Seeking simplicity

Nick Boksa decide to create a small superyacht.

While media attention may often centre on the largest yachts and concepts, US designer Nick Boksa of Boksa Marine Design has decided to explore the smaller superyacht realm with his newest 38m concept series.

“After attending the American Superyacht Forum in Las Vegas in May, I was inspired to design new concepts to match the expectations and interests of a growing segment of potential yacht owners,” says Boksa, who stresses that most buyers will actually focus their interest on custom-designed yachts in the 25m to 38m range.

“I think new owners might be looking for simplicity,” he told us. “Most will not be familiar with what is required for designing, building, operating and maintaining a large custom yacht. The details regarding financing, staffing, insurance, docking, etc. might be vague to them and when looked at as a whole could be intimidating. What we want to provide is a simplified experience in the area where we are most involved … design and construction.”

The series will cover the 25m to 38m range, but Boksa has initially started by focusing on the intermediate size, the 38m. “This is large enough to have most of the features for privacy, crew capacity, entertainment spaces, guest quarters and water toy storage that larger yachts have,” he says. “But it is not so large that it requires a small army of crew and can get into most of the popular marinas on the east coast and around the Caribbean.” The studio want to offer owners and clients a starting point; the chance to design a yacht based on a spec platform that can be customised with various layouts and styling features.

For Boksa, the industry needs to be made more accessible for new owners, particularly the US market. The American market is still more substantial than Europe and China in terms of potential buyers. “There is a tremendous amount of new wealth be created through the recovery of the economy, as slow as it may seem,” he says. “I would also like to see an effort to pull buys back to the domestic US market for design and construction. It wasn’t very long ago that we used to be first in the world in the custom yacht industry.”

The truth remains that the number of UHNWIs who actually own superyachts is still fairly low, but Boksa emphasises that it is up to designers and builders to generate excitement for yachting and exploration. “This new 38m concept series captures the essence of yachting, combining expeditionary elements with both traditional and contemporary styling,” he says. “Styling details can be customised to suit individual owner’s tastes. These yachts have been designed to appeal to those wishing to charter the vessel, as the size is marketable within the charter community, but the series can be scaled up to 76m.”