Zaliv III

The sea trial was pubblished on Superyacht 31 – spring 2012

Luca Dini and Giorgio Vafiadis are names that appear often in the recent history of Mondo Marine, this being a shipyard that is focussing more and more on the construction of custom ships of 40 to 55 meters. They are designers tied to the brand and through this to one another. Together they have signed a great number of ships and boats for the Savona shipyards, sometimes either the exteriors or the interiors and sometimes the entire ship.

As for Panther II or for Alexander Again, launched last June, on this Zaliv III Dini and Vafiadis have worked together, one signing the interiors and the other the exteriors. Mondo Marine has, since built almost fifty meters of metal overall – the first unit launched in 2011.

Developed from a ship project worked up wholly by the shipyard’s engineering department, and characterized by semi-displacing water lines, it was built using aluminum for the hull and superstructures. Yet once again eclecticism was revealed in its construction, along with the shipyard’s capacity to satisfy an extensive and heterogeneous clientele, which truly has a broad range to choose from when seeking their own craft.

From those in steel to those in alloy, from those almost as work boats – what comes to our mind is the by now famous Tribù where Luca Dini contributed for the exteriors (shipowner was Luciano Benetton); it was in some ways a Tug ship made into a superyacht – to the sporty hull, of the Panther II type, always under the signature of the pair Dini /Vafiadis, on up to in fact the Zaliv III.

A ship that has in its great availability of space, in its large volumes and outside surfaces placed at the disposal of guests, one of the focal aspects of its design. A boat for the shipowner and his family, a motor yacht with classic features, as is underscored by the windowings of the upper deck, interpreted in modern key but without formal excesses or screaming furnishings – indeed, just the reverse.

It is a boat where what predominates is the linearity of its form, connected on the exterior by roundnesses that prevent it from becoming angular, on the interior by the characterization of the entire furnishings that make a classical essence modern, for yachting par excellence, like teak, a material that is the leitmotif of the fitting out, and also for everything concerning the cladding of the bulkheads and of the floorings.

A practical ship, for fun lovers, to be used and to live in in any environment, Mediterranean, for the tan fans, by virtue of a flying bridge of sizeable dimensions but also having spaces for life in the open air on the other decks, like the terrace looking on the bow area, outfitted with a dual dinette from which the pleasure of sailing can be enjoyed too.

A superyacht, however also able to receive guests in interior spaces that fully exploit its construction. Generously sized spaces, designed with an eye to a numerous family, and for a shipowner that truly wanted the boat for his own self, considering that for Zaliv III he made very precise requests.

The “strangest”? He requested a good two shipowners’s cabins, which develop on a very similar surface, one present where the boat has a lot of volume, that is on the main deck, where the deckhouse takes on a wide-body-type connotation, able to exploit all the width offered by the hull in the forward sections, and the other, where there is more panorama, abaft the upper deck, a space otherwise usually assigned to a sky lounge, to the use of which the portion of the outside deck that looks aft was reserved too, like a solarium.

Privileged points of the ship that can guarantee the maximum in terms of privacy, master’s quarters both including a private office and bath facilities suited to rank – spectacular for their sizing, the one serving the lowest suite being the full width – that, like the rest of the boat shine with sober luxury, made up of furnishing elements and accessories that are anyway highly récherché, to the point of making exclusive even that which appears without luxuriousness.

The Zaliv III’s night zone, assigned to the rest of the family and to guests, develops instead on the lower deck, with the layout envisaged for the creation of two VIP cabins with double beds, that equally share the beam of the hull at midships, each one being able to count not just on a bathroom en suite but also on as many walk-in wardrobe closets of significant size.

The other two cabins, mirror images of one another, separated by a corridor and for this reason are smaller, and sport this time twin beds and always suitable bathrooms and wardrobe closets. A seventh cabin, useable for a further guest or as the captain’s lodging, owing to the presence of a folding bed, is so-called Pullman style, but can also be a room for relaxing or SPA with a steam bath, is found nearby the bridge, and is positioned on the upper deck.

Noteworthy for its airiness and natural light, original for its outfittings and versatility of use, is the saloon, carved out of the main deck, whose essential furnishings have however as their aim the possibility requested by the shipowner of transforming the space from formal, but not even too formal, as it is, to actually becoming a games area, following the passions of the family.

Thus the divans that form the living area are counterposed and set next to the bulkheads that delimit the saloon, leaving in the center an area where guests can actually play table tennis. Or, in the dining room located forward of the living area, in place of the “usual “ table there are two of them, which can be united and transformed into a single unusual playing area for backgammon or other activities.

Driven by a pair of MTUs, each developing 3650 HP, the Zaliv III has shown itself able to reach a top speed actually beyond design target, exceeding 23 knots. At the economical cruising speed , estimated at 12 knots, the boat achieves a range of 3500 nautical miles.

Text by Stefano Colotti – Photos by G. Malgarini – M. Gaspel