Charter Yachts: Lürssen’s Kismet

The word kismet, derived from the Arabic word qisma, means fate or destiny. Colloquially speaking, when someone says a romantic meeting or other happening is kismet, they generally mean it was positive karma—something good happened. It’s an apt name for the 400-foot (122-meter) motoryacht Kismet, which belongs to American businessman Shahid Khan and is something very good, indeed.

In the main salon, the custom bronze bar by U.K. designers Based Upon has a champagne-colored metallic finish by American company Neal Feay.

Every few years, an electrifying yacht hits the marine scene like a bombshell that nobody can stop talking about. For 2024, Kismet was that yacht. From her unusually pointed bow to her gracious glazed stern and mind-bending interior design, Kismet is profoundly impressive.

Khan entrusted yacht builder Lürssen, exterior designers Nuvolari Lenard and interior designers Reymond Langton to create something utterly fantastic.

“He challenged us to push the boundaries of innovation and creativity, and to surpass previous accomplishments,” says Pascale Reymond, co-founder of Reymond Langton.

“Mr. K sought a yacht that was not just an extension of his previous vessels, but something entirely new: avant-garde, yet timeless.”

While that seems like a contradiction in terms, Reymond shrugs and calls the yacht “a floating land of contrasts.”

Carlo Nuvolari, partner in Nuvolari Lenard, says that he and Dan Lenard, together with their team, “have created many iconic yachts with strong personalities, despite the increasing difficulty of inventing something new every time. As the owner of Kismet is experienced in the world of architecture and yachting, it was easy to talk with him about his ideas. One thing was patently clear: He did not merely want a yacht; he wanted the yacht.

Accolades have followed Kismet from her debut at last year’s Monaco Yacht Show to her high visibility at a mooring at Tower Bridge in London and then across the pond to Jacksonville, Florida, home of Khan’s NFL team the Jacksonville Jaguars. At just under 5,000 gross tons, she sports a singular exterior profile, a theatrically sumptuous interior design, and top-notch engineering, innovation and build execution.

The exterior design is so distinctive, Nuvolari says, “She will not be mistaken for any other yacht. The secret of the entire design is that we managed to hide such a voluminous yacht with elongated and shapes and a studied approach, not only to proportions, but also to the theme of curved and elliptical elements as well, as to exterior details.”

Kismet’s continuity of lines is visible from her teak-lined stern to the stainless-steel details that highlight contours of rounded shapes to the external fire pits where flames come out of a water fountain.

“Our deck details included designing rounded deck furniture, the teak deck patterns, the tiled pool, the aft deck chandelier, and the Art Deco pattern of the aft deck ceilings,” Nuvolari says.

Another defining feature of Kismet’s exterior design is her chimney/funnel mast, which Nuvolari says resembles a samurai helmet as a sign of power and dominance. There’s also the stylistic element of the Kismet “K” in the bottom of the swimming pool, and elsewhere on board. Another Nuvolari Lenard design element is the slender bow with an extended bowsprit, topping a striking Art Deco silver jaguar figurehead.

Specific design elements—many of which have never been done before—meant that Lürssen was challenged to ensure all the structural engineering met classification society standards. For example, there is a 16-by-4-foot (4.9-by-1.2-meter) single pane of glass fitted on the yacht’s transom. It is reportedly the largest single piece of structural glazing ever installed on a yacht. Since this area is an integral part of the hull, Lürssen performed stress and pressure tests that included dropping steel weights onto the glass.

A great deal of the exterior, including the structural steel hull and aluminum superstructure, are clad in glass. Of special note is the glass bulwark in the lower deck cinema/Nemo lounge. It has windows that dip below the waterline, measuring 3½ feet by 9 feet (1.1 meters by 2.7 meters). The glass has a thickness of 5 inches (13 centimeters).

Kismet’s interior feels like a movie set where the scenery is constantly changing. Reymond enthuses about strolling through Kismet and imagining time travel, perhaps moving from a costume ball at Versailles during Louis XIV’s rule to an Art Deco theater in 1920s Hollywood. Each area on the six decks evokes a sense of discovery and wonder.

The yacht can accommodate 12 guests and four to six staff. There are also quarters for 37 crew. Eight guest staterooms include the master suite, with a few flexible spaces such as the owner’s study, which converts into guest accommodations.

Kismet’s features also include three pools, four fireplaces, two fire pits, a spa with a hammam, a sauna and cryotherapy chamber, a gym, a basketball court, a pickleball court and a helipad.

Unlike some luxury charter yachts, Kismet elevates the notion of a neutral palette. The master stateroom, and indeed all the guest rooms, each have a distinctive flair.

The main salon has two mesmerizing video walls, made possible by atriums and glass floors, spanning from the main deck to the upper deck. They display infinite types of scenes or reflect the outside environment. Similarly fascinating is a futuristic black-and-red self-playing grand piano that is a centerpiece of the main deck salon. Reymond quips that it looks like the offspring of a shoe designer and a car designer. In fact, it was designed by Gergely Bogányi, a Hungarian concert pianist who teamed with an industrial designer.

A champagne-colored metallic finish by California-based anodized aluminum artisan Neal Feay complements a stylish bar by the U.K. creative studio Based Upon, with a faux Sahara noir marble top. The Sistine Chapel-like salon ceiling is a hand-painted Renaissance-style fresco by de Gournay with historical and mythological heroes.

The grand staircase is adorned with a 20-foot Venetian Murano glass chandelier that reflects sun on the three side walls and the ceiling, creating the feeling of being in an immersive art installation. Standing in the main lobby, guests can view the chandelier from a different level as it spans the atrium.

“The side decks mirror the interior with an exterior atrium effect, featuring three levels of void alongside the windows, flooding the lobby and staircase with natural light,” Reymond says.

Layers of design, colors, shapes and lighting are at play on the staircase wall. Reymond says the transition from the dark Balinese lower spa deck to the white Nikki Beach-style pool deck is helped by the gradation of handmade wallpaper on the stairwell. It shifts from greenish-teal to a pale silver cream in tone.

Each of the eight staterooms reflects a contemporary twist on some of the owner’s favorite fashion designers and luxury brands. Guests can meander from 15th-
century Venice to 17th-century Versailles to the Roaring Twenties and The Great Gatsby. Or, there’s the world of Hermès, Coco Chanel and Lalique—along with the sci-fi Tron engine room corridor with a view of the machinery.

Kismet has a diesel-electric hybrid propulsion system developed by Lürssen’s engineering team. The yacht also has a heat recovery system in the generators for heating the pool water; and dynamic positioning for electronic anchoring in ecologically sensitive areas.

For those who fancy experiencing this floating land of contrasts firsthand, Kismet is available for charter at a weekly base rate of about $3.1 million (€3 million) per week.

LOA 400 ft. 3in. (122m)
Beam 55ft. 9in. (17m)
Draft 14ft. 5in. (4.4m)
Gross tonnage 4,918
Top speed 18 knots
Construction steel/aluminum
Exterior Design Nuvolari Lenard
Interior Design Reymond Langton
Builder Lürssen
Year 2024

Spring 2025