Moby Dick on Steroids

Call us Ishmael. Or, call us Looney
Tunes. It comes under the heading of "we couldn’t make this stuff up," but Kevin
Schopfer, a Boston, Mass. architect, could and has. Now we believe in thinking out
of the box, but Schopfer is clearly farther out than that. Hey, the man thinks big!
This creation is supposed to be 247’ long and cost $95 million. Paul Allen and Larry
Ellison already have boats, and we don’t think they need any more. But what do we
know, boating has never been about need, anyway. The project promoters claim to
have gotten the world-renowned design firm of Sparkman & Stephens involved with
this fishy stuff. Olin must be rolling over in his grave.

The planed seventy-six meter (247') long "Oculus," which is intended for 12 guests, is
designed to look like a sea creature and is just of two brainstorms that urban-planner
Schopfer has come up with. The other is a 91 meter (296’) design “based on the figure-of-eight
shape of an infinity loop. It is called, of course, “Infinitas.”

The
pair are the CAD-CAM creations of Kevin Schopfer, a Boston, Massachusetts-based architect
who felt the design of luxury yachts should move away from generic boat shapes into
something practical and more playful. Thankfully he didn’t pick jellyfish or a giant clam upon which to model his playful yacht designs.

The designs, which include
inside swimming pools and helipads, are still looking for someone to plop down the
cash to pay for them. With a starting price of $95 million for Oculus and $140 million
for Infinitas, they won't come cheap. But as we all know, there is a billionaire
born every minute. And, wow, will these things hold their value at resale time.

"There are several potential clients interested in both Oculus and
Infinitas and discussions are ongoing," he told CNN. "And we are also working on
several more yachts."



We guess things must be pretty bad in the urban planning industry
to have this architect jumping into megayacht design. Pssst…someone should blow
in Schopfer’s ear that the Russians are out of the market.


From Schopfer’s website---



Schöpfer Yachts was founded in 2008 as a US based company dedicated to the pursuit
of advanced yacht aesthetics and technology.



Schöpfer Yachts is among a new breed
of yacht companies, which will secure strategic alliances with the world’s finest
naval architects and shipyards.



This strategy will allow the flexibility to explore
a wide range of design venues while insuring these designs meet and exceed the highest
level of maritime standards.



To that end, we are pleased to announce that Sparkman
and Stephens (New York, Ft. Lauderdale and Newport) will be the naval architect
for our first venture, the Oculus.



As we enter the next generation of yachting design,
we offer our design collection to the global yachting community and to prospective
owners who share our vision of innovation and excellence.



To visit Schopfer’s site…http://www.schopferyachts.com/