The Yacht Insider: Sub Tender Turns Deep-Sea Explorer
"Alucia" has been converted to a private motoryacht with accommodations for scientists and documentarians alike.
A lot of expedition motoryacht owners boast that they have the range to explore the world’s oceans. The owners of the newly rebuilt, 183-foot Alucia can say that, too, plus claim the ability to help scientists explore as deep as 3,280 feet (just millimeters shy of a kilometer) beneath the ocean’s surface.
Alucia originally was a submarine tender built by the French in 1973 and called Nadir. Her current owners have all but obliterated that persona, having just completed a rebuild that makes Alucia a private motoryacht with accommodations for scientists and documentarians alike. In addition to the yacht-like cabins aboard, Seattle-based Joseph Artese Design penned onboard laboratories, an aquarium, film editing suites, and satellite hookups for beaming live footage of discoveries to the world.
“Alucia has been built as a specific hybrid,” said Rob McCallum, who was the project manager in Washington state, working with Kirilloff & Associates on the rebuild naval architecture. “Alucia is capable of making the largest private contribution to marine science since Cousteau’s Calypso.”
The main saloon and dining area have floor-to-ceiling windows and counters with limestone tops, selected to mimic the look of the seafloor. Also adding to the ambience is the main saloon’s bulkhead, which is covered in a series of 2-by-3-foot backlighted, aquamarine panels to create an underwater effect.
One level below are the guest accommodations, all accessible from a 60-foot-long passageway that doubles as an art gallery for images that scientists and journalists bring back to Alucia from their underwater adventures. Anyone who arrives at the yacht by way of helicopter accesses this passageway first, setting the tone for the experience they can expect to enjoy.
Guest accommodations include the owner’s suite, a VIP cabin, and four cabins with two or three beds apiece (in addition to the crew’s quarters). That’s more people than can be accommodated at any given time aboard Alucia’s three submersibles—a pair of two-man subs capable of descending to 3,280 feet, and a single, two-man sub that can dive to 2,000 feet—so if you’re lucky enough to get invited onboard, be sure that you plan a long enough itinerary to really put Alucia and her new toys through their exciting, underwater paces.
Editor's Note: Kim Kavin is an award-winning writer, editor and photographer who specializes in marine travel. She is the author of six books including Dream Cruises: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Vacations, is editor of the online yacht vacation magazine www.CharterWave.com.
