Some owners show a certain impartiality with their first new build. After a few requests for changes here and there during the two-year construction period, the "Okko" owner thought of doing the guests on the sundeck a favour. A few months before the first "Okko" appearance at the Monaco Yacht Show, he asked for a windbreak made of sliding glass doors in front of the round dining table.
Mondo Marine seemed unimpressed by the design effort. The owner felt understood and was satisfied. The specifications for the shipyard had been strict in many other respects: a clear design on the outside and an unmistakable homogeneity of the interior, from the bridge to the guest cabins. Giorgio Vafiadis, who had already redesigned the owner's previous yacht, which he had purchased through a broker, was responsible for both. After the purchase, he read a magazine article about the 50-metre Vafiadis design "O'Ceanos", a three-decker made of aluminium, and came across the yacht couturier.
The owner also decided in favour of Mondo Marine based on the recommendations of friends. From then on, a design process began that lasted four years until delivery. Everyone agreed: the theme was reduction. On the outside, "Okko" has straight horizontal lines, as if drawn with a ruler. The superstructures drop steeply vertically.
Inside, the design of the rooms is elaborate, but also uniform, creating the feeling of being at home on all decks. The owner wanted to avoid a colourful mix of woods and materials. That didn't make things any easier. The use of the South African wood Frakè proved to be complex. It has a high-contrast and generous pattern of yellowish to brown tones in the grain. For the built-in furniture and panels, the joinery cut the wood in such a way that an even vertical pattern runs across all surfaces, while the horizontal pattern at the base of the beds is about the width of a hand. High-gloss lacquer enhances the very lively effect of the grain and its flow. Yellow onyx marble emphasises the atmosphere in the bathrooms; stingray leather on the ceilings contrasts this Vafiadis idea.
Read the full article in BOOTE EXCLUSIV issue 3/2013.
