This classically elegant yacht, Nahlin, has an enviable pedigree, having been designed by the revered naval architect G L Watson for the British aristocrat Lady Yule. While owned by Lady Yule she was loaned to Britain’s King Edward VIII for a cruise with his American lover and future wife Wallis Simpson, a trip that surely played a part in Edward’s decision to marry Simpson and set himself on the path to abdication.
She later became the Royal Yacht of King Carol II of Romania, who named her Luceafarul. After the overthrow of the monarchy, the yacht, now renamed Libertatea, served as a floating restaurant and fell into almost terminal disrepair.
Happily, she was found and recovered to England by Nicholas Edmiston and William Collier in 2000. She lay in a Liverpool shipyard for four years but has now been sold to a British owner, and her total restoration, under the management of G L Watson, was completed at the Blohm+Voss yard in Rendsburg, Germany, in July 2010. This included the replacement of almost 70 per cent of her riveted shell plating and the provision of a totally new modern-classic interior designed by Rémi Tessier.
Builder: John Brown & Co (1930) / Blohm+Voss (2009)
Naval architecture: GL Watson & Co
Interior design: Rémi Tessier (rebuild)
Former names:Libertatea, Luceafarul
