n the exaggerated, no-expenses-spared world of superyachts, it can be difficult to make a definitive statement that yachting festival crowds still remember clearly after sleeping off too much Krug and Kumamotos. So instead of penning a yacht to be lost early in a sea of forthcoming 2020 launches, Italian shipyard Codecasa reaches for the sky, quite literally. Its new 230-foot (70-m) Jet 2020 smashes together the nautical and the aeronautical, looking something like a downed aircraft enjoying new life as a powerful ocean liner. It’ll definitely turn your head and hold your gaze, but not necessarily for all the right reasons.
Hellbent on creating a one-of-a-kind mold-breaking yacht design, Fulvio Codecasa sets about marrying marine- and aircraft-grade design cues into a vessel the likes of which has “never been seen before on the sea.” He does not tread lightly when plucking inspiration out of the air, sculpting a bow that looks chopped directly off an aircraft, with a rounded nose protruding out below a wraparound cockpit window. The fuselage-shaped hull extends back from there, its windows dotted in a configuration somewhere between the uniform line of an airliner and the more sporadic peppering of a superyacht.
Roughly halfway down the length of the hull, the balance shifts to the nautical side, the closed body opening into a central sundeck that stretches 66 feet (20 m) in length. Optimized for relaxation and recreation, the deck area includes a recessed swimming pool, covered gymnasium, bar, al fresco dining and plenty of lounge furniture. Below, side compartments cut into the belly of the beast to resemble jet engines carry two tenders.
The port and starboard sidewalls enclosing the central deck transition smoothly into an aircraft-like tail that supports a helipad for medium/large choppers. The glass-encased “Skylounge” sandwiched between the helipad and main deck provides home to the dining room and salon. A lift drops patrons from this scenic lounge down to the aft beach club.
Overnight accommodations are located in the bow, where the owner’s suite takes up the main deck space and four guest cabins plus crew quarters fill out the lower deck. A lift connects these two decks with the bridge deck, where the wheelhouse and captain’s cabin can be found.
The Jet 2020 might seem the fanciful work of an independent designer but is actually a serious proposal from a shipyard bringing nearly 200 years of experience to the water. Codecasa is still finalizing technical details but plans to make the Jet 2020 its flagship yacht, with construction set tentatively to begin by the middle of this year.
