Iconic yachts: On board the 49.5m Perini Navi eco-focused explorer Exuma

The 49.5m Perini Navi eco-focused explorer Exuma is a sleek greyhound of the seas. The all-aluminium yacht features a knife-like bow, delicately curved and almost vertical, designed to increase waterline length and minimise pitching. 

Round bilges minimise drag-producing wetted surface, while the shallow transom is slightly scalloped to reduce the draught requirements of her twin, high-skew propellers. Drag reduction was also achieved by choosing a drop-down bowthruster, while the required fin area for the pair of Quantum zero-speed stabilisers was reduced thanks to the innate stability of the hull.

Adding serious distinction to Exuma’s minimal superstructure and long foredeck are the convex glass windows that ring her bridge deck. The cost of such glamour is the lack of a sundeck above the bridge deck, which means that her open deck areas are limited to the aft portions of the bridge and main decks.

To the owner, though, this limited deck space was never a downside, with his needs more than satisfied by a large spa pool (featuring 55 water-jets) flanked by sunbathing mattresses on the bridge deck aft, and by the similarly sized sunbathing area on the main deck aft, forward of which is an extendable dining table that can comfortably seat up to 14 guests.

Understated interiors

Perini Navi’s in-house interior designer, Bernardo Chichi, worked with the owner to create the volumes and floor plan of Exuma, while Daria Nobokov was responsible for fabrics and interior decorations. The real triumph of the interior is its understated and extremely tasteful elegance. Set against a background of natural white oak and grey-stained brushed oak panelling and laid teak floors, the furniture and fabrics of the saloons blend comfort with pure modern design.

The master suite is set across the full beam of Exuma just forward of the starboard side entrance lobby. Here the request was for two separate bedrooms, a double and a single, together with a bathroom and a separate shower room. In the same style as the remaining three lower deck guest cabins, the bed is set athwartships, providing magnificent ocean views.

Despite their lower deck location, each en suite guest cabin also has excellent exterior visibility. The fourth compartment on this level is a gymnasium. A sliding service door connects this lower deck guest area directly to the crew area, including four cabins, a small laundry, a crew mess and galley.

Tenders and toys

Directly above the crew quarters of Exuma lie two large garages that house a 3.7 metre Hov Pod hovercraft and a five-metre amphibious vehicle. Just forward of the garages, two flush-topped deck lockers house the 4.3-metre rescue tender and a huge Sea-Doo RXT 250 jet ski. A third, refrigerated, locker serves as a garbage store. At the yacht’s stern, a wide upward-opening transom door forward of the bathing platform reveals an even larger garage where the yacht’s main tender, a 6.4-metre Castoldi jet, is stowed.

The bridge is fully electronic with its five screens displaying conning, full ECDIS navigation and X- and S-band radars, while special features include a night-vision camera and a navigational display that provides a useful ‘Google Earth’ 3-D style visualisation of bays and anchorages. Outside the bridge’s pantograph doors are a pair of wing stations whose very comprehensive instrumentation includes a chart display screen.

The arrival of Exuma into the global superyacht fleet caused more than a splash in the superyacht design world and the yacht was crowned the joint Motor Yacht of the Year winner alongside the legendary 162.5m Blohm & Voss superyacht Eclipse at the 2011 World Superyacht Awards.

Exuma is currently listed for sale with Fraser with an asking price of €16,900,000.