the equipment and design features accepted both by the builder (and the vessel class) as well as by the owner who wants it to reflect his vision. “With
Solo, it was an easy, no-nonsense process.” The fact that Tankoa had earlier worked with the owner on another yacht meant smooth translation of his precise design requests into a celebrated work of cruising art.
The owner’s spec was for both private use and charter cruise and required continuity between social spaces while having flexible division and dual use of some spaces. The overall ambience request was for “cozy and warm, with predominant dark colours and extensive use of natural materials assembled to offer great balance and modernity, while also being timeless and understated.”
Paszkowski is pleased that within Solo’s volume the team was able to create extraordinary accommodation for 12 guests in six spacious cabins all with large windows and sea views: the master suite on the private owner’s deck, a VIP suite and four doubles (two of them convertible into twins) all located on the main deck to ensure total quietness. The hair dressing/ massage room and the owner’s study too are convertible into additional cabins with each equipped with an en-suite bathroom.
The owner’s apartment includes a sleep zone furnished with an island bed surrounded by full-height windows, an overhead skylight and direct access to two intimate outdoor terraces, shaded sun pads and a mosaic-tiled, glass-walled Jacuzzi plus a bar, saloon and outdoor breakfast corner.
On the aft deck is a six-metre transversal swimming pool, sofas and a TV screen recessed in the ceiling enabling the conversion of the entire space into an outdoor cinema “room.” The “touch & go” helipad doubles up as a dance floor when no helicopter is on board, he explains.
The dining room has seating for 16 guests and cut-down bulwarks fitted with laminated glass panels offers diners uninterrupted sea views. A key feature of Solo is the Beach Club equipped with sofas, bar, TV and a glass-walled gym with fold-out terrace, and directly linked to the spa zone with a sauna and its own fold out-terrace and a hammam or Turkish-style bath. The aft section of the upper deck is an observation lounge with tall windows, 90-inch 4KQ LED TV screen, baby grand piano and bar.
To meet the owner’s spec for natural materials, black oak was selected for the floor, tinted dark grey oak for the walls, including de-stressed oak from a 300year old farm in Norway while wood for the sauna was from a medieval castle in Finland. The floors in some areas such as the Beach Club zone and the stairway leading to the main entrance was covered in Forest Black Antique marble from France while white onyx from Mexico adorns the stairway steps connecting the different decks. Soft fabrics in pale shades balance the dark hues of floor and walls and custom-made carpets complete the cozy ambience. Luxury made-in-Italy brands such as Fendi Casa are complemented by custom-made furniture featuring Cappuccino marble from Rajasthan, India and saddle-stitched leather.
It seems that all components have come together to make Solo a yacht builder’s dream come true, but Tankoa is not willing to rest on its laurels: “Our dream yacht is the next one – it is that super yacht that makes her owner happy and proud of being part of the Tankoa family,” Karsenti says.