Megayacht News Radio
Megayacht News Radio introduces luxury-yacht enthusiasts to the leading shipyards, premier design studios, and even superyacht owners who bring cruising dreams to life. As the official podcast of MegayachtNews.com, we feature real stories of real interest, helping American yacht owners and their representatives make better-informed decisions when it comes to commissioning and using their yachts.
Megayacht News Radio
From Farm to Yacht: Bobby Genovese's Superyacht Ownership Journey
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What if your passion could take you from a farm in Ontario to the master stateroom of some of the world's most luxurious yachts? Join us in an engaging conversation with Bobby Genovese, a prominent owner in yachting, as he shares his unexpected journey into boating. Bobby's remarkable story begins with a serendipitous purchase of the historic Miss Canada III and IV, leading to a collection that includes the iconic Rambler. From his early days on a farm to navigating Florida's vibrant boating scene, Bobby shares tales filled with adventure and a genuine love for connecting people through unforgettable experiences on the water.
Bobby offers a behind-the-scenes look at the joys and challenges of maintaining a vessel like his current superyacht, the Feadship-built BG Charade. He candidly shares the financial realities, from crew salaries to unforeseen repairs, revealing that the initial yacht price is just the tip of the iceberg. With insights into running a successful charter business and BG Charade's role on the TV show Below Deck, Bobby paints a vivid picture of the freedom and flexibility a private yacht offers. As his family dynamics shift, Bobby discusses how he's selling BG Charade to embrace new adventures on a smaller yacht in the Bahamas. Tune in for a captivating journey into yachting, rich with personal stories and practical insights you won't want to miss.
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Welcome everyone. While many superyacht owners prefer to maintain low profiles, today I am delighted to treat you to a rare opportunity, hearing directly from one. Bobby Genovese is well known in yachting for being forthcoming and, as you are about to discover, a terrific conversationalist. Currently, he owns a beautiful fed ship named BG Charade, which he acquired in 2015 and has been enjoying and making available for charter ever since. Not surprisingly, bobby has a lifelong love of boats, which led to buying an incredibly diverse variety of them, including a 70-foot cruiser built in 1903 and an all-wood racing boat from the 1930s. From his personal life to his professional life in hospitality, he has a straightforward mission which I think a lot of you will absolutely appreciate. It is to connect people with one another, with new experiences and with possibility and, most important, to have as much fun as humanly possible while doing all of the above. Bobby, welcome to Megayacht Newsradio. It's terrific to have you.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you. What an opening, wow, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, I love your mission. I think, like I said, it's something that's going to resonate with a lot of people. It's something that's going to resonate with a lot of people. Having a boat, having a yacht, no matter what size it is, is all about fun. It's all about sharing that fun. Lots of people, I'm sure, can tell hundreds, if not thousands, of stories about all the different things they've experienced with their boats. You certainly can, so let's just jump into some of them. What was that aha moment for you? What was that introduction to the possibilities of boating and yachting for you?
Speaker 2:It's so funny how life takes you in different directions. Because growing up on a farm just outside of Toronto, ontario, canada, boating was about as far away as you could imagine. But we did have a family cottage growing up and then my older brother had built his own cottage in an area called Muskoka, which is a lake country in Ontario, and he was restoring an old wooden boat. He asked if I wanted to go down and take a look at it when we got down to the marina. There in the marina was Miss Canada III, probably the most beautiful wooden boat that I'd ever seen in my life. She was built in 1939, and she was the Gold Cup champion and historically one of our most famous boats, and it was for sale. So I thought you know what? This is, a boat that I have to buy. So when I went to buy the boat you know the owner of the boat well the agent for the boat said look, if you're buying this Canada 3, you should buy Pissed Off. And I go well, what's Pissed Off? And then my brother said look, if Pissed Off is for sale, that's the boat you got to buy. And that was a handcrafted Diane. It was like a floating coffee table with two twin 440 Chrysler Hemis, and it was incredible. So anyway, I ended up buying them both. So then that was my introduction to boats. So then of course I'd take out Miss Canada 3 and everybody on the lake would go oh that's so fantastic, you've got Miss Canada 3. It's a shame you don't have Miss Canada 4. What's Miss Canada 4?
Speaker 2:Well, did a little research, it was in a museum. I was able to do a deal with the museum and buy the boat from the museum. I had her restored and now I had Miss Canada 3, miss Canada 4. Pissed off. But then I needed a family boat to get the kids around, so then I ended up buying a Chris Craft. But then the kids wanted to go water skiing, so then I had to buy a Malibu. And then the other kids wanted to get a wig surf, so then I had to buy a Nautique. And then the staff needed a boat at the cottage, so I had to buy another boat. The boats were like rabbits, they just kept coming. And then at the end I ended up being able to purchase the Rambler, which is probably the most famous boats on the lake or boat on the lake. It's 73 feet long, built in 1903, and to be able to add that to my collection was incredible.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. What an incredible array of boats and how each one came about. That's terrific. You can't make it, I love it. So then, how did you end up getting into super yacht ownership? Was it just this whole natural progression of stepping up to bigger and bigger boats?
Speaker 2:Well, I, you know, I was starting to spend a lot more time in Florida, which is a huge boating community. You know I was looking at all of these different kinds of boats to buy and in Lazara, in 19, what would it have been? Sort of I don it'd be. In 2008-9 came out Diane with a radical design for a 75-foot boat, had four state rooms, an open galley, four Volvo Penta engines. It only had four feet of draft with. It was just a gorgeous boat and I was so close to buying it. And at the last minute, I told Mr Lazara, dick Lazara. I just said you know, dick, I'm just not comfortable, but let me revisit it.
Speaker 2:Well, diane, the crash happened in 2009, the housing crash. Everybody was backing out of these boats that were being built and Dick called me and said like we're almost finished this boat. I can give you an unbelievable deal. Why don't you come up to Tampa, florida, and look at it? So I went up and said, dick, you know what? I want the boat, but I need you to make three changes. My kids live on the water. Your dock platform at the end of the boat. You need to lengthen it by three feet. He's like I don't know if I can do that, bob. I go Dick, that's what's got to happen, because I can't buy it without it. And then he goes. Then I need stabilizers on the boat, because if my kids get sick, they'll never go on the boat again. He goes Bob, you don't need stabilizers on 75. I go put them on designs that Lazaro now keep to today in their building of their boats.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, when you have one boat, I thought, well, you know what, I should get another boat, maybe go into chartering some of these things. So I ended up buying a 74-foot Sunseeker. And then, of course, when you've got two 75-foot boats, that's a 150-foot boat when you put them together. So I thought, well, you know what, wouldn't that be great? And I dreamed and dreamed and dreamed. And then one day, diane, I saw Charade. Now, charade was actually Paul Allen's very first boat and Paul had had the boat for 14 years. He'd taken it literally around the world three times and then he ended up selling it to Joe Lewis, another famous yachter in the yacht world, and Joe had the boat, excuse me, for 10 years. And when I saw Charade, I approached Joe and was able to get a deal done. And then, all of a sudden, I now had this iconic fed ship that is the Rolls Royce of boats.
Speaker 1:Amazing, absolutely amazing. I think there are a lot of people who are going to see similar experiences in their trajectory of yacht ownership, where you see something and you just say that is the boat for meers. Clearly there are lessons that you've learned through the whole process. How have you applied those lessons when you've been buying and cruising through all these years? And when I talk about lessons, I don't necessarily mean something bad happened and you said, oh my God, I'm never doing that again. Lessons can be both positive and negative.
Speaker 2:Look, it's definitely Diane, an experience for sure. You know, the one thing I have learned, and for all of those, the tidbit of wisdom I can give people is it's not the buying of the boat that's expensive, it's maintaining and running the boat that's expensive, because all of these hidden costs, insurance, the fuel. My boat has 12 crew on it. So if I'm on the boat with my guests well, just look at it this way Even when I'm not on the boat, 12 crew being fed three times a day is 75 meals a day I'm having to pay for, whether I'm on the boat or not on the boat. And then when you are full capacity, which is 12 guests, 12 crew, 24, I mean, it's just the numbers. Add up, and add up, and add up, and it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of people don't take into account anything beyond the initial purchase price. They think, okay, I bought the boat, I'm done, but you'd need to budget everything well in advance.
Speaker 2:It's beyond what you can even budget for, because there's always things going wrong, things that need to be fixed. But you know, the flip side of that is you go wherever you want to go, you can stay as long as you want to stay. You're creating your own itineraries. I mean, for that sense it's been unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Right. True, there's a lot of freedom that comes with it. It's not like a hotel where you need to make the reservation, you need to dance around their availability, et cetera. This is yours.
Speaker 2:You make a decision on a random Tuesday that you're going to be flying in on the weekend, and it's done Well or look at it the other way Even if you were to book a place on a cruise ship and you get to Italy and you love it, and then the cruise ship's only there for a day and a half and you have to leave and you're thinking, well, I don't want to leave yet, yeah, so it's been an amazing experience.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Let's talk about BG Charade Now. You've owned the boat for several years. I know you had the yacht refitted too when you first acquired it. So what are some of the things that you changed for your lifestyle and your family's lifestyle, and what are some of the things that you've enjoyed the most about it?
Speaker 2:Well you know it's funny because, again it. Well you know it's funny because, again, as we just talked about, you never know what to expect. So the refit I thought would take a couple of months and we'd clean up a few things. The refit ended up being more than I paid for the entire boat, so put that into the back of your brain. So I raised the ceilings, I turned the whole boat into a Bridgehampton beach house and it's spectacular, I mean truly. And I added a sixth bedroom, which was a huge thing. I have two master suites on the main deck. It's a big, big point. The interior is beyond fabulous and just upgraded everything in the boat. Again, you don't really realize what that takes, but it took two years and a lot, a lot of money. The flip side, though, as you've said, we have been able to take our family and go around the world on the boat, and those adventures with walking with Komodo dragons, the Komodo islands, swimming with the whale sharks it's been an amazing experience.
Speaker 1:That's excellent. What about some of the charter trips the yacht has been chartering for several years now. The yacht also was in a few seasons of Below Deck as the yacht Valor. What takeaways have you learned from the charter experience? Were there things that you adapted over the years to make the boat more marketable for charter, more enjoyable for charter?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, in the charter industry it's always the same three things it's the chef on the boat, the crew on the boat and the toys on the boat. So we relish. We have really perfected all three, which is why charade is so popular to charter and every boat owner, almost every boat owner charters because the boat has to work. You've got to look at it like an investment. That boat has to pay for itself or help pay for itself. So through reputation, we've really become known as one of the number one boats to charter in the world.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I like it Did having the boat on Below Deck help in any respect, because I know the boat was on a few seasons. I would imagine it was a positive experience.
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny because it was actually my friends that own the TV show. So they came to me and said, like Bobby, we want to charter your boat. We've got this idea for a TV show. And I just said, like I just refitted the entire boat, I'm not putting it on the show. So a couple of months went by. I said, bobby, we can't find a boat, please let us use your boat and we will give you this for it. Well, it was too much money to say no, but I said like I, I don't know what your show is going to be like. I don't want to be associated with your show, so change the name of my boat while it's on your show. And that's how Valor, they came up with the name of my boat while it's on your show. And that's how Valor. They came up with the name and renamed it Valor for those four seasons that they used the boat and overall it was a good experience. Nothing negative to say.
Speaker 1:Good, good to hear. So I know you have the yacht for sale, so I'm curious what is next for you. Are you looking to buy another yacht? Are you getting out of yachting? We hope not, but you tell us.
Speaker 2:No, I just charade. I live in the Bahamas and charade is just too big a boat for the Bahamas so I'd like to downsize, probably back to the Lazara. And again, my kids are all growing. So when I bought the boat they were sort of 12 and 10 and 14 and 18. And now, you know, now they're all growing and gone. I've had the boat for 10 years. You know, you go, let's play that tripping. It's like trying to book an appointment with kids. They're all busy and they can't come. So I just thought you know what I need to simplify. As much as I hate to let charade go, I'm excited for the next owner, whoever ends up with her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. Life always changes right, so you need to adapt your yachting life accordingly.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, good. Well, we hope that a very happy person will end up acquiring her and using her for many, many years to come and, of course, we hope that you're going to have a lot more fun. We expect you to have a lot more fun with the Lazarus. One more question for you. It's the last question I always love to ask people. There's a lot of talk about giving owners what they want. In the yachting sector Shipyards, designers, the suppliers everybody says that they are focused on giving the owners what they want. Well, you're an owner, so you tell us, if you could use just one word to describe what people like you want from a yacht, what would it be?
Speaker 2:Easy. You just want it to be easy. No more crew issues, no more things breaking down, no more. I mean, as sexy as yachting sounds, it's a job You've really got to prepare yourself, like anything else you do, but owners just want it to be easy.
Speaker 1:Fair enough. Fair enough, bobby. I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with you. I am sure that our listeners have enjoyed learning a lot from you and hearing from you, so thank you so much for joining me on this episode. It's been terrific.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. What a pleasure meeting you.
Speaker 1:Everyone to learn more about Bobby, the yacht BG Charade and the opportunity to acquire her, as well as the other luxury hospitality ventures and the extraordinary experiences to be had through his companies. You can visit his website, which is bobbygenevesecom. Until next time, I'm Diane Byrne.
