Back in 2013, the 130-foot Westport Trisara was a star of the Antigua Charter Yacht Show. She was built in 2005 and had a new owner who had invested in some impressive refit work — not just a new décor, but also everything from at-anchor stabilizers to a new audiovisual system to an engine-room overhaul.
A year later, brokers at that same show were asking, "Have you seen Broadwater?" The refit of that 163-foot Feadship from 1990 had left even the most die-hard cynics impressed. She had a new interior by Patrick Knowles, tons of toys, and a sweet, 37-foot Intrepid tender with custom-painted, 627 hp Chevy Camaro 6.2 V-8s.
Now, debuting for summer 2017, comes the owner of these yachts' latest project: the 165-foot Feadship Broadwater, a 2000 build previously known as Déjà Vu. (Yes, we appreciate the irony too.)
And the owner thinks that this yacht might be the best one yet.
"I have always admired the lines of Déjà Vu," he says. "I think it's the sexiest classic update known to man."
The owner is a boat junkie, as addicted as they come. He grew up in Ohio and learned to love the water at a lake house. The first thing he did as a moneymaking adult was buy a boat. “I had a Sea Ray express cruiser, and then a couple of Pearson True Norths, and then my first Hinckley maybe 10 years ago,” he says. He recently took delivery of a Hinckley Talaria 43, which he runs himself on the Chesapeake Bay, near his weekend home in Annapolis.
He caught the big-yacht bug by chartering. His fascination started with a few bookings on a Christensen, which then grew into an infatuation with a Westport 112 that he chartered a half-dozen times.
“It was a vacation that had a multiplier effect,” he says. “You could be away for a week, and it felt like you were away for a month.”
He poached the Westport 112's captain and bought the Westport 130 that became Trisara, and then he began trading up. As of early February, he was finishing refit work on the new Broadwater at Lauderdale Marine Center. For the new interior, he asked the architect who has worked on several of his homes to team with California-based designer Adam Voorhees, a former employee of noted yacht designer Espen Oeino. They turned the original Donald Starkey interior into what the owner calls "a sort of modern homage to the TV series Mad Men."
"Think advertising," he says. "There's a little bit of retro midcentury modern to this, if you can kind of imagine some of the vignettes, a guy in 1960 smoking a cigar on the aft deck, but being terribly sophisticated at the same time. It's a little more modern and crisp than what we had on the former Broadwater, but it's a very lovely and soft interior. I like hushed, soft, modern, clean and sophisticated spaces. Not cutting-edge modern, where you don't know where to sit. That drives me nuts. This is a modern classic boat. The first time I saw a rendering of the sky lounge, I thought, 'Oh my God.' I could see somebody sitting there saying, 'Bring me a scotch,' and then, 'Bring me another one.'"
As Déjà Vu, the yacht had five staterooms; as Broadwater, the main-deck gymnasium/office that previously was part of the master suite is a VIP stateroom of its own. Belowdecks, two guest staterooms have king-size beds, and two have twins that convert to kings, plus Pullmans.
The same captain and chef from the previous Broadwater are following the owner to the new yacht, ensuring continuity in the charter program.
And, of course, there will be the same bounty of water toys — as much for the owner as for the charter clients.
“We have the Seabobs and all of that sort of stuff,” he says. “The kids love that, the tow-behind water toys, the blow-up toys behind the boat. I’m not a big slide person — it blocks my view out the side and it makes the crew crazy — but we have a 37-foot Intrepid with Seven Marine engines on the back. Part of my thing is that I have a boat that goes slow, but I like to go fast, and sometimes I want to blow the cobwebs out of my head. So I can get out in the morning and blast at 60 knots on that thing, and then go back to my Cadillac and sit on the deck and have a cup of coffee.”
Broadwater will charter this summer in the Mediterranean, while the owner's other yacht, the 120-foot Palmer Johnson BW, will be in New England. For the winter 2017-18 charter season, the yachts will both be in the Bahamas, where they'll charter separately or in tandem.
The owner will be aboard at least some of the time, enjoying the results of his latest vision and thinking about what might come next.
“I like the refits, but Feadship does its thing,” he says. “They could get a new build out of me yet.”
The owner's other yacht.
When the owner sold his 163-foot Feadship, Broadwater, he not only got the 165-foot Feadship that will go into charter this summer as the new Broadwater, but he also scored the 120-foot Palmer Johnson Vanquish. Now known as BW, that yacht also recently completed a refit at Lauderdale Marine Center, albeit a less substantial one.
"We're painting her blue and doing a light interior freshening up," the owner says. "Some of my crew who had left to go on bigger boats are coming back to run that boat, which is great because we'll have continuity of crew." As with Broadwater, the new look on BW will be refined but also family-friendly. The owner is the oldest of five children, and his parents have 11 grandchildren, including his son. They all come aboard to bond and play, a reality that the designers take into account when choosing refit fabrics and furnishings.
“These boats are beautiful aesthetically, but there is nothing so precious on these boats that, if somebody spills something — the designers know, no silk that has been woven by a one-fingered person from China that took 10 years,” he says. “That’s not what I’m after.”
Style, the owner believes, does not necessarily come from fancy logos. He is achieving the look he wants aboard both yachts however he chooses, and in ways that others might not consider.
“I’m a person who cares about beauty,” the owner says, “not whether there’s a Hermes [logo] on the corner.”
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