First Impression: Arms Reach

Date toured: December 2006

I had the pleasure of finding the 130-foot motoryacht Arms Reach at the St. Maarten   Charter Yacht Exhibition, where she was tied up just across the dock from another 130-foot motoryacht built by the same company, Westport. The fact that the two boats of the same design and size were so close together invited comparison, and it was interesting to note just how different the owner of Arms Reach had set out to make his yacht.
     The boat was launched in 2004 but had been kept private until late 2006 and this particular boat show, when the owner decided to allow charters. The crew had yet to do an actual charter when I stepped onboard (their first was scheduled for early January 2007), but I had a good feeling about their ability to work together as a team based on the fact that three of the five crew members had been onboard since the yacht’s original launch date. The two crew members who were new—including first mate Hunter Wray, who showed me around—couldn’t have been more gushing in their enthusiasm for joining the Arms Reach team.
     Why? Because this is a boat on a mission: fishing and fun on the water. The owner is a hard-core fisherman who has outfitted Arms Reach with a 31-foot powerboat tender (built by Jupiter, one of the best you can buy) as well as a 19-foot, 6-inch Hell’s Bay flats fishing boat for taking into the narrows where the bigger tender can’t go. They keep 68 different kinds of rods and reels onboard, all organized for fly fishing, deep-sea dropping (to 1,200 feet with electric reels), trolling, and every other kind of fishing you can imagine.
     “The boat’s been launched for two and a half years, and we’ve never bought a fish,” Hunter told me proudly. He then led me upstairs to show me where the owner took out the yacht’s hot tub to make room for a massive bait freezer on the boat deck.
     The captain of Arms Reach has been fishing in Florida and the Bahamas for some 26 years, and “he knows the spots to go,” Hunter said. The yacht is based in West Palm Beach, Florida, so will be chartering in that area year-round.
     “We fish, dive, snorkel, ski—anything active,” as Hunter put it. “We all surf, too. We have five surfboards onboard, plus kneeboards, wakeboards… we can even skurf.”
     Arms Reach is scheduled to go through a refit in the summer of 2007 to make it compliant with the MCA Code (a safety precaution for charter yachts), as well as to make room for more water toys, including Jet Skis. I don’t see the need for any interior refit, as the yacht looked to be barely used during my tour.
     “The Mrs. has only been on once,” Hunter told me when I asked how an owner so dedicated to fishing could keep a yacht so meticulously elegant inside. “This is his floating hotel. He sleeps in the master, and his two buddies sleep downstairs. The cabins with the twin beds have never been used.”
     Like I said, this is a yacht on a mission. If you choose to accept that mission as one of its first charter guests, you can contact any reputable charter broker to confirm your booking.
     Arms Reach is part of the fleet at The Sacks Group. Its base rate is $70,000 per week for 10 guests with five crew, or about $8,750 per person with typical 25-percent expenses included.—Kim Kavin