Frank Gehry, till now, has been more renowned as an outstanding architect responsible for adding some of the most unique structures to the world’s skyline. The 86 year old, Canadian-born American architect, residing in Los Angeles, has now tried his hand at designing structures for water with his first sailboat design.
Gehry is an avid yachtsman and most of his famous work have been inspired by sailing which includes the billowing motif of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, New York’s IAC building as well as the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. Though Gehry considered designing a boat in 2008, his creation finally hit the blue waters in 2015. Motivated to design a boat that was both a signature piece and an enticement to his wife Berta, Frank gave shape to a racing sailing yacht named Foggy.
Frank Gehry teamed up with developer Richard Cohen and Germán Frers, an Argentine naval architect known for designing some of the most elegant fast sailboats in the world. “On a boat like this, it’s about romance and romantic encounters,” the architect says.
Steering clear of the usual use of carbon fiber for the boat’s body, Gehry insisted on lining the boat with wood, partly because of “boat lore,” partly because he simply loves wood. Moreover Gehry’s drawings included the lattice patterned windows along with copious amounts of glass on the deck and the stern. More than 300 pieces of glass were set in each of these cut-outs, and the surface of the glass was flushed with the surface of the teak deck. The top of the deck boasts of more than 800 glass pieces. There is a story behind every item on the boat, every cleat, doorknob, and showerhead as well.
The yacht’s saloon boasts of soft furnishings that include a psychedelically colorful carpet created by Joyce Shin, Gehry’s daughter-in-law. It also includes sheepskin coverings for the couches from New Zealand, which turned the space into something between an Austin Powers–style lair and a discotheque.
Stripped of binnacles, bowsprit, and any unnecessary weight and fitted with black carbon fiber racing sails, Foggy stole the show at Round the Island Race in Martha’s Vineyard with its performance this summer.
