Yacht "Bart Roberts", converted from the former icebreaker "Narval"

Passing the gallery

Text: Olga Korotkova

Materials: - (c) Martin Fine

Magazine: N5 (72) 2003

A ship without history is like a boat without oars. This is known both to the real shipowner and to the true navigator. Arni Gemino knows a lot about this and that: he is the president of the company that serves the airline and shipping companies and the owner of the graceful yacht Bart Roberts, converted from the former icebreaker Narval Once upon a time, in childhood, Arnie Gemino (Arnie Gemino), now the president of Tradepower International, like all boys, dreamed of traveling to a treasure island, about Peter Pan's heroic country, about pirate adventures, about exciting adventures, when they don’t bother parental restrictions. Two years ago, when he was already a respectable gentleman, Arnie finally decided: he purchased an icebreaker with a displacement of two thousand tons, which belonged to the Canadian Coast Guard company, to make a yacht out of it. After 60 weeks, the former conqueror of the ice completely changed: now he began to resemble not just a military ship with a camouflage war paint, but a real pirate "shark" - a fairytale adventurer ship. The new owner named his Bart Roberts - in honor of Bartolomew Roberts, one of those who used to call themselves the gentlemen of fortune. The idea, as the owner says “Roberts”, was simple. "For twenty years that I deal with yachts, I have seen plenty of glossy interiors - and I wanted everything very differently," recalls the current owner. Mr. Gemino He wanted to go as far as possible from the stereotypes that are adopted on a typical millionaire yacht. It is necessary to understand what Gemino understands by simplicity, this idea would not have seemed simple to anyone else. Pure madness was to undertake a project that was almost two years long and cost a fortune. It began with the fact that it was necessary to find a shipyard suitable for the "retraining" of the icebreaker. Romantic than New Orleans, you can not think: it was on him that Gemino chose. But project manager, ship architect Lennard Edstrom (Lennard Edstro..m), insisted on the port of Victoria, in British Columbia. The work would have taken much more time if in 1986 the Canadian government had not invested a fair amount of money in the total re-equipment of the icebreaker Narwhal (as the ship was called earlier). The ship not only completely replaced the electrical wiring, electronic equipment, meteorological instruments, etc., but also installed diesel engines with the latest shipbuilding of a similar class of ships. Gemino designates his yacht as "romance of stone and brick": the floor in the cabin is paved like a cobblestone pavement, the fireplace is framed by impressive boulders and resembles a hearth in a predatory cave. The real cannonballs, a formidable, correct “slide” imprinted in cement, went to the decoration of the portal. Over the hearth is a portrait of the pirate Roberts himself. In the middle of the stone "pavement" in the cabin lined wooden dance floor; a bar counter and an elegant corner with a grand piano logically build a figurative row associated with the guest area. On board the yacht "Roberts", guests involuntarily feel involved in the world of romantics, the villains who once plied the sea, raising black flags. Each cabin (ten on the yacht) is named after the famous predatory biography of the individual. Designer Karen Bamford has done everything to make the guest in such a cabin feel like a baron or baroness: ostentatious luxury dominates everywhere - as part of the game that is given by the ship's pirate “idea”. This idea, however, does not exclude the possibility of accepting the present day: there is a pool on the deck, a catamaran for 20 passengers, a helipad is equipped at the stern, a powerful telescope is at guests' disposal. The permanent crew serving the vessel consists of 18 people. Six of the crew members are experienced naval officers. It is said that when, in February 1722, Bartholomew Roberts was executed, the team fulfilled the last wish of its captain. The body of the dashing robber was thrown overboard, and after him his personal jewels, brilliants of fantastic beauty and size, went to the bottom of the sea. Anyway, the diamond cross, according to the legend that belonged to Roberts, is now adorned in the living room of a ship that bears the name "Roberts" ...