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The
news that Jon Banneberg, the renowned megayacht designer, had died in
late May came as a shock to many people in the marine business, particularly
because few outside of his immediate circle knew he had been ill for some
time.
“Jon
was Jon—he didn’t want people to know,” says Paula Tebbs,
reflecting on her boss’ personality. Besides, she adds, even though
he was battling an inoperable brain tumor, “he treated the issue
as a Tyson vs. Lewis match and was absolutely dead set on winning, despite
the odds.” Indeed, so powerful was his conviction that, according
to Tebbs, “we all went along with it.”
This
speaks to the very soul of what endeared Bannenberg to the legions of
yacht owners, captains, and yards he worked with during a distinguished
career that spanned four decades and saw about 200 yachts progress from
imaginative concept to often-startling completion. It also characterizes
his emergence as one of the most well-respected interior designers and
exterior stylists in the business. Particularly during the 1970’s
and 1980’s, Bannenberg was to yacht design what Beethoven was to
symphonic composition: He brought his own distinct, rule-breaking style
to a field that had been largely colored by tradition.
The
music analogy is appropriate, as Bannenberg actually wanted to be a concert
pianist as a young man. Born in Australia in 1929, the son of a Dutch
father and Australian mother, he studied piano at the Sydney Conservatorium
of Music. While still a student he began playing in jazz clubs and bars
and continued to do so after graduation, also developing an affinity for
acting in the theater and designing some of the sets. He left for England
in 1952 to pursue his musical passion, and while he continued to perform
in clubs, he also continued to design sets, including ones for the famed
Old Vic in London. In 1954 he and his wife Beau opened an interior design
business, working mostly on houses and apartments, although Bannenberg
did also form a partnership with a high-profile antiques shop and designed
various antique exhibitions.
Bannenberg’s
life was forever changed the day a client showed him the plans for a new
yacht and asked him what he thought. “I told him it was terrible,”
Bannenberg revealed to us when we interviewed him in 1985. “So he
said, ‘If you’re so bloody smart, do it better.’ So
I did. Fortunately his original design was so bad, it wasn’t hard
to improve on it!” And improve he did: The yacht became the center
of attention at the 1963 London Boat Show.
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Bannenberg continued > Page 1, 2,
3, 4
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