First Impression: Bliss

Date toured: November 2007

The 58-foot sailing catamaran Bliss is a Voyage, which means that it is built by the Voyage company in South Africa, which also uses the name Voyage for its fleets of charter yachts in the Virgin Islands and in Mallorca, Spanish Balearic Islands. The company offers three kinds of catamarans, a 50-footer that can take as many as eight guests, a 58-footer that can take as many as eight guests, and a 58-footer that can take as many as ten guests.
     Bliss is one of the biggest, taking ten guests at an inclusive weekly rate of $19,600 to $25,300 depending on the number of guests and the season. Like its sisterships, the yacht does an average of 26 to 32 weeks of charter each year—more than same-size owner-operated boats, which tend to top out at 24 or 26 weeks each year to allow the crew enough time to rest. The Voyage approach can be hard on less-experienced or ill-prepared crew (see our related blog post), which is why it’s important to book a specific boat with a specific crew when looking at yachts that are part of the Voyage fleet.
     Capt. Paul Connell and chef Sarah Thomas are the full-time crew onboard Bliss, and when I met them at the annual boat show in Tortola, they explained that they’d previously worked onboard a same-size charter yacht called Infinity in the Voyage fleet. They know the program well, including the hard-driving workload, and are still quite excited about being onboard one of the flagships in the fleet. They like working for Voyage and were thrilled to get the job onboard Bliss when it got a new owner in July 2007.
     That’s in part because they really like having kids onboard, and the new owner has a 9-year-old son as well as a 5-year-old daughter. Sarah also really enjoys cooking for guests, which she demonstrated by preparing a lunch that left more than one charter broker raving during the boat show I attended on Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands.
     “I don’t follow recipes,” she told me. “I get ideas and I draw a circle on a piece of paper, and that’s the plate. Then I work it out.”
     She studied at the culinary school of Carlett Park in England before becoming a chef at a private school in Buckinghamshire, a job she held for a decade. Some of her specialties are chocolate-almond croissants, strawberry French toast, beef bourguignon, char-grilled jerk snapper, and baked passionfruit cheesecake. She took home second place on a BBC Master Chef competition in 2006.
     Sarah also has a knack for keeping even the busiest, most demanding guests happy. After working all those years as a chef, she moved to Hollywood to become a personal assistant to Spice Girl Mel B and, later, Oasis singer Noel Gallagher. She wasn’t crazy about Los Angeles, though, which is how she ended up onboard boats in the Virgin Islands.
     She and Paul seem quite enthusiastic about welcoming charter clients onboard Bliss, which was built in 2003 and was in good condition during my tour. I did note that the fifth cabin, between the two normal-size ones in the starboard hull, is smaller and best suited for children instead of an adult couple. (Paul says the owner’s 9-year-old son sleeps there when the family is onboard, and that felt about right to me.)
     Bliss is based at Soper’s Hole on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands all year round, except for September, when she hauls out for maintenance. Contact any reputable charter broker for booking information.—Kim Kavin