Sommaire pour July 2018 de Robb Report

In the 1950s and ’60s, Los Cabos, Mexico, was a sleepy destination only accessible via private plane or yacht. Then in 1977, the oil baron David J. Halliburton Sr. opened Hotel Twin Dolphin on a secluded white-sand beach near the Baja Peninsula’s southern tip. The hotel was among the first luxury properties in the area, and, as a result, it drew business elites and Hollywood celebrities (like Elizabeth Taylor and John Wayne) to Los Cabos, which has since become synonymous with seaside luxury in Mexico. In May, this iconic and idyllic site reopened as the area’s newest and hottest high-end vacation-home destination: Montage Residences Los Cabos. As part of the new Montage Los Cabos resort, these 52 whole-ownership residences offer the epitome of luxury resort living. Situated on 39 acres…

PROVING YET AGAIN THAT ordinary isn’t in his vocabulary, Bangkok-based architect Bill Bensley has unveiled his latest out-of-this-world project: Laos’s Rosewood Luang Prabang (rosewoodhotels .com). In a clear departure for Rosewood—a brand best known for its polished city hotels and tropical resorts—the forested retreat is home to just 23 villas scattered across a verdant hillside at the edge of a rushing waterfall. Of course, Bensley was the natural choice for such an innovative undertaking. Each of the accommodations, including six tents set high among the oak trees, is a modern rendering of the region’s early-20th-century French-colonial architecture and design, adorned with outdoor wooden bathtubs, traditional local textiles, and artifacts like vintage croquet mallets and Kodak cameras. The lush surroundings, meanwhile, have remained miraculously intact; Bensley ensured that every tree on…

DEVELOPER MIKE KEISER—the man behind the celebrated Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon and Cabot Cliffs in Canada—has golfing’s Midas touch, and Mammoth Dunes (sandvalleygolfresort .com), the new course at his Sand Valley Golf Resort in Wisconsin, is pure gold. The resort’s namesake course was designed by regular Keiser collaborators Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, but for Mammoth Dunes, the developer turned once again to David McLay Kidd, who built the Bandon Dunes course for him in 1999. Since then, McLay Kidd has evolved from designing imposing, difficult courses to creating ones that make the sport more fun and welcoming to average golfers—an approach put on full display at Mammoth Dunes. In stark contrast to Coore and Crenshaw’s understated Sand Valley course, Mammoth—framed by the remnants of the former pine-tree farm…

launch control The Japanese firm Seven Dreamers (sevendreamers.com) has roots in aerospace, so it makes sense that its new carbon-fiber golf shafts (from $1,200) are born from the same manufacturing processes it uses for its satellites. Ultrathin layers of carbon fabric are wrapped around a mandrel, which is put into a mold and then cured under intense pressure in an autoclave. This yields shafts without any surface unevenness, so no post-mold grinding is needed: Every shaft is exactly to specification. —MICHAEL CROLEY fashion cycle Following their first collaboration last year, Dior and the French BMX maker Bogarde have once again teamed up on a limited-edition bike. Priced at $4,700, the new Dior × Bogarde BMX (dior.com ) features plenty of Dior branding, calfskin details, and a steel frame finished with…

WESTPORT westportyachts.com The largest builder of vessels over 100 feet delivered in North America, Westport has established a heritage of excellence and utmost client confidence from their 50+ years of delivering world-class products on time and on budget. TURKISH AIRLINES turkishairlines.com Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines is a 4-star airline flying to more countries than any other airline and 303 destinations worldwide. Through their international hub in Istanbul and from nine US gateways, Turkish Airlines offers an award-winning inflight business class experience. BENETTI YACHTS benettiyachts.it Established in 1873, Benetti is one of Italy’s oldest shipyards specialized in luxury yacht. Benetti designs, builds and markets two product lines: “Class” composite material superyachts from 29 to 45 meters and “Custom” steel and aluminium yachts from 45 to over 100 meters.…

BUILDER: Sunseeker DELIVERED: 2017 LENGTH: 116 feet CABINS: 5 GUESTS: 10 CREW: 6 CRUISING AREAS: South of France, Corsica, Sardinia, Amalfi Coast, Aeolian Islands, Croatia, Montenegro (summer); Bahamas (winter) WEEKLY RATES: $145,700 for summer; $120,000 for winter (based on the exchange rate in mid-May, not including APA and VAT) HIGHLIGHTS: Glorious foredeck sunning, dining, and seating area; comfortable sundeck with Jacuzzi, sun pads, a bar, helm, and shaded seating and dining; tons of toys, including an inflatable waterslide that reaches from the sundeck to the water. CONTACT: James Lloyd Jones, Viare Limited, +44.7833377369, viareyachts.com…

The Daytona, according to designers, was the so-called spiritual advisor in the development of the Portofino. A STEADY SNOW pelted our group of drivers as we departed Masseria San Domenico, a hotel built on the grounds of a 15th-century watchtower in Puglia, Italy. The coastal roads were covered in white, and the windshield wipers of our test cars were hissing at a fever pitch. Certainly, this was an inauspicious morning on which to savor the topless delights of the new Portofino convertible. But even the foul weather couldn’t dampen our excitement about driving the latest Ferrari. ¶ Its achievements in motorsport legendary, Ferrari is equally renowned as a maker of road cars that have, since the middle of the last century, wowed anyone who registers a pulse. Ferrari’s GT cars…

ON THE MORNING OF February 15, 2013, near the Siberian town of Chelyabinsk, a meteor with a mass of more than 12,000 metric tons penetrated Earth’s upper atmosphere with a force 30 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. As the large yellow fireball streaked across a chilly blue sky, it emitted tremendous heat and a blinding light far brighter than our Sun. In its wake, it set off a series of sonic booms and a shock wave that broke windows, damaged buildings, and injured hundreds of people for miles around. Millions of people have viewed the stunning footage of the event captured by dashboard cameras and posted on YouTube. As the meteor exploded, it scattered its shattered remains over a vast swath of snowy Russian…

• • • When Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announced plans to develop an SUV, at least a few purists were bordering on apoplectic. (Could the next model be a minivan?) But this May—when the marque’s all-terrain Cullinan made its debut—detractors were left in the dust. With a name that references the biggest diamond ever found, the Cullinan is one of a kind among Rolls-Royce’s past and present lineup. The stately transport, drawn up by design director Giles Taylor and team, is touted as a “high-bodied” car definitive of off-road refinement. To that end, the all-wheel-drive Cullinan carries all-wheel steering, the Phantom VIII’s aluminum construction platform and 563 hp V-12 engine, a souped-up suspension, and a host of high-tech driver-assist systems. For those who plan to take the Cullinan into the backcountry,…

1 PURPLE PARADISE PRINCE’S TURKS AND CAICOS ISLAND ESTATE :“A Turks and Caicos estate owned by the artist formerly known as Prince will be auctioned by Premiere Estates on July 12, and I’ll be eagerly waiting to learn its final sale price. The five-acre Providenciales property offers around 10,000 square feet of indoor living space, two private beaches, a 200-foot dock, and a tennis court overlooking the crystal-clear Caribbean waters. Fittingly, a purple driveway will lead its new owners to the estate’s entrance.” —REBEKAH BELL 2 THINK FINK FINKTEAM BORG LOUDSPEAKER :“While the German audio engineers at FinkTeam usually work behind the scenes, lending their expertise to other brands’ products, I’m looking forward to this month’s debut of their sophomore commercial offering: the Borg floor-standing loudspeaker (approximately $28,000 per pair).…

CONCEPT: P97K RACECAR DESIGNER: GEORGE YOO ODDS OF PRODUCTION: NEVER SAY NEVER Dreams are often rooted in some semblance of reality, as evidenced by San Francisco–based industrial artist George Yoo’s P97K racecar concept. “The inspiration came from the Porsche 917K that competed at Le Mans in 1971,” he says. “Its lean and wide proportions were out of this world for the time—and still today. It always reminded me of the ultimate spaceship on wheels, and I wondered what a future iteration would look like.” For his homage to motorsports, Yoo envisions a chassis and body of carbon fiber, an electric power train, the integration of artificial intelligence to help with handling, and an innovative pilot perspective. “I kept the same single-driver greenhouse cabin from the original but put the occupant…

ACCORDING TO automotive racer and restorer Bruce Canepa, the visionary Porsche 959 was so far ahead of its time when it debuted as a production model in 1987 that only now, finally, is it of its time. That’s why he and his team at the eponymous Canepa (canepa.com) shop in Scotts Valley, Calif., are especially excited about taking the wraps off the Porsche 959SC (for “Sport Canepa”). “From its twin turbos to the six-speed transmission to all-wheel drive with torque vectoring, it was mind-blowing in its day and had a platform that could handle so much more than it had,” he says. “So we’ve taken a car that was decades beyond when new and just made it what it can truly be.” Only 50 of these essentially new vehicles will…

IN AN EFFORT TO TRAVEL DOWN HAWAII’S STEEP, dare-to-ride-me swells, Tom Blake and the revered Hot Curl surfers revolutionized surfing in the late 1920s and ’30s by hollowing out heavy, solid wood boards, reducing the weight by half. Blake also gave surfboards the ultimate pièce de résistance: the fin. With this, performance boards were born, and surfers were able to negotiate the ocean with greater finesse and confidence. “You want a board that listens to your feet, goes fast when you ask it to, and never surprises you, except pleasantly,” says William Finnegan, the author of Pulitzer Prize–winning Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. Bill Hamilton, father to Laird Hamilton, surf legend, and veteran shaper, adds, “A good surfboard should feel effortless under your feet and become an extension of where…

Ferrari has a history of making some of the most beautiful convertibles in the GT kingdom. Among the series-production cars, the 275 GTB/4 NART Spyders—only 10 of which were built from 1967 through 1968—are at the top of the collector pyramid, with values upward of $25 million. Close behind is the 250 GT SWB Spyder California, about 51 of which were made from 1960 through 1963; a good one will tip the scale north of $15 million. Worth about half that is the 250 GT California Spyder LWB (Series II)—not exactly chopped liver. Both of the latter models are long, sleek, and utterly chic. Through the mid-1960s, models like the 275 GTS and 330 GTS took an almost understated stance; today, they lurch into the $2 million range. The kingpin…

KENNEBUNKPORT COULD HAVE BEEN the summer retreat that never changed. The coastal town in Maine is the quintessential New England escape, where the beaches are rocky, the seafood fresh, and the antique shops plenty. That’s not to say that anything here—not the people or places, and certainly not the lobster rolls—has gone stale. However quaint in size and nostalgic in setting, Kennebunkport (and neighboring Kennebunk, which together make up “the Kennebunks”) is an evolving destination full of dualities, where you can just as easily line up outside of a rickety shack for lunch served on a paper plate as you can sit down to a gourmet dinner in an old-barn-turned-farm-to-table-restaurant. In between the ice cream stands and souvenir shops you’ll find artisans specializing in hyperlocal design and small-batch sundries. Just…

FOR ALL OF ITS SUMMER-CAMP-LIKE endeavors, Kennebunkport isn’t exactly a place to rough it. But adventure—or at least the illusion of it—is now part of the local experience with the opening of Sandy Pines Campground (sandypinescamping.com), a 60-acre forested retreat featuring 28 glamping tents and cottages. Each accommodation has been envisioned by a local artist or designer, from Nicola Manganello’s safari-inspired Blixen’s Oasis to Louise Hurlbutt’s Southwest-chic Under the Stars. Outside, there are all the makings of summer camp: kayaking and paddleboarding, hiking and biking, and bocce and badminton on the great lawn. There’s also a swimming pool and a general store offering all the Maine camp necessities: s’mores, bug spray, and fresh lobster by the pound.…

Sitting in thesaloon of a large yacht, an elaborately built, modern marine chronometer like the sculptural Atlantis Orbis by German clockmaker Erwin Sattler perfectly complements the maritime setting—and for good reason. While GPS now does the navigational heavy lifting, that wasn’t always the case. Because keeping precise time at sea to remain on course was a driving need during the critical early 18th century, marine chronometers helped shape much of the technology now found in every wristwatch. While finding latitude at sea is relatively straightforward using the stars, finding longitude on a spinning globe with no fixed reference was far more difficult. The key, in theory, was to compare the time of local apparent noon (the zenith of the sun in the sky) as measured by a sextant with the…

“Sound is ephemeral, fleeting, but some sort of a physical manifestation can help you hold onto it longer.” -YO-YO MA Equally fleeting and as evocative as sound is summer, a season that passes so swiftly, it seems to be a series of twinkling moments strung together. Yet some of those brief, bright moments make the deepest impressions that linger well beyond the sun-kissed days. Here are a few that our editors and writers experienced that have etched themselves in time—and now the pages of our July issue—to become those physical manifestations that the thoughtful cellist remarks upon. —THE EDITORS WHEN ROBERT ROSS, consulting automotive editor, test-drove the Ferrari Portofino, he had an unexpected encounter with a local guide that made his trip that much more memorable. Ross found himself in…

FAVORED BY POSH SHOPPERS for its lounge-like environment and eclectic mix of jewelry, watches, and assorted objets, the New York luxury retailer Material Good (materialgoodny.com) will through September host Les Collectionneurs, a special assemblage of vintage Vacheron Constantin timepieces sourced from private collectors, auction houses, and, most impressively, the watchmaker’s own heritage department. “It’s one thing to buy a vintage watch from an auction house or a broker,” says Rob Ronen, principal and cofounder of Material Good. “It’s another thing when you can have direct access to 13 pieces from a brand that is one of the original haute horlogerie watch houses.” While Vacheron Constantin has previously sold vintage watches through its boutiques, a sale that includes pieces from its archives is unprecedented. The timepieces themselves, which have been extensively…

ON A RECENT THURSDAY MORNING, MY HUSBAND AND I BOARDED AN EARLY-MORNING SMALL-PLANE FLIGHT at the executive airport in Fort Lauderdale, touched down briefly in the Bahamas’ port of entry for customs, and landed on Staniel Cay, part of the Exumas in the Out Islands archipelago of the Bahamas. Mate Ben King gathered us into a yacht tender anchored at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club docks and whisked us to meet our headquarters for the next few days: the Sunseeker 116 superyacht Lost Boys. ¶ Within seconds, we had fruit smoothies in our hands and a breakfast spread before us as we discussed the trip’s exploration options. No stress. No pressure. Just fun. This was a quick introduction to how intuitive and thoughtful the crew aboard Lost Boys is. They…

A surfboard that not long ago spent several weeks being shaped in the Sydney factory of Haydenshapes is now carving through eight-foot waves off the coast of Hawaii. As one of the world’s most in-demand surfboard manufacturers, Haydenshapes has grown from just a handful of staff to 30 in-house employees and another 200 distributing and manufacturing these artworks of wave-shredding beauty. It’s an international success story, which itself began to take shape more than 20 years ago on Sydney’s picture-postcard northern beaches. The entrepreneur behind these prized surfboards, crafted exactingly to each customer’s needs, is Hayden Cox. His love of surfing began at the age of four, and he learned the art of shaping boards while working in Sydney at age 15. From there, he dedicated his life to creating…

Hacker-Craft Tender Straight out of The Great Gatsby, Hacker-Craft’s (hackerboat.com ) 33.5-foot mahogany tender with teak cockpit soles is defined by its wood-clad interior (right down to the handcrafted drink holders) and cream-colored leather seating. Unlike fiberglass boatbuilding, this is a craftsman’s art piece that employs mahogany frames and planks, waterproof epoxy, and more than 8,000 hours of sanding and varnishing. Old-world elegance unites with modern comforts—the premium sound system and air-conditioning make any ride to a favored waterfront restaurant a joy. Xtender 16M Day Cruiser The Xtender 16M (xtenders.com) is a modern tender doubling as a day cruiser. The Dutch-built carbon boat has a 43-knot top end with three shock-mitigating seats at the helm for running in rough water, as well as a rear sunbed and lounge for anchoring…

In recent years, the U.S. watch market has been flooded with product from the suffering Chinese and Russian markets. Flagrant discounting on the Internet, as well as huge growth in the less financially prohibitive preowned and vintage markets, has sent prices for some timepieces plummeting. The economic impact, while significant, has not been as severe as the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis, but the phenomenon is affecting buyer behavior in ways that may be much more profound. The saturation of the U.S. market has underscored the uncomfortable fact that most new timepieces depreciate in value—some of them dramatically so. Looking to find watches that will retain their values, buyers are using a new set of parameters to determine which timepieces are truly desirable. “Hands down, what most people want…

“THE LOBSTER ROLL is the rock star of summer menus,” says Steve Kingston. “Every restaurant has one, but few of them are really any good.” Kingston would know: The owner of Kennebunkport’s legendary Clam Shack (theclam shack.net) has been making what is considered the world’s best lobster roll for nearly two decades. So what’s the secret to the perfect Maine sandwich? “It all starts with the meat itself,” explains Kingston. “We source all of our lobster locally from one fishing family that’s been fishing for five generations.” Kingston receives as many as 1,000 pounds of soft- and hard-shell lobster per day, storing it—and even cooking it—in native saltwater to maintain the freshest flavor profile possible. Then there’s the bun (a white-bread, brioche-style roll fresh from a local bakery) and the…