Captain, 192-foot motoryacht Islander

Date interviewed: December 2010

Islander, which was built as a motorsailer in 1991, just completed nearly two years of refit work to change her into a motoryacht. Why undertake that $2-million project?

I’ve seen the boss, for years, drawing on napkins and thinking about turning her into a motoryacht. He built the boat with his father, so the original was a compromise between what they both wanted. The father passed away, and the boss began exploring his options—especially when a fixed-height bridge was built near his house that we couldn’t get under with our original mast. Then, with the economic slowdown, charter business got slow. So we decided that if we were ever going to do it, this was the time.

The documentation on all the conversion work that was done is 12 pages long, everything from removing rigging and winches to rebuilding stabilizers. It looks like you took the opportunity to update everything you could think of, beyond the conversion itself.

When you open something up, you think, ‘Oh, and that, and that, and we should do that.’ When we had one thing going on, we realized we could do another. So, for instance, when the headliner was taken down in the salon to remove wiring, we were able to install routers for the WiFi system.

That’s an incredible amount of work aboard a yacht that’s nearly two decades old.

It was all worth it. She is now an extremely solid platform in terms of reliability and ease of operation. A lot of the crew were here through the refit, too, so they couldn’t possibly know the boat any better. Charter guests may not realize it, but that makes everything much easier. The boat has been simplified, so that former work time now can go into guest service.

How does Islander function as a motoryacht?

We’ve seen a maximum speed of 18 knots. That is a speed increase over what we used to achieve as a motorsailer, thanks to the reduction in weight from where we removed the old keel. But it’s not as much of a speed increase as I’d have thought. Even still, her motion is excellent.

I notice that much of the interior décor was left as-is. Is there more refit work yet to come?

In March, we’ll do a month of maintenance before heading to the Mediterranean for the summer 2011 charter season. We’re talking now about what we can do then to further improve.

Islander is part of the charter fleet at Peter Insull’s. The lowest weekly base rate is $170,000 for 10 or 12 guests with 12 crew. Any reputable charter broker can tell you more or help you book a week onboard.