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Why build a yacht with Burgess?

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Discover the Burgess difference

Commissioning a bespoke superyacht is an exhilarating yet complex journey. With multiple decisions to make along the way, we guide you from your initial vision to maiden voyage and beyond.

We share your vision to achieve the remarkable

We reduce the risk and increase your enjoyment. Whether seeking a fully custom-built yacht or looking at the latest semi-custom platforms, our highly skilled Technical Services team provides decades of experience and expertise, working together with you to realise your dream.

Dedicated in-house team working on your behalf

Every project is unique and we offer the complete range of technical, engineering and project management services in‐house, tailored to your requirements, collectively serving as your personal project consultant. We have every angle covered, every step of the way.

Providing an unforgettable build experience

From vision to design brief to build, sea trials and delivery, we continue to be involved throughout the agreed construction period, offering peace of mind and a single point of contact. Your dream superyacht build, our knowledge, one unique result.

• Delivered yachts

We successfully deliver more yachts in the 30-180m and over market than any other new-build yacht construction team in the world.

• Length: 76.1m (249.7ft)
• Built: 2024
• Feadship, Royal Van Lent, The Netherlands

• Length: 80.1m (262.8ft)
• Built: 2023
• Bilgin, Turkey

• Length: 87m (285.4ft)
• Built: 2020
• Lurssen, Germany

• Length: 60.6m (198.8ft)
• Built: 2022
• Heesen, The Netherlands

• Length: 107.6m (353ft)
• Benetti, Italy

• Length: 57m (187ft)
• Built: 2019
• Damen, The Netherlands

• Length: 56m (183.7ft)

• Length: 55m (180.4ft)
• Amels, The Netherlands

• Length: 93m (305.1ft)
• Feadship, The Netherlands

BRAVO EUGENIA

• Length: 109m (357.6ft)
• Built: 2018
• Oceanco, The Netherlands

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Abeking & Rasmussen

Founded in 1907, Abeking & Rasmussen is globally renowned for producing high-quality custom motor yachts from 45-125m.

AKYACHT is an ISO 9001, Lloyd's-certified shipyard in Turkey. Its first breakthrough project was the spectacular 85m VICTORIOUS, the biggest superyacht ever built in Turkey.

Alia Yachts

Alia Yachts was founded in 2008 in Antalya, Turkey. Its Lloyd's-certified facilities are equipped for cutting edge yacht construction in carbon reinforced composite, steel and aluminium up to 80m.

Established in 1854, Cantiere Baglietto Spa specialises in the construction of new planing aluminium yachts between 35-50m in length, and steel and aluminium displacement superyachts over 40m.

With three facilities spread across Viareggio and Livorno in Italy, and rich brand heritage, Benetti is a leading light in the production of 35-70m superyachts.

Cantiere delle Marche

The Ancona-based Cantiere delle Marche (CdM), founded in 2010, builds 26-48m explorer yachts in steel and aluminum. CdM is the No.1 expedition yacht builder worldwide for the third year running.

With origins dating back to 1825, Codecasa is a family company specialising in the building of large yachts in steel and aluminium up to 72m in length and fast motoryachts up to 50m in length.

CRN Shipyards

Founded in Ancona in 1963, CRN yachts are often characterised by a distinctive pointed bow, which has become something of a signature for this Italian yard.

Custom Line

Founded in 1996, brand of Ferretti Group and based in Ancona, Italy, Custom Line designs and builds planing and displacement yachts in composite from 30-42m in length with over 250 yachts delivered.

Damen Yachting

Damen Yachting is the master yacht builder behind more than 100 Amels superyachts, SeaXplorer expedition yachts, yacht support vessels and major yacht refits.

Delta Marine

Located in Seattle, Washington, Delta Marine has a worldwide reputation for producing custom-built luxury yachts of up to 100m in length.

Based in the Netherlands and with roots dating back to 1849, Feadship is recognised as the world leader in the field of pure custom superyachts.

Fincantieri

Fincantieri Yachts, part of the leading Western shipbuilder Fincantieri, is a world leader in both superyacht and cruise ship design and construction.

Heesen Yachts

Renowned for its innovation, Heesen is the world leader in aluminium construction, and dominates the 50-60m semi-custom market.

Located in Ancona, ISA Yachts builds luxury superyachts from 44-80m in steel, aluminium and fibreglass.

Lürssen

Based in Germany, Lürssen is the leading shipyard for large luxury yacht building as well as refit of yachts from 50-200m.

Mariotti Yachts

Mariotti is a world leader in the fields of ultra-luxury cruise shipbuilding, superyachts and supply vessel construction.

Located in Northern Germany, Nobiskrug has built over 750 seagoing vessels, delivering a select portfolio of custom superyachts including the 143m Sailing Yacht A.

Oceanco builds award-winning large custom yachts, such as the 106.7m Black Pearl, the world's largest and most sustainable sailing yacht, and the 110m Jubilee, the largest Dutch-built yacht.

Pendennis is a world-class custom build and refit yard in Falmouth, UK, specialising in luxury sail and motor yachts between 30-100m.

Perini Navi

Renowned for pioneering automation and furling systems in large sailing yachts, Perini Navi today builds both sailing and motor yachts, most famous of which is MALTESE FALCON.

Established in 1980, Rossinavi builds custom superyachts between 40-70m in four locations between Viareggio and Pisa.

Royal Hakvoort

A family shipyard since 1919, Royal Hakvoort builds luxury yachts in steel and aluminium up to 65m in length.

Royal Huisman

A family-owned shipyard established in 1884, Royal Huisman specialises in the build and repair of custom luxury sailing yachts, as well as motor yachts.

Founded in 1958, Sanlorenzo builds a limited number of high quality, made to measure superyachts at its shipyard in La Spezia, Italy. Today, Sanlorenzo ranks highly among builders of Superyachts over 40m.

Tankoa Yachts

Tankoa specialises in semi-custom and custom yachts of 50-90m with Northern European quality and Italian DNA for design and flexibility.

The Italian Sea Group

TISG operates in the new-built industry with the brands Admiral (yachts over 50m) and Tecnomar (yachts up to 45m) while it works in the refitting industry with the brand NCA Refit (yachts over 60m).

Turquoise Yachts

Turquoise Yachts (formerly known as Proteksan Turquoise) is a builder of custom power and sailing superyachts, and Dr. Al Barwani, owner of Oceanco, recently became the majority shareholder.

Based in Zwartsluis, The Netherlands, Vitters has established a reputation for delivering sailing yachts of uncompromising quality and innovative design.

• Yacht designers

Bannenberg & Rowell Design

A luxury yacht and jet design company based in London’s Fulham. Headed up by Dickie Bannenberg, son of the great Jon Bannenberg, the studio is renowned for creative, contemporary and approachable design – both interior and exterior.

Espen Oeino

Under the leadership of the eponymous Norwegian naval architect, Espen Oeino International has been designing iconic superyacht interiors and exteriors since the 1990s. Based in Monaco the studio has worked with Burgess on several projects, most notably the 72m Trinity Yachts-built ALBATROSS and the 156m Lurssen DILBAR, the largest yacht afloat by volume.

H2 Yacht Design

Jonny Horsfield established H2 Yacht design in London in 1994. Today it is a multi-disciplined exterior and interior styling team that has earned a reputation for challenging conventions in yacht design. The studio has so far collaborated on five projects with Burgess, most recently with Heesen.

Harrison Eidsgaard

International yacht designers and architects, Harrison Eidsgaard Design is headed up by its three partners, Peder and Ewa Eidsgaard and Ben Harrison. Undertaking both exterior and interior styling, the studio’s most notable yachts to date include the award-winning TANGO and ELANDESS, the latter being the studio’s first project with Burgess.

Jonathan Quinn Barnett leads a talented team of award-winning yacht designers. Established in 1995, the studio has created original exterior yacht designs and interior architecture for discerning clients in the luxury marketplace. With a critical eye on proportion and detail, designs of distinction associated with Burgess include the interior of OCTOPUS and popular charter yacht MUCHOS MAS.

Michael Leach Design

Established in 1997 by Mick Leach with Mark Smith joining in 1999, MLD is an multi award-winning design practice specialising in marine, aviation and residential projects. With over 60 years’ industry experience collectively, having worked in various top design offices, MLD is now established as one of the industry’s leading and most successful design offices.

Reymond Langton Design

Headed up by design duo Pascale Reymond and Andrew Langton, the London-based studio was founded in 2001. The studio has since delivered 28 motor and sailing yachts, including the 134m SERENE, the largest yacht built in Italy at that time. Originally based in London, the studio’s HQ has since moved to the historic city of Bath.

Situated in the stunning surrounds of Beaulieu in the New Forest, RWD is best known for the design of superyachts such as motor yacht HASNA and sailing yacht TWIZZLE. Founded in 1993, RWD has to date completed six collaborative projects with Burgess.

Sorgiovanni Designs

Established by yacht designer Sam Sorgiovanni in 1997, the eponymous design studio is based in Perth, Australia, and undertakes both exterior and interior designs. The studio’s unique location lends a point of difference to its body of work and it has become well-known for designing superyachts with an exotic feel, as well as great attention to detail.

Terence Disdale Design

Terence Disdale Design is an award-winning design studio located in London, and responsible for the interior and exterior design of the some of the world's most significant yachts. Renowned for a ‘beach house’ style, the studio’s most notable yachts include ECLIPSE and PELORUS, and it has no fewer than 10 collaborative projects with Burgess to date.

Tim Heywood Design

A multi-award-winning exterior yacht designer, Tim Heywood Design has produced some of the largest yachts on water, including the 133m AL MIRQAB. Located in Hampshire, the eponymous yacht designer cut his teeth under the guidance of Jon Bannenberg and in the 40 years since has completed six collaborative projects with Burgess.

Winch Design

A full-service award-winning British design and architecture studio specialising in the exterior and interior styling of motor and sailing yachts, aircraft, residential and commercial properties, Winch Design was established in 1986 and has to date completed seven collaborative projects with Burgess.

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Lynch Yacht Sinking Off Sicily Proves as Baffling as It Is Tragic

As bodies were recovered, the authorities and experts wondered how a $40 million, stable and secure vessel could have sunk so quickly.

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By Emma Bubola and Michael J. de la Merced

Emma Bubola reported from Porticello, Italy, and Michael J. de la Merced from London.

Two months after being cleared in a bruising legal battle over fraud charges, the British tech mogul Mike Lynch celebrated his freedom with a cruise. He invited his family, friends and part of his legal team on board his luxury sailing yacht, a majestic 180-foot vessel named Bayesian after the mathematical theorem around which he had built his empire.

On Sunday night, after a tour of the Gulf of Naples, including Capri, and volcanic islands in the Eolian archipelago, the boat anchored half a mile off the Sicilian coast in Porticello, Italy. It chose a stretch of water favored by the Phoenicians thousands of years ago for its protection from the mistral wind and, in more recent times, by the yachts of tech billionaires. The boat was lit “like a Christmas tree,” local residents said, standing out against the full moon.

But about 4 a.m., calamity unfolded. A violent and fast storm hit the area with some of the strongest winds locals said they had ever felt. Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman, said he saw a flare pierce the darkness shortly after 4.

Minutes later, the yacht was underwater. Only dozens of cushions from the boat’s deck and a gigantic radar from its mast floated on the surface of the sea, fishermen said.

In all, 22 people were on board, 15 of whom were rescued. Six bodies — five passengers and the ship’s cook — had been recovered by Thursday afternoon, including that of Mr. Lynch, an Italian government official said, adding that the search was continuing for his daughter.

It was a tragic and mystifying turn of events for Mr. Lynch, 59, who had spent years seeking to clear his name and was finally inaugurating a new chapter in his life. Experts wondered how a $40 million yacht, so robust and stable could have been sunk by a storm near a port within minutes.

“It drives me insane,” said Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought the company, Perini, that made the Bayesian. “Following all the proper procedures, that boat is unsinkable.”

The aura of misfortune only deepened when it emerged that Stephen Chamberlain, 52, a former vice president of finance for Mr. Lynch’s former company and a co-defendant in the fraud case, was killed two days earlier, when he was hit by a car while jogging near his house in England.

Since June, the two men had been in a jubilant mood. A jury in San Francisco had acquitted both on fraud charges that could have sent them to prison for two decades. There were hugs and tears, and they and their legal teams went for a celebratory dinner party at a restaurant in the city, said Gary S. Lincenberg, a lawyer for Mr. Chamberlain.

The sea excursion was meant as a thank-you by Mr. Lynch to those who had helped him in his legal travails. Among the guests was Christopher J. Morvillo, 59, a scion of a prominent New York family of lawyers who had represented Mr. Lynch for 12 years. He and his wife, Neda, 57, were among the missing.

So, too, was Jonathan Bloomer, 70, a veteran British insurance executive who chaired Morgan Stanley International and the insurer Hiscox.

The body of the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, was recovered. All the other crew members survived. Among them was Leo Eppel, 19, of South Africa, who was on his first yacht voyage working as a deck steward, said a friend, who asked not to be identified.

Since the sinking, the recovery effort and investigation have turned the tiny port town of Porticello, a quiet enclave where older men sit bare-chested on balconies, into what feels like the set of a movie.

Helicopters have flown overhead. Ambulances have sped by with the sirens blaring. The Coast Guard has patrolled the waters off shore, within sight of a cordoned-off dock that had been turned into an emergency headquarters.

On Wednesday afternoon, a church bell tolled after the first body bag was loaded into an ambulance, a crowd watching in silence.

The survivors were sheltering in a sprawling resort near Porticello, with a view of the shipwreck spot, and had so far declined to comment.

Attilio Di Diodato, director of the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, said that the yacht had most likely been hit by a fierce “down burst” — when air generated within a thunderstorm descends rapidly — or by a waterspout , similar to a tornado over water.

He added that his agency had put out rough-sea warnings the previous evening, alerting sailors about storms and strong winds. Locals said the winds “felt like an earthquake.”

Mr. Costantino, the boat executive, said the yacht had been specifically designed for having a tall mast — the second-tallest aluminum mast in the world. He said the Bayesian was an extremely safe and secure boat that could list even to 75 degrees without capsizing.

But he said that if some of the hatches on the side and in the stern, or some of the deck doors, had been open, the boat could have taken on water and sunk. Standard procedure in such storms, he said, is to switch on the engine, lift the anchor and turn the boat into the wind, lowering the keel for extra stability, closing doors and gathering the guests in the main hall inside the deck.

12 guests occupied the yacht’s six cabins. There were also 10 crew members.

Open hatches, doors and cabin windows could have let in water during a storm, according to the manufacturer.

Open hatches, doors and

cabin windows could

have let in water

during a storm,

according to the

manufacturer.

Source: Superyacht Times, YachtCharterFleet, MarineTraffic

By Veronica Penney

The New York Times attempted to reach the captain, James Cutfield, who had survived, for comment through social media, his brother and the management company of the yacht (which did not hire the crew), but did not make contact.

So far none of the surviving crew members have made a public statement about what happened that night.

Fabio Genco, the director of Palermo’s emergency services, who treated some of the survivors, said that the victims had recounted feeling as if the boat was being lifted, then suddenly dropped, with objects from the cabins falling on them.

The Italian Coast Guard said it had deployed a remotely operated vehicle that can prowl underwater for up to seven hours at a depth of more than 980 feet and record videos and images that they hoped would help them reconstruct the dynamics of the sinking. Such devices were used during the search and rescue operations of the Titan vessel that is believed to have imploded last summer near the wreckage of the Titanic.

After rescuers broke inside the yacht, they struggled to navigate the ropes and many pieces of furniture cluttering the vessel, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for Italy’s national firefighter corps.

Finally, as of Thursday morning, they had managed to retrieve all but one of the missing bodies, and hopes of finding the missing person alive were thin. “Can a human being be underwater for two days?” Mr. Cari asked.

What was certain was that Mr. Lynch’s death was yet another cruel twist of fate for a man who had spent years seeking to clear his name.

He earned a fortune in technology and was nicknamed Britain’s Bill Gates. But for more than a decade, he had been treated as anything but a respected tech leader.

He was accused by Hewlett-Packard, the American technological pioneer that had bought his software company, Autonomy, for $11 billion, of misleading it about his company’s worth. (Hewlett-Packard wrote down the value of the transaction by about $8.8 billion, and critics called it one of the worst deals of all time .) He had been increasingly shunned by the British establishment that he sought to break into after growing up working-class outside London.

He was extradited to San Francisco to face criminal charges, and confined to house arrest and 24-hour surveillance on his dime. In a townhouse in the Pacific Heights neighborhood — with security people he jokingly told associates were his “roommates” — he spent his mornings talking with researchers whom he funded personally on new applications for artificial intelligence. Afterward, he devoted hours to discussing legal strategy with his team.

Despite his persistent claims of innocence, even those close to Mr. Lynch had believed his odds of victory were slim. Autonomy’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted in 2018 of similar fraud charges and spent five years in prison.

During Mr. Lynch’s house arrest, his brother and mother died. His wife, Angela Bacares, frequently flew over from England, and she became a constant presence in the San Francisco courtroom during the trial.

After he was finally acquitted, Mr. Lynch had his eye on the future. “I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” he said.

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Pallanza, Italy.

Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome. More about Emma Bubola

Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006. More about Michael J. de la Merced

Superyacht sinks latest: Investigators reveal where bodies were found as probe looks at 'crew's responsibility'

Italian officials revealed at a news conference there could be "a question of manslaughter" as they opened a shipwreck investigation and said the probe is also looking at the "crew's responsibility".

Saturday 24 August 2024 18:33, UK

• Superyacht sinking

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• Prosecutor: There 'could be a question of manslaughter'
• Probe 'concentrating' on crew's responsibility
• Seven bodies recovered after five-day search of superyacht wreckage off Sicily
• Saturday's papers pay tribute to youngest victim Hannah Lynch
• Hannah's sister pays tribute to 'my little angel'
• Explained: Inside the superyacht | What challenges have faced divers?
• Eyewitness: Sombre scenes greet rescue teams as final body is brought ashore
• Live reporting by Niamh Lynch

We're ending our live coverage for this evening but here is a recap of what we know:

• Prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation into the Bayesian sinking;
• Officials have revealed more details on their investigation and the difficult five-day rescue mission;
• The six bodies found during the search in recent days were all in cabins on the left-hand - and highest - side of the ship. Five were found in the first cabin and the sixth was found in the third;
• Prosecutors said the six passengers were most likely asleep when the boat sank;
• The probe is now focusing on the crew and their responsibilities, with the captain set to undergo more questioning.

Monday 19 August

The Bayesian yacht, flying a British flag, sinks at around 5am local time when the area was hit by a tornado.

Fifteen people are rescued from the 56 metre vessel - including a mother and baby - but another seven remain missing.

One body, later confirmed to be the yacht's chef Recaldo Thomas, is found near the wreck.

It emerges that British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah are among six people that remain missing.

Tuesday 20 August

The search continues for the six tourists missing.

It is reported that among those missing are Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Police divers try to reach the hull of the ship, resting at a depth of 50 metres.

Italy's fire brigade Vigili del Fuoco say early inspections of the wreck were "unsuccessful" because of limited access to the bridge and furniture obstructing passages.

The operation is later described as "complex", with divers limited to 12-minute underwater shifts.

Tributes pour in for Mr Thomas, with his friend Gareth Williams saying: "I can talk for everyone that knew him when I say he was a well-loved, kind human being with a calm spirit."

Wednesday 21 August

The search for the six people unaccounted for enters a third day, with crews carrying out inspections of the yacht's internal hull.

A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) arrive in Porticello to look at the site of the sinking.

A helicopter is drafted in to help with the search effort and remotely controlled underwater vehicles are being used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search.

Five bodies are found inside the yacht on Wednesday afternoon. Only four of them are brought to shore.

Body bags are seen being taken to Porticello in the afternoon where dozens of emergency services staff wait.

Searches finish for the day just before 7.30pm.

Thursday 22 August

The search resumes for the remaining missing person.

The body of the fifth missing person, found but not recovered the previous day, is brought to shore.

A fire service boat with flashing blue lights returns with a blue body bag to the port of Porticello just after 8.45am local time on Thursday.

Tributes pour in for Mr Lynch and Mr and Mrs Bloomer after they are identified as having died.

The search is called off at around 8pm in Sicily, with divers expected to begin again at 6.30am on Friday.

Friday 23  August

The search continues for the final person missing from the wreck of the Bayesian, Hannah Lynch.

Vincenzo Zagarola, of the Italian Coastguard, says the search for Hannah has not been "easy or quick", comparing the sunken yacht to an "18-storey building full of water".

The coastguard confirms in the late morning that her body has been found.

A green body bag is brought to the port of Porticello from the site of the sinking.

A spokesperson announces on behalf of the Lynch family that they are "devastated" and "in shock" after the deaths of Mike and Hannah.

Hannah's sister Esme pays tribute to her "little angel".

Saturday 24 August

A press conference is held in the court of an Italian town, Termini Imerese.

Public prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio tells reporters that his office has opened an initial investigation against unknown persons into manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.

As the focus now turns to the manslaughter investigation, here's another reminder of the seven victims of the sinking and the 15 people who survived. 

A close friend of the Lynch family has added to the chorus of tributes for British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who died in Monday's superyacht sinking.

Susannah Gurdun, who lives in Suffolk, recalled being "daunted" when she first met Mr Lynch at a dinner party, before discovering he was "so much more than the corporate cliche".

"He was riveting.  He was funny, and kind, and endlessly interesting; capable of talking about anything and everything," she said.

Ms Gardun said the businessman also had a "thrilling ability" to make complicated subjects "accessible to those of us less blessed with a science acumen".

"In particular, he was wonderful with children.  I will never forget hearing him explain to a group of them - including our ten year old son - the physics of why the sky went pink at sunset," she said.

She went on describe Mr Lynch as a "true genius" and "phenomenal creative".

Ms Gardun said his daughter Hannah was also showing "serious literary promise", and added that it was "beyond tragic that we will never know where her own particular brilliance might have led".

"I still feel blessed to have shared that time with them in Spain.  Not just because I witnessed Mike’s incredible storytelling; but because I was given a chance of understanding what that moment said about all four of them as a united vibrant loving family," she said.

"He was an extraordinary human being and it was - truly - a privilege to have known him."

A yacht crew member who survived the sinking has paid tribute to Hannah Lynch, calling her a "diamond in a sea of stars".

Sasha Murray, chief stewardess of the Bayesian, has released a statement after divers recovered the final missing body from the wreckage, which is believed to be 18-year-old Hannah.

"Those who knew her will know that Hannah was a diamond in a sea of stars," she said.

"Bright, beautiful and always shining. What most people may not have seen was the extraordinarily strong, deep and loving relationship she shared with her parents, whom she adored more than anything. 

"While swimming with them she often said, if anything ever happened she would save them. 

"I have no doubt that the Irish, Latina fire that burns in her soul kept that spirited determination alive."

Ms Murray's statement comes as a new image of Hannah Lynch and her father Mike Lynch is released:

Prosecutors announced in this morning's news conference that they have opened a manslaughter and negligent shipwreck investigation.

Officials were unable to answer several queries from the media, saying they needed time to establish the facts, but what are the key questions facing prosecutors? 

Why weren't passengers who remained on board the vessel warned about escaping from the yacht?

The prosecutor in charge of the case, Raffaele Cammarano, suggested that some passengers may have been asleep when others were awake.

Asked why they were not woken up or alerted, he said that is something investigators are trying to work out from the statements of the survivors.

He called it an "essential" part of the inquiry.

Why were several of the passengers in one cabin?

The press conference heard several bodies onboard the sunken yacht were found in a single cabin which was not theirs.

Mr Cammarano said investigators currently do not know the reason for them being discovered in the same cabin.

The chief of the Palermo fire service, Bentivoglio Fiandra, said the yacht pinned to the right and suggested people tried to go on the other side, taking refuge in cabins in the higher part of the wreck.

Why did the boat sink?

The vessel had been deemed "unsinkable" by its manufacturer - Italian shipyard Perini Navi.

The Bayesian was hit by a downburst, according to Mr Cammarano, which are powerful winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread out quickly once they hit the ground.

Officials will look into the safety equipment on the sunken vessel.

Mr Cammarano was asked about whether there is a black box and if the hatches were left open.

He said investigators do not have exact information about the black box and that the first phase of the inquiry will look into it.

Why were nearby vessels not similarly affected?

Another yacht, the Sir Robert BP, was about 150 to 200 metres from the Bayesian when extreme weather hit.

Its crew helped to rescue 15 people from the stricken vessel.

Italian officials said they would be looking at how the downburst could affect one vehicle and not other nearby vessels.

What weather warnings was the Bayesian alerted to?

Maritime director of western Sicily, Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda, said the weather at the time of the yacht's sinking was abnormal and there was nothing to suggest such an extreme situation would arise.

He said there were forecasts of winds and a storm alert, but there was no warning of a tornado.

"Given that the conditions were such, there wasn't anything to suggest there could be an extreme situation arising," he said.

"There are vessels that can monitor, after all, these events and one would have thought that the captain had taken precautions."

How long will it take to recover the sailing vessel?

Mr Macauda could not confirm how long it would take to retrieve the shipwreck of the sunken yacht.

"Everything depends on the availability of the owners and the timeframe of the retrieval of the wreck and of course all that has to be submitted to the port authorities and in parallel of course there will be the inquiry results and it's only really then that we will be able to authorise the operation," he said.

"I can't say, like some experts who have already spoken on the subject, [said] that it will be eight weeks."

He made clear that the owners will bear the full cost of retrieval, although he could not estimate the figure.

Italian authorities detailed the challenging and meticulous rescue operation to recover the six missing people from the Bayesian wreck (see 9.18am post).

But why was the five-day search so difficult? 

Read more below...

More on this morning's press conference. 

One of the main updates from prosecutors was that they have opened manslaughter and shipwreck investigations after the deaths of seven people in the Bayesian sinking. 

Watch the announcement below...

Prosecutors have given a lengthy news conference this morning on their investigation into the sinking of the Bayesian. 

Read the full report on the prosecutors' probe below...

Marine investigator James Wilkes has been speaking to Sky News after this morning's press conference.

"Naturally, there are more questions than there are substantive answers at the moment - that's the nature of investigative work.

"Something forced that yacht to roll beyond its nominal stability limits, such that it wasn't able to right itself with the ingress of a certain amount of seawater that was coming into the yacht. 

"So the investigators are going to ask themselves one initial question - what must the conditions have been for this to happen? 

"Then they are going to look at the contributing factors to the yacht, sinking, and, and the unfortunate loss of life." 

Prosecutors said this morning that the future of the investigation is reliant on recovering the wreck. 

Mr Wilkes said the yacht is a "major piece of physical evidence in and of itself." 

"It's lying at 50 metres, which is a recoverable depth. 

"If it was significantly deeper, then I'm not sure they'd be considering salvage at this stage or certainly, the salvage question would be a lot more complicated to answer. 

"But if there was the ability to raise that yacht in one piece safely, then it gives the investigators physically more to look at."

Mr Wilkes said he was unsure if the yacht would have a "black box" - called a voyage data recorder in shipping. 

"It would record things like GPS position, heading speed, engine telemetry, whether the radars were on, what they were recording, alarms, communications from the yacht itself, any audio on the bridge.

"But more often than not, these are on merchant ships. The yacht was a commercial yacht in the sense that it could be chartered out so it's quite possible it has a voyage data recorder on, but I'm not sure that it does. I don't know that as a matter of fact," he said.

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Manufacturer of superyacht that sank in Sicily with 22 aboard says human error to blame

Topic: Maritime Accidents and Incidents

British entrepreneur Mike Lynch.   ( Reuters: Henry Nicholls/File )

The body of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been recovered from the wreckage of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily. 

The yacht manufacturer's CEO has publicly addressed the incident, blaming the captain and crew for what he says could have been easily avoided. 

What's next? 

Rescue crews are continuing to search the wreckage for one missing woman, while four other bodies that were recovered await identification. 

The body of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been recovered from the wreckage of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily, as the boat's maker blamed the shipwreck on "indescribable, unreasonable errors" by the crew.

The Italian coastguard confirmed Mr Lynch's body had been recovered by rescue crews, along with four others, on Thursday, local time. They did not confirm the identities of the other recovered bodies.

Others reported missing from the yacht include the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, Mr Bloomer's wife Judy, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Giovanni Costantino, CEO of the superyacht's manufacturing company Italian Sea Group, said there were no structural problems with the vessel that could have led to the shipwreck, arguing the crew were ill-prepared.

"It had absolutely no problem, it was a model for so many ships because it was so stable," he told the BBC.

"The weather alerts clearly showed the storm would have arrived at 4am, the captain should have closed every hatch, raised anchor, sailed into the wind, and lowered the keel. Then everyone could have gone back to sleep and the cruise would have happily continued."

Mr Costantino told Reuters correct emergency procedures had not been followed despite stormy weather already being forecast.

"The boat suffered a series of indescribable, unreasonable errors, the impossible happened on that boat … but it went down because it took on water. From where, the investigators will tell."

The Bayesian, a 56-metre British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early on Monday as it was moored about a kilometre offshore.

Civil protection officials said they believe the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

Another yacht anchored near the Bayesian escaped unharmed. The captain of the sunken yacht and other crew members have not commented publicly on the disaster, while Italian prosecutors investigating it are due to hold a press conference on Saturday.

Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived, including Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter, Sofia.

Italian firefighter divers bring ashore the body of one of the victims. ( AP: Salvatore Cavalli )

Ms Golunski's husband James Emslie and New Zealand captain of the yacht James Catfield also survived.

Interior ministry official Massimo Mariani told Reuters Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah remained missing, saying she may be inside the wreck or could have been tossed into the sea as the boat sank.

Divers have struggled to find the bodies.

"We would need a crystal ball to know when we'll be able to find the next body," said Luca Cari, spokesperson for the fire rescue service.

"It's very difficult to move inside the wreckage. Moving just one metre can take up to 24 hours," he added.

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From the archives: On board the iconic 74.5m Blohm+Voss superyacht Zeus, formerly Enigma

25 years after launch, Zeus (then Enigma ) was put under the spotlight. In this  2016 deep dive, Stewart Campell steps on board with Martin Francis to hear all about her remarkable first owner and those amazing windows...

Martin Francis has been waiting 25 years for this. Enigma's designer was denied the opportunity to speak to any media when the yacht was launched back in 1991 and so she has remained true to her name ever since — off the radar, a little mysterious.

But now the shroud has been lifted and Francis is basking in this long-delayed moment in the sun. “I’m terribly emotional,” he says on board. “I’ve given so many years to this boat.”

Born Eco , renamed Katana and then Enigma , (and later Zeus) she is still a gut-punch of a design: a long, lean destroyer dressed in silk. Technically, she’s a profound achievement. She was the first superyacht to be fitted with an underwater foil, which provides 120 tonnes of lift at the stern to help her achieve that outrageous top speed of 36 knots.

Those iconic windows are a masterstroke of design and construction. And, after all these years, Enigma ’s still totally vibration-free — even when the centrally mounted gas turbine is flicked on and winds up to its max output of 18,500hp.

This boat should be fêted, up in lights, on the marquee in massive capital letters — ENIGMA. Francis, meanwhile, should be one of the most in-demand superyacht designers in the world.

Yet… Francis’s phone didn’t ring for eight years after Enigma was launched. Meanwhile, some of the exciting young designers he had incubated at his South of France studio — Espen Øino , Dan Lenard , Mark Smith and Jonny Horsfield — drifted off to conquer the world on their own.

“It doesn’t always pay to be ahead of the curve,” he says a little ruefully as we tour the yacht. But regrets? Not one. Enigma was Francis’s first motor yacht design after a career spent penning sailboats and working with the likes of Norman Foster, and the pride he feels when showing me around the boat is evident. “See the shower drains?” he motions in the master cabin’s bathroom. “I even designed those.”

It’s easy to recognise the brilliance of Enigma ’s design today, but back when she was launched the reviews weren’t all glowing. Naval architects queued up to rubbish her: the bridge is on the wrong deck; the windows will break; who sticks a big appendage under the water when you’re trying to reduce drag? “The boat initially came in for an enormous amount of stick,” Francis remembers. “It was really quite vitriolic.”

Fortunately, he was working for a man who occupies a special place in the pantheon of visionary superyacht owners: Emilio Azcárraga. The Mexican billionaire was a media titan, owner of mega-brand Televisa, which ran — and still runs — TV networks and radio stations across Mexico and the US. He was, Francis says with genuine feeling, “the most amazing client I’ve ever had”.

Designer and owner became almost symbiotic, with Francis going on to design a number of projects for the Mexican, including a roof for the giant 100,000-seat Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

Azcárraga loved the boat Francis designed so much he chose to die on it. “He had homes all over the world, but he lived the last six months of his life on board, in Miami,” says the designer. In the six years of his ownership, Azcárraga became famous for the time he spent on board, including six transatlantics.

In one memorable season, he joined the yacht in Hamburg, took it up to St Petersburg, then across to the UK, down into the Med and the Balearics, then across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and up to Los Angeles. To assist all that passage-making, Azcárraga’s rep, the ageless George Nicholson, of the Camper & Nicholsons dynasty, bought a tanker so she could refuel mid-Atlantic.

“I found it in Denmark,” he recalls. “It was the smallest tanker that I could buy at 1,000 tonnes. We called her Eco Supporter . It would buy fuel at the best prices, then clean it so we always had a 200-tonne tank full of clean fuel. We used to send the tanker way ahead of Eco and make a rendezvous somewhere at sea.”

Nicholson also remembers the owner fondly. He sold him a 36 metre CRN, Caribe III (now Nordic Star ), in 1974, kick-starting a long association. Azcárraga then went on to buy two Feadships, Azteca (now Lionwind ) and Paraiso , both designed by Jon Bannenberg .

In the mid-1980s, he started thinking bigger and asked Bannenberg, Francis and the famed car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro to dream up some concepts. “The ideas and suggestions from Martin were by far the most radical and pleasing to the client,” Nicholson says.

But Francis recalls the process of settling on a final design being slightly tortuous. Initially Azcárraga asked for something akin to Azteca , the 1983 Feadship designed by Bannenberg in his faceted, militaristic style, but he wasn’t happy with the proposals he was getting back.

Frustrated, Francis says he stormed back into the office one day and said: “Throw everything he said out of the window. We’re going to make it long and with everything curved.” So conceived was the legend.

Those windows are the first thing you notice. The idea came from curved Parisian windows, which are designed to limit internal reflections. Their installation on Enigma didn’t serve any practical purpose — it’s all about style — but the effect they have on the view from inside is dramatic. All the glazing was made by Flachglas in Germany and caused a few palpitations when first proposed.

“At that stage we did not know if the hull and superstructure would be really stiff, and were afraid that these large and special windows would crack,” recalls Nicholson. To date, in 25 years, only two panes have.

“It was a work of art to get them right,” says Francis, not least because the Lloyd’s surveyors weren’t big fans, thinking the frames fronting the bridge wouldn’t be able to take the force of a big wave — a problem on slender boats like Enigma , which tend to be wet.

They demanded Francis design some removable mullions that are supposed to be slotted into place to strengthen the screen in a big sea. “We’ve still got them,” says Enigma ’s captain, Stuart Lees. “We never use them.” The 19mm toughened glass has withstood it all — helped by a locker-cum-wave breaker on the bow.

The positioning of the bridge on the main deck was the main thing that riled rival designers when Enigma first appeared, with one even suggesting that placing a wheelhouse at this level should be illegal. The original plans had it higher but Azcárraga wanted the best views for himself.

“He said, ‘but that’s the best place. I want to be there. The pilot of my plane never looks out of the window. I don’t see why the captain needs to’,” remembers Francis. “And that was that. He had spoken.”

The current skipper says he has no complaints about the positioning, and often finds himself piling on the power when the water starts hitting the screens. “Sometimes, when it gets rough and the sea is picking up, especially if we’re heading straight into it, we’ll go faster and it just lifts the bow a bit and it almost wave-pierces through, so where you’re actually pitching quite heavily at 15 knots, at 25 knots you’re wave-piercing through it and you pull yourself out of bad weather.”

When it comes to Enigma ’s power, Francis loves one particular story. “On one of the first sea trials, we were having a problem with the gas turbine. We got it sorted out around lunchtime. We were off Palma and Azcárraga said: ‘Captain, let’s go to Porto Cervo’.

“The mistral had been blowing so we set off in a swell and had a Mexican lunch at about three and a siesta, and then watched a few movies, and a late dinner, and at midnight we were in Porto Cervo. There’s nothing out there that will do that. Nothing. Twenty-five years later there’s nothing that will do that.”

Speed was central to the brief from the start, Nicholson says. The engines chosen for the job were heavy-duty Deutz lumps, outputting 5,000hp. They were coupled to Kamewa waterjets, since Azcárraga loved nosing into deserted — and often poorly charted — anchorages, and had damaged props in the past.

The two diesels will get Enigma up to nearly 20 knots, but the punch to top speed is provided by the central General Electric gas turbine. “It was the first production turbine for civilian use,” says Nicholson. “I had to sign an official secrets paper in order to buy [the yacht] . The Aga Khan bought the next three engines for his transatlantic record-breaker, Destriero .”

All that muscle comes at a cost — Enigma is a thirsty ship at speed. At her 36 knot top end, she’s burning 5,000 litres an hour. In 48 hours at full pace she can empty her 240,000 litre fuel tank. “I know because we’ve done it several times,” says Captain Lees.

Drop back to her cruising speed of 18 knots and Enigma ’s range extends to about 2,200 nautical miles. Her efficiency is helped by a piece of revolutionary hydrodynamic hardware — a large underwater wing that sits slightly aft of the transom jets and attaches to the hull with two struts.

It took 11 tank-testing campaigns to settle on a final design for the hull and foil, which not only prevents the stern from “squatting” at speed, it also limits Enigma ’s trim, which varies just 1.5 degrees from zero to 36 knots.

It was originally thought hanging so much steel off the boat would have drag penalties at low speed, but in fact it was found that at 18 knots efficiency improved by almost 20 per cent. “The foil wasn’t in the original spec,” says Francis, “but when they saw how much performance it gave them, they couldn’t afford not to put it on.”

What was in the spec from the get-go was the Maule amphibious seaplane, which was stowed on the expansive aft deck. Azcárraga had lost a number of friends in helicopter accidents and so the plane was the only choice — and quite a challenge to incorporate into the design. It could be stored on board without folding the wings and was powerful enough to take off and land in the boat’s length.

The plane was ditched by _Enigm_a’s second owner, Larry Ellison, who turned the aft deck into a basketball court. He also added a glass-enclosed superyacht gym on the main deck aft, a new exterior stair to the upper deck and a spa pool on the top deck’s wing station.

Plug-in controls (now removed) meant the yacht could be controlled from this level and legend has it the former captain used to moor the boat while having a soak. Zero-speed stabilisers, meanwhile, were added in 2009.

The layout has been fiddled with rather than ripped up by the three successive owners — an upper deck dining room is now a saloon, for instance, while the position of the bed in the owner's cabin has changed a few times. Each time someone has wanted to change Enigma , they’ve called in Francis. He designed her interior originally with François Zuretti , working on his very first yacht.

A beam of 11.2 metres is modest for a 74.5 metre yacht, yet you don’t feel too pinched on Enigma ’s main deck. High central topsides mean the guest accommodation enjoys the full beam, and large windows give a real immediacy to the view.

The upper deck is the owner’s enclave and can be isolated from guests with a partition door. Another door on the deck above means the owner can turn the forward part of both decks into an exclusive duplex.

Sitting in that sundeck saloon, looking out at the world through those convex windows is a unique experience, doubly so because they’ve never been copied. In an industry sometimes notorious for producing “just another big white boat”, Enigma stands truly alone.

The only coverage Azcárraga would allow about the yacht all those years ago was an article in the February 1992 issue of this magazine, about her incredible performance.

“ Eco is one of those very special superyacht projects where the designers and builders have been encouraged to redefine the boundaries of their trade; to explore the limits of their ideas and to push the frontiers of technology and engineering,” we wrote.

Were Enigma launched tomorrow, those words would still apply — and might still in another 25 years. She is an icon, a great, a hall-of-famer and, after a quarter of a century, unmasked.

First published in the December 2016 edition of Boat International. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

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An Interview with Mark Smith of Simplexity Travel Management

By Paul Joseph

For high net-worth individuals constantly on the move, simplifying their travel arrangements is a crucial tool of their trade.

Step forward Simplexity Travel Management, a UK-based company with a global client base of international jetsetters and an unparalleled network to help ensure their every need is met.

We sat down with Mark Smith, Head of Business Development at Simplexity, to find out more.

Superyachts: C an you start by giving us a background to the company? Mark Smith: Personally I have a very long background in travel, as have some of the shareholders as well. The company itself was formed in 2011 and our vision was to be a market leader in travel management.

We noticed that people were booking different elements of their trips through different companies, instead of having a one-stop-shop where they could take care of everything in one place. They go to the airline to book the flights, the hotel to book the hotels, and the yacht company to book the yacht.

Predominantly we started out in the fashion, film and music industry before moving towards high net-worth leisure clients, which was a vertical directly from the need for corporate travel.

Where do the majority of your client base come from? They’re global. We’ve got clients in South America, in Australia, in the UK, in the Middle East. Literally anywhere in the world that a client will book with us.

How do you stand out in such a crowded marketplace? We offer the same as other travel management companies in regards to 24/7 service, discounted fares, and deals in the marketplace. What makes us different is that we’re able to utilise our assets around the globe for deals that a lot of other people can’t get.

We are one of eight travel companies in Europe that are part of Virtuoso (a luxury travel network), so that puts us ahead of the game from a lot of our competitors. Also, for the touring side of life, we have a system called Mobile Messenger, which is a worldwide tool for groups of people travelling from different parts of the world who have all booked through us. We can track where each person is.

From an events management point of view, if you’ve got someone coming in for a show or if you’re waiting on a key member of staff, we can track, through GPS, where that person is. It may well be that they miss their flight, so we can contact them and say, “Ok, is there anything we can help you with?”

Alternatively, if you’ve got a number of people in Nice and suddenly there’s an ash cloud, instead of contacting people directly we can let them know there have been delays or cancellations to flights.

Presumably you must have an extensive network around the world? The network is about relationships and affiliations with people. So you work with one hotel but as a small agent it’s very hard to knock on a big corporate door and say, “We can help you in regards to having the network in place”.

A big bonus for us is being part of ‘Virtuoso’. Suddenly hotels want to see you because the criteria for getting in to being a Virtuoso agent is quite high. So that does help put us on a level playing field with the likes of Centurion. People book through Centurion because they might get an upgrade or an additional amenities pack when they check-in, whereas we have that service already, but you don’t have to pay two-and-a-half grand per year to have one of our cards or spend over £200,000 a year to have the black card - we just give that as a normal service.

How would you describe the way your service caters to the business traveller community? I think business travel is a game that is around service. We’re finding a lot of SME companies, maybe not spending enough to warrant a big account with AMEX for example, or BCD travel, but nevertheless they don't want to go into a general pool where they don’t know who they’re speaking too.

It’s about volume with business travel, unfortunately, so it’s very low yield in regards to cost because everyone wants to see a saving. With business travel we have a booking fee but then a lot of these bigger companies will have an agreement with an airline that if they win a contract, the airline will give them money – and sometimes it’s seven figures – and also charge the client a management fee and then charge them for phoning out-of-hours and things like that. We don’t target that market, we don’t really look at Coca-Cola, British Gas and Barclays. We go for the SME clients that want travel management services but also require a cost saving as well.

What can you tell us about the service you offer to yacht charterers and owners? It’s very similar to what we offer to all our clients, certainly for the charter market. If we’ve got a client who wants to charter a yacht, we do everything from start to finish. Everything from the catering, making sure the yacht is suitable for the client and what those requirements are. Also it’s the case of everything from the beginning all the way through to the end. Their whole package has been dealt with by a central point.

If their flight has been delayed from the UK to Nice and then they’ve booked their transfer somewhere else then that passenger has to deal with all of that themselves, whereas if it’s all with us, we can see that it’s delayed so we let the transfer company know that the flight's delayed by two hours. We then let the captain know that they’re not going to be on board for three hours because of the delay. We can make arrangements to make the yacht re-positioned to another marina to make sure they can be picked up somewhere else.

The other thing with the owners is that obviously they want to go out and use their yachts. We would generally do the travel for them as well. Obviously some of the owners are wealthy enough, they have their own private jets, but a lot of people who have these products often charter on them themselves, whether it be a jet or a helicopter, they still want to make money on it because it’s a commercial business.

In terms of the facility for booking tickets and events, does that operate in the same way as a conventional concierge service? The events and hospitality side is really another vertical of what we offer. Our affiliation with Wembley Stadium is that we’re an official overseas travel agent with Wembley so we sell Wembley stadium products in conjunction with a flight or a hotel. So it’s a package more than anything else.

Likewise, we generally don’t want to sell theatre tickets to a client that doesn't want to book tickets, unless they’re booking a hotel with us. So if a client calls us and says, “I’m desperate to go see Mama Mia! on Broadway, but it’s booked out, can you help?” Then we would help because we’ve already got that relationship.

But if you found us randomly on the website, the chances are that unless we’re booking your travel or hotel, we wouldn’t book it because it’s not our market and we’re not a ticketing company. We’re not a concierge service. The concierge service side of it comes after you’ve booked a travel element.

How would you say the demands and expectations of luxury travellers has changed over the years? You’ve got two elements. You have your luxury traveller, someone who is a CEO or an oligarch, someone who has an awful lot of money that wants the finer things in life. They don't look on a website, they have someone to do that for them. That hasn’t changed at all.

You then have your middle kind of luxury travel who likes luxury, but likes it on a budget. They will actually have become more intuitive with websites like onefinestay, luxury rentals and other luxury concierge companies.

We’ve seen a big rise in concierge companies who say they can take care of travel. This is the worrying part of the marketplace because in order to put together packages, you need to be licensed and there are lots of concierge companies that aren’t licensed that are breaching regulations.

Now the power of the internet that was born in 1985 made everyone a travel agent, unfortunately. The introduction of Skyscanner, and all these kind of screen-scrape websites that look at hotel deals, makes everyone think that they can do this themselves. In fairness, I encourage people to do that because more often than not mistakes happen and they come back to us to try and rectify it.

What are your plans for expansion over the coming years? In four years we’ve gone from 0 to 7 million. That growth in itself is huge. If you’d said to me, “In two years you’re going to be doing 7 million,” I would’ve laughed. Now what we’d like to do is that we’ve got a big presence in the Middle East, we’ve got to look at getting an office in the Middle East for our Middle Eastern clients. The other clients we’ve got to look at for our Virtuoso affiliation would be the US, but I think when we look at emerging markets, obviously China is still there as normal. I’m more interested in – it’s going to sound very strange when I say this – but after all the stuff that’s gone on, in Iraq, Iran and Syria, once all that calms down and finishes, that’s going to be a very interesting market to look at because they’re going to want to get an awful lot of travel back there.

Damascus was one of the biggest travel destinations a few years ago and was one of the biggest key routes for British Airways. People are going to start going back to those destinations once the political strain has sorted itself out.

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As of September of 2023, we have made the decision to shut down Smith Marine Design and stop accepting new orders. We appreciate the support and patronage of our valued customers over the years. And we immensely enjoyed seeing all the amazing boats people built with our designs over the years. For our existing customers, feel free to reach out to us if you have difficulties or questions. We will continue to do our best to support you as you continue your boat builds.

The decision to build your own boat is a big one. Most builders think about it for a very long time, weighing the pros and cons, fighting the urge to just dive right in! Many worry they don't have the skills, when in fact, there are many boats of all sizes being built by people with little to no experience. All it takes is the right plans and support throughout the process from an experienced designer.

I started Smith Marine Design in 2003 as a full service design firm. Originally focused on serving the many small boat manufacturers who can't afford the expense of having a designer on staff, I also found a number of people who wanted to build their own boat in their garage. I soon found myself devoting a good deal of my day to answering questions from prospective builders and sending out stock plan sets.

In 2014 I found I could no longer design custom boats or take on new design clients due to an ongoing health issue. Smith Marine Design is now focused solely on stock plans only. You'll find the stock plans currently available by clicking the Stock Plans button on the nav bar above (I am so clever!). You will also find photo galleries of boats under construction at the Underway button. In The Hold you will find examples of custom and production designs from the past, as well as some preliminary designs that have yet to be finished. Some of these may one day become stock plans. Just Thinkin' contains some of my ramblings on boats as well as updates on my health for those who care.

I am still designing and have new designs on the board, so check back again if you don't see a design that fits your needs. Thanks for visiting Smith Marine Design and don't hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.

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Yekaterinburg city, Russia

The capital city of Sverdlovsk oblast .

Yekaterinburg - Overview

Yekaterinburg or Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk in 1924-1991) is the fourth most populous city in Russia (after Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk), the administrative center of the Ural Federal District and Sverdlovsk Oblast.

This city is one of the country’s largest transport and logistics hubs, as well as an important industrial center. It is unofficially called the “capital of the Urals.”

The population of Yekaterinburg is about 1,493,600 (2022), the area - 468 sq. km.

The phone code - +7 343, the postal codes - 620000-620920.

Ekaterinburg city flag

Ekaterinburg city coat of arms.

Ekaterinburg city map, Russia

Ekaterinburg city latest news and posts from our blog:.

26 May, 2020 / Unique Color Photos of Yekaterinburg in 1909 .

2 December, 2018 / Yekaterinburg - the view from above .

21 November, 2018 / Abandoned Railway Tunnel in Didino .

4 December, 2017 / Stadiums and Matches of the World Cup 2018 in Russia .

3 January, 2017 / Ekaterinburg, the Capital of the Urals: Then and Now .

More posts..

News, notes and thoughts:

4 April, 2011   / Free travel on new high-speed trains should allay fans' fears about long journey to Ekaterinburg - the most far-flung city on Russia's list of sites for 2018 World Cup. Let's hope the train will not break down in the middle of nowhere.

1 February, 2011   / Today is the 80th anniversary of the birth of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia. President Medvedev today unveiled a monument to Yeltsin in his home city Ekaterinburg. First one in Russia.

History of Yekaterinburg

Foundation of yekaterinburg.

The territory along the Iset River, which served as a convenient transport route from the Ural Mountains deep into Siberia, has long attracted settlers. The oldest of the currently discovered settlements on the territory of present Yekaterinburg was located next to the Palkinsky Stone Tents rock massif and dates back to the 6th millennium BC.

From the 7th-3rd centuries BC, ancient metallurgists who mastered the smelting of copper lived in this settlement. Copper figures of birds, animals, people, arrowheads, various household items were found here. Later they learned how to make iron products. All discovered settlements were destroyed as a result of fires, possibly during raids of the conquerors.

The territory occupied by present Yekaterinburg became part of Russia in the middle of the 17th century. At that time, it had practically no permanent population. The first Russian settlements were founded in the second half of the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, the first ironworks were built here.

In the spring of 1723, by decree of Emperor Peter I, the construction of the largest iron-making plant in Russia began on the banks of the Iset River. Construction began on the initiative of Vasily Tatishchev (a prominent Russian statesman). He was supported by Georg Wilhelm de Gennin (a German-born Russian military officer and engineer), on the initiative of which the fortress plant was named Yekaterinburg in honor of Empress Catherine I (Yekaterina in Russian), the wife of Peter I.

More Historical Facts…

The historic birthday of Yekaterinburg is November 18, 1723. On this day, a test run of the plant equipment was carried out. Its main products included iron, cast iron, and copper. In 1725, the Yekaterinburg Mint began production on the territory of the fortress and became the main producer of copper coins in the Russian Empire. Until 1876, it produced about 80% of the country’s copper coins. In the 1720s, the population of Yekaterinburg was about 4,000 people.

Yekaterinburg - one of the economic centers of the Russian Empire

In the middle of the 18th century, the first ore gold in Russia was discovered in this region, which was the beginning of the gold industry in the country. As a result, Yekaterinburg became the center of a whole system of densely located plants and began to develop as the capital of the mining region, which spread on both sides of the Ural Range.

In 1781, Catherine II granted Yekaterinburg the status of a county town in the Perm Governorate. The population of the town was about 8,000 people. In 1783, the town received a coat of arms depicting an ore mine and a melting furnace, which symbolized its mining and metallurgical industries (similar images are depicted on the current coat of arms and flag of Yekaterinburg).

In 1783, the Great Siberian Road was opened - the main road of the Russian Empire that passed through Yekaterinburg. It served as an impetus for the transformation of Yekaterinburg into a transport hub and a center of trade. Thus, Yekaterinburg, among other towns of the Perm Governorate, became the key town for the development of the boundless and rich Siberia, the “window to Asia”, just as St. Petersburg was the Russian “window to Europe.”

In 1808, the Yekaterinburg plant was closed, and the history of the town entered a new stage related to the development of a large regional center with a diversified economy. At the beginning of the 19th century, the gold mining industry flourished. At the same time, deposits of emeralds, sapphires, aquamarines, diamonds, and other precious, semiprecious, and ornamental stones were discovered in the Urals. Yekaterinburg became one of the world centers for their artistic processing.

After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the mining industry of the Urals experienced a severe crisis, a number of plants were closed. In 1878, the first railway was constructed across the Urals and connected Yekaterinburg with Perm. In 1888, the Yekaterinburg-Tyumen railway was built, and in 1897 - the railway to Chelyabinsk, which provided access to the Trans-Siberian Railway. Yekaterinburg became a major railway junction, which contributed to the development of the local food industry, especially flour milling. In 1913, the population of Yekaterinburg was about 69,000 people.

Yekaterinburg in the first years of Soviet power

On November 8, 1917, Soviet power was established in Yekaterinburg. On April 30, 1918, the last Russian emperor Nicholas II and his family members with a few servants were transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. They were placed in the “House of Special Purpose”, the mansion of engineer Nikolai Ipatiev requisitioned for this purpose, and transferred under the supervision and responsibility of the Ural Regional Soviet.

In July 1918, units of the White Siberian army approached Yekaterinburg, under this pretext the leadership of the Ural Regional Soviet decided to shoot the imperial family. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, it was done in the basement of the Ipatiev House.

10 days later, units of the Czechoslovak Legion entered Yekaterinburg. Over the next 12 months, it was under the control of anti-Bolshevik forces. On July 14, 1919, the Red Army reoccupied the city. Soviet authorities and the Yekaterinburg Province with a center in Yekaterinburg were restored. In 1920, the population of the city was about 94,400 people.

The political center of the Urals moved from Perm to Yekaterinburg. In 1923, Yekaterinburg became the administrative center of the vast Ural Oblast, which in size exceeded the territory of the present Ural Federal District of Russia. In 1924, the city council decided to rename the capital of the new region to Sverdlovsk - in honor of Yakov Sverdlov, a Bolshevik party administrator and chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

Sverdlovsk - a Soviet industrial giant

During the years of Stalin’s industrialization, Sverdlovsk was turned into a powerful industrial center. The old factories were reconstructed and new large factories were built, including giant machine-building and metal processing plants. In 1933, the construction of the future flagship of Soviet engineering (Uralmash) was completed. The population of Sverdlovsk grew by more than 3 times, and it became one of the fastest growing cities in the USSR.

January 17, 1934, Ural Oblast was divided into three regions - Sverdlovsk Oblast with a center in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast with a center in Chelyabinsk, and Ob-Irtysh Oblast with a center in Tyumen. By the end of the 1930s, there were 140 industrial enterprises, 25 research institutes, 12 higher educational institutions in Sverdlovsk. In 1939, the population of the city was about 425,500 people.

Along with other Ural cities, Sverdlovsk made a significant contribution to the victory of the USSR in the Second World War. In total, more than 100,000 residents of the city joined the Red Army. 41,772 people didn’t return from the war: 21,397 - killed in battles, 4,778 - died from wounds in hospitals, 15,491 - went missing, 106 - died in prisoner of war camps.

Sverdlovsk became the largest evacuation point, more than 50 large and medium enterprises from the western regions of Russia and Ukraine were evacuated here. During the war years, industrial production in Sverdlovsk grew 7 times.

After the war, this city became the largest center for engineering and metalworking in Russia. During the Cold War, Sverdlovsk, as a key center of the defense industry, was practically closed to foreigners. In 1960, in the sky above the city, Soviet air defense shot down the U-2 spy plane of the US manned by Francis Gary Powers.

On January 23, 1967, a millionth resident was born in the city and Sverdlovsk became one of the first Russian cities with a population of more than 1 million people. In 1979, Sverdlovsk was included in the list of historical cities of Russia.

On October 4, 1988, a serious accident occurred at the Sverdlovsk railway station. The train carrying almost 100 tons of explosives rolled downhill and crashed into a coal freight train. An explosion occurred, aggravated by the proximity of a large warehouse of fuels and lubricants. The funnel at the site of the explosion had a diameter of 40-60 meters and a depth of 8 meters, the shock wave spread 10-15 kilometers. The explosion killed 4 people at the station and injured more than 500 people. About 600 houses were severely damaged.

Yekaterinburg - one of the largest cities of the Russian Federation

On September 4, 1991, the Sverdlovsk City Council of People’s Deputies decided to return the city its original name - Yekaterinburg. The population of the city was about 1,375,000 people. The restrictions on foreign visitors to the city were also lifted, and soon the first consulate general was opened here - the United States of America (in 1994).

The transition to a market economy led to a reduction in production at industrial enterprises, inert giant plant found themselves in a particularly difficult situation. In 1991, the construction of the television tower was stopped. The city was flooded with chaotic small retail trade in temporary pavilions and markets. These years were the heyday of organized crime, Yekaterinburg became one of the “criminal capitals” of Russia. The economic situation began to improve by the end of the 1990s.

In 2000-2003, the Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land was built on the site of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. In 2008-2009, the Koltsovo Airport was reconstructed. In June 15-17, 2009, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) and BRIC (Brasilia, Russia, India, China) summits were held in Yekaterinburg.

In 2015, the Presidential Center of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia, was opened in Yekaterinburg. On March 24, 2018, the abandoned unfinished television tower was dismantled. It was the tallest building in the city (almost 240 meters) and became one of the symbols of Yekaterinburg. 4 matches of FIFA World Cup 2018 were played in Yekaterinburg.

Today, Yekaterinburg is the largest center of attraction not only of Sverdlovsk Oblast, but also of the surrounding regions. By some socio-economic indicators, this city ranks third in Russia, after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Along with the development of trade and business, the city lost the status of the country’s largest industrial center.

On the streets of Yekaterinburg

Soviet-era apartment buildings in Yekaterinburg

Author: Alex Kolm

In the central part of Yekaterinburg

Author: Serg Fokin

Yekaterinburg street view

Author: Krutikov S.V.

Yekaterinburg - Features

Yekaterinburg is located in the floodplain of the Iset River on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals in Asia, near its border with Europe, about 1,800 km east of Moscow. Since the Ural Mountains are very old, there are no significant hills in the city.

This relief was a favorable condition for the construction of the main transport routes from Central Russia to Siberia (the Siberian Route and the Trans-Siberian Railway) through Yekaterinburg. As a result, it has become one of the most strategically important centers of Russia, which still provides a link between the European and Asian parts of the country.

Yekaterinburg is located in the border zone of temperate continental and continental climates. It is characterized by a sharp variability in weather conditions with well-defined seasons. The Ural Mountains, despite their low height, block the way to the masses of air coming from the west from the European part of Russia.

As a result, the Middle Urals is open to the invasion of cold Arctic air and continental air of the West Siberian Plain. At the same time, warm air masses of the Caspian Sea and the deserts of Central Asia can freely enter this territory from the south.

That is why the city is characterized by sharp temperature fluctuations and the formation of weather anomalies: in winter from severe frosts to thaws and rains, in summer from heat above plus 35 degrees Celsius to frosts. The average temperature in January is minus 12.6 degrees Celsius, in July - plus 19 degrees Celsius.

The city has a rather unfavorable environmental situation due to air pollution. In 2016, Yekaterinburg was included in the list of Russian cities with the worst environmental situation by this indicator. Car emissions account for more than 90% of all pollution.

Yekaterinburg ranks third in Russia (after Moscow and St. Petersburg) in the number of diplomatic missions, while their consular districts extend far beyond Sverdlovsk Oblast, and serve other regions of the Urals, Siberia, and the Volga region.

In terms of economy, Yekaterinburg also ranks third in the country. It is one of the largest financial and business centers of Russia. The main branches of production: metallurgical production and metalworking, food production, production of electrical equipment, electronic and optical equipment, production of vehicles, production of machinery and equipment, chemical production.

Almost all types of urban public transport are presented in Yekaterinburg: buses, trolleybuses, trams, subways, taxis. Yekaterinburg is the third largest transportation hub in Russia: 6 federal highways, 7 main railway lines, as well as Koltsovo International Airport, one of the country’s largest airports. The location of Yekaterinburg in the central part of the region allows you to get from it to any major city of the Urals in 7-10 hours.

Yekaterinburg has an extensive scientific and technical potential, it is one of the largest scientific centers in Russia. The Presidium and about 20 institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 66 research institutes, and about 30 universities are located here.

This city is a relatively large tourist center. A significant part of tourists visit it to honor the memory of the last Russian emperor and his family killed by the Bolsheviks in the basement of the Ipatiev House in 1918.

There are about 50 different museums in Yekaterinburg. One of the world’s largest collections of constructivist architectural monuments has been preserved here. In total, there are over 600 historical and cultural monuments in the city, of which 43 are objects of federal significance. The City Day of Yekaterinburg is celebrated on the third Saturday of August.

Interesting facts about Yekaterinburg

• It was founded by the decree of the first Russian Emperor Peter I and the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II was shot here;
• In 1820, the roof of the UK Parliament building in London was made of roofing iron produced in Yekaterinburg;
• Ural steel was used in the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris;
• Ural copper was used in the construction of the Statue of Liberty in New York;
• During the Second World War, Sverdlovsk was the center of broadcasting in the USSR;
• Equipment for the world’s deepest borehole (Kola Superdeep Borehole, 12,262 meters) was produced in Yekaterinburg;
• Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia, began his political career in Yekaterinburg;
• Minor planet #27736 Yekaterinburg, discovered by the Belgian astronomer Eric Elst on September 22, 1990, was named in honor of this city;
• Two most northern skyscrapers in the world are located in Yekaterinburg: the Iset residential tower (209 m) and the Vysotsky business center (188 m), they are the tallest buildings throughout Russia east of Moscow.

Pictures of Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg city view

Author: Andrey Zagaynov

Modern architecture in Yekaterinburg

Author: Yury Baranov

The territory of the central stadium of Yekaterinburg before reconstruction

Author: Sergey Likhota

Main Attractions of Yekaterinburg

Sevastyanov House - a palace of the first quarter of the 19th century built in the architectural styles of pseudo-Gothic, Neo-Baroque, and Moorish traditions and painted in green, white, and red tones. Today, it is the most beautiful building in Yekaterinburg and one of its symbols. The house stands on the promenade of the Iset River, very close to the city dam. Lenina Avenue, 35.

“Plotinka” - the dam of the city pond on the Iset River built in the 18th century. From an architectural point of view, it is an ordinary bridge. However, it is of particular importance for the residents of Yekaterinburg since the construction of the entire city started from this place. Today, this is the main place for festivities in Yekaterinburg. Lenina Avenue.

Observation Deck of the Business Center “Vysotsky” - an open-air observation deck on the 52nd floor at an altitude of 168 meters. From here you can enjoy the views of all of Yekaterinburg. On the second and third floors of this skyscraper there is the memorial museum of Vladimir Vysotsky - a singer, songwriter, and actor who had an immense effect on Soviet culture. Malysheva Street, 51.

Vaynera Street - the central avenue of Yekaterinburg, the so-called “Ural Arbat”. One of its parts from Kuibysheva Street to Lenina Avenue is a pedestrian street. This is one of the oldest streets in Yekaterinburg laid in the middle of the 18th century. Along it, you can see merchant mansions, shops, administrative buildings, most of which were built in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.

Rastorguev-Kharitonov Palace (1794-1824) - one of the most valuable architectural manor and park ensembles in Yekaterinburg, an architectural monument of federal significance built in the classical style and located in the city center. Karla Libknekhta Street, 44.

Church of the Ascension (1792-1818) - one of the oldest churches in Yekaterinburg located next to the Rastorguev-Kharitonov Palace. This beautiful building combines the features of baroque, pseudo-Russian style, and classicism. Klary Tsetkin Street, 11.

Yeltsin Center - a cultural and educational center dedicated to the contemporary history of Russia, as well as the personality of its first president, Boris Yeltsin. The museum dedicated to his life is one of the best museums in Russia. Borisa Yeltsina Street, 3.

Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts - the largest art museum in the Urals housed in two buildings. This museum is best known for its unique collection of Kasli art castings and the world-famous Kasli cast iron pavilion - a participant in the 1900 Paris World’s Fair.

The following collections can also be found here: Russian paintings of the 18th - early 20th centuries, Russian avant-garde of 1910-1920, Russian porcelain and glass of the 18th - 20th centuries, Russian icon painting of the 16th-19th centuries, Western European art of the 14th-19th centuries, stone-carving and jewelry art of the Urals, Zlatoust decorated weapons and steel engraving. Voevodina Street, 5; Vaynera Street, 11.

Museum of the History of Stone-Cutting and Jewelry Art . A unique collection of this museum consists of gem minerals, works of jewelers and stone-cutters of the Urals, and products created at the Ural lapidary factory. The museum has Malachite and Bazhov halls, the Emerald Room, and several exhibition galleries where visitors can see works made of colored stone and metal created by local artists. Lenina Avenue, 37.

Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore . At first, its collection consisted of four departments: mineralogical, botanical, zoological, and paleontological. Later, numismatic, ethnographic, and anthropological sections were added. Today, there are more than 700 thousand exhibits here. Lenina Avenue, 69/10.

Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg . This museum occupies a historic building of the 19th century. In addition to the main exhibition, you can see the wax figures of Peter the Great, Catherine II, Nicholas II, the Ural manufacturers Demidov, and the founders of Yekaterinburg.

Old Railway Station of Yekaterinburg - one of the most beautiful and picturesque buildings in the city built in 1878. In 2003, after a large-scale reconstruction, the Museum of the History of Science and Technology of the Sverdlovsk Railway was opened here. Vokzal’naya Ulitsa, 14.

Yekaterinburg Circus . Visible from a lot of points of the city, the building of the Yekaterinburg Circus is known for its amazing dome consisting of trellised openwork semi-arches, which is not typical for circuses in Russia. 8 Marta Street, 43.

White Tower (1929-1931) - a former water tower 29 meters high located at a certain distance from the center of Yekaterinburg, an architectural monument of Constructivism. Today, it is used as a cultural site. Bakinskikh Komissarov Street, 2?.

Keyboard Monument - a contemporary art object made on a scale of 30:1 in 2005. This 16x4 meter concrete keyboard consists of 104 keys spaced 15 cm apart. From here the famous tourist route “Red Line” begins (a self-guided tour of the historic city center). The monument is located on the embankment of the Iset River next to the House of the Merchant Chuvildin (Gorkogo Street, 14A).

Ekaterinburg city of Russia photos

Places of interest in yekaterinburg.

Sculpture of talking townspeople in Yekaterinburg

Author: Pichugin Mikhail

Old buildings in Yekaterinburg

Author: Andrew Golovin

Wooden Church of the Holy Martyr Arkady in Yekaterinburg

Author: Kutenyov Vladimir

Street transport of Yekaterinburg

Tram in Yekaterinburg

Author: Andrey Permyakov

Bus in Yekaterinburg

Author: Per Heitmann

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For sale 1 Bedroom, EKATERINBURG, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian Federation, Sherbaova 77

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For sale - Cod. 29133

• Tipology: 1 Bedroom
• Area: 43 m²
• Rooms No.: 1
• Publication date announcement: 26/08/2016

Hello, we are the owners, Irina and Oleg. We sell a bright, comfortable and very beautiful flat, designed in a Scandinavian style. The flat created "for himself", but forced to sell due to moving to Moscow. ( We bought and renovated this flat for us but we have time sell it due to ...) The flat is located in a picturesque location near the Uktus mountains. The residential complex Stony Brook. In the flat: - All necessary equipment. (Dishwasher, washing machine, oven, refrigerator, range hood, stove, TV, microwave, coffee machine) - 2 wardrobes - Ennobled balcony where you can enjoy beautiful views of the forest and mountains, and dream about the most valuable. - Cable TV, wireless internet. - Increased size of window openings make the flat extremely bright. - All items and accessories are in the flat. In building: - High-speed elevator otis, which descends directly into the underground parking. - Concierge. - Courtyard complex located on the podium, which is located at 3 floors. House territory developed according to modern requirements - as a sport, and a playground with a safe finish. - On the first floor there is a trading gallery with a large grocery store, pharmacy, children's and sports goods, cafés and restaurants. The complex has a fitness club. Area: - In walking distance from the complex there is a shopping center "Globus" Waterpark "Limpopo", sports complex, "Planet IGRIK" (children's entertainment center), ICE (fitness center), the ski slopes and ski resorts, subway Botanica. - 8 km to the center. - 100 m bus stop

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