I know, my dearest reader, the word „schockverliebt“ is not an English term and although there are many German words used by you guys, this one is not. Which is a pity indeed, because I really like this one. It translates to „being instantly very, very madly in love with something“, like you are totally fallen for someone or – in this case – for something. It´s an even stronger term than „love at first sight“. Having a „love shock“, a „love-stroke“, literally. So, now that we´ve cleared the meaning of this article´s title, who is she, I fell in love so madly at an instant?
Falling in love instantly with a new yacht design …
It´s a Dutch beauty. And an Italian one. Let´s start with this classy beauty. Holland´s luxury high-end shipyard Hutting has unveiled a new flagship available now. The Hutting 52. I saw the renderings and, you already guessed it, was schockverliebt.
I mean, just look at her! She is so clean, so neat, so beautiful that there is not a single exaggeration, design-„statement“ or stagy accessory to be found in her design whatsoever. This new Hutting 52 for me is a true masterclass (!) in yacht-design: Of course, appealing to the boating connoisseur who looks for a timeless classic, but in this she in no way just repeats what is considered beautiful out of a random catalogue of classic design elements. She is a very modern design indeed!
Naval architects at Hoek Design managed to give her a sleek, streamlined appearance. The deck house with the seamless glazing is absolutely spotless, as is the deck with the flush hatches and a breathtaking sheer line. She must and certainly is going to be a true head-turner when moored to a marina – and more so, quite a stunning view when dashing upwind with heeling under full canvas. Hats off, Hoek Design, this is a wonderful, wonderful boat. I really hope that soon someone with the budget needed to get it built will find himself as schockverliebt as I am to order one of these, can´t wait to see a Hutting 52 in reality!
Can´t take my eyes off of her!
You know this, right? Although having your own boat moored up at the jetty, there´s always an other one you strive for, you dream of secretly. A boat of which you have a dedicated picture-folder on your smartphone. Another one of this category, seemingly the opposite site of the boat-spectrum, is the new Neo 460 by Neo Composites. That´s the second one I wanted to talk about briefly, a true Italian beauty! Just when Paolo Semeraro of Neo Yachts posted the first renderings some time ago, I saved this one to my „unattainable“-folder:
Giovanni Ceccarelli, who is the principal designer for Neo Yachts, has accomplished something wonderful here. The lines are so distinct and extravagant, but they also remain kind of „reticently“ in the background. A nice wave, a bold swing that finds its counterpart in the same line repeated by the coachroof. I so absolutely love this that I barely find words to describe … As you may have read my previous articles on Neo-Yacht, one about the „Carbon Star Wars“ Neo 750 and one about the smaller Neo 350 as seen in Cannes, this boat for me is kind of the crowing of Neo´s range. But … well, also a nice example for „why are you doing this!?!“ The latest renderings published by Paolo show a slight change:
You see it? It´s the black window, surely an elongated plexi or acrylic panel. It´s the same hull, the same boat – but I don´t like it. For me, much of the appeal of the first rendering is suddenly gone. I know, I am a pettifogger here, and most certainly, this window-design is much more in line with a fleet-wide design-consistency, but here we are: Paolo, when I order my Neo 460, can I have these „old“ windows, please?
… you always eat at home.
Well, I will never have the budgets to order a Hutting nor a Neo. Neither will I have the budgets to go for all the other #dreamyachts I wrote about in the last years. I just wanted to talk about this strange „n+1“-thing we sailors seem to have going on. We always kind of look for the „next“ boat, may it be as unobtainable as the two examples I´ve shown. But maybe this is why boats aren´t like cars, more like beautiful women: We just can´t stop looking at them. Of course, no matter where we get the hunger from, we will eat at home!
In this, I am so happy to have a real Italian beauty on my side and a Swedish dream yacht in the workshop being build. Both are much more than I deserve and no matter how many more pictures I am going to save to my phone´s folder (and here it´s of course only a folder for boats!), I am happy and very, very madly in love with what I´ve got. In this, in view of the upcoming Boot Duesseldorf boat show in less than a month, that´s maybe a nice little stimulus to think about.
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