PHOTOS: Thomas Pagani
Rather than just introduce a new size that customers wanted, Sanlorenzo went back to the drawing board. It wanted to rethink the typical approach to nautical design. By working with a designer outside of yachting, it believes it has a solution with the Sanlorenzo SD96. Debuting this week at the Cannes Yachting Festival, the megayacht reveals fresh designs plus greater space flexibility than usual for her length.
Announced in May with the SL96 Asymmetric, the SD96 is the new entry-level megayacht among Sanlorenzo’s SD, a.k.a. semi-displacement, models. Massimo Perotti, Sanlorenzo’s chairman, sought out Patricia Urquiola, an international architect and designer. He liked how she could “add a more feminine touch” plus has a flair for making pretty, comfortable interiors “with a touch of irony and almost poetic sensitivity.”
Of course, Urquiola didn’t want to ignore the connection to the sea. “The materials, shapes, and colors evoke the marine world,” she says, employing “natural colors,” too. The main-deck master stateroom (top) is a good example of her comments and Perotti’s. The blue waves behind the bed are actually tempered glass panels. They’re a Urquiola hallmark, too, similar to the Liquefy tables in her Glas Italian furnishings line. On a related note, ribbed-glass walls line the en suite bath. In combination with a wider footprint than the norm for master staterooms aboard similar-size yachts, they accentuate the feeling of space. (The SD96 has a beam of 24’9”, or 7.6 meters.)
To address space flexibility, Urquiola fashioned the sky lounge (above) with modular furnishings. It can therefore go from being a second saloon to a dining area, thanks to a convertible coffee table, and even to a private cinema. Similarly, it can become an alfresco dining area or alfresco lounge, by sliding open the glass doors on three sides.
Urquiola arranged yet another flexible area below decks. Typically, yachts like the Sanlorenzo SD96 have three or four staterooms down here. However, she replaced one with a lounge, the third onboard. If you don’t want this, though, sliding panels close it off around a head, to become another VIP stateroom.
Note, too, the exterior, where Urquiola applied special film. Specifically, it’s on the large ports, to camouflage them without interfering with the views while inside.
The Cannes Yachting Festival runs through September 15.
Sanlorenzo sanlorenzoyacht.com
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