Super-Size Supersailer: Dream Symphony

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

April 25, 2014

When completed, Dream Symphony is expected to be the largest private sailing yacht in the world.

In 2006, an innovative 289-foot (88-meter) Perini Navi sailing yacht created enormous media buzz. Touted as the largest privately owned sailing yacht in the world, she dazzled onlookers in ports far and wide. Now, The Maltese Falcon will be eclipsed by a quantitatively larger yacht: the 463-foot (141-meter) Dream Symphony. She is currently under construction at the Dream Ship Victory yard in Turkey and, coincidentally, is designed by the same team responsible for The Falcon.
With Dykstra Naval Architects behind the engineering, and exterior and interior styling by Ken Freivokh Design, Dream Symphony promises to shake the yachting world anew. Gerry Dykstra describes working on the project as an unbelievable experience.

“After the success of The Maltese Falcon, I could not have dreamed of another Mount Everest in naval architecture that would be more challenging,” he says. “However, Valeryi Stepanenko, the owner of the Dream Ship Victory yard, could. Maybe the Dream Symphony rig is less challenging than the Falcon rig, but the laminated wooden hull construction is certainly a new highlight in the history of yachting and a highlight in wood construction in shipbuilding.”
The yacht is unique in that the hull is being built in wood—glued and laminated using the latest epoxy and composite techniques. According to Dr. Lex Keuning of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, building a yacht of such magnitude in wood requires a much more sophisticated approach than building in steel or aluminium, which are more forgiving materials.

Freivokh says: “The interior and exterior harmoniously mix a very contemporary approach with a timeless classical style. The external styling, with voluptuous radii and sculptural separation of mahogany and glass, is echoed by the interior paneling and purpose-built massive mahogany furniture with sparkling accents of mother-of-pearl.”
The yacht’s proportions, layout and detail will arguably challenge preconceptions about both sailing yachts and wood technology.

“The design and build specifications aim to achieve peaceful quietness and solidity,” says Freivokh.

Similar to the visual centerpiece of The Falcon, grandiose atrium areas with Imperial-style staircases will be aboard Dream Symphony. The owner’s private quarters include separate spa facilities, offices and meeting rooms, hair and nail salons, massage rooms, a gymnasium and a double-height swimming pool. The all-glass pool’s floor can be raised and utilized either as an expanded guest entertainment area or as a touch-and-go helipad.

The owner’s quarters are a duplex with private circulation apart from the sleeping accommodations, and with the salon and office on the main deck level. A sheltered open deck between the owner’s quarters and the guest deckhouse can be fully enclosed as a conservatory when the weather dictates, with fully glazed automatic sections that run in concealed channels.
Dream Symphony will sleep up to 20 guests and 32 crew. In normal configuration as a private yacht, she offers the duplex owner’s suite with a private lower-deck salon and further private main-deck salon, two double VIP suites with separate private salons and four handsome double guest cabins.