On board the first 28m Mazu 92 DS model, Water Lily

For Yukay, the 92 DS and its larger sisters to come were a natural progression for his company, from a trends perspective as well as basic economics. “We want to grow the company, always,” he says.

“We are known for chase boats, but we started to have a more demand for larger boats. We looked at the market and saw an overall aim towards semi-displacement explorer-type boats.

“After Covid-19 we invested in a new facility and now we have space to build those bigger boats that the market has an appetite for. And of course, we like the bigger boats because the profits get bigger too, as you might imagine.”

“We divided the engine room into two,” says Fatih Sürekli of Istanbul’s Red Yacht Design, which did the 92’s interiors and exterior.

“We put the three IPS engines under the beach club, and then the pumps, boilers, batteries and everything else have their own space in the bow just in front of the crew area and below the master cabin. We decided to do that because we didn’t want anything to impede the lounge and the guest cabins.”

Both of these work areas on the boat are well laid out and orderly, making service to the engines and the accompanying systems easy to manage for a crew that should number between four and five, depending on owner needs. The biggest issue that Mazu faced with building a steel-hulled IPS boat was proving to Volvo Penta that they could actually do it.

“We had to engineer the inserts for the pods to be installed,” says Yukay. “We subcontracted the hull, and we built the IPS part from a mould. We created the cast-iron inserts and welded it into the hull so the whole thing could work.”

It worked: the Mazu 92 DS combines a strong hull with quiet, efficient, small engines. Red Yacht Design was excited about having this room to play with, and it made the most of it.

The sense of space aboard the 92 DS is evident from the moment I hit the swim platform, as the boat bobs stern-to at the dock. It is a laudable feat considering how tightly packed in among her peers she is on Monaco’s Quai des Etats-Unis.

This yacht is right on trend, with a massive swim platform/beach club area that feels like it should be on a 30-metre-plus, especially with fold-down terraces open to either side.

The space is large enough to hold plenty of modular seating in the form of sunloungers and ottomans (in this case) and also a transformer capable of lifting two tonnes, for launching a tender that can range up to just shy of seven metres.

The beach club is made all the more impressive thanks to a brave design choice by Mazu and Red Yacht Design. The yacht has a split-level saloon, which is rare but not unprecedented.

There’s the usual one on the main deck (more on that in a bit) and then a lower saloon that is accessible directly from the exterior portion of the beach club through doors that split to port and starboard.

With the doors open, the lower saloon effectively offers a second interior space to the already large beach club. “We like to think of that space as not only a beach club, but also a space dedicated to the guests, as it connects directly to the guest staterooms on the accommodations level,” says Yukay.

The beach club is made all the more impressive thanks to a brave design choice: a split-level saloon

“The owners can be up top in the main saloon and the master cabin area with lots of privacy, but the guests have that same level of privacy down below. It’s also something that we suspect will be a good option for the charter market and for owners with lots of kids and multiple generations on board.”

The lower saloon on the yacht in Monaco had a full-service wet bar with lots of counter space to port and an L-shaped sofa to starboard, adjacent to a flatscreen television.

A passageway leading forward to the accommodation level and its two guest cabins and full-beam VIP had one of Mazu’s latest trademarks: hidden door handles to all the cabins.

Instead of a handle, the doors open by pressing them gently inward, at which point they pop open. “The corridors with no door handles are something that helps define this interior,” says Red Yacht Design’s Cana Gökhan, who handled interiors for this project.

“The doors may appear hidden at first, but if you see a spotlight you know to push the surface. It was a joint idea. We were brainstorming what is new and what could be done. And we had this idea, which was actually many years old, but with this owner, we finally had someone who accepted it.”

The owner, of course, played a pivotal role in many aspects of this yacht. Its name, for example, Water Lily, is the English translation of his Turkish wife’s name. The owner works in the gold business, so Red Yacht Design picked out gold quartzite and lined a bulkhead with it that runs through three decks – the lower saloon, upper saloon and flybridge.

Tastefully backlit, it’s rather stunning to behold and gives the yacht’s split-level concept a definitive sense of continuity. Whatever deck you are on, a faintly glowing golden wall assures you that you are on Water Lily. Walls made of semi-precious stones in different colours for each boat are set to be a staple of the DS line, and I give that a big thumbs-up.

The yacht’s sleeping arrangements are rounded out by what equates to a main deck master, which is actually down a few steps from the saloon. The full-beam space is en suite with a walk-in wardrobe and large windows that make good use of the yacht’s high sides.

Those same near sole-to-ceiling windows are in the saloon as well, making for a very well-lit and open space that was expertly decorated by Water Lily herself with glass globes encapsulating hand-blown sculptures of all manner of sea creatures.

Comfort is paramount, not just for the owners and guests, but also for the crew. They have large bunks in the space in the bow that impress me enough that I jot down “these actually look comfortable” in my notes, and there are also dedicated crew stairways – unusual for a boat this size. Behind the bridge, the captain has his own berth so he can be close to the wheel.

“The owners can be up top with lots of privacy, but the guests have that same level of privacy down below”

A final space that needs to be noted is the flybridge, which swoops back to cover the entire aft deck, making it exceptionally spacious. An electrically actuated sunshade in the hardtop controls the intensity of the rays at the flick of a switch while modular furniture throughout gives owners room to play.

One challenge Red Yacht Design had with a boat with this much volume was to make it pretty to look at. She has the snub-nose bow that has become so en vogue for yachts of this size in recent years, and that can often give a yacht the dreaded cool-box look. To avoid this fate, Sürekli used a simple but effective strategy.

“The two-coloured hull was important to us,” he says, referring to the light-grey middle section of the yacht’s exterior, which is encased at the waterline, bow and the top of the superstructure by white.

“It helped the boat look more sleek and less bulky. It looks very sophisticated. The two colours divide the surface, so you don’t just see one block of colour. Things are broken up nicely and that helps tremendously with the proportions.”

It is an elegant solution to a common problem facing designers – though there is not much that’s common about this boat. Whether steel hulls paired with pod propulsion becomes a thing is anyone’s guess. But with the impressive attention to detail and design I saw on the Mazu 92 DS, I know where I’d put my money.

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