Simply Sophia. “No reason whatsoever actually. Nothing more than a feeling inside of me telling me to draw a nice yacht” says Christian Leyk of coquine![design]. But then again, ‘nice’ doesn’t mean ‘boring’…

Yachts between 70 and 80 metres are nowadays regarded as the tipping point. Something between a super yacht and a mega yacht. The limit isn’t quite as important with regards to regulations (such as the 50 metre / 500 GRT mark) but they do seem to mark a new, psychological barrier. So we find two very distinct types of vessels here. One is the big low-volume yacht for owners who are quite happy with a 60 metre but like to add a little bit more. Just because it’s more elegant.

And then there are the owners who feel like they do need a lot more space but want to keep the costs under control, so they keep their project well under the magic 100 metres but try to get as much volume out of the platform as possible. These yachts are practically ‘compact’ megayachts.

‘Sophia’ is an example of the former. At 77 metre she is closer to the upper limit of the range we’re talking about, but the upper deck and the bridge deck are both fairly short, giving her well balanced overall proportions and generous open decks. That doesn’t mean that the owner’s area has to be any smaller and we still have a very nice informal sky lounge on either the upper deck or above (depending on the layout). We also have an impressive staircase linking all the decks internally and we certainly do have a gym and beach club on the lower deck.

On the exterior, we kept a delicate balance between a fairly calm and relax look with a little bit of playfulness. Nothing that screams ‘attention’ but instead carefully composed elements creating a harmonious overall impression.

In other words, there is everything one would need to have a nice time on board. And that’s what we meant by ‘drawing a nice yacht’.