Benetti News 2011
Benetti Star!
Two prestigious awards confirm Benetti’s success at the Cannes Festival. The 2011 Best Interior Award crowned Benetti’s Vision 145’ for its innovative interior design collaboration with the international studio Molori Design, while Benetti’s FB 252 65mt Nataly won the 2011 Best Design Award for yachts over 50 metres.
The most eagerly anticipated gala dinner of the year – an event that ushers in the season’s most important new offerings – was held last Saturday, 10 September, against the backdrop of beautiful Cannes: the awards ceremony for the 2011 World Yacht Trophies.
The ceremony was organised by the publishing group LuxMediaGroup and presided over by a prestigious panel of experts, which over the summer examined the major new offerings for the season just now underway. At the ceremony, Benetti Vision 145’ Told U So was crowned the winner of the “Best Interior Design” category while the FB 252 65mt Nataly earned the esteemed title in the megayacht category of “Best Design over 50 metres”
Benetti was the star of the event, thanks to its innovative and ambitious design collaboration with boat owner and creative genius Kirk Lazarus – designer and founder of the international studio, Molori Design.
This exclusive 45-metre megayacht “represents the perfect integration of the boatyard’s experience and craftmanship with Molori Design’s hallmark use of cutting-edge technology and superior standards of elegance and comfort. The result rises above boating and becomes part of a broader concept about luxury, design, and quality, the core elements of all Molori offerings,” said Benetti CEO Vincenzo Poerio and Mr. Lazarus upon receiving the award.
“Told U So” is the sixteenth Vision 145’ which, for its sheer size and impressiveness, is one of the top models in Benetti’s popular Class range. Constructed with composite materials, it is the result of a savvy production strategy that combines the strengths of the Azimut Benetti Group, which are anchored in the continual search for technical and functional innovation at all levels, with personal flair in the details, the direct expressions of boat owners desires to possess an object that is an expression themselves.
For this very reason, Told U So represents an important advancement: the boat owner was directly involved; he personally designed the interiors using wood, marble, and fine fabrics from all over the world, adding his yacht to the Malori Studio design portfolio. Starting in 2007, Molori Design’s range of projects has included a safari lodge in the Madikwe Preserve, South Africa, and private beaches in Cape Town and on the Great Barrier Reef in Port Douglas, Australia. Add to this a fleet that includes an Executive Boeing 727-200, two Gulfstream GII, a Learjet 25C, a Hawker 700 and a Bell 222 helicopter, all furnished and decorated according to the precise specifications of the owner.
For Benetti’s Custom line yachts in steel and aluminium, the FB 252 65mt Nataly won the jury’s unanimous approval which awarded it the best design for boats over 50 metres.
The automobile world has often drawn inspiration from the shape of seaworthy boats, incorporating the work processes and the way smooth surfaces are interrupted to create not just structural and functional tensions but true and proper paths for the eye to follow. These forms return to the sea with the megayacht Nataly, developed by the London studio Redman Whiteley & Dixon which was responsible not only for the interiors but also for the exterior lines.
With its 65-meter overall length, this boat shows what harmony of style can be achieved when a single party handles both interior and external design. The form draws the eye and the boat is immediately perceived as both new and seaworthy, safe and fast, anchored in reassuring traditions. The designers say “what we are very good at is perfecting each and every detail, giving life to the owners’ visions and desires, following an intimate path that starts with that spark — the idea — and continues through to the launch, and even beyond”.
The special keel with the vertical bow and without the so-called bulb created an unusual distribution of volumes; in order to optimise its seakeeping characteristics, it was developed through rigorous testing at the M.A.R.I.N. (Maritime Research Institute Netherlands), an internationally recognised facility.
Five hatches, retractable anchors integrated in the hull, and an innovative, dynamic external line combine with the absolutely modern interiors where the simplicity of wood, leather and marble accompany exquisite workmanship to create an effect of subtle elegance: as appealing as it is simple.
Two important awards, one for the Benetti Class range – the line of Benetti yachts from 93-145 feet made in composite materials – and one for the Benetti Custom range once again confirm Benetti’s leadership in the megayacht sector, as well as the boatyard’s motto “Italian Excellence since 1873”.
M/Y Told ‘U So – Interior design By Molori
M/Y Nataly – Exterior Design by Redman Whiteley Dixon
