Benetti Kasper 7: bold, extravagant and highly personal

The exterior design, naval architecture and interior design have become best in the yacht’s size category, so it is a good reason to get to know this winner yacht better 

At Design & Innovation Awards held as part of the Superyacht Design Festival in Kitzbühel, Austria, the Kasper 7 was named best in two categories: “Best Naval Architecture – Displacement Motor Yachts over 500GT” and “Best Interior Design – Motor Yachts over 500GT”. Later in April she won the Yacht Style Awards 2025 in the 60-70 m category, which is an annual award given at the Singapore Yachting Festival to the best yachts presented in Asia and around the world. 

Design 

The Kasper 7 was commissioned by an owner couple from the Middle East, who did not just want a yacht, but a true home on the water. To create the exterior, Benetti invited its long-time partner, Gerorgio Cassetta, head of Rome-based Cassetta Yacht Designers. One can find some similarity with the Benetti B.Now 67M in the profile lines, but quite remote, because the Kasper 7 is a totally custom project. 

Everything inside the vessel – from the layout to décor – is owed to the owners. Due to the specific nature of the market, it is not common practice to reveal superyacht owners’ names. But since they acted as interior designers and are really proud that the result was highly appreciated by professional design community, the shipyard does not keep their names secret. They are Karim Karagulla and his wife, Nisrine Karagulla, founder of interior architecture firm Ask Deco based in Beirut.

The roles were distributed in the following way: Karim, who had previously owned a Benetti Classic yacht for 18 years, decided to build a new boat and determined her length and technical parameters. Nisrine agreed, but on the condition that she would not only do the entire interior herself, but would also be able to make some adjustments to the design concept. 

According to the shipyard’s spokesperson, they had collaborated with the owner couple working on virtually everything, including the dramatic modification of portholes: some of the horizontal glazing was replaced with two large round windows (1.9 m in diameter!), while she opted for some “vintage” style small round portholes for the lower deck. 

““It was a wonderful collaboration,” said Georgio Cassetta. “The way she integrated the interior design and the way it just blends with the exterior is probably the best I’ve seen on a boat on which we were not both interior and exterior designer.” Although Cassetta is definitely belittling their efforts here, as in fact they had acted as both. It’s just their roles got closely intertwined. 

Exterior 

The five-deck yacht (the sixth is technical, not livable) turned out to be really recognizable. In addition to the stylish windows mentioned above, the light cream colour of the hull adds more charm to it, while Cassetta’s favourite pylon pattern that arcs through the aft part of the superstructure making it look even more elegant. One of the individual features of the project is that there is no pool there – although it is a conventional element for a yacht of this size. The owners thought that there is no need for it since there is sea all around. 

Sundeck and bridge deck 

There is a sunbathing area at every level. The smallest, at the top level, features sunpads, a corner sofa and quite a long bar offering seating for ten in the shade of a hard top.

One level lower there is a seating corner in the open aft terrace and another bar under the sundeck’s overhang. There is a gym separated from the exterior lounge with a glass wall, which can be opened up on a hot afternoon or closed on a chilly morning. 

Around the elevator well there is captain’s cabin and office, utility rooms and a helm station. The service exit from here is designed in an unusual way: they managed to fit a narrow U-shaped passage into the sloping roof above the second deck. It goes round the tinted glass of the helm station and ends with compact semi-balconies allowing the crew to monitor mooring conveniently. 

Private deck 

The sides at the bow are raised to the second deck, and there’s the owners’ private terrace here on the foredeck, where the panoramic windows of their bedroom look out. The sunbathing area is a few steps higher, while the C-shaped sofa right by the superstructure is lower than standard. Together with high bulwarks it makes it well-protected both from the wind and prying eyes. 

The owners’ suite’s layout is quite unusual. As you enter it from the lift hall, there is an office area and a long corridor on the starboard side, leading to the bedroom. Behind the wall, there is an elongated dressing room of incredible size, followed by a vast ensuite, where everything is duplicated: there are two bathrooms, two sinks, two marble-finished showers. At the furthest end of the owners’ suite there a bedroom with a high king size bed, offering a 180-degree view. 

Closer to the stern, there is an upper saloon, designed as a family lounge: there is a seating area, a TV, a bar and a game table. The owner has also placed her creative workshop with a long desk along the windows.

Outside, there is a cosy lounge and an alfresco dining area, protected from the sun with white and yellow striped awnings that the owner had chosen to create a French Riviera feel.

Main deck 

On the main deck forward, there are mooring fittings and a side garage for a tender, a RIB and a couple of jet skis. Further on, there is a full-beam (10.9 m) dining area, featuring the huge round portholes, which have already become the signature element of the project. Inspired by German artist André Butzer’s “wide-eyed” paintings, Nisrine decided to modify their shape inside, clipping some of their roundness with the wallcovering.

One could call the dining area formal, but for the furniture. It should be noted that all the furniture on board is non-trivial and quite bold. Thus, the wall in the dining area is decorated with bionic consoles that function as lamps, vases and art objects at the same time. The table for 14 with a thick pink top looks like a giant cake (the author of this 800-kilogram construction is Korean sculptor Wonmin Park).

The sofas and armchairs look “puffy” and the texture of their upholstery resembles fireclay, so they look like boulder stones or some avant-garde sculptures. The bar table with book shelves in the main saloon is a real wow and a piece of art, with its vertical pillars that look like corals, horizontal surfaces looking like surf boards, and stools looking like mushrooms… 

With the help of sliding glass doors, the saloon can be united with the cockpit, where there is an exterior seating area. 

Lower deck

Two side stairs lead from the cockpit to the swim platform, which wide enough to accommodate sun loungers. Its central part can be lowered into the water, while behind the transom there is an entrance to the beach club with a massage room. 

Separated from each other by sound- and watertight bulkheads, there is an engine room (twin Caterpillars can deliver up to to 16 knots), guest cabins (four suites of symmetrical layout) and the crew quarters.  The crew mess is so large that it can accommodate the entire crew can of 17 people at the same time. 

Conclusions

The international judges' opinion that the yacht “seamlessly combined technical precision with aesthetic sophistication” is probably the Kasper 7’s best characteristics. Her owners did a great job to create this light, joyful, somewhat extravagant, but amazingly cosy interior. And there are no doubts that life on board this “floating home” should be equally light and easy.