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Lady May: Inside the 46m Feadship superyacht

Update : This superyacht was named Como when launched but has since been sold and renamed Lady May . BOAT International was invited on board for a first look at Como in 2014, when she was owned by New Zealand businessman and former racecar driver Neville Crichton.

I first encountered Neville Crichton more than 20 years ago while researching an article about a boat built for him in his home country, New Zealand. I wrote then: ‘Crichton has a habit of thinking about ways to improve things. Race cars, business ventures, sailboats – it makes no difference. He restlessly turns things over in his mind looking for ways to optimise everything in his life.’

Some things never change. As I tour Neville Crichton’s motor yacht,  Como , a 46 metre Feadship, project manager Ludo van der Lelie points out functional details, storage spaces and crew area features resulting from Neville Crichton’s trips to the yard during construction. It is classic Crichton-isation.

Neville Crichton also relied on the talents of the same design team, Dubois Naval Architects, which has designed eight yachts for this owner, and the interior design firm Redman Whiteley Dixon (RWD).

Como : an unexpected yacht for Feadship

As logical as  Como  is in the evolution of Neville Crichton’s taste and yachting experience, she is an unexpected yacht for Feadship. It’s been 16 years since either the Van Lent or De Vries yard built a raised pilothouse motor yacht, and few are the all-aluminium motor yachts with a Feadship badge. Yet there is no denying the quality and diversity of Feadship’s aluminium yachts,  Sussurro ,  Venus  and  Gallant Lady  among them. Aluminium is the perfect material for semi-displacement yacht designs where speed and/or efficiency and shallow draught are more important than volume.

By its very nature, the raised pilothouse shines in terms of visibility, access to the working deck, crew circulation and crew quarters, and stability for those on watch. Access to the bridge is easy and unintimidating for owner and guests. Perhaps the most significant element of a raised pilothouse motor yacht is that its low profile obviates the necessity for foldout terraces or transforming transoms to allow passengers to have a relationship with the ocean.

Dubois has been working with this style since 2003, and Alloy Yachts has built five to his designs, including one for Neville Crichton, the 2007 41.4 metre  Como . But with this new boat, Dubois has drawn a race car enthusiast’s motor yacht: a 19-knot head-turner that looks like she’s always ready to run. Her silver metallic paint dazzles, and the glass that goes on forever is as perfectly undistorted as the windscreen of any of the cars Neville Crichton used to race, except much of this glass goes up and down at the touch of a button.

Re-designing the new  Como

Neville Crichton also loves projects. According to Malcolm McKeon, formerly with Dubois Naval Architects, Crichton began talking about a new motor yacht when the last one was barely a year-and-a-half old.

‘When I began thinking about a new boat,’ Neville Crichton says, ‘my idea was just a larger version of [the 41.4 metre]  Como , but it was the height of the global financial crisis and even though Australia came through that pretty well, I just wasn’t excited,’ Neville Crichton says. The new drawing lay untouched. ‘Then [about 12 months later] Ed and Malcolm went back to the drawing board and came up with something that really worked for my lifestyle.’

‘Instead of stretching the current  Como , we went back to scratch, back to first principles,’ says Dubois. ‘Create a seaworthy hull that can be easily driven to 19 knots with conventional power.’

By 2011, Dubois Naval Architects had come up with the package for a two-and-a-half deck, 46 metre boat, that had a more upright bow, and a lobster boat or whale back sheer-line, to supply a higher bow forward but low bulwarks next to the main saloon. Neville Crichton became enthused. The Dubois office proceeded with the engineering and tank tested the hull model for speed potential and spray at the bow. The bow has a rake of 16 per cent compared to the 40 degrees of other motor yachts off the Dubois boards. ‘We were worried about not having much bow overhang, so we created a massive knuckle to turn away the spray and widen the working area forward,’ explains Dubois.

‘At about the same time, [Feadship director] Henk de Vries approached me about building a new boat. I had the design package and frankly it appealed to my long-time desire to own a Feadship,’ Neville Crichton says. ‘At the beginning they were cautious, because it was the first time De Vries was working without drawings from De Voogt, and they had to build a relationship with my team. As the process progressed, this relationship developed very well, in particular through Malcolm working as a conduit for the communications.’

The superyacht designed for entertaining

Both Dubois and Justin Redman from RWD concur that apart from performance, the main driver of any design for Neville Crichton is its ability to support entertaining. ‘Neville is the consummate gracious host. That’s one of the reasons the flybridge works for him because you can have a lot of people together in an open environment,’ says Dubois. ‘Only this time a bit more grand,’ adds McKeon. ‘On the last  Como , the weather enclosure for the flybridge was plastic. This time, he wanted glass but we had to be able to remove it if he wanted the breeze.’

As a result, says Van der Lelie, the glass surround protecting the front of the flybridge is in three large distortion-free sections, each curved and mounted on a lift mechanism, and flat side panels to semi-enclose the space at the touch of a button. The flybridge hardtop contains fan coil units to distribute heated or cooled air so that it functions like an all-season outdoor living room with a large bar, dining space and large pieces of moveable furniture.

‘The boat is very liveable. The design means that we have enjoyed the effect of being outside but inside at the same time,’ says Neville Crichton.  Como ’s coming out party was none other than trackside as one of the yachts at the Monaco Grand Prix . ‘We had an absolute ball. We could look at part of the track [while enjoying] all the comforts of the boat. The combination of the position and the fact that we could see the jumbo screen, as well as the TV screens on the boat meant, from a spectating point of view, it was like being in a prime grandstand. At the same time, I could entertain 50 people on the flybridge comfortably. The boat is the centre of attention and allows me to entertain many friends. It is, without doubt, the best way to attend the Monaco Grand Prix.’

Responding to the brief that the boat must be a step up, Redman emphasised a key feature. ‘Often on these boats, the stairs are small and simple. We wanted to give the stairs more importance as you aren’t just going up to the deck, you are going to what, in essence, is another room, and the stairs down lead to really nice guest suites. We thought that since the themes of this boat are light and line height, the staircase should participate in that with openness and reflective surfaces. The light just bounces around from the white Thassos marble treads onto the polished stainless steel, and it’s brilliant. The stairs look twice as large and impressive as they are, adding to the illusion of even more height.’

Indeed, from the aft end of the saloon, they create a trompe l’oeil effect. The mirror-polished stainless steel runs up the stair surround and flows out across the saloon overhead as well to pull a visitor’s eye upward.

Dubois and RWD’s experience with sailing yachts had the yard wringing every bit of use out of the space between decks, rerouting plumbing stacks, HVAC and conduits to create maximum ceiling height and nearly full-height saloon windows.

Como  benefits from Feadship's glass technology research

Everywhere in the boat the potential for outside views is maximised, and this reaches its apex in the owner’s suite, where dark glass wraps the superstructure port and starboard and sweeps around the front, creating a room with substantial views. Of course, given the high bow and bulwarks mandated for dryness and seakeeping, the effect would have been lost except to those standing.

‘Our first thought was to cut a hole in the bulwarks so you could see out if you were sitting or lying in bed – and then we realised: “Right, how do we keep the water out?”’ says McKeon.

The answer was a six metre-long window in the bulwarks on either side. The designers wanted the look of an unbroken panel of glass flush with the metal. Not only did MCA and Lloyd’s impose tough restrictions on wave-impact resistance of those exterior windows, they insisted on significantly more aluminium stiffening the flange that surrounds the opening. Although Feadship has put extensive R&D into glass as a structural material beginning with its own X-Stream concept in 2006, the approvals process for tempered and chemically hardened and bonded glass is a shattering experience – literally.

‘The classification society requires extensive engineering studies on the glass panels, and even when they approve the plans, during construction all the panels have to be tested,’ says Van der Lelie. The Lloyd’s process requires that full-size samples of the pieces to be installed be presented for testing not just one, but multiple copies. In this case, the test was a 13-pound (5.9 kilo) weight dropped three times from a height of 26 feet (7.9 metres). Typically, if the sample passes the design specification, they will continue increasing the impact until the piece fails. ‘We did three tests of each of the wheelhouse panels and when those were successful, we only had to test the side pieces twice. It was a good thing the glass passed because we had already faired the sides of the hull to the thickness a 3D scan showed us was required for this glass to set flush with the metal when painted. If the glass had to been remade or the aluminium surround reconfigured, we would not have delivered on time.’

Belowdecks, the four guest suites each have one oversized, fixed, hull portlight lined up with the guest beds placed athwartships, which the surveyors told Feadship won’t be approved in the future. ‘That’s a shame because they make really great views. You can’t get around it by installing storm shutters for offshore passages because the storm shutters would just be too big and heavy for the crew to handle,’ says Van der Lelie.

The interior styling of  Como

Blurring the indoors and outdoors also extends to the saloon. ‘In most boats the saloon just doesn’t get used,’ says Redman. ‘The owner rarely uses the interior dining area so the exercise was to make the saloon space multifunctional, opening it up to the aft deck or making it cosy for watching a movie. The key element is the bar, which spills over from the saloon to the aft deck. When entertaining, the aft glass doors and the window that bisects the bar disappear, making one large social space, connected by adjacent stairs to the upper deck, which now has equal stature.’

The snug spot is the circular sofa in the centre of the saloon. Often, when you enter a saloon from the stern you see the back of a piece of furniture. On  Como , the entire seating area, including the coffee table and carpet, can rotate 360 degrees on a cushion of compressed air to face the aft deck, the bar, the 82-inch TV, the dining table or anywhere else.

Como ’s décor is overtly masculine and monochromatic. The scrubbed oak joinery that forms a backdrop for the owner and guest spaces contrasts with natural fabrics, glossy Macassar cabinets and details and stainless steel trim. RWD sourced the black-and-white photos that, along with a large piece of carved New Zealand jade, serve as the sole artwork aboard the yacht.

Como : a sophisticated superyacht

Neville Crichton pushed for optimum performance from a pair of Caterpillar C32s, the largest engines he would allow. After controlling interior weight as much as possible yet still installing the largest tender the stern garage could accommodate, meeting the contract speed solution came down to the performance of two small metal bars on the bottom of the hull just forward of the transom. ‘They function like interceptors, but they aren’t adjustable,’ says McKeon. ‘They are drilled and tapped into place and deflect just enough water when the yacht is going 10 knots or better to keep the stern from squatting and creating drag.’ Running at its 16-knot cruising speed,  Como  burns 380 litres per hour.

‘We are delighted to make our mark once again in this size range,’ comments de Vries. ‘Feadship is not only about very large superyachts: we also pride ourselves on creating exceptionally well-honed objects on a more human scale. We have used the very latest technologies and developments to push the window – and the windows – on what is surely the most sophisticated 46 metre superyacht in the world today.’

Superyacht  Como  specifications

Draught: 2.25m

Displacement: 352 tonnes

Gross tonnage: 406GT

Power: 2 X Caterpillar C32 ACERT

Speed (max/cruise) 19/16.5 knots

Range: 2,000nm @ 16.5 knots

Construction: Aluminium

Naval architecture and exterior design: Dubois Naval Architects

Interior design: Redman Whiteley Dixon

Owner's project manager: Steve Jacover Yacht Project Management

Builder/year: Feadship/2014

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Como: New 46m Feadship yacht launched for owner Neville Crichton

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Experienced yachtsman Neville Crichton has praised Feadship following the launch of his latest superyacht, the 46.2-metre semi-displacement Como...

“Having built many yachts in New Zealand, my choice of Feadship came after a careful and extensive examination of its expertise and facilities,” he says. “Once the decision to work with Feadship for the first time was made, I followed the construction process closely at all stages.

“I am pleased to be able to report that Feadship has exceeded my expectations. Working with them both professionally and personally has been an enjoyable experience, with a remarkable and unique superyacht as the end result.”

The custom-built Como features exterior design by Dubois Naval Architects. The yacht has unprecedentedly large windows in the hull with a great deal of glass in the superstructure: a continuous glass surface that enhances the environment inside, and gives spectacular uninterrupted views from the owner’s stateroom.

Neville Crichton (second right), with (from the right) Henk de Vries, Daniella Riccardi, Como’s designer Ed Dubois and Paul Ashton

Neville Crichton’s love of sporty designs manifests itself in the tumblehome in the superstructure. Como has two and a half decks – an exception for Feadship in recent times when most projects have had four or five.

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The wheelhouse is slightly recessed into the main deck structure, re-emphasising the streamline of the design while creating a gigantic outside deck – a wonderful party area surrounded by glass, which can be lowered and raised. The interior by Redman Whiteley Dixon features a number of dark timbers.

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“We are delighted to make our mark once again in this size range,” says Feadship director Henk de Vries. “Feadship is not only about very large superyachts . We also pride ourselves in creating exceptionally well-honed objects on a more human scale.

“And, like all our yachts, everything has been totally customised to the client’s individual requirements. We have used the very latest technologies and developments to create the windows on what is surely the most sophisticated 46m superyacht in the world.”

Neville Crichton was made Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth in 2012 for his services to yachting and business. He has previously built a large number of competitive sailing yachts in his native New Zealand and more recently owned a motor yacht from a leading New Zealand yard.

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The 2022 season represents a strong foundation for the J Class future

November 1, 2022

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The 2022 season has seen the J Class gather considerable momentum. After five years marked by limited and sporadic racing at mixed fleet regattas, this season followed a consolidated, popular programme of class racing at three great events in the Caribbean and Europe. In many senses this season has been the perfect first steps on the course to 2024 when a very strong fleet of J Class yachts look set to muster in Barcelona to take centre stage at J Class World Championship during the 37 th America's Cup period.

New owners breathed new life into two J Class campaigns and were rewarded with regatta wins on their respective debuts. As class racing returned to the Saint Barth's Bucket in March where three boats enjoyed classic Caribbean trade winds conditions, Ranger, took the top award ahead of Hanuman and Velsheda.

For the new, younger generation owner of Ranger, for whom their first ever racing sailboat is the 2003 built J Class, a debut win might have been unexpected. It was, however, a well-earned result for a team which is full of talent, with offshore and ocean racing experience fired by great enthusiasm with America's Cup winners Ed Baird on the helm and John Kostecki as tactician.

The theme of debutant winners continued in June at the Superyacht Cup Palma where the J Class returned in numbers for the first time since 2014. During last winter a trio of well-known Swedish entrepreneurs - who are all accomplished and passionate sailors - acquired the Swedish designed Svea from the USA, looking to enjoy racing with the class under the Swedish flag for the first time.

Under J Class world champion tactician and round the world racing ace Bouwe Bekking, a Svea team comprising a mix of experienced offshore racers as well as young, inshore 40-footer racers - most of whom had never been on board a J Class yacht quickly transformed into a regatta winning outfit. In mainly light winds on the Bay of Palma, all the competing J Class teams Svea, Topaz, Ranger and Velsheda - won races, but the Swedish flagged crew prevailed.

All four J Class teams, Svea, Topaz, Ranger and Velsheda sought to raise their game and peak at September's weeklong Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, widely known as the 'maxi worlds'. The annual Porto Cervo, Sardinia showcase saw a glittering, diverse turnout of top maxis and crews and all were delighted to see the J Class back racing as a group, with their own starts, on the beautiful Costa Smeralda waters. There was a good mix of light to fresh conditions over the course of the event, the highlights, as ever, being close, boat on boat racing in the La Maddalena archipelago and up and down 'bomb alley'.

With one of the owners steering, Svea proved a cut above. They won four races from the five starts, Velsheda winning the other, to clinch their second major regatta title of the season and lay down a marker for the 2023 season and beyond.

In Porto Cervo one of Svea's owners a past Maxi World Championship winner - enthused, "The word is majestic. These boats are 180 tons, and it is tight racing. It is so different. You need to get used to the anticipation and a few more turns on the wheel, you really have to work hard. We did not have expectations, this year was a learning curve, we just wanted to learn to sail the boat and so here we have overachieved."

Svea also won the Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club Corinthian Cup for the top owner-driver in the J Class at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.

By taking second place in Porto Cervo and winning the Saint Barth's Bucket Ranger lift the 2022 season title, the Kohler Cup, topping off an auspicious debut. The delighted Ranger owner remarked "It is an amazing accomplishment for a boat which I don't think people expected to do so well. It is really gratifying. And that is entirely down to the team."

The season of class racing was contested under the latest version of the updated J Class rule which has reached a proven level of reliability, in no small part because of the comprehensive number of races sailed and the volume of data processed and analysed by J Class Technical Director Chris Todter, who has worked hard to refine the rule to take account as many of the speed and stability inducing factors as possible.

Appointed in April, J Class Secretary Stuart Childerley quickly appraised the position of the class and got to know the owners and teams and their respective objectives for the short, medium and long term. He has taken on the initiative to develop a sustainable, long-term programme of events, taking account of the downturn after a peak at the 2017 J Class World Championships in Newport USA.

Childerley, an international race officer, two times Olympian, (Volvo) Ocean Race sailor and international keelboat champion, is positive about the future of the class, which is set to see more boats racing in 2023 and beyond. "We are pleased to know Rainbow is starting an extensive refit in Palma, likely ready to race in late summer 2023, while Svea is planning to continue cruising and racing in 2023. Lionheart and Velsheda have recently commenced deck replacement projects and hope to sail in June 2023. Hanuman is expected to continue cruising on the NE coast of the USA. Endeavour, based in Palma, is sailed regularly, Shamrock continues her refurbishment programme in the UK and owner Hugh Morrison is looking forward to racing her in 2024. "

Rainbow has been bought by passionate New Zealand racer Neville Crichton, and boat captain Matthew Sweetman reports, "We aim to have the boat out of the water at the end of November and do a full refit to bring her up to 2023 J Class racing standards. That will involve new teak decks, new paint, some work on the hydraulics. We aim to be on the water next year and we will see how we go before brining some new sails online. We want to do some training with some of the other boats before we go racing."

Sweetman expects Rainbow to be back in the water in July next year and reports that Erle Williams, who has a strong J Class track record previously on the helm of Ranger, will play a key role.

"We are looking forwards to getting the boat back racing, it is what they were designed to do. Everyone tells us Rainbow is a quick boat, but we will see. She has not really raced since Porto Cervo 2014 and we are eight, soon to be nine years down the line. Things have changed dramatically with the class since then, so we will see how we go when we are back in the water next year to see what else we need to do. We have a decent understanding of the class. Everyone is doing the same to make the boats faster and we need to see. With the America's Cup in Barcelona and Neville Crichton being a proud New Zealander, he wants to be there in a good position to compete at the front end of the fleet and Neville wants to fly the New Zealand flag."

The J Class programme for 2023 looks set to focus on the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, September 2023, and the Ibiza JoySail regatta, 28 September 1 October.

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Neville Crichton has Transformed Sailing Industry

New Zealand born and bred, Neville Crichton’s humble beginning on a farm in the South Island is a far cry from where he is today, 72 years later.

Crichton is the executive chairman of one of the largest independent importer and distributor of vehicles in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – the Ateco Group – an ex-competitive racing driver for a number of prestigious teams around the world including BMW and Ford, an avid yachtsman taking first place on a long list of regattas over the past five decades, and a serial yacht owner.

Over the past 50 years, Crichton estimates that he has owned over 50 boats in total – with a sizeable portion of those hailing from the shipyard he founded in the 80s: Alloy Yachts.

It was Crichton’s passion for competitive sailing that led to the birth of Alloy Yachts and, subsequently, the jump-starting of the superyacht industry in New Zealand. Experiencing a sense of dissatisfaction with the sailing yachts on the market (“I just couldn’t find a boat builder that I was confident in being able to do what I wanted them to do,” he remembers) lead Crichton to what would be Alloy Yachts’ first vessel: Chanel.

Though Alloy closed its doors in 2015, Crichton talks about his latest interest with SuperYacht Times , the Dutch shipyard Feadship.

Just because motor is not Crichton’s main passion, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t strive for innovation and the creation of the very best. The motor yacht that probably most accurately demonstrates this is the 46.22-metre Feadship-built Como (now; Lady May), delivered in 2011.

Currently enjoying the Heesen Como, which he plans to sell next season after purchasing her in 2017, for Crichton, the next 12 months will be spent figuring out where he wants to build a new superyacht. With plans to build at Feadship again at some point, it will certainly be interesting to see what new innovations come from the mind of Neville Crichton on his next boat.

In 2012, Crichton was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and yachting.

Original article by Gemma Fottles, SuperYacht Times , January 22, 2018.

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Excellence in absentia

When it comes to prolific yacht owners, it’s pretty hard to top Neville Crichton . He is quick to point out that he has owned and raced numerous iconic Maxi yachts. His sailing plaudits also include first place finishes in the Fastnet, Sydney-Hobart and Transpac among other iconic offshore races. And now that he has bought and is in the process of refitting the classic J-Class yacht Rainbow to be ready to compete in 2024, it’s obvious his yacht racing interests are not confined to the newest technology.

He has also been a prolific yacht builder , who has commissioned more than 50 yachts during his decades-long sailing career. In addition to owning and skippering highly decorated racing yachts, he has also owned a series of large aluminum sailing and motor yachts designed by Ed Dubois and built by a company he founded in the 1980s, Alloy Yachts.

But that was then.

He bought his current yacht, the 49-metre Heesen Como (formerly Monaco Wolf ) , during the pandemic. In fact, he bought it sight unseen. “It was a good boat at a good price,” he says via Zoom from his Australia-based office. He bought it based on advice of a trusted friend, because he couldn’t actually go see the boat in person during the Covid lockdown.

Crichton is also quick to point out that he could tell by the photos that the boat’s older interior design was not up to his standards. And that’s when he called some other friends he trusted–Luca Boldrini and Francesca Muzio of FM Archittura in Milan.

“As you know, Neville is a very important yacht owner,” says Luca Boldrini. “We met a few years ago because he liked our style. And then he calls us during the worst part of the pandemic and says, ‘Guys, I really like to work with you on a boat. I trust you very much but I’m stuck in Australia so I cannot go to see the boat.

“Can you do me a favor? Can you go to take a look of the boat and let me know what you think? I can see from the photos that the interior is a little bit too flashy for me. I want you to tone it down and simplify it. But I want to make it more essential. I want to make it more modern. I want it to have a calming feeling.” Of course Boldrini said yes. “But you know, Neville has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to anticipating what he and just as importantly his potential yacht buyers want,” adds Francesca Muzio. “And that’s why we’ve loved  working with such an important yacht owner. I mean yes , it was a challenge because he pushed us beyond our vision. But it was worth it.

In the end, their redesigned interior has a soothing feel that was inspired by Luca and Francesca’s design work in Asia. “We did the refit very quickly,” says Francesca. “Because of course Neville wants everything to be done quickly. But we love how this has come out, because it brings the calming feeling of nature into the yacht.”

As you can see from what the interior looked like before the refit and after, the use of warm wood, calming colors and soft textures has created an entirely new experience throughout the yacht. The clever louvred wall panels not only soften the intrusion of the tender storage bays, they also make the main saloon more intimate as well. Add elegantly designed bespoke furniture, deep pile carpets and sophisticated lighting and voila , you get an entirely new yacht — during a pandemic, for an owner who never got to see it in person.

Being the trendsetter that he is, Neville knows that owners want yachts that make it easy to connect to nature. People want to own and enjoy yachts not only because of their style, but because of the lifestyle that well-designed superyachts make possible. And when it comes to the superyacht owner lifestyle, few have the vison that Neville Crichton has.

Words by Bill Springer

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Published on December 14th, 2017 | by Editor

Comanche finds new owner Down Under

Published on December 14th, 2017 by Editor -->

Comanche, the innovative record-breaking 100 foot maxi yacht designed by VPLP and Guillaume Verdier and launched in 2014 for Jim and Kristy Clark, has been sold to Australian Jim Cooney.

The yacht was to compete in the 628 nm Sydney Hobart Race as LDV Comanche under partnership between Clark and two-time race winner Neville Crichton, but the last-minute sale now will have Sydney skipper Cooney at the helm.

“I have stepped down as skipper, we still have sponsorship for the boat, and if for any reason he can’t do it, I will step back into this shoes,” Crichton said.

Crichton had assembled a world-class crew for the race – including America’s Cup skipper James Spithill and many of the men who raced her to victory in the 2015 Hobart race. The crew will stay aboard while Cooney, daughter Julia, son James and Waratah Jeremy Tilse join the crew.

“We are all just so excited about doing the race on her, she is one not the most remarkable yachts in the world. I’ve actually never sailed it before. We are all going sailing on Tuesday (Dec. 19) to understand what sort of beast she is.’’

The new ownership means every supermaxi on the start line of the Sydney to Hobart will be racing for an Australian victory. The other three are Black Jack (previously Alfa Romeo), Infotrack (previously Perpetual Loyal), and Wild Oats XI.

“How amazing that pretty much the four fastest boats in the world are now all Australian owned,” said Cooney, chairman and major shareholder of TCI Renewables, a wind energy development company.

“This year competition is fierce, with the strongest line up of super maxis ever seen in one race. Depending on conditions, any of the 100 footers could take line honours, it threatens be one of the best races in the history of the event.”

The race starts on Boxing Day at 1300hrs AEDT and will be broadcast live on the Seven Network throughout Australia.

Event details – Entry list – Facebook

Source: perthnow.com

Tags: Comanche , Jim Clark , Neville Crichton , Sydney Hobart

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Owner of Feadship motor yacht COMO wins Baccarat SuperYachtWorld Trophy

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Written by Zuzana Bednarova

Feadship is pleased to announce that Sir Neville Crichton, the owner of the Feadship motor yacht Como , has been honoured with the Baccarat SuperYachtWorld Trophy . The prize was presented to Sir Neville on board the 46-metre superyacht Como, which is presently on display at the Monaco Yacht Show 2014.

Baccarat SuperYachtWorld Trophy for the Owner of Feadship super yacht Como - Sir Neville Crichton

The Baccarat SuperYachtWorld Trophy is bestowed on an owner who, through a career of ownership, has had the vision and passion to steer superyachting into new areas of technology and creativity. Sir Neville was one of a shortlist of well-known owners, which also included Eddie Jordan, John Staluppi and Shahid Khan.

“The fact that Sir Neville Crichton won the award against such prestigious competition speaks volumes for his services to superyachting and for his new Feadship Como,” comments Feadship’s director Henk de Vries, who joined a select audience of guests to witness the trophy being presented.

“At Feadship we are used to working with incredibly inventive clients to create incredible custom superyachts. The partnership with Sir Neville has been a fine example of how this works in practice, as an owner is given carte blanche to put our promise of perfection to the test. This award is further testimony to the success of the Como project.”

Luxury motor yacht Como on display at the 2014 Monaco Yacht Show

While Sir Neville is a highly experienced owner, luxury yacht Como was his first custom Feadship. The yacht features an innovative exterior profile, with an unprecedented use of glass panels all the way round the yacht and a radical mast design. Feadship’s craftsmanship can also be seen in her exterior metallic paint, praised by the class association for being unprecedented in its beauty.

Como superyacht has a ‘two-and-a-half deck’ layout. This incorporates Sir Neville’s specific request for a climate-controlled flybridge that serves the raised pilothouse lifestyle he so enjoys. The interior by Redman Whiteley Dixon features a masculine yet calming design based primarily on high-gloss Macassar ebony.

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Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "Owner of Feadship motor yacht COMO wins Baccarat SuperYachtWorld Trophy".

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Neville 'Croaky' Crichton receives New Zealand Honour

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Record updated 04-Jun-06

Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2024

With 143 line honours wins to her name, more recently a race record win in the 2009 Transpac, Alfa Romeo is one of the most successful yachts in the sport.  Skippered by 2002 Rolex Sydney Hobart winner Neville Crichton with a previous boat, Alfa Romeo will prove a formidable opponent to this year’s many line honours challengers.  One of five 100 footers in the starting line-up following the CYCA’s extension of the maximum length overall, Alfa Romeo, combined with the considerable talents of its international crew, including America's Cup sailors, is a line honours favourite.

Link here to interviews with crew of Alfa Romeo:

Neville Crichton, with Mark Richards (skipper of Wild Oats XI) at a press conference after the race briefing - 24 December 2009

Neville Crichton, Owner Skipper - 28 December 2009 after finishing

Tom Addis, Navigator - 28 December 2009 after finishing

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Shop the official clothing range of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in person at the Club in New South Head Road, Darling Point or online below.  

From casual to technical clothing, there is something for all occasions. Be quick as stock is limited!

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Neville 'Croaky' Crichton receives New Zealand Honour

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