NauticNews.com interviewed a young and promising designer. He comes from Greece, THE root country for yachting, his name is Theodoros Fotiadis. Remember this name, it may come to your ears for a long time.

How it all started

Theodoros Fotiadis always had “Designing” flooding his blood, but he was not primarily yacht-oriented. He designed cars for 3 years and a half before to come to yachts.

T.F.: “Everything started in July 18th 2003, in Corfy, Greece, where my brother was a coast-guard in service. Once he asked me: would you like to go for a ride on a Magnum 50 ? I had no idea what that Magnum 50 was. The next day we went on a ride with my brother and Captain Mike Stocker. When I saw that Magnum i was like… ok this is serious!!! It looked so bad. Dark silver, white leather and twin MTU producing 1200hp each, coupled on Arneson surface drives and all that on a 50-feet boat.

So we were like going 5-8 knots and it was ok… but after we got out of the marina, the boat strarted accelerating. Engines were like wild lions !!!! Boat was planing, trying to get on surface. I swear it was digging the water maybe 20 feet deep. It was crazy. We reached 30 knots and I asked my brother: is this going fast? he replies “well patrol boats go 40-45 knots”… ok then we are slow! One minute after we were going flat out 72!!!!!! …. 72… I was looking at the GPS… we hit a sweal wave and the boat litterally flew off!!! We realized that the engines were quiet for 2-3 seconds (because propellers stop when not in contact with the water) and after that 3 seconds we hit the water with so much force that I felt down…. It was funny. Captain Mike asked me “are you ok???” I was like “we flew???” and he said “well, we did for a while”.

At that time I was a student in germany on car design. We spent much time together, and became friends with the Captain. Meanwhile I started reading books and magazines concerning yachts. After that summer we got back to our bases. I went back to berlin and the captain went to Fort Lauderdale were he lives,  works and also has a refit company. We stayed in touch via email and phone and he liked my ideas.

So I tryied to pass from car design to yacht design and he told me that there is a good private school in Ft.Laudedale. I didn’t have the funds to go. So we asked for a sponsor for me. We contacted the owner of the boat and he accepted “since you are Mike’s friend go for it” he told. He also liked my ideas. So on April, the 1st I was in FLL. It was like a dream. On the 4th of April, I went to college”.

“I like to work alone; want to be a master of my disaster and of my victory”

In fact Theodoros Fotiadis does not only designs yachts. He also designs the interiors, the furnitures, etc. It gives more consistence to the whole thing. He currently works on a very special project. He called it Princess Renne, because of the name of his little sister. This is just… a 170m megayacht!

An example of his designs is a table made of steel and crystal, looking like a jewel, it is royal, glamorous, without being tacky (click on the image to enlarge). The feet are painted with an electrostatic method so that their touch feels like powder. The crystal is cut in precision in Germany. The rings merge is the tricky part, welded by a metal sculptor. It is much more than a dining table, it is close to a piece of art… His style? Minimalistic lines but rich of soul, combining luxury by materials and quality.

Theodoros Fotiadis also sculpts the light. He developped a unique system (inspired from Pharaohs) to enlight a whole house or a whole yacht with one lamp. As a matter of training, he made an architectural lighting of 80 sqm with one lamp!

Back to Princess Renne

We understand that the capabilities of T.Fotiadis can find their real dimensions in designing a complete yacht. From the first drawings to the last screw, every little part of the yacht can be lighted by his ideas and originality.

We know few about this mega project of 170m long yacht. It is still very secret but Theodoros told us a little more about the stairs, which he promisses to be a real piece of art. He also told us about a… somewhat surprising idea. Always pushing and pushing, finding new designs and creating dimensions and usage to materials that we already have. For him, the sky is not the limit; it’s just a place where we can get some rest. So the idea is to put floating islands on his 170m yacht! One for people to enjoy and another for waverunners and tenders.

T.F.: “How many of the yacht owners have ever seen their yacht when relaxing? When onboard they cannot take advantage of seeing their boat. When they get to the boat by helicopter again, it’s not enough. I was thinking: what can I do to enjoy my beautifull yacht? and the answer is: look it from an island… so I designed those islands that can be pulled out of the yacht”.

The market of megayachts is not really touched by the current crisis. Since many years we see the sizes of the designed yachts constantly increasing. 4 years ago, when we were talking about megayachts, the average size was 150 feet. Today, this is the size of a superyacht. Maybe this will be the size of a boat in a few years. So the talent of Theodoros Fotiadis will have the ability to fully express. To be continued…

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– AlP –