On board the 74-metre Siren with Debra Reuben

The Santa Marina resort there is a favourite haunt. “My husband and I were very close to the late owner, and now I’m very close to his daughter,” she says. Whatever the destination, Reuben loves being either by the sea or out on the water. It’s “the calmness, the nature and the sky”, she says. Mainly, though, “it’s the peace and solitude that I find there” that draws her back time and again to the water.

While initially not a yachting enthusiast, “my husband [David] was always a lover of boats”, she says. He’d take Reuben and their young children around ports to admire the boats there, and she was surprised when one day, he returned with their four-year-old son and announced that he’d bought a 22-metre Mangusta.

“I said, ‘You did what?’” she laughs, but on closer inspection she agreed to try the boat out – and besides, her four-year-old was bowled over by the indoor toilet facilities. “After six months, I couldn’t take the 72ft size because with only two crew, I ended up being the chief stew, which was not something I signed up for,” she recalls.

Next came a 24-metre, then a 32-metre, then a 33-metre, at which point Reuben “started enjoying yachting quite a lot”. The family then decided they’d need something larger to realise their boating dreams to the full. Debra and David began shopping around, visiting boat shows and thinking about what form their next yacht might take.

They were having lunch in Fort Lauderdale, having perused the show, chatting and going over some sketches, when a young man came over to their table. He introduced himself as someone from the Nobiskrug shipyard.

“He said, ‘Do you mind if I interrupt?’” Reuben recalls, and it wasn’t long before the couple started sharing what they had in mind. Nobiskrug “were very excited to help us realise our dreams”, recalls Reuben, and the project snowballed from there.

David began visiting the yard, approved a design that he liked (both interiors and exterior were by German studio Newcruise), and Debra “pretty much left it to him”, until four months short of Project 777’s delivery. “I went and visited her, and I realised that as lovely as she was, it just wasn’t a yacht that I would want to own,” Reuben remembers.

While she admired engineering feats like the yacht’s windows and her master cabin, the boat was overall “too decorated” with “just too many things on it” to make Reuben feel at home. “I didn’t feel that we had enough outdoor space. And I always felt at that time that if I lived on a yacht, I wouldn’t want to be going up and down and sideways and have carpets everywhere… It didn’t define my taste.”

And so it was that Project 777 (now Triple Seven) was sold just short of her delivery, and the Reubens immediately moved on to Project 778 – the yacht that would later become Siren. This time, Debra was more hands on.

“I thought, I’m not doing this again,” she laughs, and became “deeply involved in every detail”. Her approach was to “only design what I love and would like to live in myself, because my philosophy was there must be lots of people like me.”

By that, she means that the market was changing. “Previously, the majority of people who were buying yachts tended to be older; they wanted to sit inside in the air conditioning, take their shoes off and walk on plush carpets,” she says.

What Reuben wanted was something that would be “fun, and aesthetically pleasing for a young family”. For her, this meant an emphasis on the outdoors, a modern design, and the master cabin and all the facilities she was looking for on one level, “like a penthouse apartment”.

Siren had a knockout beach club (“I hadn’t seen it anywhere before,” recalls Reuben), along with a terrace, which was also a novel concept at the time. “I wanted one – it was the new jet ski, as far as I was concerned,” she recalls.

Reuben’s penthouse desires were achieved. “It’s seamless – it’s all on one floor, and if you walk from room to room, floor to floor, it’s very harmonious,” she explains. Siren is “elegant, sporty and very practical,” she goes on. “I didn’t want to spend my time on board worrying about maintaining the furnishings, the silks, the rugs... So she’s a very minimalist boat, but comfortable at the same time.”

Floor-to-ceiling windows make the most of sensational ocean views, and combined with the interior design give the yacht an aura of calm. “For me, she feels like an oasis,” Reuben explains. She was inspired by Christian Liaigre’s furniture, which she feels has “an elegant simplicity, reflects times a hundred years ago and is still current today”.

Also on the mood board was 54-metre sailing yacht Parsifal III, designed by Remi Tessier. When Reuben visited the yacht, “I was astounded,” she recalls. “I found it to be so elegant and beautiful. What I particularly took note of was the minimum amount of wood and fabric, and the fact that themes would be repeated throughout the entire boat.” She tried to maintain those same principles on board Siren, limiting rooms to “no more than five things”, and calling Parsifal III her “bible”.

She feels fortunate to have found a kindred spirit in interior designer Katharina Raczek, too. “We are two peas in a pod, we worked beautifully together,” Reuben says with a smile. “She did everything with such attention to detail, such love, and I’ll always be grateful to her for that.”

Launched in 2008, the yacht has since been in a state of “continuous refit”, with regular upgrades to the technology and facilities, not to mention artworks chosen by Reuben’s oldest daughter.

After Siren, a slew of similar length Nobiskrug evolutions followed. The Reubens were “very happy” with the yard, “they built six stunning yachts of the highest quality” – after Triple Seven and Siren followed Sapphire, Mogambo, and Graffiti – all different because Reuben knew they were destined to be sold.

Of those, Sapphire is her favourite. “She’s breathtakingly beautiful and very art deco-ish in her taste,” she says, “and I was very sad that I never got to see her after I sold her”. She’s since become friendly with Mogambo’s owner. “She went in for a major refit, and he put everything back pretty much the way he found it. He enjoys [her] tremendously and that gratifies me,” she says.

Life on board Siren involves a lot of hosting. Reuben often has the full complement of 12 guests on board, and makes an effort to take them to places that are new and exciting. Mornings kick off with Pilates sessions or workouts on the sundeck, then perhaps a hike or a tour on land, one meal on the boat, and one out exploring somewhere local.

She finds respite from entertaining, “sitting at the beach club at sunset with an Aperol, enjoying the sunset. It’s sort of a transition between the hectic pace of the day and the evening that’s going to begin, so that’s where I can always be found,” she says, “or if we have a lot of company on board, I like to spend it on my terrace.”

Mornings kick off with Pilates sessions or workouts on the sundeck, then perhaps a hike or tour on land

Her two-year-old grandson is often on board, while her three teenage granddaughters will be joining on board with their friends this summer. “You can imagine!” she laughs, envisaging what a teenage-girl dictated itinerary might look like. “The jacuzzi on the sundeck is going to be in full use… And yeah, they’re going to want to go out partying.”

She seems remarkably calm at the prospect, but explains that she has an overarching principle that she adheres to with all guests. “Some families who charter boats want to use it 24 hours a day, but we respect the limits of the crew,” she explains. “So if I’m going to have grandchildren out until 2.30 in the morning, we have to make some accommodations so that the captain makes sure that the deckhand who is going to be escorting them has a good rest.”

Other than that, there are “zero rules” on board Siren, and the Reubens strive for a home from home atmosphere, with the interior crew explaining how everything works on arrival so there are no awkward mishaps. “The only thing I ask is that people respect the timing, because my husband does not want to sit in a tender waiting for another 11 people,” she adds.

“We went to a place called Seven Sisters, which was spectacular”

Charter isn’t a dictating factor for them. “I’m not motivated to charter simply for the income,” Reuben explains. She’s careful when she does accept guests, looking at the number of people, the ages, taking references, asking if there are other nannies and staff on board to help. Her main concern is making sure her crew aren’t overburdened. “If we need them to save our lives, we should be nice to them…” she jokes.

All this means there’s plenty of time for her to enjoy Siren – and the yacht has travelled far and wide. Among Reuben’s favourites are the Amalfi Coast and Capri. “In terms of something that really absolutely floored me, I love the western side of Spain,” she says. “The western side of Mallorca is absolutely breathtaking – I feel like I’m living in Jurassic Park as we go past all these huge rock structures.”

Siren’s maiden voyage was also memorable, beginning in Bergen and going through the Nordic fjords. “We went to a place called Seven Sisters, which was spectacular,” Reuben enthuses. “From there, we chartered a helicopter and we flew up to the glaciers. There was an old restaurant there on the top of the glaciers… absolutely amazing. So I think maybe we’ll do a bit more of that.”

For now, she’s going to join Siren in Athens and follow the weather, aiming for the Aegean side and going through some of the islands. Chatting on a drizzly London afternoon, I get the distinct feeling that Reuben is itching to get back on board.

“If I’m in the tender or at a restaurant and I can see Siren, it just thrills me, even today,” she explains. “I feel grateful, and full of joy. I just love her so much.”