Grand Dame of the Côte D’Azur

Lürssen’s TIS is a nod to the Edwardian Era and the Gilded Age in England and America.

By Jill Bobrow, Editor-At-Large, Yachts International

October 30, 2019

The owner of TIS feels very much at home in world-class hotels such as the Hôtel Hermitage in Monte-Carlo, Le Bristol in Paris and The Connaught in London—so much so that they became the reference point for Winch Design to create the interior of the 364-foot (111-meter) Lürssen.

“The yacht’s ambience is intended to evoke Edwardian elegance, a great time for grand yachting,” Andrew Winch, founder of Winch Design, says of the early 1900s period. “It was a romantic golden age of long summer afternoons and garden parties. There is so much ugliness in the world, why not embrace the beauty of the bygone era? Why not have a tearoom that makes you feel like you are having tea and scones at the Ritz?”

Winch and his company have designed myriad yachts during the past 33 years, but he is like an enthusiastic boy when he talks about the emotional experience evoked aboard TIS.

“First off, let’s imagine arriving,” he says. “You drive the tender to the transom. Picture a chauffeured limousine or a horse-drawn carriage arriving at a stately manor house. And upon arrival is a grand staircase, commanding power and authority … and a butler in white gloves awaits.” TIS would indeed be a wonderful setting for a BBC ‘Downton Abbey’ episode. Similar to manor houses of yesteryear, grand staircases are a major theme on TIS, but the grand entrance on the yacht is the beach club, which is more substantial than on most other yachts. Winch says it’s akin to a gentleman’s club in St. James’s, England, or to the Royal Automobile Club in London: “somewhere you might spend several hours watching sports, relaxing and taking saunas whilst having a quick dip in the sea followed by a massage and a fresh-squeezed juice.”

His firm designed the yacht inside and out, with technical support from Moran Yacht & Ship. He was given free rein with form and function. Built to carry 36 guests, TIS conforms to the Passenger Yacht Code. She has a long, well-balanced, unbroken sheerline, as well as precise proportions and sweeping curves. With a beam of just over 60 feet (18.4 meters), she has wide promenade side decks.

“The lines are feminine in feel, but masculine in size,” Winch says of her profile, adding that it harks back to the 1973 Lürssen Carinthia VI that Jon Bannenberg designed. “She was thin and fine at the bow—a true frigate hull. TIS is similar to that.”

Each room on board has a theme. On the bridge deck, the spa has a citrus motif; carved stone lemon trees climb the walls. The area has a hammam, a hair salon and a massage room with painted walls that evoke the spirit of Capri, Italy. The stone soles are hand-chipped to create a soft, aged feel. Abaft the spa, in a space defined with classical colonnades, are a gymnasium and four live lemon trees. From there, guests can access the 39-foot-long (12-meter) infinity pool, Jacuzzi and juice bar.

The yacht has eight guest staterooms, each representing a destination. On the lower deck, staterooms named for Provence, France, and China’s seas can be arranged as single- or double-berth configurations. Staterooms based on a Russian dacha and Tuscan villa have hand-carved headboards, period tiebacks, lampshades, and matching marbles on the side tables and in the bathrooms. On the main deck are staterooms designed with the themes of London, Paris, New York and Marrakech, Morocco.

If you have traveled the world, and if the Bristol Hotel bartender instantly remembers what kind of bourbon you like in your whiskey sour, then you, too, would feel at home on TIS.