SHOWBOATS INTERNATIONAL 69

nothis is a tale of two refits: from Japanese fisheries training vessel Wakachiba (aBove) to entry-level explorer blue hunter (Below) to Dr. nO, a suBmersiBle support yacht designed to take tom perkins on an adventure.text by RogeR Lean-VeRcoe photography by FRancesca tRuteR and RogeR Lean-VeRcoe

DR.

Sitting on the aft deck of dr. no, owner Tom Perkins was

in reflective mood as the yacht lay at anchor off the blissful

island of Amédée on New Caledonia’s southeastern tip. He

recalled that during his long time in Silicon Valley, he had admin-

istered the research department of Hewlett-Packard, later becom-

ing a director of that company, while he also co-founded one of

the world’s most successful venture capital companies, Kleiner

Perkins Caufield & Byers. Despite such notable business success,

he feels it will be his build of Maltese Falcon for which he will

be remembered. He is likely right; Perkins had been intimately

involved with the design and development of the 289-foot, three-

masted, square rigged sailing yacht built by Perini Navi, which was

undoubtedly one of yachting’s most significant innovations in the

last 100 years. In particular, he, not the yacht builder, was totally

responsible for the revolutionary rig and its digital control systems

that made the yacht so outstanding. And in many ways, it was

this extraordinary vessel that led its owner onwards to Dr. No.

Following the completion of Maltese Falcon, Perkins cruised

and successfully raced his yacht widely, but he missed the mental

challenge that had been posed by its construction. He found another

though after meeting engineer and inventor Graham Hawkes. Visit-

ing the Monaco Yacht Show in 2006, Perkins came across a proto-

type two-man submersible that could dive to 1,000 feet and remain

positively buoyant. It literally “flew” underwater, a concept that

made existing submarines (that just go straight down and up with

only limited horizontal movement) appear rather dated. “How

could I resist?” he says. “This revolutionary craft, which had finger-

tip steering and a ten-knot underwater speed, was the DeepFlight

Super Falcon; and [as it was] being built near my hometown of

San Francisco, I visited the workshop and met Graham.”

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dr. no || 121' NARASAKI / HYS YACHTS REFIT

reorganization and HYS, seeking a vessel to convert for the local

market, decided to purchase her. Her name was changed to Blue

Hunter, and she began her conversion to what was described as

an “entry-level explorer yacht.”

This fi rst phase was enormous in its scope. But given the vessel’s

good condition, little had to be done in the engine room except

re-route the main engine exhaust. It originally rose to a single dry

stack located centrally, just aft of the bridge, but as this area was

to be the new main salon, the exhaust needed to be split into twin

stacks that would pass on either side. This allowed for the construc-

tion of a large and comfortable room with panoramic views

through windows to port and starboard, as well as through the

fully glazed, sliding doors that open to the aft deck. Stairs descend

from the salon’s forward part to what was formerly Wakachiba’s

offi cer, crew and cadet quarters, partly set on a mezzanine level.

HYS converted this space into a full-beam master suite with an

adjacent casual dining area, while positioning four further cabins

on the lower level—a VIP with double bed, a small double, a twin-

bunk cabin and a four-bunk cabin, the latter two sharing a bath-

room. Crew were to be accommodated aft in a four-bunk cabin

adjacent to a small crew mess and a completely new galley.

Because the choice of navigation gear is quite personal to a

captain, HYS sensibly decided to leave this area untouched until

the yacht had a new owner, and the bridge therefore became one

of the major work areas in the second phase of the refi t.

On deck, removing surplus masts, gear and antennas and restyl-

ing the foremast cleaned up the vessel’s profi le, while the salon

deck, aft cockpit and well deck were laid with teak. Forward, the

three former fi sh holds entered from the well deck were united

into a single diving store with just one entrance hatch. The fi nal

touch was to paint the vessel’s unfaired hull and superstructure

to expedition yacht standards.

Following this work, Blue Hunter was a very diff erent vessel to

the one that had left Japan two years previously. Her 4,000-nauti-

cal mile range and recognizably Oriental hull shape, together with

her particularly large spaces for toys, tenders and diving equip-

ment made her quite suitable for Pacifi c exploration. Best of all,

she was being off ered at a remarkably good price of $3.8 million.

Between Perkins’ visit to the completed Blue Hunter and the

start of work to convert her to Dr. No on February 26, 2011, he and

Truter assembled a 28-page refi t specifi cation. Bringing the vessel

closer to superyacht standards, the brief focused attention in fi ve

areas: accommodations modifi cations; engine room and mechan-

ical work; modifi cations to exterior areas; new instrumentation

for the bridge; and, last but not least, translating and re-labeling

all the vessel’s signs from Japanese to English. It was a very long

work list for a short space of time, but the price was right. Showing

his confi dence in the yard, Perkins invited guests for a fi rst cruise

in Palau on July 23, just fi ve months away. Risky? No way—Perkins

had made his money by assessing risks and making good deci-

sions, and he had faith in the team.

The captain remained at the yard to supervise the work, which

was soon underway in the sticky heat of the Filipino dry season.

As the work progressed other crew arrived and, with them, the

torrential rains of the tropical monsoon season. The major inte-

Originally rising through a centrally located dry stack, the main engine exhaust was split and re-routed aft of the new main salon in the transformation from fishing boat to yacht. Below, on a mezzanine level, the master was created out of the former crew quarters.

rior tasks related to the deckhead height in the master cabin—

sized for people of smaller stature than the new owner—and

rebuilding the whole crew area to improve privacy and comfort.

The master suite’s headroom grew by seven centimeters by taking

the fl oor back to steel and rebuilding it with thinner but equally

eff ective materials, while at the same time a larger bed was built

and installed, and, just outside the door, the casual dining area

The craft seen in Monaco was a successor to DeepFlight 1,

intended to reach the deepest part of the oceans but halted on the

untimely death of its sponsor, Steve Fossett. Subsequently, Hawkes

built the Super Falcon for himself and it wasn’t for sale, but Perkins

soon persuaded him to build a second craft , and this was eventu-

ally shipped to join Maltese Falcon.

Operating the submersible from the foredeck of Maltese Falcon

was not ideal but Perkins made it work. In time, it became clear

that it was the submersible, rather than the yacht, that grabbed

Perkins’ interest, so he resolved to sell Maltese Falcon and build a

custom vessel from which to operate it. But plans change. With the

Maltese Falcon sold and a support ship in design, a medical scare

persuaded Perkins that this route was too time consuming, so in

November 2010 he asked his Australian captain, Christian Truter,

to source an existing vessel that could handle the sub. Truter scoured

the world, visiting several seemingly suitable yachts without success

before hearing of a vessel in Subic Bay, Philippines. Stopping over

for 12 hours on a fl ight from Australia, Captain Truter was shown

Blue Hunter, the ex-Japanese Fisheries training ship Wakachiba

that had been converted into an explorer vessel by HYS Yachts.

She was robust and seaworthy and had a proper-sized well deck

forward that was already equipped with a 3.5-tonne hydraulic crane

eminently suitable for launching the sub. Although her side decks,

built-out from the hull in Japanese fashion, were strange to the

Western eye, Truter thought these would be benefi cial when launch-

ing the submarine. Perkins flew to the Philippines and was

impressed by the knowledge and commitment of HYS Yachts owner

Mark Prangnell and his partner Tony Ang, who assured him that

the yard had the capability to make the necessary and quite

substantial modifi cations by the end of June, just six months away.

Back in 2008, the 121-foot Wakachiba—just 13 years old and in

excellent state of repair—was put up for sale following a Fisheries

opposite pagethree former fish wells were converted into one large scuba center belowdecks,

reachable from the well deck, which proved to be an ideal base for launching the super falcon sub. folding out of the bulwark, an aluminum staircase was fabri-cated into the well deck’s starboard side for boarding the deployed submarine.

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lady trudy || 140' CRNdr. no || 121' NARASAKI / HYS YACHTS REFIT

was converted into an owner’s study and library. The crew area

and one of the storerooms in the stern was completely reworked

to create three separate en suite cabins—a captain’s double, an

engineer’s cabin and a twin bunk crew cabin—as well as a comfort-

able mess area equipped with European-standard entertainment

and Internet systems and a laundry room. In the guest area, the

four-bunk cabin was converted to a ship’s offi ce/video production

room with two emergency bunks.

The mechanical refi t served to raise standards towards those

of a yacht, and in this respect it seemed prudent to completely

rebuild the main engine, while an Alfa Laval fuel centrifuge was

installed to further guarantee reliability. The owner and his captain,

both enthusiastic divers and therefore ecologically aware, were

concerned about the vessel’s lack of sewage treatment, so the yard

installed a Headhunter chlorine-based treatment system and

replaced the black and gray water tanks. At the same time, the

air-conditioning system’s noisy compressors were changed, and

a new watermaker was installed to increase capacity. On the elec-

trical side, Blue Hunter still had the original Japanese 220V, 60Hz

system that was incompatible with the region’s marinas, so a

3-phase 480V, 50Hz frequency converter was fi tted, while an emer-

gency genset was also installed in the forward machinery space.

Modifi cations to the yacht’s exterior and her storage spaces

were also extensive. On the well deck, the existing crane was ideal

for launching the submersible, for which custom chocks were

fabricated, but the former fi sh holds just below the deck needed

some work. Custom racks were installed to carry specifi c scuba

gear, including a convenient air-bottle recharging system utiliz-

ing two compressors and a high-pressure air bank, while space

was found in the same area for a workshop capable of manufac-

turing spare parts, the emergency generator, a 14°C cool-room for

perishable food and two pairs of household (and therefore readily

replaceable) freezers and fridges. Conveniently close to the Super

Falcon, the fo’c’sle was customized to carry the submersible’s spares

and rebreather chemicals. Elsewhere, new stainless steel bitts and

winch capstans gave the aft cockpit a more “yachtie” feel. On the

top deck the main mast received some cosmetic additions; aft lies

the new home for the namesake of James Bond’s unrequited love,

Miss Moneypenny, a lovely 16-foot cat-rigged sailing boat built

for Perkins by Arey’s Pond Boat Yard in Massachusetts, and for

Dr. No’s new workhorse, a 16-foot NAIAD tender.

With the engine room’s new mechanical installations and the

bridge’s navigational upgrade fi nished in the nick of time, the refi t

project came in on time and budget, and, perhaps more impor-

tantly, it won the owner’s approval. This was an amazing achieve-

ment in such a short space of time, one that Perkins fully

acknowledges was due to the skill and dedication of HYS’s manage-

ment and workers and the eagle eye of Captain Truter.

Renamed and right on schedule, the glistening Dr. No left Subic

Bay on July 16, 2011. The Palau cruise was successful, as were the

expeditions that followed to Indonesia and New Caledonia. Next up

is a truly scientifi c expedition to Tonga, where Perkins hopes to

follow humpback whales as they dive to the ocean bed. No one has

yet achieved this, but in the cool hands of Tom Perkins, Dr. No and

her sub may well be the fi rst.

THE MAN WITH THE SILVER SUB adventurous superyacht owners are boosting the development of recreational submarines as they desire to explore the depths without the restrictions and physical limits imposed on scuba divers. wearing normal clothing and staying dry while experiencing the wonders of the ocean depths is certainly attractive to a wide range of people.

Basically speaking, the craft that can provide this facility fall into two generic types: the heavier-than-water “bathyscape-style up-and-downers,” which control depth by filling or emptying ballast tanks but offer limited horizontal movement; and the positively buoyant “flying submarines,” which rely on water flow over their hydroplanes (wings) to dive.

the deepflight super falcon, the fifth generation of subma-rines built by graham hawkes’ company hawkes ocean technolo-gies, is pioneering the latter type and allows two passengers to sit comfortably, one behind the other within its pressurized hull (built from advanced composites) with their heads positioned inside crystal-clear acrylic domes that allow 360-degree visibility. while typical dives are two to four hours, there is 24 hours of life support, with the oxygen-air supply system continuously being cleaned by a carbon dioxide scrub-ber. the super falcon is fully electric,

powered by lithium batteries and can be controlled from either seat by means of a joystick and throttle that steer it through the water like an aerobatic aircraft at up to six knots. safety—high on hawkes’ development agenda—is ensured by the fact that the craft simply floats to the surface in case of propulsion failure; even if the air supply should fail, the submarine’s hull contains a 20-minute supply, ample enough for the sub to rise from its 1,000-foot maximum operating depth, which is more than five times greater than normal scuba limits.

the super falcon offers truly balletic mastery of the submarine world in the same way as an aircraft (rather than a hot air balloon—the bathyscape equivalent) offers mastery of the skies.

specificationsBEAM (WINGS DEPLOYED/FOLDED):9' 10"/4' 7" (3m/1.4m)

HEIGHT: 5' 3" (1.6m)

LENGTH: 22' (6.7m)

CRUISE SPEED: 2-6 knots

MAX. DESCENT RATE: 200 feet/minute

MAX. ASCENT RATE: 400 feet/minute

MAX. OPERATING DEPTH: 1,000 feet

LAUNCH WEIGHT: 4,008 lbs.

PAYLOAD: 507 lbs. (two persons)

BUILDER: hawkes ocean technologies

www.deepfl ight.com

▲ GALLEY BEFORE

Located immediately outside of the master cabin, what was a small casual breakfast nook on Blue Hunter was converted into a library and small study for Dr. No’s owner.

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74 SHOWBOATS INTERNATIONAL

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LOA: 121' 5" (37m)

LWL: 109' 11" (33.5m)

BEAM: 25' 10" (7.9m)

DRAFT: 9' 10" (3m)

DISPLACEMENT: 338 tonnes

GROSS REGISTERED TONNAGE: 223 grt

POWER: 1 x 1,200-hp yanmar

SPEED (MAX/CRUISE): 13.4/12 knots

RANGE: 4,500 nm @ 10 knots

FUEL CAPACITY: 11,624 u.s. gallons

GENERATORS: power city

AIR CONDITIONING: cruiseair

FRESHWATER CAPACITY: 3,963 u.s. gallons

PAINT: awlgrip

OWNERS AND GUESTS/CREW: 10/5

CONSTRUCTION: steel, aluminum

ORIGINAL BUILDER/YEAR: narasaki shipbuilding/1995

REFIT NAVAL ARCHITECTURE/ENGINEERING/EXTERIOR STYLING: simon Jupe, hys yachts

REFIT INTERIOR DESIGN: hys yachts

OWNER’S REFIT PROJECT MANAGER: mark prangnell, hys yachts

Speci� cations: REFIT YARD: HYS Yachts

Subic Bay, Philippines

Tel: +63 (0) 47 252 7631

Email: info@hys-yachts.com

www.hys-yachts.com

dr. no || 121' NARASAKI / HYS YACHTS REFIT

7777

EXTRA HEADROOM: Four additional inches of headroom were found in the master cabin to accommodate Perkins’ height.

FISH WELLS: The old fi sh wells were reconfi gured to house scuba gear, compressors and a workshop for manufacturing spare parts.

CREW CABINS: Three en suite cabins were created for crew, a double for the captain, a single for the engineer and a twin bunk.

VIDEO EDITING: One of Blue Hunter’s guest cabins was converted into a ship’s offi ce and video production room with spare bunks.

ENTERTAINING: A minibar and wine storage was incorporated into the starboard side of the main deck opposite the dining table.

SIDE DECKS: The Japanese-style side decks, although unusual to the Western eye, are perfect for deployment of the submersible.

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