*** The essence of Essence ***

At some point in their history most successful custom builders are able hit a sweet spot in the design and execution of a truly special yacht. So special, in fact,  that it becomes their flagship. For Vicem Yachts, that flagship was their 2006 Vicem 85 Classic – Essence. 

Essence is the largest and most elegant downeast-styled yacht that Vicem (or any other builder on the planet) ever splashed. Certainly she is the largest express-style lobster boat anywhere. It is hard to overstate the grandeur she presents on the water:

Her interior views are no less stately:

A truly amazing yacht! I can unequivocally say  that everyone who has ever boarded Essence has come away speechless. And that includes numerous A-list celebrities who have returned many times to enjoy her in charter ( I can’t publicly name them, but buy me a drink or two at the Fort Lauderdale show, and let’s see what slips…).

As you may have guessed by now, I am both excited and honored to announce today that Essence is now for sale. She and I are now actively in search of her next owner. It should be you…

This head-turner makes a powerful statement in every harbor she enters. Here she is in the Bahamas, and like all great designs she appears to move, even when at rest:

As impressive as her lines are, to me the true soul of Essence come from her two large, beautifully furnished salons. Down below a formal salon of 360 square feet (and how many yachts do you know where you can talk about square footage?) provides seperate seating and dining areas for eight pampered guests, adjacent to the chef’s galley:

Add to her a second salon of 280 square feet on the pilothouse deck (with seating and dining for eight, adjacent to the outdoor grill) –

– and you get palatial accommodations without any sacrifice to intimacy.

And I haven’t even gotten to her huge cockpit area yet. With her upper salon and cockpit on the same level, there area almost 45 running feet of indoor/outdoor living space:

I have run Essence in Europe and in the States with as few as two, and as many as forty-five guests. Everything and everyone just fits in a state of pure elegance. I’ve been aboard more than a few megayachts that fall short when measured against Essence’s aesthetic.

The owner has decided to make a move back to sailing, his first love. So Essence is now being offered seriously for sale at $1,950,000 ($1,500,000 less than when she was last on the market). The full listing can be seen here:

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2006/Vicem-85-Classic-3136312/Palm-Beach/FL/United-States#.WdKYALHMydE

Essence resides in Palm Beach. I am pleased to say that special arrangements have been made to chauffeur my clients (by the owner’s Bentley) to and from the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show so that they can spend some quality time aboard this one of a kind yacht.  Please call me for an appointment.

It is, I’ll repeat, an honor to be associated with this work of art.

Enjoy!

Big Wave Dave

PS: Some history – I watched Essence getting built, stick by stick as they say, in 2005 and 2006. I was commuting to Istanbul on a monthly basis back then, and that gave me a sort of “fast forward” perspective on how a flagship like this gets built. She took up at least a quarter of the factory, and in fact was so big that it was hard for me to get a handle on her grandeur until she went in the water.

I watched her first sea trial from my favorite wine bar on the Asian side of Istanbul (want a great wine? Oküzgözü, meaning bull’s eye, is a really good red). She passed under the Bosporus’ Ataturk Bridge at sunset, where she was lit up by the city’s  nightly summer fireworks display. It was a moving experience. A line from Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez  kept pulling at me – something about a “boat-shaped mind.” I looked it up later, and today it is my [small] gift to you:

And a boat, above all other inanimate things, is personified in man’s mind. Some have said they have felt a boat shudder before she struck a rock, or cry when she beached and the surf poured into her. This is not mysticism, but identification. Man, building this greatest and most personal of all tools, has in turn received a boat-shaped mind, and the boat, a man-shaped soul.

For me that is the essence of Essence. I look forward to sharing her with you during the Fort Lauderdale show.