A unique and magnificent vessel

photo courtesy of Perini Navi

There is something a bit special about the Galileo G and not just that she is a magnificent 55m superyacht. She has a large comms dome and has been designed to ice class as she is to traverse the notorious North West Passage. Built by Perini Navi in their Picchiotti yard, this unique vessel follows in the footsteps of the much praised Peini Navi built 50m Exuma, which was launched a year ago.

Both the Exuma and the Galileo G have been designed specifically for their owners by Philippe Briand, who is a sailing yacht designer of high repute. Briand uses his expertise in sailing yacht hulls to design a hull which is efficient in the water and has excellent seaworthiness. ‘The concept,’ explains Briand, ‘is to be an efficient motor yacht. You achieve this through having the right proportions and from the design of the hull lines, using previous experience of designing sailing yachts to get those lines. Both Galileo G and Exuma before her were also built to the specific requirements of their owners. For Galileo G, the basic requirement was the same as Exuma in the sense of going further in remote areas, but the owner had other requirements – he was not limited by wanting to keep the yacht under 500GT. After some discussion we decided to go quite high above that, and ended up with a 725GT, 55 metre yacht. The 10 per cent increase in length has therefore delivered a 50 per cent increase in volume.’

The interior has been designed mainly in mahogany with wenge and with comfort in mind. The crew  quarters feature white panelling and much deliberation has gone into these accommodations as the vessel will be sailing in isolated areas of the oceans for considerable amounts of time.

photo courtesy of Perini Navi

Due to her remarkable design, the Galileo G is incredibly stable in the water and unusually quiet inside. At just over 16 knots, a hard turn produces very little heel and virtually no fore and aft pitch, which is an incredible achievement considering her stabilisers were switched off at the time. Equally impressive is the noise levels or rather the lack of noise inside. When cruising at 10 knots, a very pleasing 46dB was all that registered from the office area in the owner’s suite. This yacht is bound to spark a lot of interest and you will no doubt, be hearing more about her.