Life wasn’t always like this. “I didn’t grow up rich or poor; I grew up middle class.” That was in Falmouth, a small beach town in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where the owner of medical devices firm Boston Scientific tended to moor his 41-metre navy-blue hulled yacht, Hilarium. “There are very few things that capture human attention like a yacht,” says Golder, recalling his younger self.

“What does the inside look like? Where can it go? When I was starting out in business, I would look at planes, houses and other luxury items, but there was always so much mystery about yachts.”

More than anything, Golder continues, “I grew up sick, with Crohn’s disease [which inflames the digestive system]. I missed two years of high school because of it.”

In 2006, he produced and featured in the documentary True Guts: Triumph Over Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, which gave many viewers with the condition a novel degree of hope. The film shows how, no matter what symptoms afflict sufferers, negative mindsets can be swapped for better ones.

It alerted Golder to the power of feedback: “The film aimed to make people feel OK about living with Crohn’s and the stigma that is sometimes associated with it, showing viewers a way to attain success in life. ‘Gone’ is not a realistic outcome with Crohn’s, but ‘managed’ is. If you had Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, then this was a good film for you. I got a lot of positive feedback from people, including other kids’ parents and even the president.”

What Golder continually reinforces is that if you want the perfect boat, you need a perfect plan – or as near perfect as is allowed by reality, virtual or otherwise. “We built a warehouse in Canada with the entire boat laid out and we’d do walkarounds with 3D googles to ensure that every room worked.”

Then there is the colour palette. “I spent $130,000 on three-metre models that we put in my own backyard to experiment with the blue and black colours. Why are 95 per cent of yachts white?” It’s a colour Golder associates with hospitals from his youth. “Historically, it’s been old white men in stuffy old white boats. Now there’s a new generation of owners.”

There is the obvious matching of boat colour and water, but also surprises: “You get really crazy light through our staircases, which are also blue,” he says. “As you go up through the decks, you get these weird kaleidoscope effects.”

It’s enough to bring out the playful child in all of us. Certainly, there is a quality of vibrancy aboard King Benji that can sometimes be absent on other, especially larger boats, and certainly absent from the hospitals of Golder’s youth.

Which brings us to the chef.

“It doesn’t matter how good the chef thinks they are,” says Golder. “It doesn’t matter if they have 27 Michelin stars. What matters is how good the owner or charter client feels. If their favourite food is meatloaf, the chef needs to be able to make great meatloaf ” – as the chef shows during a snappy 20-minute YouTube video, in which he equally makes pizza with truffle shavings and gold leaf topping, $300 (£240) breakfast burritos featuring Wagyu beef, and warm chocolate chip cookies with peanut-butter toffee.

“Our chef can do everything, but most importantly, he can do what matters most to you. That’s a very personal thing, but it’s the most important thing of all.”

So, where will King Benji head off to? Answers include the wilds of Alaska and the Norwegian fjords: not unexpected, given the boat’s serious explorer credentials – nor are the remoter islands of French Polynesia. Less expected, for this big aft-decked boat, is Albania, which Golder believes to be the “next Montenegro or Croatia. I’d like to see that first, before it’s overrun.”

Yet a deeper focus of Golder’s is to bring the world to the boat. One plan is to use King Benji as a floating video studio. “We could do a virtual yachting weekend where the crew members set up cameras in all the different rooms and use GoPros. Content would be live-streamed and viewers could pick between different activities: jet skis, going down the slide, etc.”

It’s not unlike how some tourists spend vacations at marinas, viewing yachts from the docksides and taking their own photos – only, with a transformational level of access.

I love this boat, and I loved building it, but most of all I love trying to bring something into the world that has never been seen or done before.

“I want to get good at YouTube,” he says. “I’m obsessed with the young documentarians on it and how authentic they are. They’re not polished; these are young kids who’ve set out to show these weird parts of society. They don’t need approval. What does a real Florida redneck look like? Who makes the best – and worst – key lime pie?”

The technology is a core part of it: “There’s such instant feedback. That, and the algorithms, train you. As you improve, it becomes a very rewarding creative outlet.” Like with the food and guests on the yacht, viewers get to decide.

We can’t avoid the reality TV show Below Deck. “I couldn’t do a version of that show because my boat wouldn’t run at a high enough level for me and my guests,” Golder says. “You can have famous reality stars, or world-class crew, but it’s hard to have both.”

Visual stories told from the owner’s perspective have also tended to fall short, he feels: “They always seem to look stuffy, in some sort of sit-down interview. What’s more exciting is what can you actually do with a boat like this, with a world-class nine-person crew.”

He concludes, “As human beings, we are fuelled by desire, and it’s important to distinguish the feelings associated with the yearning from those prompted by actual attainment.”

I reach for aphorisms about journeys and destinations, but Golder is of course ahead of me with a unique take on it all: “I love this boat, and I loved building it, but most of all I love trying to bring something into the world that has never been seen or done before.” Stay tuned.

First published in the July 2024 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.