"Carinthia VII": Lürssen brings 97-metre beauty out of slumber
The credo "old is the new new" is becoming increasingly popular in architecture. Preservation is a form of sustainable construction and conserves the bound grey energy that has flowed into the building since its construction. Similarly, "Carinthia VII" was bursting with blue energy when it found a new keeper in late summer 2022, a few months after the death of the client Heidi Goëss-Horten, who also turned out to be a renewer. He is one of those owners who buy large one-offs second-hand and adapt them to their taste. They save energy and take advantage of the fact that a refit takes around a year, compared to up to four years for a new build. Many usually make short work of it, having the entire interior removed and, in some cases, disposed of for tax reasons.
An icon of the 90s
The 97 metre long Lürssen, the seventh with the Latin name "Carinthia" - German for "Carinthia" - awoke from a 21-year slumber. In Venice, the blue beauty was part of the cityscape for years, with the four main engines having only 4500 operating hours on the 80 cylinders. Carinthia VII" was launched in 2002, almost 30 years after number six. It is assumed that the widow of department stores' magnate Helmut Horten, 32 years younger than her husband who died in 1987, was obliged by her will to keep "Carinthia VI". It was certainly conceivable, as she was an icon, created with passion at a time when German industrialists were more likely to be travelling with formats in the staid bathing steamer style. Yacht building had changed dramatically in the nineties and the leap to "Carinthia VII" was enormous. Goëss-Horten utilised every technical refinement that was now possible and that was recommended to her.
Lines from Tim Heywood
Horten no longer employed Bannenberg, but his gifted pupil Tim Heywood. The designer, who left Bannenberg in 1996 and set up his own business with his wife under the name THD, remembers: "Mrs Horten had a meeting at Lürssen and they showed her my plans for 'Pelorus'. 'That's exactly what I want,' she said. I was commissioned to deliver a design that mirrored 'Pelorus' but remained independent." "Carinthia VII" was definitely meant to be faster. It was also completed a year earlier than its 115 metre-long role model "Pelorus".
"Carinthia VII" became timeless, powerful, yet feminine in a certain way. "It was extremely uncomplicated, the exterior is 100 per cent THD." Heywood's gracefully flowing lines are most impressive from the air: the decks are finely modelled in steps, bridge cams, exhaust air and communication masterfully brought together, sprawling open spaces on all levels. Heywood himself loved to spend time on the expansive decks, looking aft over his artistic curves to the foaming sea. Heywood's design of the side view, often a weak point on yachts of this size, was no less ingenious. With a light hand, the designer drew the dark blue ship's side in a dramatic curve to the height of the second deck - the "back deck" principle in a premium version.
The former interior
At the time of the sale, the interior was more dignified than contemporary. "She was 20 years old and kept conventional at the time; in terms of style, we were dealing with a 40-year-old yacht," says Alberto Perrone Da Zara, Sales Director of Lürssen Yacht Refit. There were massive burl wood tables, panelling with imitation marble, all kinds of pastel wall paintings, green checked curtains, a sea of conical lampshades in the saloon, beige-coloured upholstered furniture with patterned fibres or glazed tiles in turquoise in the spa. All in first-class condition. And yet some of it went up for auction, where deck furniture seating groups as solid and once as expensive as a small car were bought for a few hundred euros.
"We tried to save as many things as possible and at least one piece of furniture per room," says Perrone Da Zara in the corridor of the upper deck. The Italian naval architect has been working for the Bremen shipyard since 2014 and in Hamburg since the takeover of Blohm+Voss. As with its 45-metre-long predecessor, the new owner, an art collector, entrusted Bizzozero Cassina Architects with the interior refurbishment. They fitted it with contemporary art and designer furniture, but retained the craftsmanship. The root wood boiserie was left in the salon and supplemented with fabrics by an artisan from Venice. A lot of light-coloured paint was used on the walls, which was sprayed and required high safety standards due to highly flammable gases.
The main deck of the "Carinthia VII"
The main deck has four double cabins, with a VIP suite located one deck higher in front of the owner's cabin. The latter also retains the surrounding pearwood cabinets decorated with inlays and fully panelled dressing rooms. The ceiling is adorned with loudspeakers instead of a partial canopy and, unlike the other bathrooms on board, the bathroom has been completely renovated. The free-standing bath is now surrounded by heated Botticino and Calacatta marble. The parquet flooring made from Chantilly panels, which are moulded oak from a former monastery, blends in with the ambience. It has been sanded and oiled and feels pleasant underfoot.
A similar pattern can be seen on the walls of the stairwell, where the interior fitters from Vedder artfully interlocked leather mosaics, leaving the cream-coloured step carpet in place at the owner's request. "There used to be 16 colours here, now there are 8, and the further down you go, the darker they get," explains Perrone, who also managed the refit of the 126-metre Lürssen "Octopus" with his team. However, "Carinthia VII" also had to be made fit for commercial use. The 300-day project therefore went far beyond cosmetic measures on the interior and required - in the truest sense of the word - far-reaching shipbuilding measures. Three scuppers were integrated into the bulwark of the main deck on both sides so that water coming over the deck could run off. Extensive welding work was required for the watertight bulkheads and doors amidships on the tank and lower deck, which resulted from the stability criteria according to SOLAS 2.
The new flag state, the Marshall Islands, requested a SOLAS lifeboat on the foredeck, including a crane and emergency generator. A complete fire extinguishing system was also installed, as a sprinkler system had not previously existed. Fire protection class B60 required the discreet conversion of all doors so that they could withstand fire for up to 60 minutes. In addition, an emergency power supply was installed that fully complies with the class and two life rafts, which hang uncovered on the bridge deck with their release device due to the tight time frame. Insulation was upgraded to higher fire classes, additional visual and audible alarms were installed and even open spaces were closed off with new fire-resistant partitions for full compliance.
Motorisation of the "Carinthia VII"
The four 20-cylinder MTU engines required surprisingly little attention. Two gensets were subjected to maintenance stage W6, which entailed complete disassembly into their individual parts, thorough cleaning and reassembly. The concentrated drive power of 29,600 kilowatts was needed to enable "Carinthia VII" to run at the desired 25 knots despite the all-steel construction. Aluminium superstructures were not yet very popular at Lürssen at the end of the 1990s. Given the top speed and the shape of the hull, only retractable stabilisers were an option for the refit. Quantum supplied two XT fins, which move to maintain the position even without an inflow and minimise rolling movements at slow speed or at anchor.
This allows charter guests to work out on the treadmill a good ten metres above the water's surface without lurching. On the bridge deck, Lürssen realised a fully air-conditioned, 85 square metre fitness studio. A total of six tonnes of glass and steel went into the sliding doors aft and closing the staircase on the sun deck. This was given a dining table for 14 people and two bars, one of which has a barbecue. Two radar domes were moved forward from the sundeck to the roofs of the cams in a scaled-down form, framing two Starlink flat antennas. A projector sends the received streaming data to a screen, which is set up by the crew at the back of the upper deck.
Highlights on board
Two decks below, the teak deck is sealed by a twelve-metre pool in Stars & Stripes Blue, which harks back to the paintwork of the legendary US America's Cupper. At the top, this solution is a little visually jammed, for good reasons: An Infinity variant all the way aft into the bulwark prevents the passerelle, which extends to 8.80 metres in the middle. A recess for the basin prevented the 124 square metre tender garage below. Instead of the original Vantage 26 and the custom saloon in the stringent Heywood look, a sloop-like dinghy (Intender 820 ES) and an 8.50 metre RibEye with diesel outboard are accommodated here.
Leaning by the pool, Alberto Perrone Da Zara ponders the limits of the project: "At some point we had to stop. They kept coming up with new ideas." In the end, "Carinthia VII" had to lose a little of its original blue energy. Under the new owner, it lost its powerful blue colour, which Awlgrip continues to market as Carinthia Blue. Now she shines a little darker in Majestic Blue - a small shift on the colour scale that even Grandmaster Heywood appreciates. A shark-grey paint finish surrounds the windows. The bullet-proof panes are still the same; they were already floor-to-ceiling 22 years ago.
Technical data
- Length over everything: 97,20 m
- Width: 16,60 m
- Depth: 4,80 m
- Gross tonnage: 3643 Gross Tons
- Material: Steel
- Motors: 4 x MTU 20V TB93
- Engine power: 4 x 7400 kW
- Speed (max.): 25 kn
- Speed (travelling): 18 kn
- Range @ 15.5 kn: 5500 nm
- Generators: 2 x 640 kW, 2 x 455 kW
- Fuel: 456 000 l
- Water: 130 000 l
- Construction: Lürssen
- Exterior design: Tim Heywood
- Interior design: Bizzozero Cassina Architects
- Class: DNV
- Shipyard: Lürssen, 2002 / 2023
- Charter: Fraser, 1.4 million euros p.w.
