Sovereign of the seas

The price-per-gross-ton metric has certainly become a limelight gauge of a brokerage yacht’s value proposition in recent years. And while the infatuation with gross tonnage is largely driven by the market to ensure building regulations are met, buyers want volume for the simple reason that they get a good amount of boat for their buck.

One yacht that will fit the bill for savvy, ton-hungry clients is 55m Sovereign – an all-American, full-custom construction that was built at Newcastle Shipyards in Florida in 2011. She is on the market with Michael Mahan, partner of Worth Avenue Yachts, for $28.95 million and will be on display at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show next week.

Despite being equivalent in waterline length to many of the semi-custom series’ builds coming out of the Netherlands and elsewhere currently, at a staggering 1,100gt, Sovereign is as much as double the volume. Thus, her asking price breaks down to a very competitive $26,318 per gross ton, which is an excellent proposition for a seven-year-old boat that is still fresh from a 2017 refit.

“The boat is just huge,” extols Mahan. “You can really feel the volume when you walk around. The quality is also excellent because it is a truly great boat that was built with a great deal of care and only the finest components.” According to Mahan, the original owner of Sovereign had built a number of yachts and, therefore, ensured that only the best supervision, engineering and design available was utilised during the project; the number one priority was quality.

Her second and present owner has been the perfect custodian for the yacht, ensuring she has received state-of-the-art upgrades during refit work and has had annual surveys, both maintenance and class, providing the vessel with whatever was required, irrespective of the cost.

“You can really feel the volume when you walk around. The quality is also excellent because it is a truly great boat that was built with a great deal of care and only the finest components.”

“The great thing about Sovereign is that she is a full-displacement any-ocean boat, but at the same time, at half load, she only draws 9.6ft, so she is very Bahamas-friendly.” There are only five other yachts on the water that meet or exceed Sovereign’s displacement tonnage and are able to draw 3m or less at full load. This essentially means that few boats of Sovereign’s size are able to reach the shallow anchorages that she can.

For Mahan, the sky lounge is one of the yacht’s best features – it is full-beam and has exceptionally high ceilings. Furthermore, among the six staterooms are two forward-facing master staterooms – one of which has a 270-degree view. She has subsequently become a very popular charter yacht, cruising in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Bahamas, predominately, and does at least 10 weeks per year at a rate upwards of $250,000 per week.

Other key features of the yacht noted by Mahan include an elevator accessing nearly every deck, a beach club, and Quantum four-fin zero speed stabilizers. Her main engines and generators are also still under warranty. In addition to completing her five-year ABS survey in 2017, she also had fresh paint applied to the superstructure.

For more information on Sovereign and to arrange a viewing at FLIBS next week, visit the Worth Avenue Yachts website.

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Newcastle Shipyards

Worth Avenue Yachts

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