The standard superyacht photo is of the side of the boat, but I love this shot from beneath the bow of the 175-foot Feadship Hurricane Run. The smile on the charter guest’s face is priceless as she enjoys her version of Leonardo DiCaprio’s “king of the world” moment in Titanic.
The Dalmatian Coast in the Adriatic Sea is littered with more than a thousand islands, but few have the architecture and a boat-filled harbour to compare with Korcula. Part of Croatia, it has a rich history of shipbuilding that has faded in recent years as tourism has become more prominent. The classic gulet-style hull (beige and maroon) is a common sight here.
Of everywhere I’ve cruised, the Maldives feel the most secluded. A dinghy, like the one tied to the end of this pier, can get lost in the endless sea of blue as the only boat on the water for as far as the eye can see. The boaters who tied up there were enjoying an afternoon snack of champagne and caviar, with perhaps the best view on the planet.
Roller-coasters, Maserati sports cars, Harley-Davidson motorcycles: None of them compare with the thrill that can be had sitting front and center in a stiff breeze underway. This is the bow of the Privilege 75 Matau, with a charter guest enjoying the view at a good clip through the Grenadines.
The 162-foot schooner Eleonora was launched in 2000 as an exact replica of the 1910 Nathanael Herreshoff yacht Windward, which won races against historic sailing yachts for the better part of 40 years. I was asked to photograph Eleonora on a rainy day off New York City, where the grey skies gave the picture a tone that seems almost historical.
Entering the Norwegian fjords by boat is an absolute thrill. This photograph was taken north of Bergen on a day when the waters were so still, it was hard to imagine the violence of nature that carved out the waterways.
The owner of the 161-foot Trinity Destination Fox Harb’r Too also owns the Nova Scotia golf course I was standing on when the morning light struck just so, and I was able to get the green and the boat in the same frame. I was alone and whispering to myself like Bill Murray in Caddyshack, “It’s a Cinderella story…”
What I enjoy most about this photograph of the 147-foot Aquos Big Fish is that she is an expedition yacht on a true expedition, in this case touring Tahiti and French Polynesia. So many superyachts are built to cruise the world, but they never do, staying instead in the “safe zones” of the Caribbean and Mediterranean. A larger sistership to Big Fish is under construction now in New Zealand. Hopefully, her owner will be adventurous too.
The fantail boats in Thailand may look like they’re beaten and weathered, but they are actually beloved and decorated by the locals with colourful scarves like the one on this bowsprit. These little wooden speedsters zoom around the giant cliffs in the Phuket region like go-fast Cigarettes on a poker run. They’re the taxis of the islands, always ready to be hailed.
One of the best things about luxury yacht charter is the ability to cruise far from the normal tourist haunts. This photograph was taken off the coast of Turkey from the top of Gemelier Island, which archaeologists believe once held the remains of St. Nicholas. Yes, that St. Nicholas, the one we’re taught lived at the North Pole. In reality, his view was a whole lot nicer.
Gulets, the traditional boats of Turkey, are wide, slow-going motorsailers. For generations, they were used to move cargo along the rugged southwest coastline. In recent years, builders have been combining historic gulet styling with luxury amenities. The result is yachts like the 141-foot Mare Nostrum, which launched in 2008 and set a new precedent for all luxury gulets being constructed today.
