Considered the maestro of yacht design, Jon Bannenberg would often wow new clients by sketching loose, flamboyant designs on the backs of menus during restaurant meetings, then insist on total control of the project, down to the type of teaspoons used on board. He became known not only for his bold concepts but for a laser-like attention to detail, and clients were rarely disappointed.
Bannenberg's first yachting project was a two-storey lounge for the massive QE2, flagship of the Cunard Line for over 30 years and arguably the most famous liner in the world. It turned out to be a light-filled space featuring a semi-circular staircase with curved glass sides. That lounge, and several highly innovative yacht interiors, lured Lurssen to his studio. The German yard gave him carte blanche to design the 72-metre motoryacht Carinthia V, a vessel Bannenberg later wrote was considered avant-garde in 1973. Three decades on, she was deemed a classic. Such was his influence that Bannenberg's avant-gardes eventually became the superyacht world's go-to designs.
The 73-metre Coral Island has a similar backstory, though nobody knew it for 22 years. After Lurssen launched the Bannenberg-designed yacht in 1994, the owner, Saudi Arabian businessman Abdulmohsen Abdulmalik Al Sheikh, kept her so secret that she gained almost cult status. Last year, after a refit by Bannenberg & Rowell, Coral Island not only emerged from yachting's X-Files as Coral Ocean, she became available to the public for charter through Nigel Burgess.
With Al Sheikh's carte blanche, Bannenberg pursued a Polynesian beach-house theme, buying the entire collection of a Manhattan gallery specialising in South Pacific art. In the wrong hands the interior could have turned kitsch, but Bannenberg subtly balanced the tribal art with rough-hewn marble, driftwood furniture and fractured glass seashells. So intricately detailed is the yacht, years ahead of her time, that features such as seashell handles look right at home next to fine crystal. The maestro also created the superyacht world's first beach club, complete with steam room, gym and spa.
Dickie Bannenberg, the designer's son and a partner at Bannenberg & Rowell, had not seen the yacht since the original launch party two decades earlier. He found her immaculate. "She represents an anti-timewarp in a way," he said. "Far from looking like an uncovered bit of history, she looked every bit as fresh and cutting edge as she did when my father created her. The original brief from the commissioning owner was for an interior that was anti-bling. He didn't want gold and marble. It was the first time someone had designed an interior with such a casual feeling, with tribal and ethnic elements."
Living aboard a masterpiece, rather than a typical charter yacht, is an inspiring experience, with artistic beauty at every turn. The signature bronze staircase has its own waterfall. The pool on the upper deck has a wide porthole that extends through the wall, allowing guests on the terrace below a clear view into the water, with its tree-like red coral motif tiled into the wall. That same branch, Coral Ocean's icon, is emblazoned on the steam-room walls.
Life aboard runs much as it does on most superyachts, with a crew of 19 and a professional chef catering to the whims of up to 12 guests. The most fortunate stay in the master suite on the upper deck, a bedroom surrounded by a semi-circle of glass windows. The king-sized bed at its centre rises and lowers for guests who wish to enjoy the view from its confines, while a skylight overhead floods it with natural light. The apartment also has a wood-clad bathroom with a soaking tub and, for good measure, an ancient Incan headdress with feathers.
The one-of-a-kind VIP suite has its own en-suite bathroom and dressing room, and connects to a private study that doubles as a television room, finished in burr-birch panelling, oak floor and parchment wallpaper. Below decks are four further guest cabins, two doubles and two twins, adorned with Indonesian art. Throughout the yacht is handmade driftwood furniture from an English artisan, colourful and finished with mother-of-pearl shell handles, lending a beach-house feel without showiness.
Dining, an indispensable part of the experience, happens in the formal dining room, papered in silver-leaf tree bark, where two tables become one by inserting a piece of wall panelling as a centrepiece. The main salon pairs burr-birch chairs and ethnic artwork with fractured glass tables by an Italian artisan; its entire side glass wall opens outwards to admit warm winds for barefoot elegance.
The exterior is all about play. Guests can swim in the top deck's counter-current pool, sun themselves on loungers or gather at the covered bar, with the vessel able to accommodate a party of up to 100. On the deck below, a dining table for 12 delivers al-fresco meals, while glass panels slide into place for wind protection on blustery days. There is, of course, a garage of tenders, jet skis, Seabobs and other water toys, alongside such innovations, now mainstays, as fold-out balconies, indoor water features and an onboard gym and spa.
