[imagesource: Burgess]

A new trend in yacht design is emerging that combines retro-style with state-of-the-art technology.

Gresham Yacht Design recently released their concept plans for a gigayacht that looks like something out of a Star Trek film, with 1960s inspired interiors encompassing spaceship-esque curves, a floating glass floor, and 20th-century furniture.

Yacht enthusiast Jonathan Turner has taken things in the other direction. Instead of building a new yacht, he has updated a yacht from the mid-20th century with modern amenities.

Robb Report is impressed, and has named it ‘Boat of the Week’.

The authentic 121-footer ‘Fair Lady’ was built in 1928 by Camper & Nicholsons, with interiors designed by Charles E. Nicholson, one of the most famous names in yacht design in the early years of the last century.

The upgrades to the interior were conceptualised by yacht designer John Munford.

This unlikely dream-team of two designers separated by a century has resulted in a unique yacht.

Image: Burgess

Fair Lady’s mahogany-paneled walls and Art Nouveau furniture ooze original character, while the contemporary adaptations provide every modern comfort on board.

Image: Burgess

The Yacht’s original wheel and brass binnacle, for example, are installed  alongside the very latest electronics and navigational equipment.

Image: Burgess

The card room on the main deck retains the original pearwood detailing and the “chairs are the same as when it was built,” says Turner. “We know that because we’ve got the original photos.”

Image: Burgess

Image: Burgess

Fair Lady is Turner’s first yacht, but not his first vintage acquisition. He also owns a series of vintage cars, including a XK140 Jaguar and eight vintage Bentleys, one of which he drove in the Monte Carlo Rally.

If you want a vintage Bentley, there’s one for sale in Jozi for R400k.

Back to the yacht:

Since undergoing a significant refit at Pendennis in 2006, Fair Lady has had several return trips to the U.K. shipyard for maintenance. “It costs a fortune every year to get the timber varnished,” Turner says.

Image: Burgess

“It’d be so easy to cut costs and paint it, but that’s not what you do with antique furniture. I love old furniture, it’s got character and was built properly. Fair Lady is basically an Edwardian house on the water.”

Image: Burgess

The yacht boasts a sundeck with a breakfast nook, while each of the guest cabins is fitted with 1920s telephones (when was the last time you used the word ‘telephones’?) that have been converted to plug into a modern socket.

An old-fashioned radio has also been converted into an MP3 player.

Image: Burgess

“Everything on board–the doors, the handrails, the master cabin–is the same as when it was built,” says Turner. “I don’t want anybody to go on that boat, with all its charm and beauty, and see anything modern.”

Turner says that he doesn’t spend as much time on the yacht as he’d like.

He does plan on getting 12 friends together to “have some fun on board” in the near future.

Sounds like a good time.

[source:robbreport]