TLDR: Looking for suggestions of builders who fit out
commercial boats as yachts. I hate these stupid “purpose of a
boat is for 18 people to be able to sunbathe during the day and then have catered dinner in an
interior that looks like a gaudy hotel” charter-oriented
boat designs.
Seriously, I am surprised at how relatively inexpensive used SuperYachts are. They can be had now, used for $10M. Of course it’s the crew that’s expensive, probably $1M a year there. But I don’t want a
chef and stewards. Maybe a
captain and
deck hand, at most.
I expect with the next recession super yachts will be positively
cheap. But taking depreciated assets off of the hands of tasteless boomers in pain isn’t my thing.
But I keep looking at them because I do want 4 cabins with 5 heads, and the ability to carry a lot of toys, and at least transatlantic capability. All that pushes me up the size scale until I’m over 80 feet.
I look at the Sunreef 80 ($6.5M) and it’s a dream in many ways... but is it really a boat you take up to
Alaska on the Inside Passage-
Sunreef 80:
https://www.sunreef-yachts.com/en/80-sunreef-power
Anyway, I did my time with a sailboat, but the
circumnavigation goal still exists, so my challenge has been finding a boat that can circumnavigate the globe, under its own
power.
So I find myself looking at things like this: Wider 150 $30M):
Features
Love how the
tender garage becomes a pool, and that it’s
diesel electric. That seems so obvious and logical— put generators anywhere, let them run at max efficiency, and
electric motors are high torque and virtually last forever. $30M is way out of my
budget. If only they made one half the size at a quarter the cost.
But the
interior of those are gaudy as all get out.
What I want is a ship. A go anywhere ship. From Homer
Alaska to Capetown— preferably on a
single tank of gas.
The best candidate I’ve found so far is the FPB:
https://www.berthon.co.uk/yacht-sale...pb-97-iceberg/
This is nearly a perfect boat for me. Designed for my purpose, it’s the only 97 foot Dashew in existence and it’s on the market! I should buy it!
Only problem is I won’t be able to afford it for about 3 years. If it’s still on the market then, I could buy it.
Technically, by some definitions the FPB is a super yacht.
Another appealing boat, also a super yacht, are the Damen Yacht Support vessels:
https://www.yacht-support.nl/
Now that’s nice. Scratch the helicopter death trap landing pad, more space for toys, tenders, even a sailboat (sailing only when it’s fun, not because I have to in bad conditions us my idea of sailing.) .... and that would be great.
But still I would need a crew.
I think my dream boat would be 60-79feet, a
commercial aluminum vessel— like a
ferry catamaran, they is converted to
diesel electric, and its interior converted to a yacht.
I bet there’s some shop yard out there refitting these older
ferry cats... or someone building something like this.
Or maybe I’ll just have to settle and get a:
https://www.silent-yachts.com/silent55/
And suffer in gaudy luxury with a
tender, hot tub and only one (pitiful!) jet ski on board.
If you’re confused about this post- I really am asking for pointers to people doing
work like I described... and in exchange I’ve shared links to boats I thought were interesting.