Top of the Yachts - Heesen's Galactica Super Nova and 10 other superstars
Featured in The City Magazine, December 2016
Heesen’s Galactica Super Nova and 10 other superstars from the 2016 Monaco Yacht Show.
Each year, more than 30,000 superyacht owners, brokers, architects and engineers descend on the French Riviera to celebrate the latest incarnations of life’s ultimate accessory. The City Magazine slipped on a pair of boat shoes and jumped on board the ocean vessels set to rule the waves.
I deserve this, I say to myself as we leave Port Hercule and Monaco behind, a cacophony of superyacht horns signalling the end of this year’s Yacht Show. There’s a flotilla following shipbuilder Heesen’s Galactica Super Nova, the yacht I’m aboard, and with good reason: it’s just been crowned Finest New Superyacht, fighting off competition from the best designers and shipyards this surreal and exclusive world has to offer.
I pad barefoot along the top deck, beautifully designed by Andrea Bonini of Monaco-based Espen Øino International. For such a big boat – a 70m pleasure centre – it really can motor (with a top speed of 30 knots/ 35 mph thanks to the souped-up Rolls-Royce jet engine supporting the two main engines in its belly), and the captain is visibly pleased by the performance when I sneak onto the bridge to see the crew in action. Only by standing at the bow, or by watching the smaller boats looking on in envy as you speed past, do you get an idea of how quick the yacht can move with no compromise to comfort.
Do I really deserve this? I start asking as I step into the high-tech on-board elevator to explore the lower deck. There’s a huge living area here, both inside and out, and a six-metre freshwater infinity pool complete with waterfall, glass bottom and jet – a swimming treadmill. They’ve thought of everything.
Both the exterior and interior are flawless: the exterior won Best in Show, and the interior is the pinnacle of yacht design. A case in point: I walk past a table leading to an outside deck, and Andrea informs me that they developed a way of bending teak without it snapping, to make sure the grains in the wood flow without being disturbed. On the sun deck, all handrails are faintly elliptical, instead of circular, for ease of grip and aesthetic value. The flagpoles, made of stainless steel, took hours to polish to their highest potential. Attention to detail seems too flippant a phrase.
I don’t deserve this, I admit, as we glide along at 18 knots, hardly hearing the three heavy duty engines propelling us towards Nice. The lack of engine noise is remarkable, especially inside, where the sound is more akin to a library than a superyacht. The entire experience is one of refined relaxation. The Super Nova’s predecessor, the Galactica Star, is a 65m beauty that was lauded on its completion in 2013. The Super Nova is another step up in every aspect. You can see why they chose the name.
