Tony Castro Superyacht Design at the LYJAPCS

Currently exhibiting at the London Yacht, Jet & Prestige Car Show (LYJAPCS), British company Tony Castro Superyacht Design has recently released two new superyacht concepts; a 62 metre sailing yacht designed in collaboration with the Turkish shipyard Sunrise Yachts, as well as a 72 metre power superyacht. We talked to Tony Castro today at the show, who told us a little more about these projects, as well as shared his thoughts on the success of the inaugural London show so far.

Introducing the sailing yacht concept, Castro says, “The 62 metre was a project that started in conversation with the owner of Sunrise Shipyards. We have talked about sailing yachts for many years because that is what he likes. We decided to develop a boat that was under the limit of the 500 GRT, which is kind of a sweet spot between the rules that are manageable, and the rules that become much more onerous, difficult to apply and expensive. So we developed the biggest possible boat within that geometric space. Hopefully we will go forward with it - I’m still waiting for the final go ahead.”Moving on to the 72, Castro continues, “The motivation behind the 72 comes from a lot of enquiries in the past 12 months in the 66 to 73 metre sizes. It appears that that is another what we like to call sweet spot. It’s a size that allows you to do a number of things well. If you shrink it below a certain figure you might have a real problem fitting the right machine or the right thing. If you go just a metre or two metre, suddenly you’ve got the correct space for everything. The 72 was an answer to some enquiries we have had this year. It’s also an attempt to make an elegant boat, rather than something a little too mad or crazy.”

With the third and final day of the LYJAPCS drawing to a close this evening, we asked Castro what his impressions have been so far. Castro was positive about the potential of the show, voicing some slight criticisms concerning the date of the event, though remaining hopeful that the Show will continue to improve and expand over the next few years. He says, “We didn’t have big expectations of the show as it’s the first one. For me, London is the right place for a design, luxury, best shipyard kind of show, I don’t think it’s the place for yachts in the water. There are better places for that - like Monaco - but I think this is a much better place for accessibility. A lot of our potential owners have houses in London, even if they don’t live here all the time. It’s a perfect destination.

“This is a place to gather the best in our industry, and it should be a nice place for potential owners to come through as well. I fear the owners are on a ski holiday right now though, so it’s perhaps not the right date. If the Show becomes successful, then the venue may also be a bit small. There’s still a lot of things that can be put right, but I’m sure that they will do that.”