Captain David Thompson
 m/y Lion's Whelp

Date interviewed: June 2007

How did you realize you wanted to become a captain?
I didn’t have any choice. I’m a fifth-generation Cape Cod captain, whalers and schooners. My family was in the ferry business all my life. About 15 years ago, we sold the ferries and went into charter.

What training did you undergo to become a captain?
Dad taught me how to sail when I was 3. When I was 4, he got me a 13-foot Cape Cod Beetle Cat and cut me loose. They go back to the 1700s, fishing and scallop boats. I stayed in Lewis Bay in Hyannis Harbor [Massachusetts]. A few years later I started wandering out. They call it “coming up through the hawsepipe.”

What yachts did you work on before joining Lion’s Whelp?
I’ve been on this boat for 10 years. It was privately owned for many years, but it’s been in charter the past 10 years. This is the second summer with the new owner.
     We only charter in the summers, in Newport and Maine, then in Nova Scotia in the fall. It’s impossible to book this boat for the New York Yacht Club cruise. We’re booked indefinitely. But we do have a couple of weeks available each year.

What do you think makes your yacht special?
This boat is a one-of-a-kind, custom-built as a gentleman’s yacht. It’s based on an 83-foot U.S. Coast Guard cutter from World War II. This was built as a yacht from the same plans in 1966, for Phineas Shaw Sprague of Maine Sprague Steamship Company. It was built by Goudy & Stevens of East Boothbay, Maine, at the same time they were building the famous racing sailboat America.
     I’ve traveled from Nova Scotia to South America on this boat, something like 50,000 miles.

How do you determine what itinerary you will set for a given charter?
We do preference sheets, but I’m also in close contact with the charterer from Day One. I fax them three or four itineraries, and then I wait to hear from them what they want to do. Some are for children, some are for shopping, that sort of thing.
 
How flexible are you about changing the itinerary on a day-to-day basis?
Whatever they want to do, I’m here to make them happy. They can go wherever they want, or if they want to stay somewhere, we’ll stay.

What are some of your favorite cruising destinations, and why?
I don’t go to busy places. I go to the backwoods places, the little towns where the big boats can’t go.
     The Elizabeth Islands, right between Newport and Nantucket, there’s beautiful beaches with shellfish and exploring in the dinghies. You can get a shellfish license for a day—nobody knows about that—and catch your own clams.
 
What features onboard your yacht do you particularly enjoy sharing with guests?
Guests like “the bus stop.” It’s an enclosed aft cockpit back where the bar is [see the photo at right]. It’s very quiet there, and they like to hang out. It’s enclosed, like a hangout spot.

Describe a typical guest’s day onboard your yacht:
Cruising and exploring. We start early if the client wants to, or they can sleep in. Sometimes I’ll take the kids out fishing while the parents sleep. It really depends on what they want.

What kind of charter guests are your favorites?
We like families. I love working with kids. When I’m not on this boat, I do Ocean Classrooms on schooners, four-month sea semesters for high-school and college kids. I do two or three trips like that every winter.

What, if any, awards have you won?
We won the Ocean Reef Club’s winter rendezvous best engineroom award back in 1991.

What else should CharterWave readers know about you and Lion’s Whelp?
The most important thing is to make the trip safe and enjoyable for the guests. We strive to do that every day. Safety first.

Lion’s Whlep is part of the fleet at Newport Yacht Management. She takes six guests with eight crew at a weekly base rate of $14,500, or about $3,000 per person with typical 25-percent expenses factored in. She also offers day charters at a rate of $2,400 per hour for as many as 30 people. Contact any reputable charter broker for booking information.