The owner's briefing was not one of those that caused the designer to gasp in surprise. Instead, order lists of this kind seem challenging in their simplicity. Like most others, the owner of "Barbara" wanted an "individual and timeless" yacht, as the Australian Sam Sorgiovanni laconically reported after receiving the commission to design a good 80 metres both inside and out. The owner was known to him, and Oceanco was also involved again. The individuality of the new "Barbara" building was also to include an unusual owner's office, with accommodation for personal assistance close by. "Barbara" functions not least as a mobile workplace.
Organic shapes
Sam Sorgiovanni's designer genes include sweeping organic shapes. He also implemented these in the exterior styling. The rounded fashion plates and bulwarks, all floating curves, barely reveal how the decks are structured from a distance. "Barbara" does not look like a multi-storey house on the water with stacked floors, but rather like a living creature on the move with her elongated bow. It is thus reminiscent of the Oceanco works "Nirvana" and "Anastasia", also from Sorgiovanni's drawing board.
The Australian also achieved this stretching effect of the exterior with a trick from the treasure chest of material selection. Wherever the superstructures are black, glass is involved. Dark window glazing does not alternate on the outside with the aluminium of the superstructure; Sorgiovanni had the glazing of the windows continue over the supporting metal and blend the aluminium with glass. In this way, the perfectly smooth glass windows are not interrupted by even the most meticulous paintwork. Sam: "Nothing is flatter and smoother than glass. No paintwork can be that perfect."
Two lifts for guests and crew
The owner largely took the layout of the decks with the room layouts into his own hands, with professional support from the designers at the Haarlem-based firm Azure Yacht Design & Naval Architecture. Although this took time, the so-called General Arrangement hardly borrows from familiar standards. However, the fact that the beach club belongs on the lower deck aft near the water, tenders are parked in front of it and the heavy engines and generators work in the centre of the hull remains unaffected. The crew on "Barbara" also live down here in the bow. However, because the guests sleep in six cabins forward on the main deck, there is still space on the lower deck for a cinema, a room for hairdressing and pedicures, a small spa and two massage rooms.
The lift for owners and guests also starts here, between the crew area and the engines, and glides across the main deck to the bridge deck. A second lift for the crew extends down to the tank deck.
Behind the guest cabins at the front of the main deck - the crew can connect the two forward cabins thanks to mobile walls to create stately VIP accommodation - Oceanco installed a galley with pantry at the owner's request. The guest lobby, the foyer with the main entrance, is adjoined by a saloon with a dining area and two symmetrical seating areas. The swivelling dining table and the armchair and sofa section are separated by an aquarium. This was supplied by Living Colour Aquariums from Deerfield Beach in Florida. Incidentally, the furnishings were built by Austrian interior designers Sinnex from Griffen in Carinthia and List from Thomasberg in Lower Austria.
Two balconies for the office
The layout of the bridge deck starts ahead with the captain's workplace. As usual, owners and guests can make themselves comfortable on a sofa in the helm station to watch the captain at work. The man with the four stripes also lives here, alongside a cabin and an office for the owner's personal assistants.
Adjacent to the bridge area is the owner's office with a truly impressive ceiling height of 3.50 metres. It extends across the entire width of the superstructure and forms the centre of the "Barbara" in every respect. Balconies can be folded away on both sides. The owner accesses these lofty viewing areas through large glass doors, the largest that Oceanco has ever installed on a yacht, supplied by the Hamburg-based yacht glass specialist Tilse. These sliding doors, which inevitably combine glass and metal, were one of the greatest challenges of the construction. Glass is not exactly one of the building materials that classification societies accept as a load-bearing structural element. As a punishment, it is heavier than the aluminium of the superstructures and not tolerant of torsion.
These smoothly mounted and weatherproof doors, each a single glass panel almost four metres high, slide on invisible rails. Oceanco was only able to install them during the outfitting phase, after all the other custom work had been completed and installed. The installation required a large crane. Not only that: a tender asked commercial shipping all around to slow down so as not to jeopardise the precise installation with swell.
Incidentally, the glass ceiling of the office allows waves to dance through the room. This is created by the glass floor of the sundeck pool one floor above. From the office, the owner goes up half a deck on the starboard side to his suite. He lives directly above the captain and his office assistant. The nanny is located behind the office and lift.
Frogskin for the beds
From the private lounge behind the lift and staircase, the upper saloon with gaming tables and sofa, owners and guests can wander onto an aft open deck. The sundeck above allows a heli-touch-and-go. A gym with a complete package of torture equipment and the pool with glass floor above the owner's office round off the facilities.
If you want to let the wind blow around your nose after the gym exercises, climb up to the observation deck via a companionway and check out what a cruising speed of 16 knots does to the freshly blow-dried hairstyle on the lower deck.
Sam Sorgiovanni worked with the Swiss company Nature Squared to create the interior. They transform materials from nature, from animals to minerals, into surfaces for interiors and furniture. Sorgiovanni ordered frogskin for bed surrounds, split sea urchins for mirror frames, goose egg shells and water buffalo horns for furniture. What a workplace!
Technical data
- Length over everything:88,50 m
- Width:14,50 m
- Depth:3,99 m
- Gross Tons:2984 GT
- Material:Steel, aluminium
- Motor:2 x MTU 20V 4000 M73L
- Engine power:2 x 3600 kW
- Speed (max.):19 kn
- Speed (travelling):16 kn
- Range:8300 nm @ 12 kn
- Stabilisers:Zero Speed
- Glass:Tilse
- Construction:Oceanco, Azure
- Exterior design:Sam Sorgiovanni
- Interior design:Sam Sorgiovanni
- Classification:Lloyd's + 100A1, SSC Yacht Mono, + G6 LMC UMS, ECO SCM, MCA LY2
- Shipyard:Oceanco, 2017
This article appeared in BOOTE Exclusiv issue 04/2018 and was revised by the editorial team in July 2023.
