First Impression: Awol Again

Date toured: December 2011

Capt. Paul Vallance knows what people say when they see him cruise into the harbor aboard the 89-foot sailing yacht Awol Again.

“A lot of captains look at her askew,” he told me during my tour. “It’s like they’re saying, ‘A gulet? In the Caribbean? Shouldn’t it be in Turkey with all the other gulets? Are you crazy?’”

He doesn’t care because he thinks she’s beautiful—and I think he’s absolutely right.

Awol Again is unlike any other gulet I’ve ever seen in the Caribbean or anywhere else, and I’ve been going to Turkey to see gulets for quite a number of years. The exterior shape of Awol Again definitely fits the gulet standard, as do her guest cabins, which are all crafted of dark, rich mahogany in a style that is very familiar to the Turkish gulet scene.

But the other guest areas aboard Awol Again are light and bright, designed by a hotelier to look like spaces aboard most other contemporary sailing yachts in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. And the yacht herself is not a wooden boat, but instead a steel-hulled design built to MCA standards.

“I first saw her in the shipyard in Bodrum, Turkey, where she launched in 2004,” Vallance told me. “I looked at her and said, ‘This is interesting.’ And I’ve been here ever since.”

The owner of Awol Again lives in St. Barth’s, so the yacht spends a good bit of time in the Caribbean and surrounding areas. For spring 2012, Awol Again is expected to be in the Bahamas. Summer 2012 will be spent in the Grenadines, and the winter 2012-13 season will be in the Northern Caribbean.

Awol Again takes eight guests with five crew at a lowest weekly base rate of $42,500. She is part of the charter fleet at Ocean Independence. Any reputable charter broker can tell you more or help you book a week onboard.—Kim Kavin