by Louis Postel | Showboats International | November 2015
Here’s how it goes.
“You must tell us what can we bring.”
“Nothing. Nothing at all, really — just bring your beautiful selves.”
However, it takes a special act of will to show up at a yacht warming party empty handed. It just feels weird. Especially when you’re a guest on some fabulous M/Y looking forward to being wined and dined for a week at sea.
What, then, to get for this yacht that has everything? Owners, designers, builders, crew — they’ve already gone over every square inch twice over to ensure its style and comfort. No doubt there isn’t a cocktail shaker or cheese tray whose merits haven’t been evaluated as thoroughly as the stabilizers.
But don’t let that bother you, because any of the following items will surely earn exclamations of “Oh, you shouldn’t have!”
Bring some Top Brass
The deep chime of the Chelsea Ship’s Bell clock has a clarity and confidence-inspiring tone like no other time machine. Dial it back to the 1940s. There you see its face appear like a harvest moon on the mantle between President Truman and General Eisenhower. Wind forward to 1952 and there it is again with Winston Churchill on the U.S.S. Williamsburg. Wind forward past Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford with various Chelsea clocks to 1978, and there you see a confident, bare-chested Aristotle Onassis posing with his very own on the back cover of Frank Brady’s biography, “An Extravagant Life.” 8 ½ inch brass Ship’s Bell, $3,500. 8 ½ inch brass barometer, $2,600. http://www.chelseaclock.com/
Bring them some Girl Curls
Known for his Versace perfume bottles and home accessories for Helmut Lang, designer Tino Valentinitsch teamed with Wiener Silber to create a modern twist on the long ringlets worn by Viennese ladies of the Biedermeier era. Note how the domed base of his “Curls Bowl” functions like a convex mirror, creating a play of reflections. A special Wiener Silber alloy of 94% silver makes those ringlets especially warm and inviting to the touch in the way daughters might reach up to their mother’s locks. 12,360 euros. Photo: Klaus Fritsch
http://www.wienersilbermanufactur.com/cms/en/products/contemporary/idart_445-content.html
Bring something by an auteur of M/Y interiors.
Jessica, Endeavour, Shamrock, Velsheda, Margaux Rose, Creole, Borkumriff, Rora V, Aurora, Anekena, Mari Cha III, Fair Lady, Northern Light, Detroit Eagle, Reverie, Tiara, Meteor and Archimedes…Need we go on? All are yachts by this magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 Winner John Munford, who began his career as a student at The London College of Furniture in the early 1960s. Munford’s folding director’s chairs for Summit demonstrates on a micro level what he now does so deftly on a macro — reconciling the sleek with the comfortable. $1550.00 each. http://www.summitfurniture.com/product/sd346/?tax=type#/type/folding-stacking
Give them a good read in bed. Short of that give them enough light to read it by. The multiple award winning Lady 7 lamp by Kenneth and Edmund Ng for Koncept Lighting has a name and wispy silhouette that suggests her big sister could be a sleek M/Y — named Lady 77, perhaps. Using LED’s, Lady 7 stays pretty cool, making those ugly and ubiquitous heat sink fins finally obsolete. $2,600.00 http://www.koncept.com/Lady7
Give them the gift of fewer dermo appointments.
This watermelon-colored double-decker from Santa Barbara Umbrella acts like a people magnet at high noon. Best to have them customized for M/Y’s at Chatham Refinishing with fabric under-linings (sky blue!), double wind vents, and most importantly custom bases with or without wheels. Price on request. http://www.chathamrefinishing.com/Showroom/UmbrellasShade.aspx