herb chambers yacht name

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On board 80m Excellence with American businessman Herb Chambers

Get to know the owner of 80 metre Abeking & Rasmussen superyacht Excellence, in this exclusive interview with American businessman Herb Chambers...

Super Bowl 2020 was a special weekend in Miami. Beneath the glass towers glittering in the sun was an equally glittering line-up of the biggest and best superyachts launched in 2019. There was the 93-metre Feadship Lady S , Oceanco’s 109-metre Bravo Eugenia and 90-metre DreAMBoat , while Germany was represented in the shape of Lürssen’s 95-metre Madsummer . However there was one notable exception to this stellar procession – easily the most eye-catching superyacht launched last year: 80-metre Excellence .

“I am not into sports,” explains Herb Chambers, her owner, as we chat in his office near Boston a few days before the big hoopla in Miami. What he loves are cars, boats and, many years after making it big in the business world, work. “It’s something I enjoy,” he says. “People ask, ‘Why do you work so much?’ and I reply, ‘I really don’t work, I do what I love to do’.”

That’s why we meet in a cloudy Boston in January rather than, say, St Barths, one of his favourite Caribbean destinations. Chambers, who has established one of the largest car dealership franchises in the US, keeps a regular work schedule. He doesn’t sell cars – never has – but he likes to stay involved with the day-to-day management of the company.

The Herb Chambers Companies owns about 60 dealerships employing around 2,500 people within a 160-kilometre radius of Boston and represents practically every brand. The local newspaper says his company sells more cars than any other in New England.

Chambers’ office is on the second floor of a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Somerville, a neighbourhood of Boston. The top floor is a helipad, which allows him to shave hours off the commute from his weekend residence in Connecticut. Near the reception desk is a large framed picture of his new Excellence with the signature of the craftsmen involved in her construction at Abeking & Rasmussen ; a stack of magazines is on the table, including the December issue of BOAT International with Excellence on the cover, and the latest Boston magazine, which belongs to a friend. Awards that his company has won, including one for being one of the area’s top employers, catch the light from a spotlight shining on a nearby cabinet.

Downstairs, aside from the squeaky-clean showroom filled with the latest Mercedes cars, is the service centre. The polished floor has hardly a tyre mark and the space smells like freshly brewed coffee. Good service is at the heart of what his company does. “We don’t want to sell people anything,” he says. “We want to help them buy things that they want and hopefully they will love us for that.”

He got into the car business in 1985, buying an Oldsmobile-Cadillac dealership where he had received poor service. He knew he could do better and so he did.

But his first fortune wasn’t made in cars – it was in photocopiers. In the early 1960s, Chambers was fresh out of the US Navy, where he had been an aviation electrician, and looking for a job when he saw an ad in The Boston Globe seeking a photocopier repairman. Fixing things sounded like something he might want to do, although he wasn’t quite sure what the job entailed. “No one knew what photocopying was back then. I thought a copy machine was something to copy photos,” he says with a laugh.

He talked himself into the job – a gift he had picked up in his youth. “I grew up in a very blue-collar neighbourhood. My father was a commercial artist and we lived with my grandmother, so we never had a lot of money,” he says. “I always had a job from the time I was 13 years old.” One of his first was at a Stop & Shop supermarket where he was hired after lying about his age. He liked working much more than school. “The only thing I enjoyed about school was mathematics,” he says.

During his stint as a copier repairman, he learned pretty quickly that people selling copiers were making much more money, and he parlayed himself into a sales job. “I was a pretty good salesman; I am a pretty good salesman today,” he says with a smile, “but only because I heard the word ‘no’ so many times in my life.” He was also at a disadvantage because he was shy. “I was afraid to talk to people,” he says, “[but] I knew I could work harder than most salespeople and I outworked them.”

Around the time the kid from Dorchester, Boston, started his first company, at the age of 22, he enrolled in a 12-week training course at Dale Carnegie to overcome his shyness. “It was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

The photocopier business was changing, and he saw the opportunity. “Copy machines were just becoming popular and I was in the right place, certainly at the right time, and I built the company to be the largest photocopier distributor in America.”

After a few years he was finally in a position to indulge his long fascination with cars and boats, which he had loved from an early age. He remembers going to a boat show in Boston with his father in the early 1950s, when he was 10 or 11 years old, and becoming enthralled with a futuristic- looking motorboat built by the Outboard Marine Corporation. “Why don’t we buy one of these?” he asked his father, who gave a response typical of parents seeking to appease a child: “We’ll look at it next year.” Meanwhile, when he fell for a curvaceous Cadillac convertible he’d seen for sale down the street and asked why they did not replace their old Buick with it, he got the same answer from his mother. “Then I got a job at 13 years old, and I realised what money was,” he says, but the experience didn’t dim his desire to own these beautiful, shiny machines.

Summer times, which he spent at his grandmother’s cottage south of Boston, gave him a chance to get on the water. He had a friend with a small motorboat and they went exploring in it. A few years after founding his company A-Copy America, he bought his first boat, a used nine-metre flybridge motor yacht built by Trojan. “I paid $10,000 [$7,720] for it; I remember it very clearly,” he says. “It was all the money I had.

“My company continued to do well, so I got a bigger boat, and a bigger boat, and a bigger boat, and in between all those boats, I probably owned a half dozen Cigarette boats, two or three Magnums and a Formula boat. I’ve always had this passion for boats. I love them,” says

Chambers, whose current fleet comprises his 80-metre Abeking & Rasmussen Excellence , a Mangusta 94 and a 47-metre Feadship (formerly known as Detroit Eagle and Sea Racer ). He remembers the progression from the Trojan to a 12-metre Chris-Craft, a 14-metre Concorde and then a 16-metre Hatteras.

His first experience with a superyacht was on board an acquaintance’s Feadship docked near his boat in Connecticut. “I was in awe of that boat,” he says. When the owner, a car salesman and former politician, invited him on board he remembers being intimidated. “I was so nervous, I did not know where to sit, I did not want to touch anything and he said to me, ‘One day you will have one of these,’ and I said, ‘I know I will never have one of these’.”

His first big yacht, built in 1979, was a 25-metre custom-built Broward with a modern interior and two turbocharged GM diesel engines. He named it A-Copy , after his company. “To me, at the time, it was like a baby Feadship,” he says. “It was a great boat. I chartered it and it was pretty popular.” Then came the windfall from the sale of his business in 1983, and just three years later his friend’s prediction came true as Chambers took delivery of his first Feadship, a 40 metre, the first Excellence .

The name of the yacht was inspired by a bestselling book by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman that he was reading at the time, In Search of Excellence . He made the boat available for charter, as he has all the following ones – Excellence II (another Feadship), Excellence III (his first Abeking) and V (he built but never owned Excellence IV , as it was bought mid-construction by another owner who liked it). The newest Excellence (“I stopped numbering the boats because it was getting kind of silly”) is on the charter market as well.

The name Excellence comes with certain responsibilities, he admits. “We tell people when they come to work on her, ‘She is not called Average.’ Just the name of the boat puts a lot of pressure on you. The boat needs to be excellent all the time.”

He buys and builds boats for pleasure, and he keeps an eye on the market by reading all the boat magazines, but it is also a business. “Chartering is important to me because the boats are so expensive to run and everything in my world has a price/ value relationship. I really like the value of having the yacht, but I don’t like what it costs to do it, and by chartering, I can reduce that price. Could I have the boat, use it and not charter it? Yes I could, but to me the value would not be there,” he says.

The new Excellence , designed inside and out by Winch Design, is a big departure from all of his previous yachts and is in no way average. The yacht’s topsides are almost entirely glass and its elongated hull ends in a thin reverse bow. He loved his previous boat, the 60-metre Abeking Excellence V , which had more classic lines, but he had warmed to the idea of a different approach when he saw a concept by the award-winning British designer. “I kept thinking about how I could have bigger windows, more glass. And when I saw Andrew Winch’s rendering, I thought that could be the answer, but with some modification to it.” He also wanted a yacht that would not look like any other, and on a recent visit to St Barths he was pleased to spot Excellence from a significant distance.

He is happy with the response he’s received so far and the yacht, which is under the command of Captain Ray Shore (Chambers’ captain for more than 30 years), has already chartered well. He knows why. “There is no greater luxury than being on a yacht where you get personalised service and you don’t have to wait for anything,” he says. “When you have a yacht with a crew, you can pretty much have whatever it is you want 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

They say the harder you work, the luckier you get and this is true of Chambers. He looks back on his success with the humility of a man who has had to earn every cent. “I’m basically just a hard- working guy who has been very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.”

This feature is taken from the April 2020 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.

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Boat of the Week: This Speedy 153-Foot Superyacht Has Its Own Turbo Boost

Push a button and the turbine kicks in, which is yachting's equivalent of light speed., julia zaltzman, julia zaltzman's most recent stories.

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What do you get if you have two friends with a passion for boats, high-profile automotive careers and cash to burn? The answer is the 153-foot superyacht Excellence , a vessel that oozes speed, has brand pedigree and captures the hearts of all who own it.

Built in 2001 by Formula One racing car driver and automobile entrepreneur Roger Penske, who named her  Detroit Eagle , the yacht combined Feadship ’s Dutch craftsmanship with Penske’s own brand of engine. (Disclosure: Roger Penske is the father of Jay Penske, who owns this publication, as well as its sister publications in the Penske Media portfolio.)

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“At the time [Roger] Penske owned a company called Detroit Diesel that made diesel engines for boats, and he was also involved with a company that built turbine engines,” current owner and Penske’s longtime friend, Herb Chambers, told Robb Report . “So, he went to Feadship and built a lightweight aluminum yacht with a shallow draft to demonstrate the capability of his engines.”

The Feadship was originally built and owned for years by Roger Penske, who wanted a very fast, very luxurious superyacht. Penske installed his own Detroit Diesel-branded engines and then added a 5,600-hp turbine to give the yacht a 10-knot pop at the top end.  Courtesy of Burgess Yachts

The immaculate, polished-chrome engine room, with the diesels painted in fire-engine red, has always been a symbolic indicator of the type of impressive speeds the yacht can reach. The engines are 16-cylinder 4000 series, which generate 3,650 horsepower each. Penske then added something the superyacht world had never seen before–a Lycoming TF-50 gas turbine for an additional 5,600 horsepower.

“The boat can cruise at about 23 knots on diesel engines,” Chambers says, “but if you really want it to go fast, you push a button and the turbine kicks in taking the boat from 23 knots up to around 33 knots. It really is a remarkable vessel.”

Serial boat builder Chambers grew up in the Boston area, spending long summers on the water at his grandmother’s cottage. “I always had the desire to have a boat,” he says, a goal he realized at 24 with a 30-foot Trojan flybridge motoryacht. The Trojan would be the first of five yachts called A-Copy , named after his successful copy-machine business.

“After I sold the copy company and had this windfall of money, I ordered a 127-foot Feadship. The name A-Copy wasn’t of any significance to me anymore so I tried to think of a name that I would like,” Chambers says. “I’m not an avid reader, but I read Tom Peters’s book In Search of Excellence and loved it. It’s about running a good business. I thought Excellence , that is a great name for a boat.”

Launched last summer, Chambers’s newest 262-foot Abeking & Rasmussen “Excellence” has a futuristic hull shape, with an eagle-beak bow and large glass panels on the exterior.  Courtesy Abeking & Rasmussen

To date, Chambers has owned more than 40 yachts of many sizes. Some were even sold before he took delivery. The name “Excellence” serves as a constant reminder to his 30-year-long captain for the need to maintain high standards on board, he says. It has also carried through to Chamber’s six most recent yachts. This includes his largest yacht to date, a striking 262-foot Abeking & Rasmussen launched in 2019, on which he enjoys cruising the European waters of Croatia, Greece, Italy and St Tropez. That Excellence won Robb Report ’s 2020 Best of the Best award for interiors.

With its “eagle” reverse bow and triple-height glass atrium, the Winch-designed yacht turns heads wherever it goes. But that’s hardly surprising considering Philip Starck’s opinion-dividing Motor Yacht A was the design inspiration this latest Excellence .

“When I first saw Motor Yacht A , I said, ‘That looks like a submarine. Who would ever want to have a boat like that?’ And the second time I saw it, I said, ‘That boat is pretty nice. I kinda like that bow.’ And the third time I saw it, I thought, ‘I absolutely love that.’ So, that’s where the idea for Excellence ’s bow came from.”

While he has recently listed the Feadship “Excellence,” Chambers plans to enjoy the yacht for while he still owns her. He has often owned two yachts—the newer one that is often under charter, and a smaller, faster one that is at his disposal for his “personal use.” 

While Chambers’s appreciation of Feadship has long endured after his first foray with the Dutch shipbuilder, it wasn’t until a 2018 visit to Fort Lauderdale Boat Show that Penske’s 153-foot yacht caught Chamber’s eye. Prized by Chambers for its flexible speed and six-foot Bahamas-friendly draft, it is one of the few yachts that he hasn’t put on the charter market.

“I view the Feadship as a very personal boat,” says Chambers. “It’s only a four-stateroom boat, but you can bring three other couples or family members with you. When I told Roger Penske that I had bought the boat, he said his family was mad at him when he sold it because they loved it so much.”

An extensive 2019 refit of the yacht includes a full paint job, an updated sound system and refurb of the original John Munford interior. Chambers bought the yacht for his own personal use. “Because my boats get chartered, I always love to have a boat that’s available just for me,” Chambers says. “I built a 94-foot Mangusta for that purpose and used it in America when my big yacht was on charter in the Mediterranean or Caribbean. The Feadship can do pretty much what the Mangusta did, but it’s a bigger, more comfortable boat, so I sold the Mangusta at the start of 2020.”

The 2001 build has undergone a complete refurbishment of the interior. 

Being a serial owner, Chambers also recently listed the updated Feadship. He plans to enjoy the yacht while she is still available. Will he miss this Excellence ?

“I really don’t know,” Chambers says, pausing. “I would maybe look to build a similar boat, around 150 feet, something that would be fast. But the Abeking & Rasmussen Excellence is still new to me. The time for me to sell a boat is when I still like it.”

That creates a great opportunity for a buyer who wants a piece of superyacht history–a very fast superyacht history.

Excellence is co-listed for sale with Burgess  and Merle Wood & Associates for $16,900,000. Here are more views.

Images Courtesy of Burgess Yachts

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Herb Chambers Yacht: Everything You Want To Know

Herb Chambers is an American businessman and a billionaire known for his massive New England and East coast auto dealership empire, the Herb Chambers Companies. His net worth is believed to be somewhere close to $2 billion and, as a man who clearly likes fancy cars and other luxurious things, he spared no expense when it came to buying his own personal yacht back in 2019. The vessel was built by yacht makers Abeking Rasmussen and designed by Winch Design. It quickly became a famous, award winning new yacht thanks to its complicated naval architecture and sleek superyacht design.

What is Herb Chambers Yacht Called?

Chambers chose to call his yacht Excellence which, all things being equal, is certainly an appropriate name for this luxury vessel. Captain Ray Shore, who has been Chambers’ yacht captain for 30 years, is the man behind the wheel. We’ll get into some of what we know about its impressive features and amenities soon that really show off why it deserves the title. 

How Much Did Herb Chambers’ Yacht Cost?

Excellence is rumored to have set Herb Chambers back a whopping $120 million. No wonder Excellence is in the name. That’s not close to the most expensive yacht in the world, but it does put the yacht in the top 30 most expensive in the world. On top of the base cost that Chambers spent to take this vessel home there’s also the annual running cost. Most of us don’t consider this when we think about yacht expenses but the cost of running a superyacht can be absolutely staggering. It’s estimated that, when you account for fuel as well as operating costs like paying the crew, food and other necessities on board, Chambers is spending between $5 million and $12 million per year. 

What Does it Cost To Charter Excellent?

Chambers has made Excellence available for charter and, in fact, he has had several previous yachts also called Excellence. Some of these yachts, of which there have been six, can be chartered as well though most of them have since been renamed. As you might expect, the vessel does not come cheap by any means. If you’re interested, a week will cost $1,150,000, which is one of the most expensive charters you’re likely to find anywhere.

Chambers has gone on record saying having the boat available for charter is important to him because it just costs too much to keep it running. He likes owning it but he doesn’t like paying for it and, really, you can’t fault him for his reasoning. He says, for him, that’s where he finds value in it. It’s worth something to own if he can have it chartered out and make the cost of running it back, which is good business. 

How Big is Herb Chambers Yacht Excellence?

Excellence definitely falls under the realm of superyachts. It clocks in at a very impressive 80 meters which works out to about 263 feet in length. That means it’s quite a bit larger than your average yacht, though still a good deal smaller than the mega yachts owned by the likes of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

The largest yachts in the world are, in some cases, twice as big as Chambers’ yacht so it’s by no means the biggest out there. Still, for an individual yacht, this 263-foot monster with a 47.4 foot draft and a gross tonnage of 2,115 tons is by no means small.

The yacht is designed to accommodate up to 14 passengers (though some sources claim 12, despite their being seven cabins) as well as 20 crew (but, again, some sources say 22, though there seem to be just 10 crew cabins).

What is the Cruising Speed of Herb Chambers Yacht?

Despite its size, the Excellence still has a pretty standard cruising speed of around 14 knots. It’s powered by a pair of twin 2,029hp MTU (12V 4000 M65R) diesel engines that can get it up to a top speed of 17 knots. Based on that, Excellence has a range of up to 6,300 nautical miles thanks to her 150,000 liter fuel tanks at cruising speed.

What’s the Interior of Herb Chambers Excellence Yacht Like?

One of the most unique and easily recognizable features of Excellence is the bow. Unlike your average vessel, Excellence is sporting a reverse bow and elongated hull which gives the boat the visual appearance of being upside down in the water, at least at the front. Beyond that, there’s also an extremely hard to miss triple-height glass atrium in the center of the yacht. As you can imagine, this enormous glass centerpiece allows the interior to be flooded with natural light while also allowing for amazing views of the outside from all over the vessel.

Throughout the vessel you’ll find much more glass as well as ample marble and Italian leather. There’s also wood accents of sycamore, burr, limed oak, blue ombre and birdseye maple to give it natural and opulent touches.

The top deck of the yacht is actually the private owner’s suite so it features not just the master bedroom suite but a number of other private amenities. To the aft is a sun deck lounging area only accessible to the owner and invited guests. Head forward and you’ll find your private terrace There’s also access to a private deck jacuzzi as well to ensure that, if you want, you can spend your time in luxury fully away from all the other guests.

The entire, luxury master suite also features floor to ceiling mirrored glass. That allows those inside to have a beautiful 180-degree view of the ocean and surroundings while also being obscured from anyone else looking in. In terms of size, at one point this mirror glass wall rises to a height of 6 whole meters or about 18 feet. 

Above the owner’s deck you’ll find a large sun lounging area with another jacuzzi. However, if you want to make the most of your time relaxing in the water then head to the main deck where there’s an entire swimming pool which also features a swim up bar. 

For most guests, the main deck is where they are spending most of their time. There are 6 double guest cabins located there plus a lot more. A lounge and dining area can manage the full complement of guests plus extras who may be hanging out for a party. In addition there is a fully appointed gym as well as a spa and sauna for use.

Elsewhere on the main deck, guests can enjoy a movie in the cinema space. If it’s a nice day and guests want to head out for fun on the water then heading down below deck is where you want to be.

A large beach club space has a terrace so you can really get out to lounge or enjoy the water. The garage is packed with more toys than you’d think possible. Check out this list of what’s available on board.

• One 9.8m/32’2″ Hogdon limousine tender, for when you want to head ashore in style
• Two standard tenders
• An Angeboat RS 200 two-person sailing dinghy
• A trampoline
• An inflatable platform
• An aquapark
• A pair of sea kayaks
• A pair of sea bobs
• A pair of Yamaha VX cruiser waverunners
• A training center that can actually teach you how to ride waverunners
• Four stand up paddle boards
• Inflatable, towable toys
• Gear for both snorkeling and scuba diving

The Bottom Line

Billionaire Herb Chambers owns the yacht known as Excellence, which is actually one of six yachts he’s owned that all bore the same name. The vessel is believed to have cost him $120 million in 2019 and has an annual running cost of between $5 million and $12 million. To offset those costs, Chambers charters the yacht which costs over $1 million per week for those interested.

One of the most distinguishing and recognizable features of the superyacht Excellence is the reverse bow. The superyacht owner wanted this so it would be clearly different from his previous boat. It also has some of the largest windows you’ll ever see on a yacht, reaching nearly 20 feet in some places.  

Excellence has room for about 20 crew and 14 guests, though these numbers seem to vary. It features a swimming pool, two Jacuzzis and a number of toys.

My grandfather first took me fishing when I was too young to actually hold up a rod on my own. As an avid camper, hiker, and nature enthusiast I'm always looking for a new adventure.

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First Mega Yacht Of The Season Arrives: Herb Chambers' "Excellence"

Jason Graziadei • Jun 07, 2022

The first mega yacht of the season arrived in Nantucket Harbor on Monday and it was a jaw-dropper. Herb Chambers' 263-foot "Excellence" is currently tied up at Straight Wharf. Chambers, the billionaire businessman who owns 60 car dealerships in Greater Boston, commissioned the yacht, which was completed in Germany in 2019 by Abeking & Rasmusse.

"Excellence" rents for approximately $1.16 million per week during the season. It has a crew of 22 people, and accommodates 12 guests in seven cabins. The yacht cruises at 14 knots, reaches a maximum speed of 17 knots with a range of up to 6,300 nautical miles from its 150,000 litre fuel tanks. A source tells the Current that Chambers is on the island for a relative's wedding.

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Excellence (2019). Photo: Abeking & Rasmussen

The pursuit of Excellence

For Boston-based businessman Herb Chambers, building a superyacht is just as enjoyable as enjoying the finished product.

“My exposure to boating began with summers spent at my grandmother’s cottage, just south of Boston,” says serial yacht builder Herb Chambers. “I had friends who owned small boats, and I always had the desire to own one too.” Fast forward to today, and Herb has owned in excess of 40 yachts, often selling them as quickly as he can buy or build them.

For Herb, the enjoyment of yacht ownership comes from being on the water – “it’s somewhat magical,” he enthuses – but his appreciation for the design and the build process itself is integral to the experience.

Herb Chambers on board his superyacht

Herb regards yacht design as an art form. Scouring marinas wherever he goes for inspiration, his self-proclaimed fascination for boats is bolstered by the sheer diversity of yachts on the market. “I could look at boats all day long, because they’re all different,” he says. “Even when I took delivery of my latest yacht, I walked the marina during the 2019 Monaco Yacht Show looking at every other boat out there.”

“I always get so excited when I see a shipyard’s progress of the wiring, the plumbing and the layout of a boat. Some people don’t care about that, but I love it,” he says. “It took about three or four years to build my first Feadship yacht; I enjoyed building it just as much as I did using it.”

For all the other visitors attending the principality’s annual boat show last year, it was Herb’s 80m Abeking & Rasmussen head-turner Excellence that became the star attraction. Scooping Finest New Superyacht and Best Exterior at the 2019 Show awards, the yacht’s unusual bow (a homage to Philippe Starck’s highly distinctive Motor Yacht A ) and triple-height glass atrium demand attention. For Herb, who has always believed that the future of yachting will involve huge glass windows, Excellence is the realisation of a long-term vision made possible by technical advances in large-scale glass manufacture and shipyard capabilities.

“When designer Andrew Winch showed me a rendering of the design, I saw the big windows and said, ‘That is terrific. I didn’t realise that you could get glass that size.’ He explained that it was a new technology. To get the glass is one thing, but then to be able to install it on board is an engineering feat in itself.”

Excellence (2019) at the Monaco Yacht Show. Photo: Mc-Clic 2019

His latest yacht may be his largest, but his eye for detail came to the fore in 2005 when sketching designs for a previous incarnation of Excellence . “I sat on the aft deck of my boat in France with Abeking & Rasmussen, and we designed it together,” he recalls. “I told them what I wanted the bow to look like, and I had different ideas on other features, which we incorporated. The shipyard built the boat and I sold it before I even took delivery. Abeking built four or five more boats that were almost identical in design after that because it was something that was very appealing to other people besides me.”

The volume of yachts that Herb has designed, built and owned has shaped his preferences today. Time spent with his family and entertaining friends is crucial, and draft length has become a point of focus for the entrepreneur, so as to allow him to access his favourite cruising grounds, such as Ocean Reef Club on the Florida Keys and the shallow waters of the Bahamas.

Excellence (2001)

With the majority of his yachts made available for charter, keeping one back for his private use is also integral to Herb’s happiness. He considers his 46m yacht built by Feadship (also named Excellence ), which is currently listed for sale with Burgess and Merle Wood & Associates , to be his personal boat. Bought by Herb in 2018, but built by his long-time friend Roger Penske in 2001, the yacht is lightweight and fast.

“It has a beautiful engine room, everything in chrome and fire engine red, and it runs at about 23 knots on diesel engines. If you really want it to go fast, you can push a button and the turbine engine kicks in taking the boat up to about 33 knots,” he says. “I enjoy cruising at around 13 knots, but every now and then, if the weather’s kind of turning or you’re in a hurry to get some place and you want to go fast, in that boat you can.”

Size matters, too. When cruising the deep waters of the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, bigger boats are more comfortable in rough seas, he says, with more space to store tenders and toys. Hence his need to always have more than one yacht at a time. But most important of all is design.

“You don’t want your boat to look like a cookie-cutter,” he says, reflecting on his latest choice. “I wanted a boat that if you were a mile away from it, you would recognise it as being Excellence . I like that.”

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EXCELLENCE Yacht – Supreme $120 Million Superyacht

EXCELLENCE yacht is one of the largest superyachts in the world with a total length of 80 meters (262.5 ft).

She is often considered a masterpiece of design with her unusual reversed bow.

EXCELLENCE yacht interior

The interior of the EXCELLENCE yacht was designed by Andrew Winch, an English yacht designer specializing in the luxurious and unusual design.

The yacht perfectly combines indoor and outdoor living with her three-story glass atrium that allows the interior to be bright and open.

Fourteen guests find space on board in seven cabins, as well as a crew of 20 who have a designated area below deck. The interior of the yacht is decorated in beige and creme tones, perfectly complimented by dark wooden elements.

There is a cinema, spa with a sauna, and gym aboard EXCELLENCE and the aft of the vessel holds a large beach club with direct water access.

Specifications

The EXCELLENCE yacht has a length of 80 meters (262.5 ft), a beam of 14.45 meters (47.4 ft), and a draft of 3.45m (11.3 ft).

Her twin MTU engines allow her to reach top speeds of 17 knots, although her average cruising speed lies at 14 knots. She carries 30,000 liters of water and 50,000 liters of diesel on board.

The EXCELLENCE yacht is the 7th largest yacht built by ​​the renowned German shipyard Abeking & Rasmussen.

Her exterior was designed by Andrew Winch, who also worked on the interior of EXCELLENCE.

Her most unusual feature is definitely the reversed bow that is sure to catch the attention of onlookers anywhere she docks.

She has plenty of deck space that can be used for sunbathing or covered up with awnings if required.

On the main deck, a pool with a swim-up bar allows guests to relax and unwind. EXCELLENCE has a sizeable aluminum superstructure and an elongated steel hull.

She has unusually large windows which allow the interior to be flooded with natural light. 

The owner bought EXCELLENCE for a price of US$120 million in 2019. She generates annual running costs of US $5 to 12 million depending on use.

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Superyacht Influencer Interview: Herb Chambers Opens Up About Owning 263-Foot-Long EXCELLENCE

I’ve never met anyone in the superyacht world quite like herb chambers..

Superyacht owners are often, um, how should we say it…pretty aloof. And I can’t say I blame them. But every now and then, I meet a superyacht owner who loves his new yacht, loves the process of designing and building something so unique, and appreciates the incredibly talented designers and engineers and builders who can make his dreams a reality so much that he’s willing to share some of the experience with me–on the record.

But I’ve never met anyone in the superyacht world quite like the owner of 263-foot-long EXCELLENCE, which was designed by Winch Design, built by Abeking & Rasmussen, and won the “Best Exterior Design” and “Finest New Superyacht” awards at the Monaco Yacht Show .

He’s a straight-talking American whose smiling face and common sense one-liners are on nearly every billboard near where I live in downtown Boston. His name is Herb Chambers. And he’s on all those billboards because he owns (and is the face of) more than 1,000 car dealerships in New England that bear his name.

“Well, I’ve had six yachts,” he says when I ask about how he came to own one of the hottest superyachts in the world. “I built two in Holland and then I started building them in Germany at Abeking & Rassmussen.”

“Why so many?” I ask. 

“It’s fun to build a boat,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “As a matter of fact, from my standpoint, it’s probably more fun to build them than it is to use them.”

“You’re creating something. You’re watching something grow,” he continues. “I think people who develop real estate know what I’m talking about; watching a project grow.”

“I’m in the automobile business, so it’s not quite the same. But building a boat gives you an excuse to go to Europe every three or four months so you see the progress and what’s going on at the yard. And that, to me, is very exciting.”

“Then, you have the opportunity to make a lot of choices.”

When it comes to EXCELLENCE ’s design, “choices” may be a bit of an understatement. Chambers’ design brief called for his new yacht to be “extraordinary” and to create a seamless feeling of openness and connection to the outside world. He says, “I also wanted the boat to be what I’ll call a ‘happy boat’. There are many boats out there that are overdone. They become an exercise in excess. I didn’t want that.”

He just needed to meet the designer that could create what he wanted.

“So how did you decide to build such a radical new yacht?” I ask.

“We were at a boat show when I still owned my previous EXCELLENCE (a 198-footer also named EXCELLENCE and built by Abeking & Rasmussen), but I was thinking about building something new. Then I walked into the Abeking & Rasmussen stand. And they had a rendering on the wall. And he–” Chambers says, pointing at the man who just sat next to him at the bar on the lower deck of his award-winning new yacht where we are sitting, “had done the rendering.”

The “he” Chambers refers to is Andrew Winch, the founder of Winch Design and the head of the design team that designed every element of the yacht, from the striking exterior and complicated naval architecture to every detail in the interior.

“I was thinking about a boat with lots of glass. And then I stopped and said, ‘I like that boat,’” he explains, pointing at a rendering that was just a concept Abeking & Rasmussen and Winch Design were collaborating on. Soon Chambers was making changes and making his own additions to the design. And not too long after that, the boat was being built.

Winch describes the process with Chambers like this: “Herb trusted us to design and build something that was so new, it was way beyond the comfort zone of most people. He had the courage to do it.”

In fact, the team at Winch Design came up with a superstructure that’s so unique, it’s no wonder EXCELLENCE has been so well-received. The instantly identifiable reverse bow and the yacht’s profile built around huge areas of mirrored and curved floor-to-ceiling glass executed brilliantly by Abeking & Rassmussen may point to where the future of superyacht design and construction is headed.

What’s more? We can help you charter it for yourself! 

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He started by selling photocopier supplies from the trunk of his car and went on to become one of the most successful car dealers in the country. Take a look at Herb Chambers’ 263-foot-long futuristic superyacht that has a triple-height glass atrium, a massive pool, a theater, & a spa

Sensational and invigorating, Excellence Motoryacht-

Excellence, a $120 million boat, comes with a certain futuristic aesthetic, perhaps owing to the topsides made almost entirely of glass. The 60-metre Abeking Excellence V boasted a more run-of-the-mill exterior in comparison, with more classic lines. Chambers shared with Boat International, “I kept thinking about how I could have bigger windows, more glass. And when I saw Andrew Winch’s rendering, I thought that could be the answer, but with some modifications to it.”

Who is the owner of $120 million Excellence superyacht?

Herb Chambers, the billionaire worth $2.7 billion , owns 59 dealerships selling brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, and Porsche. He has certainly come a long way from his first job as a cart collector at the local supermarket. From there, he went on to drop out of school and later borrowed $500 from his mother to start his first company, a copy distributor, which he sold for $80 million in 1983, according to Forbes. He got into the car business in 1985, buying an Oldsmobile-Cadillac dealership. Success and superyachts followed soon enough.

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