Platinum

• LOA 78 m, gross tonnage 2,146 GT
• Beam 12.8 m, draft 3.8 m, four decks
• Steel hull with aluminium superstructure, teak decks
• Twin MTU diesels, 16 knots top, 14.5 knots cruising
• Main deck infinity pool, 6 m by 2.5 m with counter-current system
• Air conditioned exterior decks, sundeck helipad and teppanyaki bar
• Exterior by Igor Lobanov, interior by Sinot, naval architecture by Azure
• Built from 2019, delivered September 2024, Monaco Yacht Show 2024 debut

Five years behind closed doors

Most megayachts are announced at contract, tracked through every milestone and teased for years before launch. Platinum took the opposite path. Construction began at Marina di Carrara in 2019, and the project stayed almost entirely out of public view until the 78 metre yacht was handed over in September 2024, the largest yacht Admiral had ever launched. Her first real public appearance came at the 2024 Monaco Yacht Show, where she arrived complete, crewed and in service.

That discretion was honoured for five years, and it tells a prospective owner something useful about how The Italian Sea Group runs its biggest programmes. A 2,146 GT build involves hundreds of workers, dozens of subcontractors and a waterfront anyone can watch, and keeping such a project quiet from keel to delivery is an operational discipline in its own right. Owners who want privacy through a multi-year build have very few yards with a record like this one.

Lobanov outside, Sinot inside

The exterior is by Igor Lobanov, and it reads as sculpture at rest. Soft lines and long overhangs carry the eye down the profile, cutaway segments in the aft decks end in slim extending tails that stretch the yacht visually, and the superstructure carries metallic grey accents, a deliberate contrast because Lobanov holds that an all-white yacht looks flat from a distance. The grey is what lets the curved surfaces show their shape in real light.

Inside, the work belongs to Sinot Yacht Architecture and Design, the Dutch studio whose portfolio sits at the very top of the market, with naval architecture from Azure Yacht Design and Naval Architecture, the office that also shaped Kensho's exterior engineering. It is a first-rank team sheet on both sides of the glass, assembled for a client who wanted the best available name in each discipline brought together on a single Italian hull.

Built for five years in silence, then shown to the market already finished.

Scale without spectacle

Platinum is built in steel with an aluminium superstructure across four decks, on a 12.8 metre beam and a 3.8 metre draft, with teak underfoot outside. At 2,146 GT she carries more interior volume than Kensho, which made her the fullest expression of the yard's engineering at her delivery, and the four-deck arrangement spreads that volume with the same restraint the exterior promises. Nothing about her massing shouts, which at 78 metres is itself a considerable feat.

Power comes from a pair of MTU diesels for a 16 knot top speed and a 14.5 knot cruise, conventional twin-diesel machinery with worldwide service coverage. Where Kensho and Amalya argue for pods, generators and batteries, Platinum makes the classical case, proven engines and straightforward maintenance, and there are experienced owners on both sides of that argument for entirely good reasons. The yard builds either way, which is precisely the point of a full-custom house.

Comfort engineered in detail

The signature amenity is the main deck infinity pool, six metres by two and a half and 1.3 metres deep, fitted with a counter-current swim system so it works as more than a photograph. The sundeck above carries a helipad, a rounded bar and a recessed teppanyaki grill with telescopic extraction hoods that disappear when service ends, a piece of galley engineering most yachts twice her age of build would not attempt outdoors.

The detail that circulated most after her Monaco debut is simpler to state. Every exterior deck is air conditioned, with cooled air washing the open lounging areas so the Mediterranean afternoon stays civilised without retreating behind glass. It is an engineering indulgence, plainly, and it is exactly the kind an owner discovers in the second season and never again wants to live without. Platinum is full of such decisions, made quietly and paid for once.

What Platinum proves

Platinum shares flagship status with Amalya, the second 78 metre delivered the following year, and between them the pair moved Admiral from a yard with one celebrated flagship into a builder delivering above 2,000 GT on a repeating basis. For a buyer weighing an ultra-custom commission at Marina di Carrara, she is the reference for scale, as Kensho is the reference for engineering novelty and the Armani 72 for provenance.

She also demonstrates the quality the brochure cannot, discretion. The yard accepted a five-year build in which its most important project generated no publicity at all, and delivered it finished before the market saw a rendering. Owners at this level often say privacy matters more than any amenity, and most yards agree right up until the marketing department needs content. Admiral kept the agreement for half a decade, and that record is now part of what the name sells.

Pour qui: The owner who wants the largest expression of the yard's craft on proven conventional machinery, and who values a builder with a documented record of keeping a five-year flagship build private.