Business with pleasure
The Superyacht Owner was recently invited on board the Kestrel 106 as part of its world premiere at the Antibes Yacht Show. The yacht is the realisation of the vision of a Celtic syndicate of businessmen, whose managing director, Peter Cooke, explained what it was like to be a 'surrogate' yacht owner.…
Purchasing a custom superyacht is a labour of love - an individual’s vision that is realised through a meticulous and timely build process involving numerous parties. And the end result usually remains the apple of the owner’s eye forever more.
For avid sailor Peter Cooke and his wife Jenny however, the plan was never to build a yacht for themselves. Their vision was always to produce a platform that could be replicated and reproduced as a viable commercial enterprise, and this has been realised with the delivery of the Kestrel 106, which had its world premiere at the recent Antibes Yacht Show. The yacht’s unveiling was marked by a Celtic-themed owners' party on board, and the crowds flocked to see performances from members of the original cast of Riverdance and a traditional Scottish piper, who blazed a trail through the streets of Antibes long into the night.
After attending the owner’s party, The Superyacht Owner was lucky enough to be invited onto the yacht the following morning to escape the rain, and enjoy a coffee with Cooke; the yacht’s designer, the esteemed Ron Holland; owner of Aganlar shipyard, Erdem Aganlar; Adrian McCourt of Watkins Superyachts; as well as Cooke’s family and the yacht’s crew.
Cooke, whose background lies in construction, is the managing director of Kestrel Superyachts, a syndicate of 24 Celtic businessmen, who assembled in 2006 to build a yacht that married sailing performance with the comfort of modern motoryachts, the reasoning for which Cooke explained:
“The thing that’s imperative for me is that there are so many people who love being on boats but are terrified of sailing. We want to take the fear out of sailing, or to capture the essence of two different types of vessel. A sailing yacht is all about getting there, a motoryacht is all about being there; this boat captures the joy of getting somewhere in a much more inclusive way than a sailing boat does, and is delightful to be on.”
Despite the obvious Celtic connection, the group’s instinct was to have the yacht built in Turkey, an instinct that led to them approaching Aganlar shipyard in Bodrum, which took significant steps to improve its infrastructure in order to build the Kestrel 106, further adding to the ‘family’ feel of this project, a fact evidenced by the fact that the yard’s second generation owner, Erdem Aganlar, joins Cooke for our interview on board. Commenting on the sea trial experience, Aganlar said, “We fought over who was going to steer! I pushed [Cooke] off, he then pushed me off and then the commissioning captain pushed us both off. Every wanted to be the helmsman, which is impressive for a boat of that size.”
What is hard to comprehend though, especially for such a personal project, is how Cooke and his associates can remain dispassionate about it now that it is in the water. The reason he says, is because it was never meant as anything more than a business model. “I don’t know whether you could describe me as a yacht owner,” Cooke explained. “The company is the owner and I’m a significant investor, but then so is my wife and so are some of the other people you’ve met on the boat. We’re not conventional owners but we’re trying to create a boat that other people want to own. And if we’re lucky enough to end up with one of our own at the end of this process I will be very, very happy. But I don’t see myself as the owner of this boat; I see myself as the owner of the project that built this boat.”
It is clear that Cooke, his family, and the Kestrel team are all passionate about the yacht that they’ve produced, so it may seem odd that they will not get to taste the fruits of their labour. But the enjoyment and pride that it has generated is clear for all to see, and this unconventional approach to yacht building appears to be justifying the expense already. According to Adrian McCourt who is handling the sale of the Kestrel 106 on behalf of Watkins Superyachts, its first weekend in Antibes generated seven serious enquiries, some of which could well have been converted into concrete deals by the time of writing. And all this despite some pretty horrendous weather conditions at the time of the show.
So is this a business model that Cooke thinks could be rolled out to the wider industry, or is its success a one-off?
“I’ll fall back on automotive examples because we all know about cars. Nobody had seen the gap in the market when Renault launched the Espace – a van with seats and windows - but it became its own category, the ‘MPV’. Now I don’t know a single person who hasn’t owned one at some stage because it ticked a particular box in their lives. Everybody builds MPVs.
“So what I hope we’ve done, and the reaction [in Antibes] seems to suggest we have, is to open a new sector in the market that fits between motoryachts and sailing yachts and has the best of both. And what I hope it does more than anything else is bring new buyers into the marketplace who aren’t attracted by a motoryacht but are equally nervous about a boat dedicated to sailing and sailors.”
For avid sailor Peter Cooke and his wife Jenny however, the plan was never to build a yacht for themselves. Their vision was always to produce a platform that could be replicated and reproduced as a viable commercial enterprise, and this has been realised with the delivery of the Kestrel 106, which had its world premiere at the recent Antibes Yacht Show. The yacht’s unveiling was marked by a Celtic-themed owners' party on board, and the crowds flocked to see performances from members of the original cast of Riverdance and a traditional Scottish piper, who blazed a trail through the streets of Antibes long into the night.
After attending the owner’s party, The Superyacht Owner was lucky enough to be invited onto the yacht the following morning to escape the rain, and enjoy a coffee with Cooke; the yacht’s designer, the esteemed Ron Holland; owner of Aganlar shipyard, Erdem Aganlar; Adrian McCourt of Watkins Superyachts; as well as Cooke’s family and the yacht’s crew.
Cooke, whose background lies in construction, is the managing director of Kestrel Superyachts, a syndicate of 24 Celtic businessmen, who assembled in 2006 to build a yacht that married sailing performance with the comfort of modern motoryachts, the reasoning for which Cooke explained:
“The thing that’s imperative for me is that there are so many people who love being on boats but are terrified of sailing. We want to take the fear out of sailing, or to capture the essence of two different types of vessel. A sailing yacht is all about getting there, a motoryacht is all about being there; this boat captures the joy of getting somewhere in a much more inclusive way than a sailing boat does, and is delightful to be on.”
Despite the obvious Celtic connection, the group’s instinct was to have the yacht built in Turkey, an instinct that led to them approaching Aganlar shipyard in Bodrum, which took significant steps to improve its infrastructure in order to build the Kestrel 106, further adding to the ‘family’ feel of this project, a fact evidenced by the fact that the yard’s second generation owner, Erdem Aganlar, joins Cooke for our interview on board. Commenting on the sea trial experience, Aganlar said, “We fought over who was going to steer! I pushed [Cooke] off, he then pushed me off and then the commissioning captain pushed us both off. Every wanted to be the helmsman, which is impressive for a boat of that size.”
What is hard to comprehend though, especially for such a personal project, is how Cooke and his associates can remain dispassionate about it now that it is in the water. The reason he says, is because it was never meant as anything more than a business model. “I don’t know whether you could describe me as a yacht owner,” Cooke explained. “The company is the owner and I’m a significant investor, but then so is my wife and so are some of the other people you’ve met on the boat. We’re not conventional owners but we’re trying to create a boat that other people want to own. And if we’re lucky enough to end up with one of our own at the end of this process I will be very, very happy. But I don’t see myself as the owner of this boat; I see myself as the owner of the project that built this boat.”
It is clear that Cooke, his family, and the Kestrel team are all passionate about the yacht that they’ve produced, so it may seem odd that they will not get to taste the fruits of their labour. But the enjoyment and pride that it has generated is clear for all to see, and this unconventional approach to yacht building appears to be justifying the expense already. According to Adrian McCourt who is handling the sale of the Kestrel 106 on behalf of Watkins Superyachts, its first weekend in Antibes generated seven serious enquiries, some of which could well have been converted into concrete deals by the time of writing. And all this despite some pretty horrendous weather conditions at the time of the show.
Erdem Aganlar and Peter Cooke at the helm.
So is this a business model that Cooke thinks could be rolled out to the wider industry, or is its success a one-off?
“I’ll fall back on automotive examples because we all know about cars. Nobody had seen the gap in the market when Renault launched the Espace – a van with seats and windows - but it became its own category, the ‘MPV’. Now I don’t know a single person who hasn’t owned one at some stage because it ticked a particular box in their lives. Everybody builds MPVs.
“So what I hope we’ve done, and the reaction [in Antibes] seems to suggest we have, is to open a new sector in the market that fits between motoryachts and sailing yachts and has the best of both. And what I hope it does more than anything else is bring new buyers into the marketplace who aren’t attracted by a motoryacht but are equally nervous about a boat dedicated to sailing and sailors.”
From left to right: Erdem Aganlar and his fiancée, Ron Holland, and Jenny and
Peter Cooke.
Peter Cooke.
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