Yachts International

2 months ago | yachtsinternational.com | Kenny Wooton

Back in the days when I read a daily newspaper that was actually printed on paper, I started collecting obituaries. These weren’t the lengthy tomes penned by top-tier scribes celebrating the lives of vaunted celebrities, politicians and titans of business. These were personal reflections, typically written by grieving, stressed-out family members of ordinary folks who lived their lives without pomp or pretense.

2 months ago | yachtsinternational.com | Jill Bobrow

South African chef Sean Connolly, at age 32, says he has hit his stride aboard the 154-foot (47-meter) explorer charter yacht King Benji. “I feel I am coming out of the shadows,” Connolly says. “I have discovered my own sense of self and choose now to make all of my work purposeful, and not have it be just another job.” It helps that King Benji has a galley layout that’s built for a star. Usually, a superyacht galley is separate from the guest area.

2 months ago | yachtsinternational.com | Justin Ratcliffe

Wally founder Luca Bassani has always been ahead of the game. Like all innovators, he stirs emotions. Traditionalists shake their heads at his radical ideas. Others hail him as a visionary who upsets the rules of yacht design. One thing is certain: Some 30 years after he established the brand, it’s hard to imagine a world without Wally Yachts. Ferretti Group, one of the world’s most prolific builders of luxury yachts, acquired Wally in 2019.

2 months ago | yachtsinternational.com | Julia Zaltzman

Italy’s Turquoise Coast has long been a yachting bastion. In the 1960s, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor cruised the coves of Portofino aboard their yacht, Kalizma. The image of Sophia Loren seductively draped across a Riva runabout is as enduring as the Riviera’s rugged cliffs. Today, the region is buoyed by a raft of destination superyacht marinas and an unwavering new-build and refit market, providing the chance to extend a yachting itinerary farther inshore amid Tuscany’s rolling hills.

2 months ago | yachtsinternational.com | Jill Bobrow

The word kismet, derived from the Arabic word qisma, means fate or destiny. Colloquially speaking, when someone says a romantic meeting or other happening is kismet, they generally mean it was positive karma—something good happened. It’s an apt name for the 400-foot (122-meter) motoryacht Kismet, which belongs to American businessman Shahid Khan and is something very good, indeed. Every few years, an electrifying yacht hits the marine scene like a bombshell that nobody can stop talking about.