The silver lining to ownership

Designed in the US by Sparkman & Stephens, started in China in 2001 by Raffles and completed in southern Thailand in 2011, S/Y Silver Lining is the first sailing superyacht to be built to class in Thailand. The project of owner Chris Lenz, it has since travelled to the far corners of the globe with Lenz, his wife and two children. The Superyacht Owner spoke to him about his experiences and whether the stress of building his own yacht was worth it.

“When I think back, if someone came to me today and said they were going to build 104-foot aluminium hull to ABS class and to superyacht standard, having never built a boat before and choosing to do it at a shipyard that might be capable of building Noah’s Ark, I would tell them to have their head examined,” says Lenz of his three year build experience. Lenz was on site every day from day one at the yard, helping to make decisions and steer the build.

“I don’t think I told the right people of my plans,” he dryly mused in a blog post he wrote a few months after completion. “The people I did tell said ‘hey that’s so cool man’, just the type of encouragement this egocentric skipper needed. I bought the hull and the pain started within days: where would I finish it, how much would it cost, how to get it there, etc.”



The motivation for owning a superyacht for him has always been first and foremost about having adventures as a family and Lenz was determined that failure was not an option, no matter how time consuming and difficult at times the build process was. After three years of hard work, Silver Lining was launched in Phuket.

“I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that when we launched Silver Lining, it was bar none, my finest hour,” he says. “She is a superyacht and we did make class, the first vessel built to the ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) Maltese Cross in Thailand.”

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Silver Lining has enabled the family to see some incredible places and share some unforgettable experiences, travelling through South East Asia, past Sri Lanka and Turkey, into Europe, most recently down into Morocco and next onto Panama. While ownership has clearly allowed him to see the world as a family just as he wanted, does owning a superyacht hold any frustrations for Lenz?

“The logistics is my main frustration,” he tells us. “I spend too much time procuring parts from people all over the world. You would think that with bad economies it would be easier and people would be keen to do business and yet I still constantly have to chase people to get stuff. It’s a waste of my time and money and the fools I have to deal with don’t make it easier.”



Logistics aside, Lenz is adamant that Silver Lining has had a more than positive impact on his life. He shows us another blog entry he did, shortly after beginning his travels, which sums up what he feels ownership has given him: “I feel my life getting a bit slower and feel I have done the right thing. Too often in life we grow up and part of growing seems to mean that we have to forfeit our dreams to adulthood and responsibility. I feel very happy to report, I broke the clasps; perhaps one of the most invigorating but at the same times scary things I have ever done. I am dreaming again and I am happy, afraid, worried, euphoric and at peace with myself, I have embarked on my voyage of discovery and I certainly hope it will be the same for my family and crew.”

The Superyacht Owner talks to Chris Lenz about his travels in Indonesia on Silver Lining in the next issue, Issue 7. To become a member and receive your copy, click here.

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