Modernisation: Refitting the interior of a yacht offers many possibilities

Many people have recently redesigned or reconfigured their living areas at home due to the changed circumstances, for home offices, home schooling and holidays on the balcony. We are constantly adapting our living space to our needs. However, this change is not only visible at home, but also in yacht design.

This is not just about changing sailing characteristics such as the yacht's angle to the wind and speed, but also about values that cannot be read off an instrument in the cockpit or taken from diagrams: the yacht's inner values - the interior.

It is not only the shape of the hull and the type of rigging that provide information about the era in which a yacht was built. The interior also shows the influences of the different periods, sometimes more and sometimes less clearly.

Over the years, the large, sumptuously decorated interiors of large sailing yachts became functional, space-utilising interiors that were adapted to the limited space and life on the water. Functional furnishing elements such as berths with bunk boards or leeboards, gimballed cookers or folding washbasins gradually replaced mere decoration and ornamental elements in yacht interiors. The development of new materials and new production methods brought and continue to bring new scope for design. For example, large hatches, portlights and hull windows allow the interior to be opened up more and more. New lighting options were added with LED technology. Navigating a chart table with large paper charts is taken over by small chart plotters, which can be placed almost anywhere. This creates space that can be utilised differently. This is how yachts change over time according to the needs of their buyers, owners and users. And in this way, older yachts can also be adapted to modern times.

Interior designer Ann Cathrein Jacobsen, 37, grew up with cruising and regatta sailing. The Kappeln native is jointly responsible for interior design at the Judel/Vrolijk & Co design office and designed the interior for the Dehler 30 od, among others.

In Yacht 4/2022, Jacobsen explains the means by which certain effects can be achieved, how best to combine old and new and how to play with materials.