One passionate Owner on what he loves about his yacht, available for sale and charter

For the Summer 2021 issue of FUSE, the Fraser team caught up with ROBBIE BOBBY Owner Ian Worboys to find out what he loves about his yacht and life on the water.

There is no greater feeling than being on board your own yacht, surrounded by loved ones, in your favourite destination.

For Ian Worboys, the Owner of 33.5M (109’11“) Lynx ROBBIE BOBBY, available to charter or buy with Fraser, his yacht is a family sanctuary. A safe haven. A space where his family can be together, doing what they love. And for the charter guests who come on board, the experience is just as unforgettable.

“The experience we’ve aimed at on ROBBIE BOBBY is a six-star experience for charter guests, and it’s the same for myself and my family when we’re on board,” he says. And that experience, as every Owner knows, begins with the crew. “We have a fantastic crew that have now been on board for up to 3 years. I travel a lot and like to holiday all over the world, so I know what one would expect at hotels and the crew are all trained at that level. I recently stayed at the Four Seasons in Istanbul, and they had some very good people, but every one of our crew, I’d say, is better.”

The crew, he adds, have also become friends, sharing with the family their love of the ocean and what it offers. “The Captain is a passionate fisherman and got us in to it, too. Now, we can’t wait to get on board, get up at 5am, go fishing, come back for breakfast at 8am and start our day beautifully.”

A typical day on board for Ian and his family, including children in their twenties and thirties and a young grandson, starts with this early-morning fishing excursion, then rolls into active days on the yacht’s many toys and relaxed evenings with the freshest food. 

“My girlfriend will go for a couple of hours paddle boarding every day and the kids love the Hobie stand-up pedal boards, they are great for fitness. We also have an extremely fun Spark Trixx jet-ski. We are very much a fitness freak family, so for us using the toys is special."

"And we love eating as well! We have a great chef, Luiz, and his food is just stunning - he does fusion Asian-European. When we catch tuna or sea bass, which we do regularly, he’s able to take the fish and prepare it perfectly - some raw and some cooked.” One of the pleasures of dining on board for Ian and his family is enjoying a new backdrop for every meal. “On a yacht, literally one day to another, you can be having breakfast sitting in one cove, lunch in another and dinner in another, and they’re only one-hour sails in between but you have completely different experiences,” he says, citing Corsica and Sardinia as one of his favourite cruising grounds. “We’ve been going there for four years and we keep finding new bays and new areas we haven’t seen before. One thing I love about yachting is that there is a community amongst Captains, to help each other find the more hidden bays.”

And when it comes to being at anchor in such a bay, there is no better place Ian prefers to spend it than on ROBBIE BOBBY’s huge sundeck, which he extended by 30 square metres (323 square feet) soon after he bought the yacht. “We’ve got a mix of everything up there: dining, a barbecue, and a bar area on the same level as the Jacuzzi, so everyone can be in different places but still talking. And we put in an amazing sound system throughout the whole of the boat a few years ago.  So during the day, the sundeck really is the place to be.”

ROBBIE BOBBY was chosen — and refitted — to prioritise space and safety for family and guests. When he decided to buy, he initially looked at sailing yachts after chartering one every year, but quickly moved over to motor yachts when he realised he wanted the maximum guest space and volume. “The boat is a real family place, so having space was important,” he says. “On ROBBIE BOBBY, we’ve probably got more space than most 40-45M (130’-147’) yachts – the volume is massive (287GT). It is very much a family yacht. It’s got five cabins but actually with Pullmans can take 12 guests, so for children it’s great. It’s very safe and stable because it’s a steel hull, and we’ve got stabilisers on board. It really is a solid boat — I knew I’d be having grandchildren so I wanted to be sure they’d be safe.”

Now, a few years later, he is discovering just how meaningful it is to create memories on board for those grandchildren, and the rest of the family, and the crew have magicked up some experiences that Ian will never forget. “There are two or three particularly special days on board that I treasure,” he says. “In Corsica, the crew found a completely isolated beach you can only reach by boat, and they made an Arabic evening with a fire and toasted marshmallows.  My grandson was just over the moon with it — it’s one of those things you can picture him remembering forever. Then, we were on board for Halloween last year, and the chief stew and the stewardess transformed the whole main dining area with spiders’ webs, eyeballs, everything — they spent about 3 hours doing it up. It was the best effect I’ve seen anywhere, let alone on a boat. And the crew got made up, put on costumes and had bought them for us without telling us. The menu was created for Halloween as well. It was very, very special.”

Interested in buying or chartering ROBBIE BOBBY?