Welcome back to our series on expedition yachts part three which is primarily going to deal
with the conversion vessels.
We left off after WW II when the expedition yachts that went to war, not all of them came
back, and what we've talked about yachts that were turned into warships, let's talk about
this war ship that was converted into a yacht and the extraordinary man who had the vision
to do this - who is probably the father of all conversions.
The vessel was a Canadian-built fast frigate that was launched in 1943.
It saw service in the North Atlantic escorting convoys that were being preyed upon by German
U-Boats.
The vessel has also participated in the landings in Normandy on D-Day.
But have a look at these specs and compare them to any of the larger megayachts that
are being built today.
283 feet, 20.5 knots of speed, 7500 nautical miles of range and a lot of room for passengers.
After the way, like many of these ships, the Stormont was laid up and scheduled to go to
the scrapper.
But in 1954 this Greek shipowner came along and offered the Canadian government $34,000
for the Stormont and they sold it.
He spent $4 million on the conversion into a luxury yacht and the rest is history.
While other yachts previously had hosted monarchs and Prime Ministers, Onassis' yacht was a
gathering spot for celebrities, Hollywood stars, and all the people that mattered at
that time, if they were lucky enough to be invited.
And owners today who strive to make their vessels seem unique will have trouble matching
Onassis who covered these bar stools with whale foreskins.
Fast-forward to the 1970s and 1980s - there's a new generation of yachtsman and they want
to explore far-off places.
The important thing to know about that period, let's say 70's and 80's, the largest yachts
that were coming out of Holland, people like Feadship and Amels, and also out of Germany,
with a few exceptions that were very notable; those vessels were about 50-meters-max.
So, let's say 163 feet.
There were very few yachts over 200 feet.
The existing yacht builders really we're not turning out boats that had any kind of endurance
to stay at sea for 30-days, for instance, or cross oceans with fuel to spare.
These yachtsmen that were looking for vessels to go into this kind of service found these
sort of vessels which were typically built in Holland or Germany.
This is an offshore tug.
But its not like the harbor tugs that you see pushing big hips around in a port.
These vessels are used to haul other ships or barges or other pieces of heavy equipment
out in the open ocean, in every kind of weather and they would have an extreme range of let's
say 10,000 or 8,000 miles.
They could operate in distant locations without normal services.
So they would have to have a machine shop, they'd have to have plenty of spares on board,
a ships hospital and some of them even had helipads.
So this is the generation, the first generation, of what we today call expedition yachts.
Prresident Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury was a yachtsman named William Simon.
He purchased this ocean-going tug.
ITASCA was built as one vessel in a series of three by the Dutch builder J&K Smit.
The vessel already had tremendous attributes to be a world cruiser with a 13,000 nautical
mile range and a Lloyd's Polar Ice Class hull.
But this is not to say that Itasca did not have a very refined and comfortable interior.
Itasca madehistory as the first motor yacht to complete a 23 day voyage from west to east
through the Northwest passage.
4 months after doing the Northwest Passage Itasca was navigating Drakes Passage to Antarctica.
From Antarctica Itasca set a course for New Zealand and Polynesia.
As it turns out the long-range offshore salvage tug has been the chosen platform for conversion
into expedition yachts in a number of cases and in fact some of the most renowned expedition
yachts in the world are ex-salvage tugs- some of which you will recognize here.
As the 20th Century was ending, the offshore oil industry was exploring, researching building
and servicing rigs further offshore in deeper and more treacherous waters.
A new generation of offshore support and exploration vessels was born and they were built, by the
dozens, in shipyards around the world.
Backed by the nearly limitless resources of Big Oil, new designs, new innovations and
new technology for this 21st century fleet of vessels.
But over the last 20 years, whenever the price of oil would stay down for a sustained period,
a number a number of these vessels would be laid up and even offered for sale at a fraction
of their original cost to build.
And so the next chapter in our story is about the conversion of the offshore support and
research vessels into expedition yachts.
Typically, these are very rugged, all-weather vessels.
They have a number of redundant systems, fully functional heli-decks with hangars.
The one we are going to look at here is propelled by diesel-electric motors connected to Rolls
Royce azipods that deliver a very respectable 16 knots maximum speed.
The owner is an American billionaire who is no newbie to conversions.
This was his first vessel, the Alucia.
They brought the ship to the Damen shipyard in Holland.
And the Hollywood film director, James Cameron is also involved and so this explains the
stylish interior with a full film studio and a lot of other very cool features.
Below this video there's a link that you can click on to find out more about this amazing
state-of-the-art expedition vessel propellers.
This vessel we've probably all been reading about in the magazines.
It's the conversion of a commercial offshore supply vessel.
This one is not just ice-class, it is an ice-breaker.
You should understand the difference between ice-breaker and ice-class.
Ice-class means that the hull is reinforced for a certain amount of ice.
The vessel can basically push around pieces of ice and travel through a thin layer of
ice.
An ice-breaker is rated to go into serious thick ice and it doesn't just push it aside.
It rides up on top of it and it uses the weight of the vessel to crack the ice and break it
up.
The propellers will actually chop of the ice further.
These propellers are so rugged that if the vessel gets caught in an ice-jam, you can
run the vessel in reverse and these propeller will chop up the ice and you can power around
in reverse using them like a huge blender to chop the ice.
This vessel was laid up in Holland, not far from the Icon shipyards.
It went into the shed in 2017.
First of all, they make the decision to keep the pilot house and keep the forward part
of the vessel intact and that's a very big decisions to make in doing a conversion because
you have to overcome the fact that you're starting with a profile that is not, perhaps,
as pretty as a megayacht.
And you've got to deal with the existing pilothouse in order to keep all the existing steel and
systems.
This is a smart thing to do, because moving it is very expensive and it does nothing to
enhance the ship's capabilities.
So they made that decision at the outset and then designed around that forward pilothouse
to make quaite a good-looking and meaningful profile while keeping its seaworthiness and
stability.
So this sort of conversion, right away you know you're going to need a certified heli-pad.
In this case it was for EC 145, and with that, to have endurance, you're going to need refueling
for the helicopter.
Another decision is to keep the deck heights the way they are so you can extend off the
existing pilothouse.
The pods are Wartsilla electric pods, 1750 kW each.
These are not just your regular go across the Med pods- these are designed to churn
heavy ice.
Aft of the main pilothouse superstructure is where all your guest accommodations go.
They managed to design and build in an owner's deck that has a forward-facing observation
lounge an open air foredeck terrace right under the bridge deck where guests and the
owner can get out and really see what's going on.
I believe that's David Seal there, looking good.
Hello David.
I'm glad to see that they did not go to a yacht fairing and glossy finis.
It has a commercial paint finish.
This is very practical.
It means that the crew can touch up the paint anyplace that they happen to be you and need
to do some touch up.
I'll also put links below this video so you can check out these other aspects of the vessel
and I don't want to cover the same ground.
Burgess did this James Bond-ish charter video with a very pretty actress.
So you can check that out and the sort of fantasy life that could be enjoyed on this
vessel.
And the only other comment I have is about the "BIG BO" that they have onboard.
This thing is quite a little monster.
It is made in Russia and they look like they are just custom made to destroy nature.
I don't really know what they have it on board for, but I hope they don't go and do any of
the things that its advertised to be able to do.
Here I found it on the "Garbage Channel" Anyway, I hope people will get in their kayaks and
go x-country skiing instead.
There you have it.
So, there you have a quick rundown of the earliest conversions and the latest and greatest
conversions, And I hope you'll join me for Part 4 in this Yacht Channel Series where
we're going to deal with NEW BUILD EXPEDITION YACHTS and see what's going - it's quite incredible!