andre hoek yachts

Yachting World

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PC 55 Video: footage of our test of the Hoek designed Performance Classic Yachts 55

• Toby Hodges
• October 17, 2017

Full boat test video taken during our trials of the first PC55 – a modern composite built Hoek design inspired by the timeless shape of a pilot cutter

The PC55 is a performance cruiser with a difference – it’s looks. It owes its aesthetic inspiration to the original pilot cutters – working yachts that gained a legendary reputation thanks to their speed, manoeuvrability and ability to be handled by just two crewmembers.

The traditional pilot cutter is oft described as the best yacht design ever. It seems strange then that there is not a greater choice of pilot cutter inspired designs around today.

One person who is onto their enduring appeal more than any other though is Andre Hoek. Hoek’s ‘Pilot Classic’ range spans the whole size spectrum, from the 33ft Essence and 37ft Wally Nano to the 152ft Royal Huisman built Elfje and even a 200ft+ project currently on the boards.

Performance Classic Yachts (PC Yachts) has created a production yacht business around these Hoek designs from this PC55 up to a 85 footer. It is a five-year old British company that sub contracts the semi custom builds to Metur Yachts in Bodrum. Metur, a classic yacht specialist, has built numerous Hoek designs over the last two decades, including two for Andre Hoek himself.

The first PC Yacht was a wood epoxy built Pilot Classic 66 in 2014, followed by this composite PC55. The designs retain the generous sail area of a pilot cutter, albeit with a Bermudan rig, combined with a modern underwater shape. Weight is reduced and centralised wherever possible to optimise performance.

The PC55 has a carbon reinforced composite hull and deck and foam-cored furniture as standard. The combination of classic-inspired lines together with a modern lightweight shell and appendages looks quite irresistible. We travelled to Bodrum to see if the mix works on the water. Here’s the video:

We had perfect trial conditions, with winds averaging 15 knots over calm seas. The PC55 is designed for the yacht to be powered up in typical Force 3–4 Med conditions.

And she was quick to establish why the word ‘performance’ belongs in her title. We clocked 9–9.5 knots beam reaching, 8.5 knots when fetching and 7.5–8 knots upwind tacking through 85º. I was impressed.

Our test was a good representation of how a potential owner would want to sail the PC55. It’s an ideal concept for those who want to keep their yacht in a Med marina – to be able to take it out for a sail with partner and/or friend and maximise the moderate breezes.

The PC55 is around €300k less than a similar-sized luxury cruiser from the likes of Swan, Spirit, Oyster or Contest. So in production market terms, it’s more comparative to yachts like an XC55 or an Italia Yachts 15.98.

But much rests on the looks of the PC55 and whether they hook you in. The PC55 represents a cool blend of modern styling on a dreamy pilot cutter shape. It’s a yacht that has that ability to turn heads anywhere.

  This extract is taken from the full test report of the PC55 in the November 2017 issue of Yachting World. Pictures and video shot by Richard Langdon, Ocean Images

LOA 18.54m 60ft 10in

LOD 16.62m 54ft 6in

LWL 13.38m 43ft 10in

Beam (Max) 4.23m 13ft 10in

Draught 2.7m 8ft 10in

Disp (lightship) 15,570kg 34,722lb

Price (ex VAT) €775,000

Design: Hoek Design

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Interview: André Hoek for Hoek Design

Yacht Style Editor at Large Guy Nowell profiles the Dutch yacht designer, trained naval architect and sailor.

“Of all the elements that go into a proper yacht, the one that should never be compromised is beauty.” (Arthur Beiser, ‘The Proper Yacht’). André Hoek has read the book and taken it to heart.

When I win the Mark Six, the first person I’m going to call is not my broker. It’ll probably be André Hoek – surely the most prolific ‘modern classic’ yacht designer in the world. Hoek has perfected the happy art of combining the exquisite lines and styling of a classic yacht with a modern and efficient underwater hull shape produced with the assistance of a lot of very clever computer-driven analysis. The results are nothing short of magnificent: this smiling Dutchman couldn’t draw a bad line if he tried.

Hoek started with traditional boats, the Dutch skutsjes, lemsteraaken, hoogarsen and schokkers, ‘optimizing’ them for racing purposes. Originally trading and fishing boats, these commercial sailing vessels fell out of use some time after the Second World War, instead becoming popular as family cruising boats. As we all know, scratch a cruiser and you’ll find a racer underneath, and very soon the cruisers were racing each other, and before long someone wanted to work out how to make what they considered to be a very pretty boat – and they are certainly unusual – go just that little bit faster. The Dutch leeboard boats were capacious coastal cargo-carriers, and built to go fast – because speed is good for trade, especially when you are rushing the fish catch to market. They were broad-beamed and shallow-draughted, deriving their stability from their shape rather than from a keel. André Hoek’s family owned and raced one of them.

“In the 1970s there was comparatively primitive mathematical modelling available to us. We had a very simple Velocity Prediction Programme (VPP), and computers that had less numerical power than today’s average calculator. Gaff rigs, surface-piercing leeboards and complex hull shapes proved hard to describe in numbers, but we had a good deal of success – we moved the mast aft to give a bigger fore triangle, we increased the height of the rig, and sometimes we even added ballast. We knew the calculations were working when the optimized boats went faster and started winning on the water.” And from there it was only a hop, skip, and a set-square to designing ‘new traditional’ boats that went faster still.

Hoek graduated in Naval Architecture in 1980, but the European yacht design world just wasn’t hiring, so Hoek started work with C&C Yachts in Canada, and then spent time with ITC, a company specialising in heavy-lift transportation, before embarking on an MBA.

“People discovered that I was no longer ‘fully employed’ and started offering me commissions.” Hoek Design was founded in 1986, and soon there were an additional four designers in the office. In 1987 the design office launched its first retro-classic ocean going design, Joss, built in cooperation with an owner who had previously owned a traditional Dutch lemsteraak and now wanted a medium displacement yacht that could comfortably sail offshore. Joss became a standard bearer for the Hoek Design approach of combining a classic look above water with modern technology below: very modern indeed, with a steel hull, winged keel, spade rudder and powerful sloop rig. Joss was an immediate sensation, and a huge success.

In 1994 the late Michael Peacock, former captain of the British Admiral’s Cup team, asked Hoek to build the boat that was launched as Truly Classic (later Zephyr, now named Savy). The boat started a volume of business that Hoek had never expected: a whole series of designs were created that combined the elegance of the 1930s with modern underwater hull configurations, and built in ‘semi-series’, meaning that clients could base a new yacht on an existing proven hull design where the majority of the design decisions had already been made, and then customise the interior and deck layouts, the draft, and the sailplan. ‘Truly Classic’ became a brand name in its own right, with designs created for a whole range of yachts – 56’, 65’, 75’, 90’ and 102’. To date more than 30 Truly Classics have been built, and their reputation for looks, performance and quality established Hoek Design’s reputation forever.

There are now more than 200 Hoek-designed boats afloat, ranging from 33’ up to 180’, with the latest launching, Wisp, a delight to the eye at 157’ overall. The latest project on the drawing board is a substantial 262-footer. Did André Hoek ever imagine that he would be designing boats of this size? “I never imagined that we would design and launch more than 200 boats!” he says, rather disingenuously.

Where big boats – superyachts – are concerned, many designers have succumbed to the temptation to add more and more decks to successively bigger boats. Hoek Designs have “always tried to keep the look. If you want a Bentley, why talk to Aston Martin?” If you don’t want a boat that looks like a ‘Hoek classic’ why come to Hoek Design?

Here’s another line from Arthur Beiser: “Yacht designers should be men of sensitivity and spirit – the former quality to assure that whatever they do will show grace and the latter to assure that they will not permit the crochets of owner or racing formula to distort their vision.” André Hoek smiles. “We have on occasions been pushed by clients into a corner that we didn’t like, and we have resisted.” So, plenty of spirit there.

In addition to the sensitivity and spirit of their designer, André Hoek’s boats also have the distinction of retaining their value in a rarified secondary market. “Some years ago we started a brokerage – for our own boats – at the request of our existing clientele. In some cases, they were selling for more than they originally cost. “The reason is simple,” says André. “Where ‘modern’ boats are concerned, next year will produce yet another new style or feature that looks good in order to generate demand – but a Hoek design will still be a beautiful boat in ten or twenty years time.” It’s part of the timelessness of a true classic, and our dictionary describes ‘classic’ as “of a simple, elegant, style, not greatly subject to changes in fashion.”

Story Credits Text and Portrait by Guy Nowell, Editor at Large, Yacht Style

This article was originally published in Yacht Style

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Stephens Waring Yacht Design

Spirit of Tradition Yachts Designed In Maine

Home » SoT Registry » Weatherly

Posted on September 27, 2018 and filed under SoT Registry

Weatherly, at anchor, features her European take on modern-classic design idioms. Photos courtesy of De Valk Yacht Brokers.

Of all the intriguing vessels drawn by leading European designer Andre Hoek, there’s something about Weatherly that endures.

Drawn back in 2002, this 65-foot sloop captures most of what moves the Spirit-of-Tradition plotlines in Europe. She features a traditional, full-volume hull shaped out of a graceful sheer and significant overhangs fore and aft. Her waterline is just 45 feet!

Weatherly also hits all the right modern-classic design references: Retro deck structures, open spaces fore and aft and a traditional, yet modern, ergonomic cockpit. The high-tech epoxied mahogany, rod rigging and bulb keel are all where they need to be.

But what’s important with Weatherly is how this German-built vessel organizes the Spirit-of-Tradition ideas into a larger, more European narrative, that is classic and modern simultaneously. There is a delicate balance of elements in play here, that takes time to consider.

But if you invest the effort to see Weatherly on her own terms, this boat sums what’s old and new in European naval traditions. And for what makes a modern-classic yacht tick overseas, Weatherly is as important a design reference as any.

site by: slickfish studios

GRACE III SES YACHTS

Tc 128-3 s/y ‘grace iii'.

Grace III is a customised version of the Truly Classic 128 limited series designed by Andre HOEK, Hoek Naval Architects B.V. Grace III is built for an experienced yachtsman who has been heavily involved in all details of the yacht, especially her interior and exterior design. She incorporates an owner’s cabin aft, three guest cabins and two crew cabins, one of which is a ‘flex’ cabin for use during charters. The interior design and styling are by Hoek Design with décor and soft furnishings by YM Design of London, all in close cooperation with the owners. The interior joinery features simple mahogany panelling, oak floors and off-white painted deckheads and bulkheads in all cabins. The exterior has been customised with a single main deckhouse open to the lower saloon and dining area to create a great feeling of space. On the aft deck there are two separate cockpits, one a working area, the other for guests to relax. There’s a dining table for twelve. The separation of the cockpits works well, providing guests and children not involved in sailing a safe and comfortable place to relax. Technically, Grace III is built to world class standards and is equipped with a Scania main engine, Kohler generators, Lewmar hydraulics systems and a controllable pitch propellor by Hundested, as well as features and equipment normally found aboard a sailing superyacht of this size.

GRACE III PHOTOS

Specification.

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The Comprehensive Guide to Moscow Nightlife

• Posted on April 14, 2018 July 26, 2018
• by Kings of Russia
• 8 minute read

Moscow’s nightlife scene is thriving, and arguably one of the best the world has to offer – top-notch Russian women, coupled with a never-ending list of venues, Moscow has a little bit of something for everyone’s taste. Moscow nightlife is not for the faint of heart – and if you’re coming, you better be ready to go Friday and Saturday night into the early morning.

This comprehensive guide to Moscow nightlife will run you through the nuts and bolts of all you need to know about Moscow’s nightclubs and give you a solid blueprint to operate with during your time in Moscow.

What you need to know before hitting Moscow nightclubs

Prices in moscow nightlife.

Before you head out and start gaming all the sexy Moscow girls , we have to talk money first. Bring plenty because in Moscow you can never bring a big enough bankroll. Remember, you’re the man so making a fuzz of not paying a drink here or there will not go down well.

Luckily most Moscow clubs don’t do cover fees. Some electro clubs will charge 15-20$, depending on their lineup. There’s the odd club with a minimum spend of 20-30$, which you’ll drop on drinks easily. By and large, you can scope out the venues for free, which is a big plus.

Bottle service is a great deal in Moscow. At top-tier clubs, it starts at 1,000$. That’ll go a long way with premium vodka at 250$, especially if you have three or four guys chipping in. Not to mention that it’s a massive status boost for getting girls, especially at high-end clubs.

Without bottle service, you should estimate a budget of 100-150$ per night. That is if you drink a lot and hit the top clubs with the hottest girls. Scale down for less alcohol and more basic places.

Dress code & Face control

Door policy in Moscow is called “face control” and it’s always the guy behind the two gorillas that gives the green light if you’re in or out.

In Moscow nightlife there’s only one rule when it comes to dress codes:

You can never be underdressed.

People dress A LOT sharper than, say, in the US and that goes for both sexes. For high-end clubs, you definitely want to roll with a sharp blazer and a pocket square, not to mention dress shoes in tip-top condition. Those are the minimum requirements to level the playing field vis a vis with other sharply dressed guys that have a lot more money than you do. Unless you plan to hit explicit electro or underground clubs, which have their own dress code, you are always on the money with that style.

Getting in a Moscow club isn’t as hard as it seems: dress sharp, speak English at the door and look like you’re in the mood to spend all that money that you supposedly have (even if you don’t). That will open almost any door in Moscow’s nightlife for you.

Types of Moscow Nightclubs

In Moscow there are four types of clubs with the accompanying female clientele:

High-end clubs:

These are often crossovers between restaurants and clubs with lots of tables and very little space to dance. Heavy accent on bottle service most of the time but you can work the room from the bar as well. The hottest and most expensive girls in Moscow go there. Bring deep pockets and lots of self-confidence and you have a shot at swooping them.

Regular Mid-level clubs:

They probably resemble more what you’re used to in a nightclub: big dancefloors, stages and more space to roam around. Bottle service will make you stand out more but you can also do well without. You can find all types of girls but most will be in the 6-8 range. Your targets should always be the girls drinking and ideally in pairs. It’s impossible not to swoop if your game is at least half-decent.

Basic clubs/dive bars:

Usually spots with very cheap booze and lax face control. If you’re dressed too sharp and speak no Russian, you might attract the wrong type of attention so be vigilant. If you know the local scene you can swoop 6s and 7s almost at will. Usually students and girls from the suburbs.

Electro/underground clubs:

Home of the hipsters and creatives. Parties there don’t mean meeting girls and getting drunk but doing pills and spacing out to the music. Lots of attractive hipster girls if that is your niche. That is its own scene with a different dress code as well.

What time to go out in Moscow

Moscow nightlife starts late. Don’t show up at bars and preparty spots before 11pm because you’ll feel fairly alone. Peak time is between 1am and 3am. That is also the time of Moscow nightlife’s biggest nuisance: concerts by artists you won’t know and who only distract your girls from drinking and being gamed. From 4am to 6am the regular clubs are emptying out but plenty of people, women included, still hit up one of the many afterparty clubs. Those last till well past 10am.

As far as days go: Fridays and Saturdays are peak days. Thursday is an OK day, all other days are fairly weak and you have to know the right venues.

The Ultimate Moscow Nightclub List

Short disclaimer: I didn’t add basic and electro clubs since you’re coming for the girls, not for the music. This list will give you more options than you’ll be able to handle on a weekend.

Preparty – start here at 11PM

Classic restaurant club with lots of tables and a smallish bar and dancefloor. Come here between 11pm and 12am when the concert is over and they start with the actual party. Even early in the night tons of sexy women here, who lean slightly older (25 and up).

The second floor of the Ugolek restaurant is an extra bar with dim lights and house music tunes. Very small and cozy with a slight hipster vibe but generally draws plenty of attractive women too. A bit slower vibe than Valenok.

Very cool, spread-out venue that has a modern library theme. Not always full with people but when it is, it’s brimming with top-tier women. Slow vibe here and better for grabbing contacts and moving on.

High-end: err on the side of being too early rather than too late because of face control.

Secret Room

Probably the top venue at the moment in Moscow . Very small but wildly popular club, which is crammed with tables but always packed. They do parties on Thursdays and Sundays as well. This club has a hip-hop/high-end theme, meaning most girls are gold diggers, IG models, and tattooed hip hop chicks. Very unfavorable logistics because there is almost no room no move inside the club but the party vibe makes it worth it. Strict face control.

Close to Secret Room and with a much more favorable and spacious three-part layout. This place attracts very hot women but also lots of ball busters and fakes that will leave you blue-balled. Come early because after 4am it starts getting empty fast. Electronic music.

A slightly kitsch restaurant club that plays Russian pop and is full of gold diggers, semi-pros, and men from the Caucasus republics. Thursday is the strongest night but that dynamic might be changing since Secret Room opened its doors. You can swoop here but it will be a struggle.

Mid-level: your sweet spot in terms of ease and attractiveness of girls for an average budget.

Started going downwards in 2018 due to lax face control and this might get even worse with the World Cup. In terms of layout one of the best Moscow nightclubs because it’s very big and bottle service gives you a good edge here. Still attracts lots of cute girls with loose morals but plenty of provincial girls (and guys) as well. Swooping is fairly easy here.

I haven’t been at this place in over a year, ever since it started becoming ground zero for drunken teenagers. Similar clientele to Icon but less chic, younger and drunker. Decent mainstream music that attracts plenty of tourists. Girls are easy here as well.

Sort of a Coyote Ugly (the real one in Moscow sucks) with party music and lots of drunken people licking each others’ faces. Very entertaining with the right amount of alcohol and very easy to pull in there. Don’t think about staying sober in here, you’ll hate it.

Artel Bessonitsa/Shakti Terrace

Electronic music club that is sort of a high-end place with an underground clientele and located between the teenager clubs Icon and Gipsy. Very good music but a bit all over the place with their vibe and their branding. You can swoop almost any type of girl here from high-heeled beauty to coked-up hipsters, provided they’re not too sober.

Afterparty: if by 5AM  you haven’t pulled, it’s time to move here.

Best afterparty spot in terms of trying to get girls. Pretty much no one is sober in there and savage gorilla game goes a long way. Lots of very hot and slutty-looking girls but it can be hard to tell apart who is looking for dick and who is just on drugs but not interested. If by 9-10am you haven’t pulled, it is probably better to surrender.

The hipster alternative for afterparties, where even more drugs are in play. Plenty of attractive girls there but you have to know how to work this type of club. A nicer atmosphere and better music but if you’re desperate to pull, you’ll probably go to Miks.

Weekday jokers: if you’re on the hunt for some sexy Russian girls during the week, here are two tips to make your life easier.

Chesterfield

Ladies night on Wednesdays means this place gets pretty packed with smashed teenagers and 6s and 7s. Don’t pull out the three-piece suit in here because it’s a “simpler” crowd. Definitely your best shot on Wednesdays.

If you haven’t pulled at Chesterfield, you can throw a Hail Mary and hit up Garage’s Black Music Wednesdays. Fills up really late but there are some cute Black Music groupies in here. Very small club. Thursday through Saturday they do afterparties and you have an excellent shot and swooping girls that are probably high.

Shishas Sferum

This is pretty much your only shot on Mondays and Tuesdays because they offer free or almost free drinks for women. A fairly low-class club where you should watch your drinks. As always the case in Moscow, there will be cute girls here on any day of the week but it’s nowhere near as good as on the weekend.

In a nutshell, that is all you need to know about where to meet Moscow girls in nightlife. There are tons of options, and it all depends on what best fits your style, based on the type of girls that you’re looking for.

Related Topics

• moscow girls
• moscow nightlife

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HOEK BROKERAGE

Founded in 1998, initially as a service to existing clients developing a new yacht with Hoek Design, the team at Hoek Brokerage realised there was a need to represent clients with yachts which meet the Hoek Design philosophy. Working closely with the Design office, the Brokerage has a comprehensive understanding of the niche market that Hoek Design has created. The Hoek Brokerage team has many years’ experience between them, with backgrounds in design, management and the building processes and can offer valuable expertise and insider knowledge of the performance and qualities of the yachts they sell and charter. Our main priorities are to establish strong relationships with clients, owners and their crew, offering them a personal service and making sure their experience is not only an easy one but a pleasurable one, along with listening to new clients and working with them to find the most suitable yacht for their needs, whether it is a new design or pre-loved. For more information, visit  http://www.hoekbrokerage.com ,  contact Pieter van der Weide on +31 299 315506 or email us at  [email protected] .