YACHT SEAGOING STYLE

Understated Luxury Tailored For Life On The Water

Interior Design by S. Marc Thee
Text by Beth Dunlop
Photography by Kim Sargent

The yacht Bubba Too sits high in the water at its berth in Palm Beach, Florida. it is a striking and distinctive boat, at once sleek and tall. Stretching 156 feet, the tri-deck oceangoing vessel is one of the longest American-made molded-aluminum yachts in the world. Inside, it is a richly detailed realm of burnished woods, muted hues and gossamer shadows. "We wanted it to have an underlying candlelit quality," says Marc Thee, the yacht's interior designer.

Bubba Too was crafted to the owners' specifications at Broward Marine, the Fort Lauderdale boatbuilder known for its sophisticated, streamlined nautical architecture. With twenty-two rooms in all, including ten that are living quarters for the owners and their guests, as well as five crew cabins and a full galley, it is the biggest private yacht the company has built (there is 6,000 square feet of teak decking alone).

The owners of Bubba Too had asked for both refinement and comfort, a kind of barefoot elegance. "Give me beige, but don't bore me," Thee was told. And so he probed the whole palette between white and brown, giving the yacht's interiors a subtle range of color: ivory, beige, tan, sand, wheat, putty, camel. The tones are reiterated in the granite and limestone used on some floors and in the New Zealand wool carpet on others. Walls are clad in textured silks. To further forestall blandness or monotony, Thee diligently attended to details such as fringes, cording and nailhead trim.

Thee and his fellow yacht designers at the firm of Marc-Michaels Interior Design, Bruce T Linthicum and Todd Marckese, were encouraged to regard the yacht as a primary residence, which meant, in part, no built-in furniture of the kind typically found on seafaring vessels. Bubba Too is unusual also in that it has a gas-burning fireplace in the main salon, as well as a player piano, which had to be secured against rough seas. Along the way, the designers found themselves confronting little-known nautical regulations because of the boat's size. The aft doorjambs, for instance, had to be removable to comply with a nineteenth-century rule that requires space to load bales of cotton.

The boatbuilder and interior designers worked hand in hand. Marc-Michaels, which is based in Winter Park, Florida, and has a second office in Boca Raton, began as a residential interiors firm and developed a specialty in yacht design. For Bubba Too, the designers had clients who, though venturesome, also imparted a sense of, as Thee says, "quietness and serenity."

Thus came the decision to finish the boat's interiors in wood-specifically maple. Craftsmen at Broward milled more than twenty-five thousand board feet (almost five miles' worth) of maple for chair rails, crown moldings, baseboards, casements, pilasters, paneling and ceiling beams. The maple was finished with a rubbed-in patina and several coats of clear satin lacquer. "It literally glows," says Thee. Connecting all the interior deck levels is a highly sculptural stairway with a stainless-steel, iron and wood rail, which was formed from three hundred pieces put together by a Swedish joiner named Bo Lind.

The sky lounge, on the upper deck, is the yacht's most casual salon. Its walls of windows afford panoramic views. "In daytime it's sun-filled and glorious," says Thee. With the engine two decks away, it is also a quiet room, and as such it is the location for the bar, card tables and television. Much of the furniture is upholstered in cowhide, kidskin, lambskin or linen boucle. The lounge has a coffered ceiling inset with linen panels. Thee describes it as "beautifully articulated, with a slight rolling feel to it."

One deck below is the main salon, with its fireplace and piano. It is all 44 evening space," with more formality and intimacy. Walls and furniture are silk-clad, as is the ceiling. The fireplace has a hammered copper mantelpiece that is echoed by patinaed mesh doors on the bookcases. Thee took- advantage of the salon's low ceiling to create what he terms "pools of light." Again, the colors are subdued variations on a neutral theme.

The dining room is formal, with seating for ten around an inlaid cherrywood table. The three designers were told that the need for a true dining room, private and decorous, was paramount. Fulfilling that request was a challenge, and they responded boldly. Guests enter the room through a vestibule with a patterned marble, granite and limestone floor and an eighteenth century Italian marquetry chest.

Thee was encouraged to regard the yacht as a primary residence, which meant, in part, no built-in furniture.

Thee takes small spaces quite seriously, whether they are transitional public spots such as the vestibule or private places such as baths. "My design approach to small spaces is not to back off but to drive it home," he says. "I I I ke to make each room a little jewel." Throughout the yacht, he relied on contrasts in texture and material to add impact and interest. "In the past," Thee notes, "all people wanted was to be blown away. Yacht design has totally departed from that. People now want more quiet time and respite. Showiness is being replaced with refinement. Flash is being replaced with quality."