The Giga Master

He is considered one of the most innovative designers in the nautical world. An engineer and architect, he has revolutionized the superyacht sector by combining a solid background in naval architecture with innovative and bold aesthetics. He bases his work on the functionality of each project. Form follows function, reminiscent of Bauhaus, is one of the guiding principles of his work and probably one of the reasons for his success. In 25 years of activity Espen Øino, born in Norway 64 years ago, has designed more than 50 superyachts for leading European and Italian shipyards, from Lürssen to Feadship, from Oceanco to Fincantieri. We met him at Paola Lenti’s Milan showroom. During the Yacht City event Øino awarded the students of the Master’s in Yacht Design at POLI.Design in Milan and he told us about his new challenges, starting with nuclear propulsion.

I always would prioritize functionality. You know, I am, by training, not a designer. I’m an engineer, I’m a naval architect. I think I have a fairly rational mind, and I’m fairly logical, rational guy. Design is first and foremost about trying to analyze a problem and coming up with a solution, an answer to the problem. The important thing is to first define the problem and then come up with the solution. Those would be the first building blocks in solving a problem, and then the aesthetics would follow naturally, I think. The aesthetics for me is very much a function of how well it works. And I think that, though it has been said many times, form follows function. I strongly believe in that: something which works well to me 90 per cent of the time will look good. But this is, of course, very subjective, this is my personal approach.

Recently aesthetics seems to be the winner factor in design.

Well, I would strongly disagree with that, but very often you do see that design has this aura about «design it has got to be beautiful» and «what is beautiful doesn’t work». For example we’re sitting here in these chairs we have designed with Paola Lenti.

Oh yes, the Sabrina chair.

I didn’t give it name, by the way, it was Paola Lenti and you know why, I’m sure you do (Sabrina is Espen Øino’ wife name, ed.). But, you know, at least I feel comfortable here. Again, it is subjective, but I think most people, would feel comfortable in this chair, so the building blocks were geometry first and foremost, then the materials and the finishes. And it’s important that you work in that order. When we design a boat, most people refer to us as exterior designers. But we will start with the G.A., we design the layouts, and those are the three dimensional building blocks. You design the boat from inside out, and you start with coming up with a meaningful and workable general arrangement plan. A good boat has a good GA, a good layout. It’s very hard to make boats that do not have a sensible layout. A good boat might be beautiful on the outside, but if it doesn’t work on the inside it’s not a good boat to me. I mean the fundamentals have to be right. And fundamentals are all about functionality on the larger level. Details are about ergonomics.

Can we describe this as comfort?

Indeed. I mean, ergonomics is a lot about comfort. Just before coming here, I was checking into the hotel. I was at the check in desk, and there was not a little shelf where I could put my bag. When the guy asked me right away: «Documenti, per favore», I had to put my bag up on his desk to sort my passport out and I said: «You’re missing a typical shelf that all the hotels have, why don’t you have it?», he replied like: «Oh, really? I didn’t realize that». This is a very obvious little thing that would make the whole check in more comfortable. Anyway, it’s a detail, but design is all about details.

So you’re now working on a nuclear boat?

It’s a concept we are working on since last year with two American companies. One is called Emerald Nuclear, they’re designing a new generation nuclear reactor, a small modular nuclear reactor. We have designed a ship where this could be integrated: a 120 meter yacht with two of those units: 10 megawatt power which is about what you need for, reasonable speed for propulsion and a good enough for what we call the hotel loads, the lighting, the air conditioning, the galleys and laundries and the cranes. It’s a very interesting project. I’m a great believer in nuclear, as it is probably the only alternative we have to decarbonize shipping. I’m talking shipping at large, that means, commercial shipping and shipping in general: yachting is a very small percentage, it represents about 3 per cent of global emissions.

Alternative fuels?

We have been looking through alternative synthetic fuels like green hydrogen, ammonia, methanol. But all these fuels have something in common: they need more energy input to produce them. More. There is not enough energy available in the world today to produce alternative fuels, none of those three fuels for the whole shipping fleet to go green. So, we have to look into nuclear. And this new wave of nuclear reactors is driving the nuclear development. There are many companies working on it now. I think of the electricity needed for development of the AI wave, which is coming as well. It’s phenomenal amounts of energy. And these nuclear reactors we’re working with Emerald are specifically designed for marine applications.

And in your opinion, how long we have to wait to see something?

I think the program they have developed together with the University in Norway and a subsidiary company of theirs in Norway, will realize the first reactor up and running by 2029-2030. And then the first ship installation in 2031. There are a couple of other projects that should be up and running by 2029. The smaller 1-megawatt reactor with the shielding incorporated in the reactor.

What about safety?

They are different as they have been made pretty much intrinsically safe and smaller compared to the previous generation of nuclear reactors. And the combination of these two makes it suitable for civilian use and for marine applications, civilian applications.

Lifestyle, emotional and experience are some of the most used marketing words. What’s the real meaning of these words in boating and sailing?

Sailing or cruising?

I meant cruising.

I try to spend as much time as I can on the water. I love being on the water. And for me, it’s relaxation, it’s being mobile, with friends, being able to see different places without packing and unpacking and changing hotel. And I love the movements from a boat, I love the small noises from on board. I love driving boats, I love sailing. So, I’ve been boating since I was a kid, and I think that’s for, I’m sure you are the same, it’s difficult to describe. Is it a lifestyle?

I agree with you.

I think that the English people use the word floating: that is perfect to say that you have not to stable on the ground.

And that’s full emotion.

Sure. As I said, sometimes the noises associated with it like on smaller boats, the clapping of the water on the hull. On bigger yachts can be the noise from the engines, can be things that make you feel the charme of the sea, the magic of cruising.

Did you start as a sailor?

Yes, of course I sail. I started with the optimist, and then, I was sailing dinghies, lasers and, Flipper Export, which is a Danish dinghy, and then the Yngling. Then came the Soling which were designed by one of my heroes as a kid: Jan Heman Linge, a very famous Norwegian naval architect who did Yngling and Soling, both Olympics sailing boats.

Do you sail in Monte-Carlo?

Unfortunately, no. I’m a member of the Yacht Club, and I have access to dinghies and everything. Unfortunately, when I’m in Monaco I tend to work from seven a.m. till seven p.m, some 12 hours a day. I’ve gone to motor boating and I have a motorboat.

Do you have a good relationship with speed on the water?

Yeah, I love driving boats. There is an analogy between driving a fast boat in heavy seas and skiing and moguls in the mountains, where you choose and pick your mogul, which you’re going to use for your turns and make a good turn and you choose those you want to avoid. It’s the same when you’re driving fast in heavy seas. You choose the wave you want to take on and you choose the ones you rather avoid: you are there with the throttle and your hand steering. I love the sea and I love skiing too as I love the mountains. Ski and boats: they mean relax to me and I don’t think about something else. And that’s when I really focus, full focus.

In a world that cares about the environment and consumption, is there still a place for speed or not?

I think so. I’m old enough to remember the oil crisis in the 70s when we all thought that it would stop building fast cars as it would be forbidden. And we all thought «Even the Americans started building small cars». Do you remember?

Yes.

We have faster cars today than we ever had: we have bigger engines but they’re also much more efficient. So, my last boat was kind of an experimental boat with a foiling catamaran. We achieved, more or less nearly 30 per cent of fuel savings by going down that route. I’m constantly changing boats and designing new boats, and I’m always looking at what can be done to make it more efficient, for sure. Unfortunately, nowadays if you want to go fast in sot that easy with electric boats because of the battery capacities and their weight. So, the combination of high speed and long range is very hard to achieve. Hydrogen is a bit easier, but hydrogen isn’t easy to get hold of. That’s an infrastructure that doesn’t really exist yet. And storing it either in a pressurized form or liquid form is complicated.

Can you say something about Ulyssia? This big project, that seems a little bit crazy also.

I like diversity. And, it’s true, I had some visitors in the office yesterday and said, wow, it’s amazing the diversity of what you do. And I didn’t really think about it, but, you know, I’m very obsessed with our small boats, planing boats and tenders and catamarans and, and the Windy and Vandals and so on, which are all small planing boats. We also do the naval architecture and the hull design. And Ulyssia, which is 320m, is a ship, it is a big ship. She would be one of the biggest ships at 100,000 gross tons. But this is a challenge. I like taking on challenges and getting a little bit out of my comfort zone because it means I can implement analytical skills and analyze things. The gentleman behind this project is an architect who also has a very similar mindset and we were setting out to say: «Okay, how can we create something that provides the comfort people would expect without getting lost in space?». Ulyssia is a big ship where there’s typically only about 500 people on board at one time. So we were trying to guarantee anyone a lot of small, intimate spaces and at the same time the opportunity to lead and gather people into certain spaces: noone will never feel like sitting alone in a hotel lobby. It’s a very interesting project and one of the many challenges was to try to make it intimate, but also make it look different from a regular cruise ships. So the mass distribution is a bit different if you compare it to a cruise ship. A very fascinating project.