herb chambers yacht lady may

Billionaire Auto Dealer to Buy Guo Wengui’s Yacht for $24 Million

By Alex Wolf

Billionaire auto dealership mogul Herb Chambers agreed to purchase the Lady May, a luxury yacht upon which Trump adviser Steve Bannon was arrested in 2020, from the bankruptcy estate of federally-indicted Chinese exile Guo Wengui.

Herb Chambers Yachting LLC, a company owned by the eponymous businessman, submitted the winning bid of $24 million to buy the 150-foot vessel out of Chapter 11, according to filings Friday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut.

The private sale agreement “represents the highest and best bid obtained after an extensive marketing campaign” and competitive bidding process that began in late ...

Learn more about Bloomberg Law or Log In to keep reading:

Learn about bloomberg law.

AI-powered legal analytics, workflow tools and premium legal & business news.

Already a subscriber?

Log in to keep reading or access research tools.

The global authority in superyachting

• NEWSLETTERS
• Yachts Home
• The Superyacht Directory
• Yacht Reports
• Brokerage News
• The largest yachts in the world
• The Register
• Yacht Advice
• Yacht Design
• 12m to 24m yachts
• Monaco Yacht Show
• Builder Directory
• Designer Directory
• Interior Design Directory
• Naval Architect Directory
• Yachts for sale home
• Motor yachts
• Sailing yachts
• Explorer yachts
• Classic yachts
• Sale Broker Directory
• Charter Home
• Yachts for Charter
• Charter Destinations
• Charter Broker Directory
• Destinations Home
• Mediterranean
• South Pacific
• Rest of the World
• Boat Life Home
• Owners' Experiences
• Conservation and Philanthropy
• Interiors Suppliers
• Owners' Club
• Captains' Club
• BOAT Showcase
• Boat Presents
• Events Home
• World Superyacht Awards
• Superyacht Design Festival
• Design and Innovation Awards
• Young Designer of the Year Award
• Artistry and Craft Awards
• Explorer Yachts Summit
• Ocean Talks
• The Ocean Awards
• BOAT Connect
• Between the bays
• Golf Invitational
• BOATPro Home
• Superyacht Insight
• Global Order Book
• Premium Content
• Product Features
• Testimonials
• Pricing Plan
• Tenders & Equipment

On board 80m Excellence with American businessman Herb Chambers

Get to know the owner of 80 metre Abeking & Rasmussen superyacht Excellence, in this exclusive interview with American businessman Herb Chambers...

Super Bowl 2020 was a special weekend in Miami. Beneath the glass towers glittering in the sun was an equally glittering line-up of the biggest and best superyachts launched in 2019. There was the 93-metre Feadship Lady S , Oceanco’s 109-metre Bravo Eugenia and 90-metre DreAMBoat , while Germany was represented in the shape of Lürssen’s 95-metre Madsummer . However there was one notable exception to this stellar procession – easily the most eye-catching superyacht launched last year: 80-metre Excellence .

“I am not into sports,” explains Herb Chambers, her owner, as we chat in his office near Boston a few days before the big hoopla in Miami. What he loves are cars, boats and, many years after making it big in the business world, work. “It’s something I enjoy,” he says. “People ask, ‘Why do you work so much?’ and I reply, ‘I really don’t work, I do what I love to do’.”

That’s why we meet in a cloudy Boston in January rather than, say, St Barths, one of his favourite Caribbean destinations. Chambers, who has established one of the largest car dealership franchises in the US, keeps a regular work schedule. He doesn’t sell cars – never has – but he likes to stay involved with the day-to-day management of the company.

The Herb Chambers Companies owns about 60 dealerships employing around 2,500 people within a 160-kilometre radius of Boston and represents practically every brand. The local newspaper says his company sells more cars than any other in New England.

Chambers’ office is on the second floor of a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Somerville, a neighbourhood of Boston. The top floor is a helipad, which allows him to shave hours off the commute from his weekend residence in Connecticut. Near the reception desk is a large framed picture of his new Excellence with the signature of the craftsmen involved in her construction at Abeking & Rasmussen ; a stack of magazines is on the table, including the December issue of BOAT International with Excellence on the cover, and the latest Boston magazine, which belongs to a friend. Awards that his company has won, including one for being one of the area’s top employers, catch the light from a spotlight shining on a nearby cabinet.

Downstairs, aside from the squeaky-clean showroom filled with the latest Mercedes cars, is the service centre. The polished floor has hardly a tyre mark and the space smells like freshly brewed coffee. Good service is at the heart of what his company does. “We don’t want to sell people anything,” he says. “We want to help them buy things that they want and hopefully they will love us for that.”

He got into the car business in 1985, buying an Oldsmobile-Cadillac dealership where he had received poor service. He knew he could do better and so he did.

But his first fortune wasn’t made in cars – it was in photocopiers. In the early 1960s, Chambers was fresh out of the US Navy, where he had been an aviation electrician, and looking for a job when he saw an ad in The Boston Globe seeking a photocopier repairman. Fixing things sounded like something he might want to do, although he wasn’t quite sure what the job entailed. “No one knew what photocopying was back then. I thought a copy machine was something to copy photos,” he says with a laugh.

He talked himself into the job – a gift he had picked up in his youth. “I grew up in a very blue-collar neighbourhood. My father was a commercial artist and we lived with my grandmother, so we never had a lot of money,” he says. “I always had a job from the time I was 13 years old.” One of his first was at a Stop & Shop supermarket where he was hired after lying about his age. He liked working much more than school. “The only thing I enjoyed about school was mathematics,” he says.

During his stint as a copier repairman, he learned pretty quickly that people selling copiers were making much more money, and he parlayed himself into a sales job. “I was a pretty good salesman; I am a pretty good salesman today,” he says with a smile, “but only because I heard the word ‘no’ so many times in my life.” He was also at a disadvantage because he was shy. “I was afraid to talk to people,” he says, “[but] I knew I could work harder than most salespeople and I outworked them.”

Around the time the kid from Dorchester, Boston, started his first company, at the age of 22, he enrolled in a 12-week training course at Dale Carnegie to overcome his shyness. “It was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

The photocopier business was changing, and he saw the opportunity. “Copy machines were just becoming popular and I was in the right place, certainly at the right time, and I built the company to be the largest photocopier distributor in America.”

After a few years he was finally in a position to indulge his long fascination with cars and boats, which he had loved from an early age. He remembers going to a boat show in Boston with his father in the early 1950s, when he was 10 or 11 years old, and becoming enthralled with a futuristic- looking motorboat built by the Outboard Marine Corporation. “Why don’t we buy one of these?” he asked his father, who gave a response typical of parents seeking to appease a child: “We’ll look at it next year.” Meanwhile, when he fell for a curvaceous Cadillac convertible he’d seen for sale down the street and asked why they did not replace their old Buick with it, he got the same answer from his mother. “Then I got a job at 13 years old, and I realised what money was,” he says, but the experience didn’t dim his desire to own these beautiful, shiny machines.

Summer times, which he spent at his grandmother’s cottage south of Boston, gave him a chance to get on the water. He had a friend with a small motorboat and they went exploring in it. A few years after founding his company A-Copy America, he bought his first boat, a used nine-metre flybridge motor yacht built by Trojan. “I paid $10,000 [$7,720] for it; I remember it very clearly,” he says. “It was all the money I had.

“My company continued to do well, so I got a bigger boat, and a bigger boat, and a bigger boat, and in between all those boats, I probably owned a half dozen Cigarette boats, two or three Magnums and a Formula boat. I’ve always had this passion for boats. I love them,” says

Chambers, whose current fleet comprises his 80-metre Abeking & Rasmussen Excellence , a Mangusta 94 and a 47-metre Feadship (formerly known as Detroit Eagle and Sea Racer ). He remembers the progression from the Trojan to a 12-metre Chris-Craft, a 14-metre Concorde and then a 16-metre Hatteras.

His first experience with a superyacht was on board an acquaintance’s Feadship docked near his boat in Connecticut. “I was in awe of that boat,” he says. When the owner, a car salesman and former politician, invited him on board he remembers being intimidated. “I was so nervous, I did not know where to sit, I did not want to touch anything and he said to me, ‘One day you will have one of these,’ and I said, ‘I know I will never have one of these’.”

His first big yacht, built in 1979, was a 25-metre custom-built Broward with a modern interior and two turbocharged GM diesel engines. He named it A-Copy , after his company. “To me, at the time, it was like a baby Feadship,” he says. “It was a great boat. I chartered it and it was pretty popular.” Then came the windfall from the sale of his business in 1983, and just three years later his friend’s prediction came true as Chambers took delivery of his first Feadship, a 40 metre, the first Excellence .

The name of the yacht was inspired by a bestselling book by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman that he was reading at the time, In Search of Excellence . He made the boat available for charter, as he has all the following ones – Excellence II (another Feadship), Excellence III (his first Abeking) and V (he built but never owned Excellence IV , as it was bought mid-construction by another owner who liked it). The newest Excellence (“I stopped numbering the boats because it was getting kind of silly”) is on the charter market as well.

The name Excellence comes with certain responsibilities, he admits. “We tell people when they come to work on her, ‘She is not called Average.’ Just the name of the boat puts a lot of pressure on you. The boat needs to be excellent all the time.”

He buys and builds boats for pleasure, and he keeps an eye on the market by reading all the boat magazines, but it is also a business. “Chartering is important to me because the boats are so expensive to run and everything in my world has a price/ value relationship. I really like the value of having the yacht, but I don’t like what it costs to do it, and by chartering, I can reduce that price. Could I have the boat, use it and not charter it? Yes I could, but to me the value would not be there,” he says.

The new Excellence , designed inside and out by Winch Design, is a big departure from all of his previous yachts and is in no way average. The yacht’s topsides are almost entirely glass and its elongated hull ends in a thin reverse bow. He loved his previous boat, the 60-metre Abeking Excellence V , which had more classic lines, but he had warmed to the idea of a different approach when he saw a concept by the award-winning British designer. “I kept thinking about how I could have bigger windows, more glass. And when I saw Andrew Winch’s rendering, I thought that could be the answer, but with some modification to it.” He also wanted a yacht that would not look like any other, and on a recent visit to St Barths he was pleased to spot Excellence from a significant distance.

He is happy with the response he’s received so far and the yacht, which is under the command of Captain Ray Shore (Chambers’ captain for more than 30 years), has already chartered well. He knows why. “There is no greater luxury than being on a yacht where you get personalised service and you don’t have to wait for anything,” he says. “When you have a yacht with a crew, you can pretty much have whatever it is you want 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

They say the harder you work, the luckier you get and this is true of Chambers. He looks back on his success with the humility of a man who has had to earn every cent. “I’m basically just a hard- working guy who has been very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.”

This feature is taken from the April 2020 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.

More about this yacht

Similar yachts for sale, yachts for charter, more stories, most recent, from our partners, sponsored listings.

Try our Advanced Search for more refined results

The Practice of Law

• Law360 Pulse

Business of Law

Law360 authority, deep news & analysis, tax authority, employment authority, insurance authority, real estate authority, bankruptcy authority, healthcare authority.

• Law360 Employment Authority
• Law360 Tax Authority
• Law360 Insurance Authority
• Law360 Real Estate Authority
• Law360 Healthcare Authority
• Law360 Bankruptcy Authority

• Law360 In-Depth
• Law360 Podcasts
• Regional Powerhouses
• Law360's MVPs
• Women in Law Report
• Diversity Snapshot
• Practice Groups of the Year
• Rising Stars
• Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar
• Adv. Search & Platform Tools
• About all sections
• Browse all sections
• Class Action
• Competition
• Expert Analysis
• Intellectual Property
• Product Liability
• Track attorneys
• Track judges
• Join the Law360 team
• Search legal jobs
• Learn more about Law360
• Read testimonials
• Contact Law360
• Sign up for our newsletters
• Law360 Company
• About Law360 Authority
• Resource Library

Billionaire Car Dealer Offers $24M For Bankrupt Exile's Yacht

Law360 is on it, so you are, too..

A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions.

A Law360 subscription includes features such as

• Daily newsletters
• Expert analysis
• Advanced search
• Judge information
• Real-time alerts
• 450K+ searchable archived articles

Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial.

Already a subscriber? Click here to login

Attached Documents

Related sections.

• Connecticut
• Massachusetts
• Transportation

Case Information

Subscribers Only

Case Number

Nature of suit.

• Brown Rudnick
• Chiesa Shahinian
• Neubert Pepe
• O'Melveny & Myers
• Paul Hastings
• Pullman & Comley
• Robinson & Cole
• Zeisler & Zeisler

Government Agencies

• United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• I forgot my password
• I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
• How do I sign up for a newsletter?

Already have access? Click here to login

Get instant access to the one-stop news source for business lawyers, sign up now for free access to this content.

Email (NOTE: Free email domains not supported)

PLEASE NOTE: A verification email will be sent to your address before you can access your trial.

Password (at least 8 characters required)

Confirm Password

Show all interests

Law360 may contact you in your professional capacity with information about our other products, services and events that we believe may be of interest. You’ll be able to update your communication preferences via the unsubscribe link provided within our communications. We take your privacy seriously. Please see our Privacy Policy .

Already have access?

• Password: Forgot your password?
• Remember login

Sign up for our Bankruptcy newsletter

You must correct or enter the following before you can sign up:.

Law360 takes your privacy seriously. Please see our Privacy Policy .

672 Wine Club

• Motorcycles
• Car of the Month
• Destinations
• Men’s Fashion
• Watch Collector
• Art & Collectibles
• Vacation Homes
• Celebrity Homes
• New Construction
• Home Design
• Electronics
• Fine Dining
• Benchmark Wines
• Brian Fox Art
• Disneyland Resort
• Ka La’I Wakiki Beach
• Kalamazoo Grill
• Raffles Hotels & Resorts
• Sports & Leisure
• Health & Wellness
• Best of the Best
• The Ultimate Gift Guide

Boat of the Week: This Speedy 153-Foot Superyacht Has Its Own Turbo Boost

Push a button and the turbine kicks in, which is yachting's equivalent of light speed., julia zaltzman, julia zaltzman's most recent stories.

• These Charter Yachts Let You Tag Hammerhead Sharks and Count Spirit Bears for Research
• These Luxe Villas Are the Place to Stay in This Retro-Chic Enclave on the Tuscan Coast
• The 7 Most Exciting New Superyacht Marinas in the World
• Share This Article

What do you get if you have two friends with a passion for boats, high-profile automotive careers and cash to burn? The answer is the 153-foot superyacht Excellence , a vessel that oozes speed, has brand pedigree and captures the hearts of all who own it.

Built in 2001 by Formula One racing car driver and automobile entrepreneur Roger Penske, who named her  Detroit Eagle , the yacht combined Feadship ’s Dutch craftsmanship with Penske’s own brand of engine. (Disclosure: Roger Penske is the father of Jay Penske, who owns this publication, as well as its sister publications in the Penske Media portfolio.)

This New Catamaran Concept Was Designed to Carry Your Bugatti Across the High Seas

The shipyard that built the ‘titanic’ has filed for bankruptcy.

• This Bonkers Space Balloon Just Completed Its First Full Test Flight

“At the time [Roger] Penske owned a company called Detroit Diesel that made diesel engines for boats, and he was also involved with a company that built turbine engines,” current owner and Penske’s longtime friend, Herb Chambers, told Robb Report . “So, he went to Feadship and built a lightweight aluminum yacht with a shallow draft to demonstrate the capability of his engines.”

The Feadship was originally built and owned for years by Roger Penske, who wanted a very fast, very luxurious superyacht. Penske installed his own Detroit Diesel-branded engines and then added a 5,600-hp turbine to give the yacht a 10-knot pop at the top end.  Courtesy of Burgess Yachts

The immaculate, polished-chrome engine room, with the diesels painted in fire-engine red, has always been a symbolic indicator of the type of impressive speeds the yacht can reach. The engines are 16-cylinder 4000 series, which generate 3,650 horsepower each. Penske then added something the superyacht world had never seen before–a Lycoming TF-50 gas turbine for an additional 5,600 horsepower.

“The boat can cruise at about 23 knots on diesel engines,” Chambers says, “but if you really want it to go fast, you push a button and the turbine kicks in taking the boat from 23 knots up to around 33 knots. It really is a remarkable vessel.”

Serial boat builder Chambers grew up in the Boston area, spending long summers on the water at his grandmother’s cottage. “I always had the desire to have a boat,” he says, a goal he realized at 24 with a 30-foot Trojan flybridge motoryacht. The Trojan would be the first of five yachts called A-Copy , named after his successful copy-machine business.

“After I sold the copy company and had this windfall of money, I ordered a 127-foot Feadship. The name A-Copy wasn’t of any significance to me anymore so I tried to think of a name that I would like,” Chambers says. “I’m not an avid reader, but I read Tom Peters’s book In Search of Excellence and loved it. It’s about running a good business. I thought Excellence , that is a great name for a boat.”

Launched last summer, Chambers’s newest 262-foot Abeking & Rasmussen “Excellence” has a futuristic hull shape, with an eagle-beak bow and large glass panels on the exterior.  Courtesy Abeking & Rasmussen

To date, Chambers has owned more than 40 yachts of many sizes. Some were even sold before he took delivery. The name “Excellence” serves as a constant reminder to his 30-year-long captain for the need to maintain high standards on board, he says. It has also carried through to Chamber’s six most recent yachts. This includes his largest yacht to date, a striking 262-foot Abeking & Rasmussen launched in 2019, on which he enjoys cruising the European waters of Croatia, Greece, Italy and St Tropez. That Excellence won Robb Report ’s 2020 Best of the Best award for interiors.

With its “eagle” reverse bow and triple-height glass atrium, the Winch-designed yacht turns heads wherever it goes. But that’s hardly surprising considering Philip Starck’s opinion-dividing Motor Yacht A was the design inspiration this latest Excellence .

“When I first saw Motor Yacht A , I said, ‘That looks like a submarine. Who would ever want to have a boat like that?’ And the second time I saw it, I said, ‘That boat is pretty nice. I kinda like that bow.’ And the third time I saw it, I thought, ‘I absolutely love that.’ So, that’s where the idea for Excellence ’s bow came from.”

While he has recently listed the Feadship “Excellence,” Chambers plans to enjoy the yacht for while he still owns her. He has often owned two yachts—the newer one that is often under charter, and a smaller, faster one that is at his disposal for his “personal use.” 

While Chambers’s appreciation of Feadship has long endured after his first foray with the Dutch shipbuilder, it wasn’t until a 2018 visit to Fort Lauderdale Boat Show that Penske’s 153-foot yacht caught Chamber’s eye. Prized by Chambers for its flexible speed and six-foot Bahamas-friendly draft, it is one of the few yachts that he hasn’t put on the charter market.

“I view the Feadship as a very personal boat,” says Chambers. “It’s only a four-stateroom boat, but you can bring three other couples or family members with you. When I told Roger Penske that I had bought the boat, he said his family was mad at him when he sold it because they loved it so much.”

An extensive 2019 refit of the yacht includes a full paint job, an updated sound system and refurb of the original John Munford interior. Chambers bought the yacht for his own personal use. “Because my boats get chartered, I always love to have a boat that’s available just for me,” Chambers says. “I built a 94-foot Mangusta for that purpose and used it in America when my big yacht was on charter in the Mediterranean or Caribbean. The Feadship can do pretty much what the Mangusta did, but it’s a bigger, more comfortable boat, so I sold the Mangusta at the start of 2020.”

The 2001 build has undergone a complete refurbishment of the interior. 

Being a serial owner, Chambers also recently listed the updated Feadship. He plans to enjoy the yacht while she is still available. Will he miss this Excellence ?

“I really don’t know,” Chambers says, pausing. “I would maybe look to build a similar boat, around 150 feet, something that would be fast. But the Abeking & Rasmussen Excellence is still new to me. The time for me to sell a boat is when I still like it.”

That creates a great opportunity for a buyer who wants a piece of superyacht history–a very fast superyacht history.

Excellence is co-listed for sale with Burgess  and Merle Wood & Associates for $16,900,000. Here are more views.

Images Courtesy of Burgess Yachts

Read More On:

• Abeking & Rasmussen

More Marine

Meet Spitfire, a New 164-Foot Superyacht Based on a High-Performance Patrol Boat

What It’s Like to Watch an America’s Cup Race Right on the Water

Meet the Wine Club That Thinks Differently.

Receive editor-curated reds from boutique California producers four times a year.

Give the Gift of Luxury

Latest Galleries in Marine

Spitfire Superyacht in Photos

The AX/E 22 and AX/E 25 in Photos

More from our brands, halle berry shimmers in tamara ralph metallic dress at the ‘never let go’ red carpet premiere in new york city, fanduel parent buys italian gaming operator snai for $2.56 billion, anamaria vartolomei, diane kruger, lucas bravo begin shoot for french max original series ‘merteuil,’ a reimagining of ‘dangerous liaisons’ (exclusive), perrotin gallery donates 23 works to the pompidou centre by artists including takashi murakami, emma webster, and genesis belanger, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors.

• Frank Magazine
• Denison History
• Virtual Tours
• Alaskan Yachts
• Azimut Yachts
• Back Cove Yachts
• Beneteau Yachts
• Benetti Superyachts
• Bertram Yachts
• Boston Whaler
• Broward Yachts
• Buddy Davis Sportfish
• Burger Yachts
• Cabo Yachts
• Carver Motoryachts
• Center Console
• Chris-Craft Yachts
• Cruisers Yachts
• DeFever Trawlers
• Dufour Sailboats
• Fairline Yachts
• Feadship Yachts
• Ferretti Yachts
• Formula Yachts
• Fountaine Pajot Cats
• Grady-White
• Grand Banks Trawlers
• Hargrave Yachts
• Hatteras Yachts
• Hinckley Picnic Boats
• Horizon Yachts
• Hydra-Sports
• Intrepid Boats
• Jarrett Bay Sportfish
• Jeanneau Yachts
• Kadey-Krogen Trawlers
• Lazzara Yachts
• Lekker Boats
• Luhrs Sportfish
• Marlow Yachts
• Maritimo Yachts
• Marquis Yachts
• McKinna Motoryachts
• Meridian Yachts
• Midnight Express
• Mochi Craft
• Neptunus Motoryachts
• Nordhavn Trawlers
• Nordic Tugs
• Ocean Alexander Yachts
• Offshore Yachts
• Oyster Sailing Yachts
• Pacific Mariner Yachts
• Palmer Johnson Yachts
• Pershing Yachts
• Prestige Yachts
• Princess Yachts
• Pursuit Yachts
• Riva Yachts
• Riviera Yachts
• Sabre Downeast
• San Lorenzo Yachts
• Sea Ray Boats
• SeaVee Central Consoles
• Selene Trawlers
• Scout Yachts
• Sunseeker Yachts
• Tiara Yachts
• Trinity Superyachts
• Viking Yachts
• Westport Yachts

Superyacht Influencer Interview: Herb Chambers Opens Up About Owning 263-Foot-Long EXCELLENCE

I’ve never met anyone in the superyacht world quite like herb chambers..

Superyacht owners are often, um, how should we say it…pretty aloof. And I can’t say I blame them. But every now and then, I meet a superyacht owner who loves his new yacht, loves the process of designing and building something so unique, and appreciates the incredibly talented designers and engineers and builders who can make his dreams a reality so much that he’s willing to share some of the experience with me–on the record.

But I’ve never met anyone in the superyacht world quite like the owner of 263-foot-long EXCELLENCE, which was designed by Winch Design, built by Abeking & Rasmussen, and won the “Best Exterior Design” and “Finest New Superyacht” awards at the Monaco Yacht Show .

He’s a straight-talking American whose smiling face and common sense one-liners are on nearly every billboard near where I live in downtown Boston. His name is Herb Chambers. And he’s on all those billboards because he owns (and is the face of) more than 1,000 car dealerships in New England that bear his name.

“Well, I’ve had six yachts,” he says when I ask about how he came to own one of the hottest superyachts in the world. “I built two in Holland and then I started building them in Germany at Abeking & Rassmussen.”

“Why so many?” I ask. 

“It’s fun to build a boat,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “As a matter of fact, from my standpoint, it’s probably more fun to build them than it is to use them.”

“You’re creating something. You’re watching something grow,” he continues. “I think people who develop real estate know what I’m talking about; watching a project grow.”

“I’m in the automobile business, so it’s not quite the same. But building a boat gives you an excuse to go to Europe every three or four months so you see the progress and what’s going on at the yard. And that, to me, is very exciting.”

“Then, you have the opportunity to make a lot of choices.”

When it comes to EXCELLENCE ’s design, “choices” may be a bit of an understatement. Chambers’ design brief called for his new yacht to be “extraordinary” and to create a seamless feeling of openness and connection to the outside world. He says, “I also wanted the boat to be what I’ll call a ‘happy boat’. There are many boats out there that are overdone. They become an exercise in excess. I didn’t want that.”

He just needed to meet the designer that could create what he wanted.

“So how did you decide to build such a radical new yacht?” I ask.

“We were at a boat show when I still owned my previous EXCELLENCE (a 198-footer also named EXCELLENCE and built by Abeking & Rasmussen), but I was thinking about building something new. Then I walked into the Abeking & Rasmussen stand. And they had a rendering on the wall. And he–” Chambers says, pointing at the man who just sat next to him at the bar on the lower deck of his award-winning new yacht where we are sitting, “had done the rendering.”

The “he” Chambers refers to is Andrew Winch, the founder of Winch Design and the head of the design team that designed every element of the yacht, from the striking exterior and complicated naval architecture to every detail in the interior.

“I was thinking about a boat with lots of glass. And then I stopped and said, ‘I like that boat,’” he explains, pointing at a rendering that was just a concept Abeking & Rasmussen and Winch Design were collaborating on. Soon Chambers was making changes and making his own additions to the design. And not too long after that, the boat was being built.

Winch describes the process with Chambers like this: “Herb trusted us to design and build something that was so new, it was way beyond the comfort zone of most people. He had the courage to do it.”

In fact, the team at Winch Design came up with a superstructure that’s so unique, it’s no wonder EXCELLENCE has been so well-received. The instantly identifiable reverse bow and the yacht’s profile built around huge areas of mirrored and curved floor-to-ceiling glass executed brilliantly by Abeking & Rassmussen may point to where the future of superyacht design and construction is headed.

What’s more? We can help you charter it for yourself! 

Latest News

NEWS | September 17, 2024

Blade partners with denison yachting to transport clients to and from the monaco yacht show.

BLADE Partners With Denison Yachting to Transport Clients to and from the Monaco Yacht Show Denison is pleased to announce its partnership with BLADE Urban Air Mobility, a global air mobility platform that provides air transportation, particularly as an alternative to common congested ground routes in major cities. During the upcoming Monaco Yacht Show, BLADE

NEWS | September 13, 2024

85′ jfa yachts 2018 sold by david johnson & jeremy roche [ndse].

85′ JFA Yachts 2018 Sold by David Johnson & Jeremy Roche [NDSE] NDSE, an 85′ JFA Yachts built in 2018, was sold in-house by David Johnson, who represented the Seller, and Jeremy Roche, who represented the Buyer. Equipped with a carbon mast and boom, NDSE features a sail plan tailored for high-performance

NEWS | September 12, 2024

Top charter destinations to experience on the adriatic coast.

Top Charter Destinations to Experience on the Adriatic Coast Get the inside scoop of what makes the Adriatic Coast such a special charter destination. Explore the Adriatic Coast aboard a premier charter yacht and immerse yourself in the unparalleled beauty and cultural richness of Europe’s most scenic coastline. Charter

This 263-Foot Superyacht Is The Ultimate Pleasure Craft

The ultra luxury vessel won “Best Exterior Design” and “Finest New Superyacht” awards at the Monaco Yacht Show.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Pinterest

Self-made billionaire Herb Chambers, known for the high-end car dealerships throughout New England that have made his name a household word, is one of the great American success stories. He’s also one of the world’s most renowned commissioners of luxury yachts , having just launched his sixth vessel christened Excellence , which has immediately taken its place on the list of the world’s most beautiful superyachts . 

Built by Abeking & Rasmussen, the legendary shipyard founded in 1907 on the banks of Germany’s Weser river, the 263-ft. craft is immediately recognizable thanks to its slightly intimidating reverse bow; but any hint of menace is offset by massive, multi-level windows that reflect the sea and the yacht’s surroundings, altering its appearance with every journey. Designed by the UK’s acclaimed Winch Design , it captured both the “Best Exterior Design” and “Finest New Superyacht” awards at the Monaco Yacht Show in 2019. 

“Her interior takes cues from Floridian East Coast Art Deco, near where the owner grew up, as well as from the details found in his impressive automotive collection,” Ignacio Oliva-Velez, Senior Partner, Yachts for Winch Design tells Maxim . “These automotive references are found throughout her interior…. Excellence has a modest volume but an incredibly generous feel, ergonomically designed with socializing in mind.” “It’s fun to build a boat,” as Chambers told Forbes . “As a matter of fact… it’s probably more fun to build them than it is to use them.” 

As one of the country’s savviest businessmen, Chambers is also apparently out to make it profitable as well; Excellence is being offered for charter by Burgess with rates starting at about $1.1 million per week. Although with an estimated fortune of $1.7 billion, which began with $500 borrowed from his mother to start his first company, a copier distributor, which he sold for $80 million in 1983, he surely doesn’t need the money. Having built his own fleet of superyachts must be especially satisfying however to the former Navy recruit. 

The new Excellence can accommodate 12 guests in seven cabins along with a crew of 20. The sophisticated style of Winch’s interiors, flooded with natural light thanks to a triple-height glass atrium, belies the yacht’s power; despite its size it is capable of a maximum speed 16.8 knots with a cruising speed of 13 knots. The owner’s suite, complete with a private deck with a Jacuzzi and sun loungers as well as a separate terrace, is especially impressive with floor-to-ceiling glass providing 180-degree views. 

There is a large swimming pool on the yacht’s main deck aft with a swim-up bar, while the sun deck features another Jacuzzi. 

A spa with a sauna, a gym and a tiered cinema are all in keeping with the billionaire lifestyle, as is a spacious beach club with a sea terrace and bathing steps on the swimming platform aft. And Excellence carries two custom limo tenders crafted by Hodgdon of Maine for excursions to shore, stored in a large water-level tender garage. 

“I wanted the boat to be what I’ll call a ‘happy boat,’” Chambers explained to Forbes . “There are many boats out there that are overdone. They become an exercise in excess. I didn’t want that.” For all its luxurious appointments and design flourishes, Excellence evokes elegance above all. And fully lives up to its name.  

Read This Next

‘Gone Home’ And ‘Stray’ Developer Annapurna Interactive Suffers Mass Resignation Following Failed Spin-Off Talks: “One Of The Hardest Decisions”

By Bounding Into Comics

Blizzard Entertainment Will Let Players Choose Between Horde or Alliance in Upcoming ‘Overwatch 2 x World Of Warcraft’ Collaboration

Morgan Wallen May Be Spending Time In Jail Over Felony Charges: Report

By TheMix.net

Behind The Wheel Of Aston Martin’s Fastest Vantage Ever

Bark-Worthy Bash! Italian Greyhound’s Birthday Party Is What Dog Dreams Are Made Of

By Rocky Kanaka

Enjoy Lunch Again with These “Adult Lunchables” Ideas

By Clean Plates

This Bell & Ross BR-03 Watch Is Inspired By The Power Of Flight

Despite Normally Offering Them For Free, Arrowhead Studios Locks New ‘Helldivers 2’ Stratagems Behind A Paywall

12 TV Shows We Love With Lead Characters We Don’t

By MovieMaker Magazine

Bauaelectric Auto News

Herb Chambers buys notorious Woman Would possibly superyacht

10 June 2023

Untouched England megadealer Herb Chambers is including to his superyacht assortment.

And his untouched acquisition has somewhat a backstory.

Chambers was once the successful bidder for the 152-foot Woman Would possibly from the chapter property of federally indicted Chinese language billionaire Guo Wengui, in line with a courtroom submitting this presen in Connecticut. He affirmative to pay $24 million for the vessel, which sleeps 10 population and includes a rotating front room.

Guo is scheduled to move on trial within the U.S. upcoming presen on fees that he defrauded traders of greater than $1 billion, and the Chinese language govt has accused him of fraud, threat and bribery. He has alike ties to Steve Bannon, who was once an assistant to former President Donald Trump.

Bannon was once arrested onboard the Woman Would possibly in 2020 on fraud fees, and a Untouched York federal pass judgement on fined Guo $134 million closing presen for making an attempt to cover the yacht from U.S. debt creditors. Herb Chambers Yachting was once considered one of 10 bidders for the Woman Would possibly. The trustee for Guo’s chapter case mentioned the deal “represents the highest and best bid obtained after an extensive marketing campaign” and that Chambers’ wealth created “no concerns” about his talent to alike the trade in this presen.

Chambers, who has purchased and bought dozens of yachts over his lifetime, is use $2.4 billion, in line with Forbes . Herb Chambers Cos. ranks twenty ninth on Automobile Information ‘ record of the lead 150 dealership teams within the U.S.

Taiwan-based XING Mobility, which is developing immersion cooling battery technologies, launched its latest modular cooling…

This week Charged is hosting a virtual conference on EV engineering that’s free to attend. The conference…

Lotus has unveiled a new EV concept which it calls “Theory 1,” a lightweight(-ish) electric…

bauaelectric global ev news

© 2024 bauaelectric

Lysanderhöhe (Am Trakt Mennonite Settlement, Samara Oblast, Russia)

Lysanderhöhe was a village of the Am Trakt Mennonite settlement in the province of Samara , Russia , founded in 1864, consisting in 1897 of 22 farms, with a population of 119. A part of the population joined the trek to Turkestan in 1891, while others immigrated to America. In 1914 the population was 146. Franz Bartsch , the author of Unser Auszug nach Mittelasien, was the teacher of the village school. After the Revolution of 1917 the cultural and economic level of the village began to decline. Some of the inhabitants went to Canada and others were exiled. Little is known about the fate of those who remained and the later status of the village.

Bibliography

Dyck, Johannes J. based on a text by W.E. Surukin. Am Trakt: A Mennonite Settlement in the Central Volga Region . Translated by Hermina Joldersma and Peter J.Dyck. Winnipeg: CMBC Publications, 1995.

Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon , 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. II, 709.

Surukin, W. E. und Johannes J. Dyck. Am Trakt, Eine Mennonitische Kolonie im Mittleren Wolgagebiet .North Kildonan, Man., 1948.

Cite This Article

Krahn, Cornelius. "Lysanderhöhe (Am Trakt Mennonite Settlement, Samara Oblast, Russia)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online . 1957. Web. 17 Sep 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lysanderh%C3%B6he_(Am_Trakt_Mennonite_Settlement,_Samara_Oblast,_Russia)&oldid=144294 .

Krahn, Cornelius. (1957). Lysanderhöhe (Am Trakt Mennonite Settlement, Samara Oblast, Russia). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online . Retrieved 17 September 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lysanderh%C3%B6he_(Am_Trakt_Mennonite_Settlement,_Samara_Oblast,_Russia)&oldid=144294 .

©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

Navigation menu