Feadship’s 49.5m GRAYCLIFFS uses aft folding bulwarks and an open sun deck to draw guests towards the water.
The 49.5-metre GRAYCLIFFS offers an unusually direct relationship with the sea through her fold-down main-deck aft bulwarks. This 2026 Feadship, hull 717, was designed outside by Studio De Voogt and inside by Marty Lowe, with a layout that gives sheltered interior rooms and open decks distinct yet connected roles.
An aft deck that widens towards the sea
The folding bulwarks add usable space and uninterrupted views at the after end of the main deck, creating the feeling of a larger waterside terrace. The feature is built into the architecture rather than achieved by simply placing more furniture on an ordinary platform.
Deploying the structures remains a crew-managed operation and depends on suitable conditions. The design’s appeal is its close visual and physical relationship with the surrounding water, not any suggestion that the openings may remain deployed at any speed.
One more social room above
The sun deck provides areas for lounging and dining, a bar and a flybridge helm. A separate forward deck supplies extra seating and sun pads, which means guests need not compete for the same view when several groups are aboard.
Studio De Voogt widened the shoulders of the sun deck within an otherwise balanced exterior. This affects the perception of space inside and outside while avoiding the appearance of a much larger vessel stacked onto a relatively compact hull.
A private suite across the beam
GRAYCLIFFS accommodates ten guests in five staterooms, including a full-beam owner’s suite. Marty Lowe’s interior brief is therefore expressed in a plan that balances the principal suite with four other guest rooms.
The builder does not publish private owner routines or a complete inventory of the art and furnishings. The public record still establishes the accommodation arrangement and the relationship between personal and communal space.
Quiet operation as part of comfort
Feadship uses its Advanced Electrical Drive system, listing two Schottel SRE EcoPeller units and a range of around 4,000 nautical miles at ten knots. The electrical configuration contributes to efficiency and manoeuvrability while supporting life aboard.
This is a design feature about hull 717, not the different 33.5-metre Feadship that has also carried the name Graycliffs. The aerial hero identifies the correct 2026 yacht and has not been reused from the separate fleet-identity news story.
Official sources: feadship.nl. Historical delivery milestones and existing yacht-design features are identified as such, not presented as new events today.