If luxury real estate could float, it would look and feel like the Prestige M8 — the new 65ft flagship of the French shipyard’s M-Line of multihull motor yachts. Big-city life lived large is the first thing you think when boarding; such is the space and the glam that surrounds you. Imagine a gleaming penthouse crossed with an ultra-exclusive beach club.
Only aboard a multihull motor yacht like the M8 can you mix polished chrome and wide-open views with an easy-going pieds dans l’eau lifestyle. This floating home away from home might just win you over, such that you never want to go back to your land house again.
A quick look at the numbers can explain the feeling of spaciousness and solidity one gets when boarding the M8, designed by longtime Prestige collaborator Camillo Garroni (designer of the M48) with naval architecture by Marc Lombard. Start with an LOA of 19.82m and combine it with a beam of 8.85m and you get an abundance of floor space and a steady ride, a perfect combination for old salts and land lubbers alike.
Outdoor Zones
Boarding the M8 can feel like stepping into a different dimension. You feel suspended somewhere between the air and the sea in a space where an abundance of glass and reflective surfaces stun the eyes, leaving a newcomer wondering where they’ve landed.
The Opacmare transformer central platform can be raised to extend the floor space in the aft cockpit and create a suspended balcony over the sea.
Lower it at the push of a button and it becomes the central section of the beach platform, an ideal spot for sunning, launching toys or even storing the tender. Lower it even further into the water and it makes swimming and retrieving toys a breeze.
The cockpit, which owners can furnish with loose pieces as they please, is separated from the saloon by sliding glass doors. Railings and transom gates are also made of glass, with glass inserts in the fashion plates.
Everything is glittering, slender and obscures itself from sight. Yet, you sense solidity and security underfoot. It’s an ideal combination when at sea. Everything is so easily available and well connected that the temptation is to swarm all over the boat from up the stairs to the fly, to down the side passages to the foredeck. There is no shortage of space for conviviality and relaxation.
Accessed by stairs on the port side of the cockpit or a gorgeous see-through staircase on the starboard side of the saloon, the large flybridge has a wet bar, outdoor kitchen, and the main helm station. Guests can choose to set up a port dining area and a starboard lounge under the hard top and can furnish the aft end entirely as they please.
With its height and views, the flybridge is usually the icing on the cake for a yacht, but aboard the M8, the foredeck is the top spot.
Designed on two levels, the foredeck’s social areas start with a very wide sun pad under the saloon windscreen and a truly fabulous aft-facing, C-shaped couch sunk into the bow with a smaller sofa opposite.
Sitting there, cruising along with only air between you and the sea, is wonderfully relaxing and truly satisfying in a way that finding solitude in your own little world can be.
A Sensational Saloon
Back to the stern and a centrally placed bar is a buffer area that serves both the cockpit and the saloon. This is an expansive, open space that owners can set up as they choose.
While the first hull in the M8 series has the galley fore and starboard in the saloon with a small helm station next to it, owners can opt to leave this corner zone as a play area and have the galley below, towards the aft of the starboard hull.
Either way, the saloon is truly vast with expansive glazing and slender and open structural elements that subtly define the different areas while leaving views and visual lines free and open.
Decorated by Valentina Militerno de Romedis with loose furnishings by Pininfarina, the interiors are bright, serene and functional. The sliding side doors further allow for a seamless blend between indoor and outdoor spaces when opened fully.
Forward, a central staircase leads from the saloon down to the full-beam owner’s cabin, a 35m2 suite that comes complete with a double bed, an en-suite bathroom, walk-in wardrobe to port and a study and relaxation area to starboard.
The centrally placed bed is laid sideways to the centreline and faces the starboard hull windows, an unusual arrangement that only this cat’s extreme stability makes feasible.
On either side of the saloon, staircases lead down into the hulls. Owners can choose between a variety of layouts and guest sleeping arrangements, such as a galley, a TV room, an extra crew cabin or a VIP suite instead of two guest cabins to port.
Regardless of the chosen configuration, the spacious full-beam owner’s suite forward is a constant as are two crew cabins fully fore, accessed via hatches in the bow.
While the Prestige team chose space and volume over speed when designing the M8, the boat’s performance in terms of efficiency and ease of use is respectable. Equipped with twin Volvo Penta D8-600 IPS engines, the boat has a top speed of close to 20 knots, a range of about 350nm at a cruising speed of 15 knots and turns on a dime.
Special attention was paid to soundproofing these already relatively quiet engines while an efficient thermodynamic air-conditioning system keeps emissions to a minimum. With a set-up like this, you can enjoy tootling around in comfort just as you would at home without worrying about things like heeling and seasickness. For the light sleepers, the M8 also comes in a “silent” version featuring solar panels and a lithium battery bank.
If you find yourself looking fondly at the M8 over your shoulder once you step back on land, you’ll see that the Garroni-designed exteriors recall the Prestige look while avoiding that certain visual clumsiness that plagues so many catamaran designs. While recalling your time aboard, you may well find yourself standing on the ground but walking on air.
A version of this article was first published on www.yachtstyle.co
All photos are courtesy of Prestige.
For more yachting stories, click here.