On the Water Making
On the Water Making Waves Project Phi under construction at the Royal Huisman yard At the Cutting Edge An off-the-wall innovator, Cor D Rover has steadily built a reputation as one of the world’s most feted yacht designers. By Gemma Fottles D utchman Cor D Rover’s name may be above the door at his eponymous yacht design firm, but he is quick to acknowledge the vital importance of the rest of his team, especially the firm’s co-founder Jan van der Pas. “Sometimes on a Monday morning, I look at a new concept or new idea, and I say, ‘You’re crazy, Jan’,” Rover exclaims with a smile. “Then I chew it over for a few days, the idea grows, and we come back and start pushing the envelope and challenging each other to realise something unique. We’re very different, but it absolutely works.” Rover and Van der Pas started their firm more than two decades ago with the goal of maximising each other’s complementary skills. “He was an entrepreneur dealing with luxury cars and real estate. He had a great network and excellent business acumen, and I was a PHOTO © ROYAL HUISMAN 58 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
“We’re not the new kids on the block. This trust we’ve earned allows a lot of people to take our seemingly outlandish ideas a bit more seriously” PHOTOS FROM TOP: JUSTIN RATCLIFFE, © ROYAL HUISMAN simple guy with talent,” says the forthright Rover, who had previously spent 11 years at Mulder Design, working on a wide range of projects, including the now iconic Octopussy. Today, the Cor D Rover studio has become one of the top names in yacht creation, with a central base in Amsterdam and a team of eight spread across the Netherlands. The studio offers exterior and interior designs for expansive superyachts as well as compact day boats, working with a wide range of builders from the USA to Italy, and the Netherlands to China – a flexibility that allows for some unexpected cross-fertilisation between projects. The largest Cor D Rover vessel currently under construction is the 55-metre Project Phi. On schedule for a 2021 delivery from the Royal Huisman yard, the new motor yacht, claims Rover, is proving to be one of their most ambitious projects to date. “The main challenge when building a 55m-plus, sub- 500GT motor yacht is that space is extremely tight, intensifying the complexity of the build,” he says. There is a plethora of innovative features on the Phi, but one stands out as a significant milestone for the studio. “Having our patented swimming pool on board Project Phi is particularly exciting, as it’s the first time this feature will be physically on a boat,” says Van der Pas. “The pool uses technology that allows it to be transformed into the dump tank. Instead of having to wait an hour for the pool to be filled, guests can jump in in under five minutes,” he explains. “The pool is sealed off at the touch of a button, turning the area into a solid ballast which saves the volume of the dump tank that usually needs to be used. This is a huge advantage as we can create more living spaces for guests. The owner of Phi loves tech and immediately grasped the vision of the idea. He understood the flexibility and all the pros that it offers.” The concept is simplicity itself, but the execution involved so many different variables that, as Rover says, “it took about six years to convince someone to From top: Cor D Rover in his Amsterdam studio; a rendering of Project Phi, the largest yacht currently in production from Rover’s team, and its shadow vessel go for the pool”. Looking back to another recent project, he says, “We proposed this swimming pool to the owner of the 67-metre Benetti superyacht Seasense. That yacht features a ten-metre pool with different levels, so it was a lot more complicated to implement. The level of complexity adds to the risk of commissioning something really new for most yacht owners.” This painstaking perseverance is the key to the studio’s success of turning novel technological dreams into reality, says Rover. As more and more of them have made their way onto yachts over the past two decades, it has become easier to convince owners to implement some of their more eccentric ideas, he explains. “We’re not the new kids on the block. This trust we’ve earned allows a lot of people to take our seemingly outlandish ideas a bit more seriously.” With 32 yachts currently under construction bearing the Cor D Rover design credentials and a host of patented yacht technologies ready and waiting for a willing owner, the future of the studio, and its namesake founder, looks brighter than ever. cor-d-rover.com • CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 59
