The past 12 months have attracted international headlines in some of the worlds most prestigious journals and magazines for the L’Enfant Terrible of Yacht Design. But then the UK designer Alex McDiarmid has always been quite determined to shock the world into recognising his talent.
He was shortlisted at his first ever design awards ceremony with his 87m super yacht Iwana and his studio’s reputation for avant garde, futuristic super yacht never fails to draw attention, impress, and open discussion wherever they appear.
Now with his 120m super yacht Stradivarius concept his about to fine tune his philosophy.
Following a recent visit to the inspirational city of Venice and the Museo della Musica Di Venezia / The Venice Music Museum McDiarmid looked at the stringed instruments on display from harps to cellos, double bases, violins and violas produced throughout the ages.
These simple yet elegant instrument forms produce stunning sounds. Violins are like little wooden ships that sale on through time and by any measure a violin is an object of beauty and an object of extravagant curves and lines. They say choosing a violin is like falling in love.
The overall side profile of such instrument lends it self very nicely to the profile of a super yacht, said McDiarmid.
Observing the construction of such stringed instruments he noticed the striking similarities to super yacht construction.. Box and modular construction of the instruments main belly and back became the hull, bulwarks and bulkheads of the yacht and the marriage of the tail piece, neck and scroll, the superstructure.
The bridge is of course the bridge.
No sales yet but the studio’s valued and continued close working relationship with Capt. Adrian McCourt, MD of London based brokers, Watkins Superyachts continues to strengthen the studio’s name within the international yachting arena.
One day maybe we will all dance to the tune of McDiarmid’s design