Why the 37-metre Queen Tati heralds a comeback for Brazil

This new queen of the MCP Yachts fleet, with design and naval architecture by Vripack, will no doubt help cast a new spotlight on this innovative and experienced builder. At 37.4 metres and with four decks, Queen Tati is the second-largest yacht built by the privately owned shipyard, which is approaching its 45th anniversary. In 2013 MCP delivered the biggest yacht built in aluminium in Brazil, the 42.5-metre Hemisphere 140 Raffaella II (developed in co-operation with Vripack for the naval architecture). A few years later, the shipyard turned heads with the appropriately named Mars. It has built a series of long-range aluminium motor yachts and sailing boats, as well as handled refits and built fast commercial vessels.

Queen Tati came with a long and complex brief: “A fitness room, a beach club, six cabins, a seven-plus-metre tender, and then, yeah, make it smaller than 40 metres”

The yard is in Santos, in the rich state of São Paulo, and there is a lot of rough water to go through whether heading north or south. Outside of the marvellous island-strewn cruising grounds near Paraty and Angra dos Reis, Brazilian boats face a lot of deep water and little infrastructure for stopovers. So MCP’s goal is to build solid, self-reliant and seaworthy boats that not only can handle the local waters but ply the oceans further still.

Queen Tati, however, is a pure full-custom yacht that pushes the boundaries of what the yard has done so far. The yacht is born of the friendship between Chaves, himself a sailor, and a Brazilian entrepreneur, family man and born sailor who converted to motor yacht ownership after he got married.

“My wife told me she wanted carpets,” he says. After an eight-metre sailing boat, “we started with a 40ft [12-metre], 50ft, and then 60ft motor boat. There was no reason to go larger unless we got more range. But then when Manoel [Chaves] started developing his new project in aluminium, [the Classic 76 with a 5,600-kilometre range], I thought this was like a sailing yacht with the comfort of a motor yacht.”

The two built 23-metre Tati together and bonded further over a six-day, six-night, 1,700-nautical-mile cruise from Fortaleza to the island of Grenada, the last leg on a 3,390-nauticalmile journey from Santos. There was rough water on the way, but also fishing, lots of eating and the occasional cigar under the stars. When they reached Grenada, a pod of dolphins greeted their arrival and the owner had achieved one of his dreams. “I had tears in my eyes,” he says.

He waited a good while but eventually was ready to build a new, larger boat. He returned to Chaves and told him his upper limit was 34 metres. Queen Tati is a bit more than that and he tells me with glee that Vripack and MCP had managed to get another few metres out of him.

At Vripack, they were happy to hear it, as Queen Tati came with a long and complex brief: “A fitness room, a beach club, six cabins, a seven-plus-metre tender, and then, yeah, make it smaller than 40 metres,” Bouwhuis says with a laugh – a slightly daunting brief, even for the experienced design and naval architecture firm.

The ability to haul the large tender was a must, the client confirms, and he also wanted space for two jet skis – where’s the fun in going out on your own? But there was more. He decided he’d love to have an observation deck. “I have chartered a lot of boats over my life, and even on the bigger boats you often don’t have a place where you can look forward.” As they were looking at the flybridge deck and deciding on where to install the domes, etc, he told Vripack and MCP, “I have an idea – why don’t we create a sort of rooftop?”

The team went back to the drawing board and incorporated an observation top deck in the newest version of the design, a structure that the shipyard ended up building in carbon composite. It did not fit in the shed and had to be mounted later, but it worked. “The feeling that you have when you are there, the view 360 degrees, the quietness, it’s really amazing,” says the owner, who spent a night up there, wrapped in blankets, with members of his family.

There was no chance of compromising the semi-displacement hull’s good seakeeping. Chaves is a naval architect and a proud builder.

“You must comply with international stability [rules],” he says. “What is important is to keep the centre of gravity in the required position. We made a very light structure with carbon composites.” A wave-piercing bow, at high speeds, gives Queen Tati all the performance benefits of a bulbous bow. And the hull is well stabilised, with large Naiad fins for at-rest stabilisation and underway. It’s only one of several systems that were up-sized due to the owner’s cruising plans.

“After we get used to the boat in Brazil, the plan is to make a nice trip up to the Caribbean, and then across to Europe and spend a season in the Mediterranean and then come back to Brazil,” the owner says. And he doesn’t plan to put the boat on a yacht transporter. Queen Tati, which has a range of around 3,500 nautical miles, will go on her own bottom.

“This is the dream. So that’s why the tender needs to be diesel and instead of putting two watermakers, we put three,” he says. “We did everything extra. Instead of a normal fridge, we put like an industrial fridge that we can use as a refrigerator or as a freezer.”

Chaves was happy to go along on these points. “Concerning safety, [the owner] has a lot of experience at sea. And he told me, ‘Imagine yourself in the worst conditions. If you have a very strong wind, I want the bow thruster, the stern thruster, and the anchor winch operating at full speed at the same time,’” he says.

If she looks amazing – and among the local yacht fleet she is one of a kind in terms of her size and amenities – technically speaking Queen Tati is also a remarkable boat, efficient at lower speeds and able to reach a top speed of up to 20 knots at the maximum rpm range of her C32 Caterpillars. Speed is not the goal, the owner says, but he likes that in case of bad weather, the boat can cruise very comfortably at 15 knots, or even go a bit faster. However, efficiency is quite important to these two sailors, and this 316GT aluminium yacht will burn less than 100 litres an hour at 10 knots, according to the yard.

Bouwhuis gives all credit to the yard. “Compliments to Manoel and his team, I have to say, because from the interior spaces, the boat was already quite dense, but then when you added all the technical systems, it even gets more complicated,” he says.

The yacht offers a good balance of indoor and outdoor spaces, with multiple spots for the family to enjoy together or apart. The generous aft main deck has room for a nice table for outdoor meals and a sofa to relax afterward. The aft deck was built in such a way as to create good clearance in the beach club below, so “it doesn’t feel like a cave,” the owner says. A watertight door opens outs on the starboard side to create a terrace on the sea. The decks are flush, so guests can go around without stubbing their toes, one of the requirements of his wife, who was instrumental in the design. A table on the upper deck is used for breakfast, which can be set up for as long as it takes for everyone to emerge in the morning or late in the day. An outdoor cinema on the foredeck is a favourite, as is the heated spa pool on the flybridge deck.

Active owners and captains will notice there are three seats in front of the well-appointed navigation console on the sundeck, with plenty of seating nearby so that the owner can drive the boat with his friends and family near him. A guest sofa is also in the wheelhouse.

Inside, the yacht feels modern and cosy. The three driving concepts were “harmony”, “home at sea” and “authentic”. “The brief was a comfortable, light-filled interior style, easygoing and maintenance-friendly,” Bouwhuis says. “I believe we nailed that one also.”

To achieve these goals, the designers and MCP’s team of outfitters used a blend of oak – grey-washed on cabinets, natural on the walls, and varnished on the floors – ceramic finishes, paint, and wallpapers, emphasising the connection between inside and outside with large windows and strips of teak on the ceilings. The loose furniture is supplied by, among others, Italian brands Minotti and Poltrona Frau. The cabinets, meanwhile, are well finished with nice details and sea-fastened drawers, and lighting – sconces, mini spots and underlighting – enlivens the whole setup at sunset.

On the operation side, Chaves’s philosophy is to keep things simple. Yes, you can control everything via the phone, but there are on-and-off switches here. The owner, no doubt due to his open water experiences, opted not to have opening portholes for safety reasons, and specified an HVAC system that renews the air nine times per hour.

One of the final puzzles to solve was the elaborate paint scheme. Queen Tati is a combination of dark grey, black and off-white. “3M made a lot of money,” Chaves quips. He’s used an Awlgrip paint with a lustrous coating and she looks striking.

Queen Tati attracted a lot of attention in Brazil, where she was never long alone at anchor. People wanted to know more about this amazing yacht – and friends were always eager to try the onboard gym. However, when she finally leaves her national borders, there is no doubt she will stand out in any harbour.

First published in the October 2023 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.