There’s nothing like starting at the top. While some come to superyacht ownership in gradual steps up the size range, the stunning 49.5-metre schooner Eleonora is Zbynek Zak’s first yacht. And it started – as a purchase often does – with a charter. “I wanted to charter a classic with my wife, having retired from the business we were involved with at that time. We both like classic things, but this was our first large-yacht charter, so it had to be special,” he says. They were introduced to then-owner Ed Kastelein, who’d built Eleonora in 2000. “We signed up for a charter and few days later, Ed contacted me to say that the boat was available to buy,” says Zbynek.
It wasn’t quite job done – there was careful negotiation and due diligence, “and securing the experienced Ed as skipper for a six-month transition period”, says Zbynek. With Ed guiding them along the learning curve, they got to understand their new purchase, and it was proving a perfect match between yacht and owners. “In a world where everything is touchscreen and hi-tech with carbon-fibre spars, we wanted to experience sailing in the way it was done 100 years ago. The feel of real wood, holding the lines and sheets securing huge sails, and a classic-looking interior are hugely important,” says Zbynek.
He sees his role as custodian as much as owner: the yacht is a faithful replica of the famous schooner Westward, launched at the Herreshoff yard in the US in 1910. “The great history was one of the key considerations when we purchased Eleonora,” Zbynek says. One of the best-performing racing schooners in the world, Westward saw off the likes of Britannia, Lulworth and Meteor II in racing events. The modern yacht, steel hulled and wooden masted like the original, was built at the Van der Graaf shipyard in Holland. “The interior is made using old-fashioned carpentry skills, and wood, lots of wood!” he says.
But as a custodian he is not an owner who treats his yacht as a museum piece – she has covered a lot of sea miles. “We have taken Eleonora all over the Western Mediterranean, to Scotland, Ireland, southern England and to the Caribbean on a couple of occasions,” he says. “In 2008 we spent the summer on the east coast of America, starting in Florida and spending a month sailing off Newport, RI. We came into New York harbour under full sail, sailing downwind towards the Statue of Liberty, where the US Coast Guard informed us we were too close to the historic landmark, but they also wanted to board us out of curiosity and interest!”