Buoyed by Trust

One designer’s journey into sailboats and yachts

Thrown into the deep end, you might say. Jacques Pierrejean’s first ever job designing a ship’s inner space was a surprise, an invitation by a client who’s aircraft interior he had just finished designing. For his client, it was a nonchalant offer to a designer he trusted, but for Jacques, the offer to “take a look at my boat” was an exciting if also stressful idea – up until then Jacques hadn’t yet directed his powers of creativity towards the sea.

Although Pierrejean had never designed the inside of a ship before, he had worked for many years designing airplane interiors, gaining experience that had developed his already strong sense of interior space and high-class style. He was ready for a new challenge, and all that previous experience would serve him well, even if his work was about to move from the sky down to the sea. Design principles were, after all, just that: principles.

PHOCEA, a 75m-long sailboat, was no beginner’s project, but it turned out that Jacques and his team’s skills were well-suited to the task. Their knowledge of lightweight materials as well as turbulence came in handy, and they moved quickly into the mockup phase, making sure that their designs were well-adapted to the function and construction of the boat. Making a mockup of the sailboat was a huge challenge, and not everything was smooth sailing, but a designer knows as well as any captain that waves are an inevitable part of any journey; best to face them head on.

The faith his client had in him was crucial, allowing him to do his work in his own way and to cut through the waves like a knife, just like the ships he would end up designing. This would turn out to be an important project, his gateway into the world of yachts and yacht design. After his triumph with PHOCEA, several more projects came down the pipeline. Though turbulence invariably came his way, he worked his way through it, always sailing forward. 

The following projects all had varying degrees of success, but Jacques’ real tour de force on the sea came several years later, in 2014. He had been given the opportunity to design both the inside and outside of this yacht, and he was going to make the most of it. YAS was going to be one of the rare gems of the seafaring world.

The first piece of inspiration was taken, as with all his projects, from the natural world, from the most graceful of sea creatures: the dolphin. Pierrejean wanted this yacht to stand out from the standard yacht design, with its conventional decks, its homogenous aesthetics. To him, these attributes contributed to “a kind of shape that makes many boats look exactly the same.” 

No, this 141-meter superyacht would have personality. It would be friendly, it would have flair, and it would be immediately recognizable. As Jacques notes, “Often there will be many different people working on the same project, but by chance we were able to do both exterior and interior.” This allowed them to create an area open to the sea in different ways than in typical yacht design, and to play with the various ambiances in the rooms of light coming from the sun’s reflection on the water. “We worked a lot with the styling interaction between exterior and interior,” he continues, and both parts of the work informed the other. A decision of aesthetics made on the outside would lead directly to a functional answer on the interior, and vice-versa.

The result of his team’s work is clear, a testament to the potential within any project, if one trusts the designer and has a talented architect on one’s hands. If you ever have the chance to see it, YAS is a wonder to behold. 

Jacques is, of course, extremely proud of his work. But when asked about it, he stresses especially this one point, which harkens right back to his first ever project on the sea: “For us the most important thing is to say thank you to the owner of the boat for trusting in us, in giving us the freedom to make his yacht our project.” 

Because just like on the sea, no one sails anywhere without confidence in the captain.