Stefano Vafiadis: How the design of 52m Baglietto Daybreak started with a side table

One of the most accomplished father-son duos in superyacht design, over the last decade yacht designers Stefano and his father Georges Vafiadis have built enduring partnerships with two major players: Baglietto and Golden Yachts. BOAT caught up with Stefano at the Palm Beach International Boat Show to talk family ties, exacting clients and finding inspiration in unlikely places.

It is Vafiadis’ first Palm Beach boat show for twenty years and he’s loving it. "It’s exceeded my expectations," he confides as we find a quiet corner to chat. "And the boat has been really well received."

The boat in question, of course, is the 52.3-metre Daybreak, making her world premiere at the show. Delivered last year, she is the fourth hull in Baglietto’s super-successful T52 superyacht series, which launched in 2023 with Ark of Fate.

Daybreak has many winning features that have made the Baglietto series so successful, including the trademark three-level beach club, a gym that opens out to the sea and a "secret pool" aft which can be hidden to extend the deck. But it’s her interiors where she really comes into her own: a product of a close collaboration between Studio Vafiadis and her owner, who played an active role in the design process from the outset.

The yacht follows a soft, contemporary Art Deco theme with nods to a glamorous yachting past: a back-lit onyx wall sets the stage in the main saloon, while luxurious leather, delicate reeded glass and fine marble are offset by a classic teak flooring inlaid with white stripes, echoing a classic maritime style. There’s a confidence and elegance to the interiors – a hallmark of Vafiadis, who joined his father’s design house over 12 years ago.

The partnership with Baglietto began in earnest in 2017 with the creation of the DOM 133 line. "I had a call from Mr Deprati, now the CEO of Baglietto, who asked me if I could design a 35-metre yacht, which later was increased in size," Vafiadis recalled. "What he asked me was very interesting. He asked me to design a boat that was also a kind of floating villa, and he wanted stability, comfort and space on board. So we designed this boat with lots of volume but also with the look of modern architecture – with sexy lines, different shapes and a more sculpted look." 

The DOM 133 is one of the Italian shipyard's most successful semi-custom series, with five on the water and five in build, according to BOATPro’s Global Order Book. 

Vafiadis now leads the creative arm of the company while his father Georges manages the business and oversees the projects. Do they ever argue, I ask? "We’ve had our differences, of course, we are two different people, but all this is in the past. After 12 years of working so closely with each other we know each other so well."

He and his father are now so aligned, Vafiadis says, that working together is almost like "telepathy". "He didn’t just teach me the basics but also how to constantly innovate in the right way; be in the path of the market and be two or three years ahead, not 20 years as people won’t understand it. Plus we have different styles, which is good as we influence each other. And I think that’s a positive thing; we are a very good team!"

When it comes to design influences, Vafiadis lists art and architecture as his go-to sources. "I always like to bring some architectural elements to my work, for example, the use of glass. And also we can learn a lot from cars, they’re also amazing designs with lots of personality and a real source of inspiration. Some models there can have a thousand people working on them, which makes them modern works of art."

He tells me always carries two sketch pads with him ("In case I finish one!"), and he relishes the challenge of an exacting client. "I'm a custom designer, so I design the dreams of a single man, and I like when his dreams are clear. I'm fine with every possible client, but I prefer the one that challenges me."

Superyacht designers have the pick of the world’s finest materials to play with, so I am surprised by his answer when asked about his favourite. "Wood," he says. "It is really a great material, because it's classy, it's natural and luxurious, with different colours, different types… and it’s lightweight, which is very important for a yacht designer. I like materials that can be shaped and sculpted – and wood gives you lots of flexibility, especially now with new technologies such as 3D printers and CNC (robotic) machines."

He embraces technology even though it has made the design process more complex. "When I started out, it was already very digital, but now there is virtual reality. Clients want to step inside the yacht even before the yacht is completed or under construction." He has enormous respect for how designers worked in the past. "Nowadays, you have to present hundreds of renderings. I call it virtual reality, because you see from every possible angle and see the final results, so there are no surprises."

While you would expect a designer starting out the process of designing the interiors of a yacht to always begin on a main room such as a saloon, Vafiadis has a more unusual approach. "Usually, it's really unpredictable. For example, on Daybreak, I started from a side table in a cabin."

There may be no set formula to his design process, he says, but everything needs to be functional. "I imagined [the table] in a varnished burl, a very soft and gentle shape. It reminded me both of the sixties and the antique navy style. I was dreaming of these lake boats from the sixties with dark varnished wood and white lines and we took these elements inside the yacht."

If the first thing he decides to design varies, the last thing he does is nearly always the same – sourcing the accessories. "They’re important, the icing on the cake, so we usually go round, go shopping with the owner." By that stage the team has got to know the owners well and the occasion is always "a lot of fun."

Does he ever have the design equivalent of writer’s block? He shakes his head. "I think I'm just at the beginning of my career, so I haven't done enough to say I'm fine, I'm satisfied. So I continue, and I like to experiment. And every time I design, I follow this perfect boat in my mind."

And looking back at all the perfect yachts from history, which one would he have loved to design?

He ponders. "Onassis’ boat," he says finally, explaining that Christina O was so ahead of her time and had features that took years to filter down in the mainstream. |I think [she] was one of the most incredibly innovative boats - she already had a telescopic pool like the Bagliettos have nowadays."

He would have also loved to have met the people cruising that yacht, he adds. "Churchill, Callas… incredible personalities; the jetset of the fifties and sixties. If the partitions of that yacht could talk, they would tell amazing stories!"