Building the Cheoy Lee 130 Explorer’s Interiors Simultaneously in Two Locations Saves Time and Adds Convenience for the Yacht’s Owner
While many new megayachts can take up to three years to build, Cheoy Lee Shipyards offer far shorter construction periods for their new Explorer Series yachts.
“One of the questions we are asked often is delivery lead time,” B.Y. Lo, Cheoy Lee Yachts vice president, North America. “To keep build time for a new yacht to 24 months or less, teaming up with Genesis Interiors allows ship construction and interior construction to be done simultaneously.”
Luxury yacht interior builder Genesis Interiors is crafting the interiors for the Cheoy Lee 130 Explorer in two locations – in the yachting meccas of Viareggio, Italy, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The workshop in Italy is building the interiors for the main deck, while the U.S. workshop is tasked with the lower-deck and bridge deck interiors.
Although they are on different continents, the two Genesis workshops each have the same state-of-the-art machinery and workflow systems, and their teams work to the same exacting standards. Both employ Italian artisans who draw on skills and experience handed through multiple generations. The Fort Lauderdale shop also has some local workers who honed their skills in South Florida’s busy superyacht repair yards.
“Both shops are using the same wood, American Walnut, sourced at the same time from the same place in Italy, to ensure that the interiors are perfectly matched,” said Genesis Interiors Found Roberto Lottini. “All the panels are being made by hand by artisans with the right tools, the right machines and the right experience.”
One of the design goals for the Cheoy Lee 130 Explorer’s interior was to preserve the American Walnut’s grain and texture in the wall panels.
“You have to be an artist, not a carpenter, to fit these sheets of wood together and have them fit perfectly,” said Giacomo Lombardi, Genesis Interiors general manager.
Lottini added, “These interiors are designed not only to be beautiful and sophisticated, but also to be durable when the yacht is voyaging in rough seas.”
The location of Genesis Interiors’ Fort Lauderdale workshop has an added benefit for the Cheoy Lee 130 Explorer project.
“Their Fort Lauderdale office is just over a mile from Cheoy Lee’s North American headquarters,” Lo said. “An owner can visit regularly to appreciate the quality and the attention to detail. They also can view mockups and approve fabrication before the interiors are shipped to the factory for installation.” As Lo mentioned, when yacht owners visit the Genesis Interiors workshop, instead of seeing individual panels, they can walk through a full-scale mock-up of the rooms being built for their yacht. “We completely assemble each interior before it is disassembled and painted,” Lombardi explained.
In addition to giving owners a preview of a yacht’s furnishings, the mock-ups also allow them to experience the yacht’s ergonomics in advance and if needed, request small adjustments. Being able to make changes like this before the interior is installed in the yacht saves both time and money.
“For example, if an owner wants a shower to be a little larger and you redo the template on the computer, it doesn’t cost much,” Lottini said. “If you have to re-cut the marble itself, on the other hand, it can cost thousands.”
By early summer of 2023, the superyacht’s lower deck had been completed by Genesis Interiors’ Fort Lauderdale workshop and shipped by sea to Cheoy Lee Shipyards. Work on the bridge deck interior was well under way. The workshop in Viareggio is scheduled to complete the huge main-deck interior by the end of the summer.
“By Thanksgiving, everything should be shipped to Cheoy Lee Shipyard. We are ahead of schedule,” Lottini said, adding. “So far everything has been smooth sailing. The Cheoy Lee team is very professional.”
Please stay tuned for more news of the first Cheoy Lee 130 Explorer, scheduled to launch in early 2024!
