Living the life as the yacht Montigne visits Phuket
Montigne under sail - 100 tons doing nine knots.
Who said the days of the tall ships were over? Granted, there are no more tea clippers, just a sprinkling of square riggers – mostly used for sail training – but if you have the money, you can still sail in real style.
The Observer was recently invited aboard the Montigne (pronounced Mon-tig-nee) when she moored at the outer edge of Yacht Haven marina.
Three masts as tall as the Eiffel Tower, floor to ceiling marble in the bathrooms (it would seem ungracious to refer to them as “heads”), a sundeck with Jacuzzi, a huge aft deck with a table equipped with the biggest lazy susan we’ve ever seen and, in the lounge below, grand dining to the accompaniment of music played on a baby grand piano.
Let’s not forget the house wine (Yacht wine? Boat wine?): Chateauneuf du Pape, one of the most delicious wines ever invented, which – for a good year – will set you back B10,000+ a bottle.
This is definitely the life.
Launched in 2009 from the the Aegean Yachts yard in Turkey, she’s owned by an Asian gent, about whom we are allowed to say no more, though he does use the boat regularly – in fact, more regularly than your average $8-million Phuket villa owner does. But then, villas can’t hoist sail and head off down to Bali or up into Burmese waters.
There’s a crew of 10, including a chef who is genuinely worthy of the title, and headed by skipper Richard Felton, who’s been all at sea since the ’80s. “She’s quite impressive when she’s got all the sails up,” Richard says. With all seven sails set, “we can do nine knots which, for 400-odd tons of what is basically a motor yacht, is not bad.” For all you landlubbers nine knots is just under 17 kmh.
A wicked thought: If you stripped out all the marble and chucked the baby grand overboard, how much faster would she go? We’d keep the wine. We’d need the sustenance.
When the owner’s not on board, the Montigne is available for charter. Usually she spends six months along the cost from Burma to Malaysia, with the other six island hopping along Indonesia or the Philippines or even as far south as Australia. All the gear is on board for fun when Montigne drops the hook – diving kit, kayaks, speedboats.
Tempted to charter? Start here. Just for you, B4.8 million a week – that’s for 10 people.
Here are some more pix, each worth a thousand words.
The owner's cabin. Well, half of it, anyway.
More marble than Lord Elgin could shake a stick at.
Tinkling ivories, anyone? The formal dining table and the baby grand.
The aft deck, says skipper Richard Felton, is everyone's favourite part of the boat. You can see why.
