During a recent visit to CMN
shipyard in Cherbourg, France, PMY Executive
Editor Diane M. Byrne saw this soaring, all-aluminum sculpture rising about
two stories and occupying a large portion of the yard’s parking lot. Besides
the fact that it shows how skilled craftsmen can indeed make aluminum bend into
amazing curves, the sculpture also has quite a story behind it.
According to Thierry Regnault
of CMN’s yacht division, the yard was one of a few bidders about two years
ago on a project to be located outside of the American Airlines Arena in Miami,
Florida. While CMN lost out to another party, Regnault says, it was contacted
again last fall when the original contractor was unable to complete the project
due to financial constraints. The commissioning committee asked CMN to finish
the sculpture, but the yard requested permission to start from scratch so it
would have full control over quality and design. The request was granted, and
from October, 2002 to this past May, CMN’s designers and welders conceptualized
and then created the sculpture you see here.
Unfortunately, however, it
seems that the sculpture will remain in CMN’s parking lot, since the commissioning
committee could not afford to pay for both the original sculpture as well as
the new design, Regnault says.
This article originally appeared in the August 2003 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
