big yacht in kinsale

Real-life Succession in Cork as billionaire's €80m superyacht docks for pint in local pub

The owner of the superyacht, James Berwind has a net worth of €500 million and is an heir to a massive family fortune, just like in Succession

• 08:34, 2 JUN 2023

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A billionaire who is the heir to a massive fortune recently pulled his yacht into Kinsale in the hopes of getting a pint.

Superyacht 'Scout' is anchored outside of the famous Dock pub, inhabiting a lot of the Castlepark Marina, becoming the first superyacht of the summer to visit Cork Harbour, Cork Beo reports.

The 209ft superyacht was made in Holland in 2019 - supposedly commissioned by members of the Heineken family (yes, THAT Heineken) but purchased by American James Berwind in 2020 for close to €80 million.

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Up to 10 guests and 14 staff can be accommodated. It is considered one of the coolest yachts in the world. It has amenities such as a fully equipped gym, cinema room, three bars and a large sun deck with a jacuzzi.

Owner James Berwind (believed to be in Kinsale with his beloved Scout, has an interesting story of his own).

The Florida man is an heir to a vast, shared family fortune and with his brothers and sisters, co-owns an international global corporation.

His famous forebears Edward Julius and Charles Frederick Berwind were the founders of the Berwind-White Coal Mining company in America in the 1860s.

This developed into a mining conglomerate that it still privately kept in a family trust today.

It has moved into areas including manufacturing and real estate. The Berwind Corporation's real estate holdings alone are worth an estimated $3 billion.

James Berwind and his long-time partner Kevin Clark have given their lives to philanthropy, with animal welfare and environmentalism to the fore.

His father Charles Graham Berwind was in the coal business and enjoyed polo and yachting.

With a net worth of around €500 million, James Berwind is an architect supporting projects and people involved in environmental and community development worldwide.

He is reported to have made the yacht Scout a "semi-permanent home, to be used to explore the world" along with his long-term partner Kevin Clark. And you might see the man around Kinsale over the coming days, the yacht has dropped in after a visit to Dublin and will be on its way again shortly.

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• Billionaires
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Meet the Cork man designing the next generation of eco-friendly Superyachts in Kinsale

Luxury giants of the ocean with cutting-edge technology - but the price tag can come in at €80m

• 14:42, 2 JUL 2021

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In a small office down a lane in Kinsale, Rob Doyle and his team are working at the leading edge of super-yacht design, building the boats coveted by billionaires around the world.

Rob's designs regularly feature in the magazines you'll only find on the coffee tables of billionaire boat owners who covet his designs to go alongside the Learjet at the airport and the Bugatti Veyron on the drive.

Over a career that brought him from his native Passage West to the US and back to Kinsale in the late '90s, Rob has been a designer on just under 40 super-yachts and was on the team that built what was for many years the world's biggest sailing yacht, the 78-metre M5 , built by legendary boat-builder Ron Howard for billionaire Texas oilman Ron Lewis.

Now Rob and his small team of four, together with their partners in Holland (a Dutch Irish couple who met while working for him in Kinsale) are working on their most ambitious project yet.

Code-named 'Project Fury', it's an ocean-going luxury thoroughbred, faster than most sailboats afloat, able to comfortably sleep and cater for 12 guests and 11 crew and capable of travelling the world's oceans with no diesel engines required.

Project Fury is being designed and built as the next generation of ultra-yachts, a 63-metre racing yacht that can also accommodate up to 12 people in total luxury, inside a wide, super-light hull made from a combination of aluminium and space-age materials.

With a projected cost of around €80m each, these yachts will not be cheap. But they will be eco-friendly.

Talking to CorkBeo, Rob explained that the boats will have no conventional diesel engines, but will instead have electric propulsion to back up the sails, with batteries that recharge as the props are 'dragged' in the water while the boat is under wind-power.

"We're also looking a military-grade technology which would allow the boats to generate their own hydrogen for fuel-cells, which would mean truly clean energy," he said.

"It's the way things are going now, the owners of these superyachts want to be green and they want to be seen to be green.

"And there's always the element of having something better and newer than the other guy, to be able to say that you can run without diesel engines, that you have the latest, the fastest, the most cutting-edge."

With the ability to cruise endlessly around the world's oceans, comfortably fitting in a billionaire and his family and friends, generating their own fuel and water, the only real need to come into harbour would be to stock up on the Bollinger and caviar.

And Rob says that's what a lot of his clients like to do in Cork.

"These types of boats do come into Kinsale and into Cork harbour quite often, it's actually a very popular place to visit, it's not like the madness of Monaco, St Tropez or the real hot-spots in the Med."

"And I do know owners who will go into the English Market for a stroll to pick out the best to eat, but they'll also spend a huge amount on re-provisioning the boats in Cork."

The odd super-yacht owner has been known to fly their deck-helicopter off to the Old Head of Kinsale for a round of golf, but Rob says they prefer to keep it low key.

"They are typically not the kind of people who look for attention themselves, they'll slip in with the family and friends, have a walk around Kinsale, but stay pretty low key."

Rob says Ireland has long punched well above its weight at the highest level of boat design - and crewing.

"You'll find Irish captains and Irish design expertise everywhere there are boats around in the world, for such a small country, we have a big reputation when it comes to people and skills."

"I know people might have pretty strong opinions on billionaires spending tens of millions on boats. But you could look at it as a very effective means of wealth transfer.

"The money they spend keeps thousands of highly skilled people in work, in yards and harbours in Ireland and around the world."

With Project Fury, Rob and the team in Cork and partners in Holland, Peter and Tracey Van Geest (a couple who met while working with Rob in Kinsale) are looking at attracting the kind of customers that are politely called 'high net worth individuals' - the world's super-rich.

It's not just the price tag of around €80m for the basic boat - it's also the running costs, which can be up to 10% of the cost of the boat - per year (that's a cool 8 million a year to pay for everything from insurance and berthing to sails and crew).

But Rob does not expect to be hunting around for customers. His problem could well be that he cannot build the boats fast enough.

"During the recession and in the first days of the pandemic, people did not want to be seen to be spending huge amounts of money on yachts," says the Kinsale based naval architect and yacht designer.

"But now that the economy is revving again, there's a huge pent-up demand for new yachts, and these high-net-worth individuals are competing to get the latest and the best.

"We have been talking to the big yards and they are saying an order put in now might not see a boat delivered until 2025."

Rob has already had six pretty strong enquiries about his latest design, the long-awaited 'Project Fury' which is causing a huge stir in the yachting world.

Designed in Cork, these yachts will set the new standard for the hyper-yacht, combining speed, luxury and space in a cutting-edge hull that is suprisingly green.

Rob's big hope is to see one of their giant Fury boats in the harbour in Kinsale before too long. And if you want to put your name down for one of his boats, check out Rob Doyle Design (maybe the Credit Union can help out with a loan).

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• Residential

US billionaire James Berwind boats in for €4.5m Kinsale house buy

Superyacht Scout berthed at The Dock, Castlepark, Kinsale in June 2023 . The 210' €80m vessel is owned by James Berwind

A US billionaire James Berwind who berthed his €80 million superyacht Scout in Kinsale harbour last month has been linked locally to the €4.5m+ swoop on a Georgian waterfront property, Sprayfield, near the Munster property hotspot, and which has just disappeared off property websites after getting a May launch.

A number of local sources have linked the ‘sale agreed’ of Sprayfield – owned by former UCC president Gerry Wrixon and his wife Marcia - to James Berwind who’s a fifth generation heir to a family fortune made in coal mining in the US in the 1880s, with the Berwind family now primarily involved in investment management, and real estate.

Described as an environmental architect and animal-rights activist, Florida-based James Berwind’s personal wealth is put at over €500 million, while the Berwind Corporation’s property assets are put at up to €3 billion.

One of the corporation's  ‘natural resources’ divisions controls 400 million tonnes of coal and natural gas in the US as well as timber resources in the Appalachian mountains.

Following on the sale of James Berwind’s lake-fronting Palm Beach home - reported in 2021 to have made $26 million – Mr Berwind has spent the past several years primarily living on board his private yacht Scout with his partner Kevin Clark and their dogs.

The yacht, which arrived into Kinsale at the start of June, was bought in 2020 for €80 million, can carry ten guests in ocean-crossing luxury with 14 crew and is called after one of their dogs Scout, and the pair are involved in a number of environmental and animal rights movements.

Running costs for the Dutch-built 210’, $80m craft Scout are said to be in the region of $8 million a year., and it has a helipad on the foredeck, two 26' tenders, and  'puppy park' for the onboard pooches.

Scout was one of two superyachts to arrive in Kinsale this summer, the other, bigger vessel being the $300m, 360’ Kaos, owned by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie.

In comparison to those boat values – and indeed, personal and Walton and Berwind family fortunes - the €4.75 million price tag put on Kinsale’s gem-set Georgian home Sprayfield is almost literally a drop in the ocean.

The period home, with woodland, half an acre of shore frontage, paddocks, stables, tennis court and wine cellar came for sale via Savills Cork in early May, with the vendors’ identity undisclosed.

The selling agents have declined to comment on reports of the swift  ‘sale agreed’ on the period property sale by Kinsale’s Sandycove Island in the acknowledged Irish property hotspot where recent top records have been in the €4m to €5.5m price bracket and where a modern house Cove Cottage, has just come for sale this month with a €3.25m AMV.

Cove Cottage is close to Charles Fort in Summercove, near where the $300m yacht Kaos anchored last month.

Savills’ sale listing for Sprayfield House says “it is no longer available,” and it has been removed from other websites also, having been exclusively previewed in the Irish Examiner’s Property & Home on May 6.

Attempts to reach Mr Berwind via the Berwind Corporation have so far been unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Sandycove’s Sprayfield House has been the private home of former UCC president Gerry Wrixon and his US-born wife Marcia for over 20 years, after they moved to the shoreline near Kinsale from Farran.

Mr Wrixon resigned as UCC president in 2006, after a sometimes controversial tenure and despite having gained approval to continue beyond his 65th birthday. He was widely seen as ‘pro-business,’ having set up the National Microelectronic Research Centre (now Tyndall Institute) at UCC in 1982.

Now aged in his 80s, Prof Wrixon has maintained a number of business interests, including in renewable energy and his Kinsale home the 230-year old 3,350 sq ft Sprayfield was an early Irish adapter of solar panels for energy generating.

In 2019 Prof Wrixon was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in the microelectronics industry by the Microelectronics Industry Design Association (MIDAS), foreshadowing, perhaps, a Midas touch in his private property dealings also….

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• On the water

Kinsale town was founded in the 12th century with The Battle of Kinsale in 1601 being a very important event in shaping the history of Kinsale. Kinsale Harbour is flanked by two classic examples of 17th century star shaped forts, Charles Fort and James Fort. Kinsale is a very popular town for its history, food, colourful streetscapes, craft shops, galleries, pubs, restaurants, music, events and warm welcome. The narrow winding streets are best explored on foot.

Kinsale is an ideal base from which to explore the beautiful South and South West coasts of Ireland. Kinsale marks the starting point of the Wild Atlantic Way, a 2500km touring route of the spectacular Atlantic coastline. The Kinsale Yacht Club marina caters for all type of craft, from the day sailor, leisure or pleasure craft to the super yacht.

Sail past the majestic forts that flank the entrance to Kinsale Harbour. Charles Fort with it's bastions and battlements and James Fort with the Block House.

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Kinsale Yacht Club Marina

Welcome to Kinsale Yacht Club Marina

Kinsale Yacht Club Marina is located in the heart of Kinsale in County Cork. It provides safe and secure berthing within the virtually landlocked harbour estuary of the Bandon River.

As a visitor to Kinsale Yacht Club you have access to all the Club’s facilities as a temporary member.

Kinsale is known as the Gourmet Capital of Ireland and no cruise to Ireland would be complete without a visit to the town. KYC Marina is located on the famous Wild Atlantic Way and also on the ‘Sail Cool Route’.

The marina is capable of taking visiting crafts of all sizes with a minimum of 9 meters depth available at our visitor’s berths.

Security is provided by a self-locking electronic gate and CCTV security camera system.

Local facilities include, boatyard, sail repairs, gas, fuel refill, sewage pump out, laundry and dry cleaning, divers, medical and dental services, and a selection of restaurants, shops, and cafés.

Cork Airport is a mere 20km away and the City of Cork, 5km from there, with a regular bus service to both.

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Kinsale Yacht Club Marina 26 Lower O'Connell Street Kinsale Co. Cork Ireland

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Boat Rental in Baltimore – How to Buck Up Your Ideas for the Next Vacation

In my humble opinion West Cork Island have what it takes to satisfy the insatiable hunger for adventures. This is where wild nature’s unspoiled beauty meets the blue vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. What is the best way to enjoy the pristine-clean waters and iodine air though? There’s nothing quite like exploring the waters by boat. In regards to the best starting points – a couple of places roll off my tongue immediately. All things considered, my topmost choice is Baltimore. While this major city in has a little something for everyone, the unparalleled view of the city and its surroundings is best seen from the water. I’ll give you more insight on what to expect from the Baltimore bay and the boat rental choices found therein.

Yacht Rental in the Harbor

The Inner Harbor is a stunning location of lurid colours but its choicest virtue is boat renting. You can get on a big red 65-foot boat and seamlessly plow through the water or join one of the cruises to the Roaring Water Bay. Then the choice is threefold –a daily 45-minute narrated cruise, a Friday night 90-minute Cruise, or a Saturday night, 60-minute City Lights Cruise. Irrespective of what the occasion may be, I firmly recommend the latter. The city’s inexplicable glamour at night is a sight to be seen. Those who want to expand their horizons I’d advise to take on the 90-minute cruise. It’s a slightly longer tour and you’ll get the chance to soak in more of the atmosphere culture of the city.

What are the Merits of Renting a Small Boat for Sightseeing Purposes?

Alternatively, one can appreciate the mesmerizing waterways from the privacy of a small motorboat. On account of that convenience, tourists can scout the islands and beaches of West Cork at their own pace. There are boating services providers that can tool you up with fully equipped motors boats and the necessary provisions. One thing I took notice of is the exorbitant demand for the latter, so much so that the same get occupied pretty quickly. You better hit the water early in the morning or else, all boats could be unavailable. Aside from that, the more skillful of salesmen will offer you negotiable deals that are hard to turn down in good conscience. Fire up the engine in your own time and set sail to the desired destination without someone else dictating the course of action.

Roaring Water Bay

Even if you decide to visit the West Cork Islands at a moment’s notice, don’t forget to pay a visit to the Roaring Water Bay . Gadding about in the bay bears many contingent advantages. If the weather conditions are good and depending on the season you might eyewitness some of the rarest animal species on Earth in their natural habitat. Take away the Biodiversity, the Roaring water bay encompasses many sites of historical significance that you could visit during your stay.

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Promised Big and Delivered!

Coming off the back of a huge win at my favorite online casino, and I decided to buy something big to commemorate the fortunate turn of events. I’ve always had a penchant for yachts, so it was a no-brainer for me to splash the better half of my winnings on my new 40-meter magnificence. The love for big boats gave birth to the latest challenge set before me, as I hadn’t operated one quite that big at the time. I was entrusted into the capable hands of captain Kinsale who taught me the...

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me and my girlfriend just did our competent crew with sovereign sailing and we thought it was a top quality course with our great instructor luca. they provided us with an exelent salopettes, jacket and life vest and taught us everything we needed to knoow and more. i would definitely recommend them to anyone.

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