mark whiteley yacht design

Lighting the Way

Words: emma bamford | images: baxter bradford.

If you want to catch a glimpse of your yachting future, Mark Whiteley’s your man. The esteemed British designer probably knows before you do what you’re going to choose to have onboard your next boat.

A guest room that converts into a gym via a running machine hidden under the floor. An owners’ suite up front, for increased privacy and better crew access to the deck. Saloon sofas that convert into a sea-level viewing platform. A move away from open-play layouts to create distinct spaces on board. And a calm, inviting interior that helps you immediately unwind when you leave the mad, frantic world behind and step onto your yacht.

“Now because our world is really cluttered and busy, to get on a sailing boat – the calmness and quietness of that is so valuable,” he says. “It can be something as simple as having a switch for the lights rather than a big programmable system. Reducing the complexity helps you relax quickly.”

His interior for 56-metre Aquarius , the 2018 Royal Huisman ketch is an exemplar of this approach: a mix of traditional and contemporary, with dark woods and fine detailing on the cabinetry lightened by white walls and ceilings and pale-coloured soft furnishings upholstered in touch-me fabrics. The aesthetic has become something of a signature for Mark Whiteley Design, the studio he founded in Lymington, Hampshire, in 2012, and has attracted the owners of some of the stand-out sailing superyachts in the fleet – Audrey the First , Nautor’s inaugural 120ft Swan and the 81-metre Sea Eagle , the world’s largest aluminium yacht, for which Whiteley also designed the exterior – and, upcoming, the 65-metre Aquarius II , due to launch next year, and a 98ft sloop in Maine. “I’m really liking where we are with these boats and these calm, relaxed spaces. We’ve got a nice niche,” the designer says. “There’s a simplicity which the clients like… a lightness and calmness to the detail.”

Whiteley came to yacht design via London’s Central School of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art. “Jon Bannenberg was having an open gallery exhibition and I went along. They were very welcoming and opened my eyes to this extraordinary world,” he says. “I had been sailing as a teenager and there was an affinity.” Speaking to him about who he has worked with becomes a roll call of the world’s top sailing yacht designers: Ed Dubois, Malcolm McKeon, Juan K, Justin Redmond, Tony Dixon, Germán Frers. His first job, in 1987, was for Andrew Winch, as the first designer Winch had employed. After an approach in 1992 by Dubois and McKeon to work on the 35-metre Corinthian , he became one of the founding designers of RWD, alongside Justin Redman and Tony Dixon, before striking out on his own.

Whiteley believes it’s inevitable, following the pandemic, that people are drawn to the water more than ever. “If they had been planning a project, they thought, ‘Why not? Let’s do it now because you never know what’s round the corner’,” he says. “You can take your own bubble with you. And sailing boats in particular – they represent the ultimate escape, without too many crew or engine noise.”

He keeps a 45ft classic wooden ketch in Lymington for cruising in France and Cornwall, plus “a bit of round-the-cans”. “It reconnects me with sailing, and in our world I think it’s a help to remember what it’s about,” he says. “These interiors do have to perform in very different positions, not just on the flat in the shipyard. When the opportunity comes up I jump at the chance to do a delivery because it’s a really good way of seeing how boats perform, if the handholds are in the right place, if the chef is happy with the galley layout. I am a practical interior designer, because in sailing boats the practicalities underlie all the comfort. They are essential.”

Whiteley considers himself fortunate to have been able to work on a wide variety of projects, and on such notable yachts. What would also interest him in the future, he admits, would be a restoration of a classic, or a J-Class. “On a restoration it would be interesting to look at all the detailing and see how that could be taken forward while reflecting the history and journey that the boat has made,” he says. “And a J-Class – well!”

Whether reimagining a classic or starting from scratch with a new build, each owner comes to a project with different ideas, and the key to good design, Whiteley says, is accommodating those but also planning for how they might change. “You have to keep an open mind. When Aquarius started out, racing wasn’t on the agenda. The owner had never raced. Then he did the [St Barths] Bucket and won and loved it!”

And what is created for one yacht can soon influence others. “The way people use boats is different these days,” Whiteley adds. “People aren’t using interior dining tables. They are outside more. They want shade. And gyms are popular, as people want to exercise. On Sea Eagle we did what I call a ‘torture wall’: a multifunctional gym wall, very compact. And on Audrey the First we created a coffee and wine station opposite the galley, with a custom stainless steel wine fridge and a great coffee machine. The owners sit there and talk to the chef. That’s a really successful and unique part of that particular boat. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody else said they wanted to do something similar.”

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