The refit of Paramour began in the fourth quarter of 2011, and what followed was seven months of pulling apart and rebuilding. The project involved the complete redesign and rebuild of her sundeck, the extension of the swim platform and hull, transforming the technical lazarette into a beach club, a new galley, awnings, dining tables and cabinetry, upgrades to the navigation, communications and entertainment systems, as well as a full Lloyd’s 10-year survey and the subsequent works required for compliance and approval to both Lloyd’s class and Caymans flag acceptance, and finally, a full superstructure paint works and partial topside re-finishing.
A feature often found on much larger yachts, the barbeque, shipped over from Australia, was a necessity, and a wonderfully personal touch for the barbeque loving, Aussie owner. “I always like to be where the best barbeque is in the world,” says O’Keeffe. That barbeque can now be found on Paramour’s sundeck.
After a refit in Palma under the management of Nic Clarke at Pure Superyacht Refit, the 42.6m motoryacht Paramour was delivered to her Australian owner Michael O’Keeffe this summer. Here, he details his philosophy of hands-on ownership and the pleasure that comes from running his yacht with a small, trusted team.
“Everyone working on Paramour really had my interests at heart, and
they delivered for me what I believe is best bang for our buck. We got
very good contractors in, and we had some extremely good people
in Palma. I would go back there any day.”
The challenging logistics were compounded when the yacht
arrived over three weeks later than was originally planned.
As they began to inspect the yacht and get into the primary works,
the workload increased when the Lloyd’s survey highlighted
a number of non-conformity issues. Clarke’s detailed project
management system – ISO 9001 accredited – allows him to state that
the increase in works amounted to 42 per cent more than the original
estimate.
The charter season waits for no refit, however, and the team
at Pure stepped up efforts to deliver Paramour charter-ready in May.
For her size and for what O’Keeffe wanted to achieve, the
process of selecting a small team to work with and a compatriot to hand
over the technical management made sense. Indeed, O’Keeffe’s
approach to the refit, and his continued use and management
of Paramour, is reflective of a businessman and owner who knows
and understands yachts and who has built his businesses through
intelligent control and oversight of operations.