First Impression: Cocktails

Date toured: June 2006

The yacht builder Hargrave has been around for a long time, but never before has one of its boats wowed me the way the new 97-foot Cocktails did at the 2006 industry-only Newport charter yacht show. I knew immediately after stepping onboard that this boat was somehow a higher standard of luxury than the builder had ever before attained. It was only later that I found out I had literally stepped onto that luxury—in the form of a $63,000 hand-woven wool carpet.

I met the husband and wife who had been hired the day before to serve as crew, and though they seemed nice and knowledgeable, I couldn’t get a good read on what level of service they might offer during a weeklong charter. I was simply having a hard time paying attention to them because my eyes were so stuck on all the gorgeous interior design work this boat offers. It’s no exaggeration to say that she has the panache of a 150-footer, even though she’s a fraction of the size.

Later, after making a few phone calls back at the home office, I learned that the owner of Cocktails is Mr. Tom Murphy, owner of Coastal Construction Group—one of Florida’s pre-eminent hotel and mansion builders. He’s overseen everything from towers for Donald Trump to mansions for Oprah Winfrey, and from the looks of his yacht, he remembered all the finest details and decided to use them for himself.

If you want to get a peek inside, you’ll have to charter Cocktails. She’s part of the fleet at The Sacks Group Yachting Professionals with a weekly base rate of $35,000 for eight guests, or about $8,500 per person with 25-percent expenses included.

Note that Cocktails is being promoted as 100 feet long for charter, but she’s really a few feet shy of that, according to the yard that built her—so don’t pay for a foot more than you have to wherever you dock during your vacation! —Kim Kavin