Is it a boat, is it a plane, is it the future or is it a fascinating but pointless publicity stunt? These are just some of the questions being asked about the most extraordinary new craft of the year. Built by German start-up Tyde and penned by Designworks, BMW’s futuristic skunkworks department, its stated mission is to “disrupt the luxury leisure world” and be “a radical change for good”.
To ram home the point, Tyde named it The Icon and launched it in the full glare of the world’s media at the Cannes Film Festival. It worked a treat, hoovering up column inches like a publicity-hungry starlet, but at some point every icon has to live up to its billing, and at the other Cannes festival in September – the Yachting one – we finally got a chance to put that to the test.
GERMAN INGENUITY
Before telling you what it’s actually
