SAY HELLO TO PINK SHADOW

Design

You won’t find another yacht with a décor inspired by Fitzcarraldo, an epic 1982 adventure movie set in the Amazon basin. So Pink Shadow could never be overshadowed. At first glance, her rich green steel hull and long lines of black glazing stop you in your tracks, and tell you immediately: I’m not your average superyacht. Then inside a world of vivid greens and yellows opens up, of jungle-inspired textiles, palm-tree columns, feathered lamps and swirling hand-painted wallpaper. Pink Shadow eschews a typical beige-and-brown colour scheme for an effect that is jungly, exuberant and positively uplifting. You wouldn’t be surprised to find a toucan or two sharing your cabin. But perhaps the most wonderful thing about this yacht’s design is the way it brings the outside in. The Tahiti Plage beach club on the main deck opens up on each side to create a sweeping space that immerses you in light and water, with a cabana-style bar, and sunpads suspended above the ocean by tender cranes. In the Amazon basin one minute, pinioned high above the blue the next: Pink Shadow is a meeting of worlds.

Tranquility

Pink Shadow may be vibrant in spirit, but there’s plenty of opportunities to find peace and tranquillity. Kick back in the wood-lined upper deck Habana Room, with its sumptuous blend of rich purple and buttery leather furniture, and its very own built-in humidor, containing an extensive range of fine cigars. Spend a quiet hour in the bow-point observation lounge, just you and the view. Or pull up a stool at the bar at Tahiti Plage and sip a cocktail as the sun sets, with the wind in your hair. But perhaps the greatest spot to get away from it all on Pink Shadow is the bridge. It’s high, quiet, and almost futuristic in feel, with these vast helm chairs that you can just sink into. “There’s something very special about the bridge on Pink Shadow,” says Charter Manager David Price. “It’s innovative and undisturbed, ridiculously comfortable, and looks like something out of Star Trek.” But there’s still a touch of Fitzcarraldo’s Amazon up there, in the palm-tree-motif wallpaper.

Talent

With Captain Oscar Vallejo, you’re in supremely capable hands. And the fact that he’s worked for the same owner for ten years, despite still only being in his early 30s, is testament to that. Oscar, from Mallorca, joined the industry by accident, after he was asked to do an underwater repair on the 35m classic Sangermani schooner Seljm, while working as a dive instructor in Palma. Seljm’s skipper Steve Ray offered to pay him, but Oscar refused money and gladly accepted a tour of the boat instead. And the next thing he knew he’d been offered a job as a deckhand on Seljm’s imminent transatlantic passage to Antigua. Later, when Oscar was appointed skipper of the world's biggest carbon fibre sloop, Pink Gin VI, it was undoubtedly a highpoint in a short but high-octane career in superyachting. And while Pink Gin and Pink Shadow are owned by the same owner, the rest, you could say, is history.