It all started on board the 30-40m yachts of my friends during my early adulthood. I recall my feelings when accidentally sliding down steep stairs, taking a shower in uncomfortably small quarters, swimming in the sea while breathing in the fumes from the generators, and actually breaking my toe on a narrow passageway. These yachts boasted huge salons with velvet sofas, dark woods and thick carpets – which I considered garish and impractical. In addition, the height of the main deck from sea level added to a general feeling of disconnect from the natural beauty of the sea and the greater marine environment that surrounded me.

Besides the functional mistakes, these pricey boats always reminded me of being in an apartment in the heart of the city. I knew that what I wanted to feel on a luxury yacht was the proximity to the sea, functional simplicity and personal comfort. When I was on a yacht, I wanted to be in a beach house in Malibu or Sardinia, not in a high-rise apartment in Paris or London. As a designer, I thought there must be a right way to do this. That's where it all began…

Our goal was to design a Motoryacht that cradled its seafaring residents in the simple beauty and majesty of the sea itself, wrapping every minute onboard in a casual elegance achieved through engineering the perfect balance of luxury, practicality and comfort. Designing and delivering the total build was essential to bringing our ideas to life and to solidifying the design principles that we deemed crucial to our overall concept of what yachting should be. In our design studio we spent some important time in research and development from 1996-2003, when we dove into the intricacies of our concepts of design, as they pertain to yachting.

Finally, in 2003, we designed our 21m CV70 with the simple, primary criteria that evolved from our research. After an eighteen month construction period, we launched her in 2005. This experimental boat featured large exterior deck areas and a tender storage area on the aft deck, situated close to the sea. Same area functioned as a "beach" when anchored. There was a general feeling of closeness to the sea that pervaded the entire space.

The design principles used in CV70 experience carried over to our 36.4m NOMADE (now Preference19) which we started to design in 2008 and launched in 2011. We thought that if we could provide this comfort at 21 meters, we would reach our target even more comfortably at 35-40 meters. This class of boats, which we named TIGER SHARK, changed the game in Yacht Design. In 2011, NOMADE was showcased at the Monaco Yacht Show and lauded as "Revolution and beginning of a new era in yacht design" by the press and everyone in the industry. "Proximity to the sea", "beach house", and "vast outdoor areas" are terms that we instilled in NOMADE's design, which are used extensively today throughout the industry. When comparing yacht design before and after 2011, one can easily see how our yachts have inspired an evolution in design principles favoring these features.

Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.