Billionaire Gabe Newell’s shipyard, Oceanco, has given the world some truly spectacular superyachts like the megayacht Koru, Alfa Nero, Black Pearl, and H3. The H3 superyacht (formerly Indian Empress) is a 344-foot mammoth owned by Saudi media billionaire Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim. It became a floating studio in a recent collaboration between the shipyard and fine art photographer and director Tony Kelly. Everything about the incredible H3 was turned into a stage, from her impressive silhouette and massive aft beach club to the elongated bow where models posed in dapper crew uniforms. H3‘s beauty was captured in its true essence as high-concept, cinematic visual art.
The Tony Kelly editorial shoot took place off the Costa Smeralda aboard H3, styled in his signature vibrant, theatrical, and irreverent pop-art aesthetic against the Sardinian coast, yielding standout artworks like She Dives Me Crazy and Love at First Sight. There are no glimpses of the interiors of this magnificent $320 million yacht, although that is where the real beauty lies. Inside, the luxury vessel is home to grand chandeliers, a video wall, and a climate-controlled winter garden splendidly redesigned by Reymond Langton Design.
Yet their omission goes entirely unnoticed. The Los Angeles-based, Irish-born creative distills the absolute height of the yachting lifestyle using only a quarter of H3’s exterior deck space. His lens captures the effortless indulgence in fleeting moments at sea, whether it is stepping off a tender, nursing a cocktail, or gazing out across the Mediterranean horizon.
Of course, it all comes with oodles of oomph and cheekiness that one can come to expect from models on a ramp or the ultra-glamorous side of life on a multimillion-dollar superyacht.
It is an interesting way to look at one of the largest superyacht shipyards globally. It puts the fun in yachting while maintaining that yachting is serious business with the ultimate motto of enjoyment. The Tony Kelly world adds a whole new lens to the yachting scene that shifts the narrative from commercial yacht specifications to pure extravagance and an escape from the mundane. The address for that vision is always an Oceanco megayacht, as the world has witnessed time and again.
According to SuperYacht Times, H3 is one of the most notable examples of Oceanco’s Life Cycle Support program. So significant was the transformation that the yard dubbed it a “rebirth,” complete with an entirely new superstructure, modernized interiors, and a Tier III-compliant setup designed to reduce emissions. With Tony Kelly now showcasing H3 in a completely new light, perhaps the H can just as easily stand for high-performance, head-turning, and heavenly.
Surprisingly, despite all these accolades and a stellar pedigree, the H3 superyacht has remained unsold for more than two years. The vessel was listed with Edmiston for an asking price of almost $350 million. The campaign, with Tony Kelly at the helm, surely puts the pleasure craft back on the map by focusing on all its strengths.
It could work in favor of Saudi media mogul and MBC Group CEO Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, who launched the Arab world’s first private free-to-air satellite broadcasting company in 1991 and set out to revolutionize the region’s media landscape. Perhaps it is time the tale of his superyacht was rewritten too, and with this glamorous new spotlight, it could well be on its way.
