The world of superyachting is exclusive by definition. The world of Lürssen is even more so. The German yard delivers a limited number of very large yachts, and its clients usually demand utmost privacy. The secrecy surrounding new builds is sometimes so complete that Lürssen refuses to acknowledge the existence of a yacht, even after a launching makes her presence undeniable. I can count on one hand the number of new Lürssen yachts I have been aboard over the past 30 years, often having to wait until a vessel enters the brokerage market to get a peek.
Happily, Capri is an exception. This 192-foot Lürssen motoryacht made her American debut at Ft. Lauderdale last fall, and she is spectacular-in scale and in finish. With five enclosed decks and a beam of nearly 38 feet, designer Glade Johnson had a lot of space to work with. In collaboration with the yard, the owner, the owner’s captain, Russell O’Donoghue, and broker Robert Moran, Johnson has done a magnificent job with every square foot of it.
The level of luxury aboard Capri is exceptional, even for this rarified category of yacht. The yacht carries only 12 guests: eight in double staterooms belowdecks, two in the main-deck master suite and two in a children’s cabin adjacent to the master.
Three guest staterooms have queen berths, with twins in the fourth. All have settees, vanities, desks and abundant hanging-locker space. The roomy en suite baths are equivalent to those found in the master staterooms of most yachts, both in size and outfitting. All the staterooms enjoy a wide, unhindered view of the sea through large, curtainless oval ports. For privacy, the clear glass can be rendered opaque with the flick of a switch.
Amidst this grandeur, however, safety and functionality have not been overlooked. Main egress from the guest accommodations is an elegant winding stairway up to the main entry foyer, but there is also an emergency escape hatch within the guest area that opens directly into the dining room on the main deck above. Adjacent to the escape hatch is a large dumbwaiter that transits all five decks. At each stairway are gates that can be closed for child safety.
In addition, there is a passageway forward that is lined with linen lockers and is normally used by stewards in servicing the guest accommodations. It leads directly to the crew area, which has a stairway and two more vertical escape hatches. That’s a total of five routes out of the lower-deck quarters, so even if some paths are cut off by the automatically closing watertight doors in the event of fire or flooding, no one-crew or guest-should be trapped.
Amidships, on the main deck, is the central foyer, with wide, winding stairs leading up and down. Just forward of the guest-entry door from the side deck is a small lobby, a nice place for guests to relax and have a drink if the owner or charter host is unable to greet them immediately upon arrival. There’s also a spacious day head, convenient to the foyer and lobby, as well as to the dining room and saloon, which are just abaft the foyer.
Through the lobby, one enters the owner’s office, which serves as an anteroom to the master suite and the adjacent children’s cabin. These spaces span Capri‘s full beam, creating a large and private world of their own. In the master, a king berth, flanked by nightstands and facing an entertainment center, is to port, leaving the starboard side for what is best described as a private saloon. It is simply too large and well-appointed to call a sitting area.
As magnificent as this area is, the real star of the suite is just forward through double doors. Here, an elevated pool-size spa on centerline is surrounded by onyx and gold, framed by varnished burl columns, and backlit by the azure glow of etched curved-glass panels. One could be forgiven for envisioning toga-clad attendants gently fanning palm fronds from either side. If that’s too hedonic for mere mortals, there is a shower, too, but it’s only a bit less grand than the whirlpool. To either side of the spa are dressing rooms with an overabundance of hanging lockers, drawers and shelving. Imelda Marcos could go on a month-long clothes-buying spree and not begin to fill her half of the stowage available.
Like the guest quarters, the master suite does not sacrifice safety for luxury. It, too, is arranged with multiple egress routes leading forward, aft, upward and downward. There’s also an emergency generator in a dedicated compartment between the master suite and the open foredeck, opposite the bosun’s locker. The foredeck, a well-arranged working area for anchoring or mooring, also has two spacious settees and tables.
The after half of the main deck carries a formal dining room and a huge saloon, the two divided by large ventilation ducts that carry air to and from the Caterpillar 3512 diesels that lie just below. Glade Johnson has sculpted and cased the trunks in wood, combining them with other bits of cabinetry so they are unobtrusive despite their size.
The saloon, though one large space in reality, is divided functionally into smaller areas to better match the human scale. The main seating area, with three settees and a couple of loose chairs, lies to port, facing an entertainment center. Aft, there’s another settee and a table for wine and quiet conversation. To port is a grand piano, and to starboard, a game table and double doors to the open afterdeck, which has facilities for alfresco dining and curved stairways to the swim platform.
The upper deck is devoted entirely to navigation and entertainment. The pilothouse is a nice blend of style and substance, extending even to the wing control stations. These units eliminate any need for a flying-bridge helm, but they do so with panache. Not the clunky afterthoughts found on many yachts, these streamlined enclosures fair into the bulwarks and have curved doors that drop out of the way when opened.
Abaft the pilothouse are the captain’s cabin, a computer room, an audiovisual-equipment room and a music studio packed with state-of-the-art equipment for Capri‘s guitar-playing owner. At the after end of the upper deck is a lounge that is larger than the main saloon. It has a cozy seating area and an entertainment center aft, but with its large, open deck space, spacious bar and adjacent service pantry, it is clearly planned for entertaining larger groups of day guests. Overflow from the inside party can spill onto the open afterdeck, where there is seating for at least two dozen more.
The top deck is enclosed amidships and open fore and aft. The enclosed area includes a gymnasium that faces aft, overlooking a large whirlpool spa through deck-to-overhead glass windows. Forward of the gym is another bar-equipped lounge, this one with café tables lining windows that overlook the sea and forward sundeck.
The aftermost portion of the top deck can be used for loose deck chairs or reserve tender stowage, and in an emergency, it can be configured as a heliport. Liferafts are stowed outboard, ready for quick launching should the need arise.
Main tender stowage is aft on the lower deck, where a 23-foot Ribtec and a 22-foot Chris-Craft are situated to either side, ready for launching with overhead cranes through large side-opening watertight doors. There’s also a centerline door for direct access to the swim platform, and another door forward goes into the engineroom. Here, the big Cats are remotely mounted from their reduction gears, and huge overhead silencers further limit any hint of noise or vibration that might otherwise escape the space.
A few steps down take you through a watertight door into a service space with wine cellars and a medical area. It is only in areas such as this that one can fully comprehend what it takes to complete a yacht such as Capri.
Contact: Lürssen, (011) 49 421 6604 166; yachts@luerssen.de; www.lurssen.com. Moran Yacht & Ship, (954) 768-0707; sales@moranyachts.com; www.moranyachts.com. Capri charters for $325,000 per week, plus expenses, through Moran Yacht & Ship. For more information, contact: (866) 922-4877; www.yachtingnet.com/yachting/productinfo.
