196-Foot Floating ‘Landmark’ for Sale
It is hard to imagine Sag Harbor without the Intuition II, a 196-foot-long yacht. Owned by Patrick E. Malloy for 18 years and tied up at the dock at his marina south of Long Wharf, it has been up for sale for a year, and, with a recent price drop, may not be back next summer.
“When they’re coming into the harbor,” Robert Bori, the village harbormaster, said of boaters, “it’s one of the first things they see. It’s almost like a landmark.”
“It’s such a fixture in Sag Harbor,” said Bruce Tait, a yacht broker whose office is in one of Mr. Malloy’s buildings near the marina. “It bookends the season,” he said. The yacht remains in the village until after Thanksgiving, when it usually heads south. “It signals the start of the season and signals the complete end of the season.”
Listed with Pam Barlow of Luke Brown Yachts, it is on the market for $4.95 million, down from its original list price of $7.5 million a year ago. “Having owned and loved Intuition II for over 18 years, her owner has reluctantly decided that it is time to let her go,” the listing says. “She has many more years of good life and longer trips in her.”
Mr. Malloy did not return a call, and Ms. Barlow declined to comment.
“She’s a handsome boat,” Mr. Tait said, with a spectacular interior refit in Southampton, England. The yacht has seven staterooms, two saloons, and two dining rooms. While the size of super- yachts has grown considerably in the last decades — some are in excess of 400 to 500 feet — Intuition was long one of the biggest. “Back in the day, when Intuition came into Sag Harbor, it was probably one of the largest U.S.-owned megayachts,” said Mr. Tait.
Intuition was not always a yacht. It was converted from a commercial ship, one of three pilot cutters built in the early 1970s for the Netherlands Pilotage Authority, one of Holland’s premier shipyards, according to the listing. Pilot cutters are designed to wait in the sea to take ships into port. The yacht, built “to withstand the rigors, year round, of the North Sea,” has an all-welded steel hull heavily framed with thick plating, and nine watertight bulkheads.
An “expedition” yacht, it is meant to go longer distances at slower speeds. The Intuition has traveled 7,000 miles, including trips from New York to Newfoundland, to Florida, to Mexico, and to the Mediterranean at its cruising speed of 10 knots.
When Mr. Malloy bought Intuition II, he formed a small company to handle the conversion. Vosper Thornycroft, known for its expertise in building naval vessels, handled the metalwork. More than 60 workers stripped out the original wiring, electronics, insulation, heating, air-conditioning, and plumbing. Southampton Yacht Services redesigned the interior, and Nicholson Interiors, a high-end company that has fitted out two yachts for the British royal family, took on the finishing work.
“The end result,” the broker’s listing said, “is a tribute to the owners, project managers, yards, and all of the subcontractors involved in transforming this rugged North Sea pilot boat into a ‘go anywhere’ globe trotter with all of the comforts, amenities, and appeal of a stunning luxury yacht.”
Even though, Mr. Tait said, “It takes a particular type of person that wants this yacht.”
The yacht sleeps up to 15 in 10 cabins, and requires a 12-person crew. Many are able to have their own cabins — a luxury, the listing said, found on very few yachts.
The yacht has many decks, and the top deck can store water toys and small boats, though it is not structurally sound enough for a helicopter. The listing said it “could possibly be beefed up to carry a lightweight helicopter, or to be used as a ‘touch and go’ helipad.”
Excluded from the sale are Mr. Malloy’s art and photography, personal china (which is monogrammed), and Waterford crystal glasses.
Mr. Tait said there was no rule of thumb for how long it should take for a yacht to sell, as opposed to real estate. But with the price drop last month, he remarked, Mr. Malloy is “getting serious about selling the boat.”