Check back soon as more photos are added daily
Two Bristol businessmen and partners brought their American built superyacht and converted it from a dinner cruise venue to make it their forever home and charity headquarters in Bristol.
Built in Florida, her keel was laid in 1987, and she was officially launched and sailed to New York in 1990 coincidentally the same year the current owners met and moved to Bristol. Before her interiors had even been finished the yacht was hired by a film company for the 1989 hit film "Arthur II" starring Dudley Moore and Lisa Minnelli whose power mad father-in law starred as the yacht owner (strictly no coincidence there!)
She was commissioned as a high specification, tri-deck dinner cruise superyacht. Unlike a normal superyacht she had no cabins and few portholes. Instead, she was fitted out with huge kitchens and wine cellars below deck with a huge restaurant and lounge area on the main deck and a circular piano bar on the top deck. Hence her big bum, rather than the traditional superyacht stepped rear open decks. Capable of transporting 175 passengers / crew, Miss Conduct is truly unique. She operated as the premiere dinner cruise yacht in New York City for some 20 years. Famously cruising around Manhattan Harbour passing the statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the tragically no longer Twin Towers. Her well heeled clientele would fly onboard in their helicopters from their big skyscrapers for a spot of lunch or maybe a business meeting (because that's what some people did in the nineties!). Billionaire George Soros and his polar opposite Donald Trump were regular diners, naturally.
By the millenium anyone who was anyone seemed to have their own personal superyacht and would entertain on their own yachts and so by 2000 she slipped down the list as the 195th largest private yacht in the world, thus the days of a superyacht restaurant were over. Subsequently, after just one decade of service she was sold on as a private charter yacht where you could hire the entire yacht and crew for day or evening dinner / party cruise. Many famous celebrities and socialites of the day partied and got married onboard. Roll on another 10 years and she required a full repaint and a major update, plus extensive work to her hull as every ship periodically does. So, after just two decades she retired from public service.
She was quickly acquired by an eccentric Swedish millionaire who bought the yacht for his American wife as their relationship was on the rocks (excuse nautical pun). She stepped onboard in New York and they sailed south to the Carolinas. She wasn't the sailing type and once the yacht berthed on their private island in St. Helena, his wife never stepped foot on board again! After the inevitable divorce, the yacht became surplus to requirements and she languished on his private island for several years, rusting away and falling into decay. The yacht needed another eccentric owner not only with deep pockets but a deep vision because she was too big for your average private buyer. Roll on two years and two businessmen and partners from Bristol who were living in the states at the time spotted her. They were looking to move back home but were having difficulty finding an unusual house in Bristol. After boarding the yacht in St.Helena they fell in love and signed the deal coincidentally on the yacht's 21st birthday! She was patched up and berthed on his island for another few years.
After a period of planning and designing whilst cruising the east coast and inland waterways, the time was right to rip out her huge kitchens, weld in a load of portholes on her dark lower deck to make way for cabins and bathrooms. In the words of the owner "it was sheer madness, we were living aboard this enormous yacht with a helicopter we couldn't fly, a kitchen the size of a huge restaurant, whilst sleeping at night in a tiny crew cabin. Things had to change!" In an act of sanity, she changed course and sailed to a shipyard in Savannah south Georgia where she underwent a major refit. The steel hull was sandblasted to bare steel and sound tested for hull thickness. Any steel deemed not to last for another 30 years was cut out and replaced and certain parts were strengthened in order to make her fit for a transatlantic voyage. The Yacht was heading for a new life in good old England!
Now 31 years old she is like a brand new ship. After an 8 month refit an experienced captain and crew were recruited and the owners sailed on her across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. The voyage took 28 days at sea but the whole journey took much longer as she stopped off at Bermuda, the beautiful Portuguese Islands of Azores and not forgetting the exotic Barry Island! She then underwent another very long refit and paint job in Sharpness where she was converted from a cheesy, energy guzzling nineties throwback to a 21st Century Eco Superyacht. Over the years some 300 tradesmen and engineers worked on the two multi million pound refits.