Sep

10

The Post And Courier

More from Bonita Springs

Mega-yacht stops in Charleston during maiden voyage
Floating fine art fair to return to Holy City next year

Expoships
The world’s first luxury megayacht, the SeaFair’s 228-foot Grand Luxe, stopped in Charleston over the weekend during its maiden voyage. The ship will return to Charleston Harbor next year for a charity benefit for the Gibbes Museum of Art.

The nation’s fourth largest yacht made a brief stop at the Charleston City Marina this weekend, but don’t worry — SeaFair’s 228-foot Grand Luxe will return in April in hopes of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for a local museum.
The luxurious mega-yacht is a floating fine art fair that is making its maiden voyage from Miami to Greenwich, Ct. Once in Connecticut, the yacht will fill 28 galleries with fine art from around the world.

The five-level ship also has a champagne and caviar lounge, a gourmet restaurant, a sky-deck bistro and a coffee bar.
It stopped in Charleston Saturday and Sunday for fueling. It will return April 16 with an opening-night charity gala to benefit the Gibbes Museum of Art.

Kenton Morrison, the Gibbes’ development director, was one of a handful of people who got to board the ship Sunday.
“It’s amazing,” Morrison said. “It has museum-quality security systems. Gallery lighting and 28 galleries. I knew that before boarding the ship but seeing that is pretty impressive.”

David and Lee Ann Lester developed the idea for the massive yacht while spending years working in the art fair industry. They sold their company, International Fine Art Expositions, for $18 million in 2001 and put their resources toward building the $60 million yacht.

Lester said it’s not a novel idea. He compared it to the Mark Twain River Boat that brought its wares to the small towns along the Mississippi.

“It’s the 21st Century version,” Lester said. “That’s exactly what we’re doing, but with a yacht.”

It will make an annual 44-week tour of the East Coast, allowing art dealers to show their exhibits at 36 smaller yachting ports, such as Charleston, Greenwich and Martha’s Vinyard.

The yacht will be dockside at each stop for five days. Other than the opening gala, the events are invitation-only.
“We hope to raise several hundred thousand dollars for the Gibbes Museum,” David Lester said.

The yacht’s inauguration will be Sept. 25 through the 30th at Greenwich.

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