Every month, superyacht owners reveal where they are in the world and share their future plans. This month, BOAT speaks to the owner of Brigadoon about the importance of keeping crew happy, while the owner of Milele talks about owning the only superyacht in the world with a carbon-fibre Hull Vane.
Mike Fisher, owner of Brigadoon
Length: 36.3m
Year: 2018
Location: Mallorca
Have you managed to escape the British weather?
Yes, we’re down on the boat in Mallorca for a few days. The June weather in London was too depressing. We do lots of long weekends on the boat at this time of year. That’s the beauty of keeping her in Mallorca – it’s so easy to get here and get away.
If the wind is blowing from the east, we’ll hide in the west and if it’s blowing from the north, we’ll go south. Right now we’re anchored in a little bay on the west coast, so we get up early and go for hikes in the woods. If we’re in the south, we might go into Palma and in the north we like to explore the little villages, especially on market day. We know the island so well and keep our time here very flexible.
Read More/The hottest properties on offer across the in-demand Spanish archipelagoWhen will you get to spend longer on board?
We’ll start in mid-July and probably head over to Sardinia and Corsica. August in the Med is an absolute killer for us – it’s too hot. We were in Malta last year in August and it was over 40°C, which meant we couldn’t spend too much time outside. So you’re cooped up inside in the air conditioning, which defeats the whole point of being on the boat; I hate being stuck indoors.
We love that little bit of water between Sardinia and Corsica and all the tiny little islands off mainland Italy. When we’re in Sardinia we tend to head south as it’s a bit quieter and more rugged.
Is Brigadoon still ticking all your boxes?
You know, it is. She has a fantastic captain and crew, who keep the boat in tip-top condition. My company, Studio Indigo, is involved in the whole Moonen Martinique series and it’s interesting to see the new ones hitting the water. It’s a great platform – like a little Feadship. That’s the kind of quality they’re achieving, and reliability is first class.
What’s your secret to keeping great crew?
Crew will always be seduced by bigger boats and tips, and more exotic locations, but we try and maintain an open, healthy culture on board, so people tend to stick around. It’s not the biggest boat – there’s nowhere to hide really, so we have to make sure we employ only nice people and we have to be nice in exchange. Everyone gets on and we make sure to involve the crew in the life of the boat.
Every weekend we’ll have a guest and crew breakfast where we make a big fry-up. We’ll also have a barbecue once a week for everyone. When we have parties on board, the crew will get dressed up and join in. We have a big party box that everyone dives into! We try to explain to people that they might get more money on a bigger boat, but they won’t have the same experience. It also helps that we have a very strong leader in our captain, who runs the boat incredibly well.
Owner of Milele
Length: 45.2m
Year: 2023
Location: Ostia, Italy
Congratulations on your World Superyacht Award!
I was honoured to receive the prize. I dedicated so much time and money, and everyone who has been on board has been very complimentary. And of course, there’s a certain self satisfaction. You say to yourself, “OK, you didn’t do such a bad job!”
I started thinking about the boat in around 2017. I knew Peter Hürzeler from Ocean Independence and he introduced me to Van Oossanen Naval Architects and Omega Architects, who I felt very comfortable with, and we started from there.
Which boats have you owned previously?
I started with a Pershing 72 and then bought a Pershing 82. I’ve always loved that kind of sporty style, which is why Milele is styled the way she is.
There are quite a few innovations on board. Whose idea were they?
I always wanted the boat to reach a good top speed – she can do over 25 knots. We investigated a Hull Vane – a wing that sits below the waterline aft of the props – but it was in steel and we couldn’t figure out how to get the boat to the speed I wanted.
Then I suggested to Van Oossanen to build it out of carbon fibre, and so we tried it and we now own the only superyacht in the world with a carbon-fibre Hull Vane. We saved about five tonnes of weight doing this. According to the captain, the consumption is very low for a boat of this length and it’s very stable as well.
Meanwhile, did people think you were crazy when you said you wanted a submarine in the bow?
No one could quite believe it, but it was important to me. My wife loves to dive but I cannot because of issues with my ears. I want to see what she’s seeing beneath the water so a submarine was essential. We looked around and spoke to Triton Submarines and U-Boat Worx.
We eventually went with U-Boat Worx because they redesigned one of their subs in three months to specifically fit into Milele’s boat garage. Frank Laupman did all the spatial arrangement, and this is really the smallest sub for two people you can get. From the outside you would never imagine there’s a submarine there.
How much time have you managed to spend on board?
We were in Malta for about four weeks last summer because the crew had to sort out the certification for the submarine, and then from there we went to Sardinia and Portofino, exploring the Italian coast, as well as Mallorca and Barcelona.
This season we picked up the boat in San Remo and went to Saint-Tropez, Monaco and Genoa. We’ll get back on board in July and August and head to Croatia and spend September in the Greek islands. We will spend a lot of time on the boat this year.
What about your longer-range plans?
For 2025, we were considering getting out of the Med via the Suez Canal and Red Sea, but it’s not so easy, so we’ll go out via Gibraltar and spend some time up in Denmark and Norway before crossing the Atlantic from there. As long as I’m healthy and fine and we have the right crew, we’re going to keep exploring.
First published in the August 2024 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.