These are very strange times in which we are living – borders are closed, travel is restricted and for a lot of the yachting industry there is massive uncertainty as to whether we will even have a season. So what was more unusual has become the new normality. And the same goes for interviewing. Whilst the odd skype interview isn’t beyond the realms of the imagination, it’s still not the norm..until now that is.
When this interview was set up we were only just venturing into the confines of lockdown and coming to terms with our new normality, even down to working out which time zones we were all in, in order to make it work. So cue a very glamorous WhatsApp call between Palma, New York, and Monaco. I mean as video calls go, that’s pretty cool!
And the subjects of this call were quite frankly even cooler. I get to meet some lovely people doing this job, but I rarely come into contact with owners of boats. Designers yes, Captains, absolutely, but the rarity are those that are literally the reason any of us have a job and quite frankly, anything to write about at all, the Boss.
This is where Sabina breaks the mold. She and her brother Roy, and their wonderful family of entrepreneurs hail from Sao Paulo, Brazil and this is where the story begins. Sat at the table trying to set up a new tech company from the family home, Sabina’s Dad makes a proclamation, that turns out to be more prophecy than wishful thinking. ‘If I make it, we’re buying a boat!’ At this point a harried new mom of infant Sabina had far more important things on her mind, such as feeding her child, rather than the pipe dreams of her husband. But prophecy it was and this is why we are here.
The whole family are entrepreneurial by nature: Sabina’s mum brought the first luxury stores to Brazil; her father did indeed start that tech company from the kitchen table, having studied at MIT and Harvard, and brother Roy learned to code aged nine and went of to start and sell his tech companies. There is nothing ordinary about this family, with Sabina following along in the successful stakes with her real estate and luxury building projects in NYC.
What immediately struck me on the call was how unassuming and welcoming Sabina was, both to me and to her chief Stew Gina who had only just made it back to the boat from her wine country homeland of Marlborough in New Zealand, before lockdown hit Monaco.
It’s lovely to chat with them both, a lot of the conversation centering on the issue of the day, the dreaded Covid word, that is affecting so many around the world. Sabina is taking a well-earned respite in her bedroom from her own infant baby, which I think just adds to how wonderfully grounded and down to earth she is. I’m aware that we all have a lot of things to be getting on with, so don’t want to take up too much of their time, but at the same I’m loathe to get off the call as there is something so wonderfully genuine about both them and the relationship between the family and their crew.
MY Bina is not the first boat that the family bought, but slowly but surely, via second hand vessels, new builds out of Taiwan and the first incarnation of Bina, they eventually came across and purchased what is now the lovingly titled MY Bina. When they received her she looked nothing like she does now. Apparently she had been enjoyed in the style of an upmarket gentlemen’s club and that was just not the feel that the family were going for. So the work was split into two. Sabina and her mother taking control of all aspects of the interior with her father and Roy looking after the more technical aspects of the refit.
I’m sad to say I have only seen her in photographs but from what I have been able to see it seems that they have hit the nail perfectly on the head when it comes to the overall look and feel of the yacht, that of a homely, inviting, stick your feet up on the sofa of your beach house, kind of feel. Gina is now heavily involved in the ongoing touches that keep MY Bina looking her best. You literally look at her and you can hear the waves lapping against the shore whilst someone lights a BBQ and pre-dinner drinks are handed around. And there is a good reason for this – Bina is a true family affair. With her brother and father being in Brazil her mother in Europe and Sabina in NYC, the boat brings them together, firstly as a project but secondly as a family holiday where they all get to relax from their super fueled daily lives and reconnect with each other and their friends.
But it’s not just about blood family. When Sabina was searching for the crew she said it was like trying to find the beating heart, as the boat would just not be quite right without the perfect people. And it’s testimony to her supreme taste, not just for interior design but for matching the perfect crew, that they haven’t had anyone leave in the three years they have all been together.
And it is definitely a two-way street. You can see the absolute pride emanating from Gina when she talks about both the family and the boat and the relationship they have between each other. There is genuine love here and it’s really heartwarming to see. MY Bina is a home in every sense of the description and this is what they wish to impress to their charter guests as well. Sabina returns to the analogy of wanting guests to turn up, literally kick their shoes off and put their feet up. Home from home is the emphasis here.
There is also great pride in the fact their newly promoted Captain Sean is also in the very privileged position of being Gina’s new fiance. It seems for once the fairytale of living and working aboard a superyacht is in fact a reality and long may it last.
I just can’t wait for the travel bans to be lifted and for me to be able to meet MY Bina, Sabina, Gina and Roy, and the rest of the gang, in the flesh, over a cocktail, aboard this most unicorn of boats.
MY Bina is available for charter in the western Med throughout the summer and the Caribbean in the winter
https://www.edmiston.com/yacht-charter/yachts/bina
43.25M
Built 2006
Refit in 2015
12 GUESTS
5 CABINS
10 CREW
By Victoria Pearce
