On board Alia Yachts' 45m superyacht SAN

For their first custom build, the owner approached Turkish builder Alia Yachts with the idea to create a vessel of superyacht proportions that looked, and in many ways lived, more like a stylish dayboat. For some time, Alia has been building yachts that focus on open-plan living set close to the water, such as its 27-metre yachts Atlantico and 0110, launched in 2019 and 2023, respectively.

It was during a meeting with SAN’s future owner on board another Alia yacht during a Monaco Yacht Show that the plan came to fruition. Çelik suggested Sinot as the ideal designer, and one of the Alia team members went out and found Paul Costerus, partner at Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design, on the docks. “We basically grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the meeting,” Çelik says with a laugh.

Costerus recalls the fateful meeting as well, adding, “It was quite something really, because in the last hour of the show I got introduced to Gökhan and the client. Immediately at the table they unfolded this plan for a concept. I initially thought, ‘this is going to be such a cool vessel’, and my imagination started to spark. There and then we made sketches and exchanged ideas.

Sinot spent two years working with the owner to develop SAN’s profile and layout. “They wanted it to be really pure, so it was like ‘Let’s make everything perfect before we pull the trigger,’” says Costerus. “We took quite a while to shape the profile and create the lines. You can’t just have a glass house on the hull, or you get this layered effect.”

“You can host a lot of people and have them all feel connected, much more than a boat
that's split into levels”

From a distance, the exterior has a utilitarian look, enhanced by its grey-blue paint. The Sinot team reshaped the loose concept that Alia had presented, including reconfiguring the lower deck layout. But the main essence of the boat – that unobstructed main saloon view – was clear from the outset.

“The client said, ‘When I step on board, I need to see the bow,’ which obviously determines the layout quite heavily,” says Costerus. “That means on this level, you’re only going to get a main deck lounge. You can’t have your wheelhouse there.” An added challenge was that SAN’s owner didn’t want a bridge or upper deck. “I said, ‘OK, so where are you going to steer the boat from, sir?’” Costerus says.

Thus, the solution for a raised pilothouse bridge came to life. This sort of halfdeck can be a handy design trick when you want to make room for an interior helm without adding a full deck. On SAN, the raised pilothouse is accessed externally. A few steps down from the sundeck, the bridge appears like a dark cave tucked beneath the mast. “It’s almost like a fighter jet,” remarks Costerus of the pod-like bridge that’s subtly carved into the boat’s profile.

The knock-on effect was the raised pilothouse floor would descend slightly into the main deck below. The Sinot team came up with another clever solution: setting the main saloon lounge area 60 centimetres lower than the rest of the main deck.

Only two steps down, it gives an air of mid-century modern design without looking overly retro or passé. This sunken living area also helps provide those unfettered forward sight lines so key to the brief. There are four sets of white, L-shaped sofas, each in a corner of the rectangular-shaped lounge.

“The client said, ‘when I step on board, I want to see the bow’”

Not only will guests all be able to socialise easily with one another, but no matter where they sit, they’ll have views out of the immense glass windows. Underlit bookcases placed behind the sofas upon entering the main deck provide a cosy, homely look and give a space for art and books to be displayed.

The open-plan saloon includes a dining area forward to port and a credenza to starboard that conceals steps leading down to the lower deck. The dining table is one of the few furniture pieces on board not made by Alia. Custom designed by Sinot, the high-gloss table was built by Soraman in Italy. It’s paired with dining chairs by Cassina, the only retail furniture items found on board, other than the handful of loose outdoor furnishings by Leerdam.

The coffee table in the living room can also be raised and extended to create a massive dining area. “All the seating groups are multifunctional, all the tables can move or extend,” says Costerus. Seamlessly connected to the main saloon with forward sliding doors, the exterior bow lounge also has a table for dining, as does the aft deck. You could imagine a massive dinner party, spanning bow to stern, with each of the four dining tables in action.

“You can host a lot of people and have them all feel connected, much more than a boat that’s split into levels,” says Çelik, noting that Alia has seen growing interest in this approach. “People can be enjoying a meal, taking the sun or swimming, all within speaking distance of one another. And when the aft bulwarks are open, the boat feels like a beach club on the outside.”

“The most critical moment occurred when we placed the first glass panel into the negative recess we created on the deck for a flush level,” says Öztürk. “We experienced a mix of excitement and concern, as positioning the first glass panel in the recess was critical. Any minor misstep could have disrupted our entire operation and potentially delayed the project.”

An obsession with purity of design extends to the interior decor. The owner wanted a minimal and cohesive material palette, and fewer than a dozen finishes were chosen. But that doesn’t mean it was a quick sourcing job, as the owner was on a Goldilocks-like quest to make sure each material was just right.

“We should select one leather, but it should be the perfect leather. We must select one fabric, but it should be the perfect one,” says Costerus. That perfect, buttery-soft leather is seen in two tones, light on the lower deck and dark in the bridge. Architectural elements, such as the walls and ceilings, use a cream-coloured fabric, while the white seating upholstery comes from Zimmer & Rohde or Loro Piana.

There is just one type of beige Pierre de Luget stone used throughout SAN, from the bathroom to the cantilevered sundeck bar. The most variety in materials comes in the woods, with the use of eucalyptus, teak, wenge details and two different tones of oak for the walls and floor, the latter of which has a white-washed oak in durable finish. To create the truly seamless interior, every button on board is covered by the material it is surrounded by, from the light switches to the toilet flush.

Getting the layout “just right” within a lean volume of 380GT was a bit like solving a puzzle. SAN’s 8.9-metre beam was used to its full extent to fit everything into the lower deck. “In one hull, we managed to put a dayhead, storage, four cabins, galley, crew area and engine room,” says Çelik.

Despite the sunken living room above, headroom on the lower deck is surprisingly generous. “Slightly increasing the height of the hull created a little bit of extra room in the lower deck, which combined with the fact that we pushed the floor as low as possible, gives the 2.25-metre ceiling height,” says Costerus.

The initial concept for the lower deck layout had the crew area aft of the engine room with entry via a hatch in the deck. With the help of Lateral Naval Architects, the engine room was situated all the way aft instead, and the crew spaces, including the galley, were moved forward so crew can better service guest areas.

This placement was also necessary for utilising triple Volvo IPS drive trains. “The Volvo IPS architecture was very much part of the early decision making and this drove the engine room location,” says Michael Benakis, principal naval architect at Lateral Naval Architects.

“It's almost like a fighter jet,” says Paul Costerus of the pod-like bridge that's carved into the boat's profile

“This arrangement allows for a shorter engine room compared to the more traditional arrangement of propellers on long shafts, hence making longer accommodation compartments possible. An additional attraction to this propulsion architecture is the excellent manoeuvrability provided by the IPS units.

“The Volvo units each have their own integral exhaust system that exits at the bottom of each IPS leg (pod), hence they are straightforward to accommodate,” Benakis continues. “The flipside is the engine room ventilation takes a bit more planning compared to a more traditionally located engine room, where it is more straightforward to take the ventilation ducts up the superstructure.”

The owner’s brief called for a relatively fast boat with a 20-plus-knot top speed. Lateral also created a seakindly hull design, which features a plumb bow and narrow sections forward. A generous spray rail keeps the main deck dry. “This is paired with a gyrostabiliser offering great seakeeping at zero speed and when underway, without what, at the higher speeds, would be the additional resistance of fin stabilisers,” says Benakis.

Despite a nod to Alia’s smaller chase boats, SAN is like nothing the yard has ever created nor anything that Sinot has ever designed. The owner’s unusual brief and the tenacity of her designer and naval architects helped push the builder to new heights.

“She’s a once-in-a-lifetime project,” says Costerus. “That’s the beautiful thing about working with Alia – you never get no for an answer, they are always looking for a solution.” In the low-profile, glass-clad, open-plan challenge that was SAN, the team has certainly turned out a beautiful solution.

First published in the December 2024 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.