Captain, 139-foot Feadship motoryacht Never Enough

Date interviewed: December 2009

It’s been my pleasure to follow your rising career since 2000, when you were captain aboard your first-ever charter yacht.

Boy, does that seem like a long time ago. That was the Cookie Monster, a 110-foot Denison motoryacht. It was the first charter yacht that I ran after I came into the yachting business from running scuba diving boats in Belize and Palau.

You’ve been involved with some really memorable charter yachts since then.

I went from Cookie Monster to the 122-foot Flagship motoryacht Bon Bon, and then to 118-foot Trinity motoryacht Time for Us. That yacht’s owner decided to build a 155-foot Burger by the same name, but I left the project, which he eventually did, too, before the yacht could launch.
I then did some refit work on the 183-foot Benetti motoryacht Allegro, which is now called Four Aces, before coming here to the 139-foot Feadship motoryacht Never Enough in 2004.

Never Enough had just gotten a new owner at that time, but had been in charter under different names.

Yes, she was originally known as Gallant Lady when she launched in 1992. She was also known for a while as Kismet. Then another owner changed the name to Never Enough in 2004 and kept her semi-private at first, but we did 14 weeks of charter the year before the global recession.

The current owner kept the name Never Enough when he bought her in the spring of 2009. I stayed on, and we joined the Camper & Nicholsons International charter fleet. I thought it was a good idea because the year we did the 14 weeks of charter, Camper’s brokers were the ones bringing the business. So, this winter and the summer of 2010 will be our first year for charter through Camper with the new owner.

It’s hard to believe this yacht is 18 years old. She looks beautifully maintained inside and out.

We do our best to take care of her, but at the end of the day, she’s a high-quality build. Not every yacht is a Feadship, after all.

What are some of your favorite things about Never Enough?

I think the full-beam main salon is fantastic. We’re a 10-guest boat, but we could easily fit 12 or more people within this room. On other boats in our size range, this space is compromised by a formal dining room. This boat was originally built for corporate entertaining, so our salon feels really huge.

Does that mean Never Enough lacks a formal dining room?

Our formal dining table is where other boats have their sky lounges. Ours is set up to double as a board room, so it’s good for both vacationers wanting a nice dinner or for businesspeople on charter who need a nice meeting space.

Interesting. Are the yacht’s communications systems also set up with businesspeople in mind?

They are. Aboard most yachts, there is a bottleneck not in downloading information to the boat, but instead when you try to upload something to the rest of the world. This is a big deal, say, if you’re an attorney and you’re trying to do a video deposition from the Caribbean, or if you’re a stockbroker who needs high-speed streaming of real-time data in both directions.

Our system is set up to break that bottleneck. The owner of Never Enough regularly needs that kind of uploading capability, so we know how to get the most out of the systems that are available to yachts.

Are most of your charter guests traveling as part of a corporate getaway?

It’s mostly businessmen with families. They want to work a little bit during the day and then enjoy family time in the afternoons and evenings. I really enjoy those types of charters. We’re just as family-friendly as we are corporate-friendly.

All the charter yachts I’ve run have been that way, and I think it’s the best.

Never Enough is part of the Camper and Nicholsons International charter fleet. She takes 10 guests with eight crew at a lowest weekly base rate of $190,000. Any reputable charter broker can tell you more or help you book a week onboard.