2m 37sLength

Lady Christine Yacht was built by Royal Van Lent, based on a design by De Voogt Naval Architects. She also boasts a remarkable début superyacht interior by British designer Rodney Black. All of these elements are a true testimony to the commitment and involvement of the yacht's Owner, Lord and Lady Laidlaw, who invested decades of vessel-building experience into this stunning yacht. Irvine and Christine Laidlaw certainly have sufficient benchmarks to make such a statement. The couple have built a succession of multi-million-pound sail yachts called Highland Fling, which have given Lord Laidlaw many international racing triumphs and cemented his position as a world-class sailor. They have also built two major motoryachts with Heesen (38 metres) and Oceanco (50 metres) so have a clear reference point when it comes to Dutch quality. The owner's decision to build a new Feadship was influenced by the exceptional comfort levels they experienced onboard the previously owned 40.00m Feadship superyacht Seaflower, which they cruised extensively in locations off the beaten track. Leveraging on all their rich building and sailing experiences, the Laidlaws threw themselves into the design and construction of motor yacht Lady Christine. "I think Feadship would confirm that we were among the most involved and detailed owners with whom they have partnered. We visited the yard on countless occasions and spent an enormous amount of time working with Rodney Black, the interior designer and Royal Van Lent on even the smallest details. I must have signed off hundreds of drawings." To illustrate the point, Lord Laidlaw cites the example of the infrared sensor units that keep the electric doors open in his study. "We set an additional sensor in at a low level in order to ensure that the doors cannot close on our dogs, who travel with us at all times. Another illustration is the light switches, which we have kept to a minimum onboard Lady Christine. Wherever there is more than one switch we made sure that each was individually labelled so one knows exactly which button to press. I even spent four days in the fabric department at Harrods with Christine and Rodney selecting materials, so building a yacht is obviously something we really enjoy doing." The direct influence of the owners can be seen in many distinctive features on-board Lady Christine superyacht, including her unique exterior looks, the creation of a split-level layout in order to incorporate an owner's observation lounge, the 'terraces' either side of the main deck, and the addition of an extra helm station on the sun deck. Despite his exceptional degree of involvement, however, the Feadship designers and craftsmen still managed to surprise Lord Laidlaw with extra touches that were not in the original specs. "Take the stairs that link the sun deck with the owner's deck," continues Lord Laidlaw. "Any other yard would have simply brought these stairs straight down. Curving them in the way Feadship has done must have cost them a significant amount of extra time as the central spine also had to be formed into a curved shape along with the stairs and the banisters themselves. It is all beautifully done, and the initiative came entirely from the yard itself. Lord and Lady Laidlaw also felt very much at home on their regular visits to the Netherlands. "We had a particularly good partnership with the managers and staff at Royal van Lent, who responded magnificently to the many new technical and design challenges we posed and were always completely honest about what they thought would and would not work. Having now spent some time sailing it is amazing that every day I find stunning new features. You really do have to live onboard a Feadship to appreciate that from bow to stern and from sun deck to tank deck, everything is the product of incredible design and workmanship." Even without taking the split level arrangement into account, super yacht Lady Christine has by no means a traditional Feadship exterior. At the owners' request, a significant number of features were taken from their previous Oceanco yacht, including the striking elliptical windows. "As we had some 18 metres extra available we accentuated the yacht's length by stretching the long arrow further and further towards the bow," explains Ruud Bakker from De Voogt Naval Architects. In addition to the distinctive styling element of the enormous and flowing-shaped windows on the main deck and owner's stateroom, another direct request from the owners was the green colouring elements in the superstructure that match the green of the glass and the false windows. Read more http://www.charterworld.com/news/feadship-super-yacht-lady-christine