Benetti Lady Estey: a Gatsby inspired custom superyacht

The Benetti Lady Estey is the new B.Now 67M with Oasis Deck representing a milestone for the shipyard. Through a combination of a versatile layout and a completely tailor-made interior style, this 67-metre is a part of Benetti’s Steel Legacy, perfectly embodying the shipyard’s desire to provide extraordinary experience for owners and their guests, with a design that is a synthesis of shape, function and high-end finishings. For this new design, Benetti worked closely with RWD for the exterior, with Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design for the interior and Engage Maritime as the owner’s representative.

A tailor-made yacht

Lady Estey underscores the flexibility offered by Benetti, which personalised a number of elements to satisfy the owner, who was looking for a custom interior style. There are a number of customisations: from the rectangular elevator to the central staircase in marble with glass balustrade, wider corridors for passengers and personalised fire doors for the cabins, down to the pools. In addition to the infinity pool on the Oasis Deck, the yacht includes a pool with spa on the Observation Deck and a 40cm deep pool on the forward owner Deck (with a waterfall effect to the stern).

Among the other distinctive elements are a gym and a spa on the Lower Deck (with sauna, Turkish bath and massage parlour), a main salon with a grand piano opening onto the cockpit and Oasis Deck, and an Upper Deck that is fully reserved for the owner (with a forward suite and private salon to the stern). Event the aft Upper Deck (with open air living area and dining table) is for the owner’s exclusive use: there is no staircase connecting it to the Main Deck.

Inside out

The B.Now 67M was created to blur the lines between indoors and outdoors, and both the interior are exterior have a refined style. The Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design team, who, for the original concept used a light colour palette, reinterpreted the design to include dark wooden panels, lacquered finishes and contrasting tones. The strong visual impact of the Lady Estey is testimony to the talents of the designers and the shipyard’s skill in creating spaces that communicate harmoniously with the marine environment.

Although the original concept included light, natural materials, the client asked to step away from this style to create a yacht with gloss materials for a rich and appealing taste. The studio adopted a Gatsby-type style, adored by the owner, and reinterpreted it by creating contemporary spaces, rich with materials and finishings yet harmonious. To do this, sycamore, ebony, wenge, ziricote and makassar woods were used, along with selected marbles. The entire process was the result of close collaboration between the designers and Benetti, selecting materials in line with the overall style of the project, with a curated design using an umber of metal inserts and wainscotting panels, made using a specialist process.

The style of the interiors expands harmoniously throughout the entire guest area, both in style and to highlight the equality between all those who come on board: anywhere one walks on the yacht, they need to feel they are all on the same vessel. The team began with the main salon, the stairs and owner’s suite, transposing those elements throughout the rest of the yacht: the client asked that every passenger cabin be finished with the same style and luxury materials as his suite. The custom staircase is one of the more iconic elements of Lady Estey, as it marks a style transition between the dark tones of the guest areas and the lighter ones of the staircase, finished using Calcutta marble with metallic inserts. The glass balustrade, a custom element requiring great expertise to manufacture, defines the identity of the yacht, turning into a true piece of art.

Blending in

In the case of Lady Estey, one of the main challenges was integrating such a distinctive interior style with the exterior, a key part of the B.Now 67M’s design. Although the materials do not match perfectly, continuity between interior and exterior was ensured by coordinating the tones and width of the interior durmast flooring with the teak outside on the decks, or by using materials on the indoor ceilings similar to that used outdoors. This coordination underscores the harmony between indoor and outdoor spaces in the B.Now series.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS – BENETTI LADY ESTEY

Length f.t.: 67 m

Max. Width: 11.2 m

Maximum Depth: 3.1 m

Gross Tonnage: 1300 GT

Hull and Superstructure: Steel / Aluminium

Displacement with full-load: 1232 t

Fuel tank capacity: 110000 l

Water tank capacity: 30000 l

Owner and Passenger Cabins: 1 Owner cabin – 6 guest cabins / 14 people

Crew Cabins: 1 captain cabin – 9 crew cabins / 17 people

Main Engines: 2x CATERPILLAR 3512E , 1350 kW, 1600 rpm

Generators: 3x CATERPILLAR C7.1 150 eKW, 1500 rpm

Forward propeller: 1x SCHOTTEL 200 kW

Stabilisers: NAIAD

Maximum speed: 16 knots

Autonomy at cruising speed: 4500 nm at 12 knots

Interior Designer: Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design

Exterior Design: RWD

Naval Architecture: Pierluigi Ausonio Naval Architecture

Builder: Benetti

Classification: LLOYD’S REGISTER / CAYMAN ISLANDS

By Manuela Sciandra