Palmer Johnson built LEVERAGE in 2003 as a tri-deck on a 38-metre aluminium hull, a ratio that was ambitious then and still reads generously now. Three full decks at this length buy something specific: every function gets its own room, instead of one space being asked to do three jobs. Two decades and a refit later, that remains the reason she charters as well as she does.
Start in the main salon. It runs almost the full beam beneath a coffered ceiling of mirrored glass panels, with mahogany-framed windows down both sides and a cream sectional long enough to seat everyone aboard at once. The light moves through it all day. Forward, the formal dining room seats ten around an oval table framed by circular mirrors set into the panelling, a genuinely separate room rather than a table parked at the end of the salon. Above, the skylounge gathers a bar with stools, a book-lined sitting area and a round games table into one informal space. It is where charter weeks tend to end up after dinner.
The primary cabin is the layout’s strongest card. It sits full-beam on the main deck forward of the salon, bed centred, a writing desk in its own alcove, a marble bathroom with a tub, and windows at eye level with the water. On a 38-metre yacht that arrangement is uncommon; it usually arrives ten metres further up the market. Four further cabins occupy the lower deck, three doubles and a twin, each in the same warm mahogany with oval portholes and a private en-suite. Ten guests, seven crew.
Outside, she is built around the Bahamas, where she spends her year. The sundeck carries a jacuzzi aft with a run of sunpads behind it, open to the sky, and forward of that a shaded lounge wrapped around an L-shaped settee with a Big Green Egg dropped into the deck console. Cooking happens on deck here as routine, not novelty. The aft deck sets two tables together beneath the deckhead with a banquette running the length of the rail; a second, quieter table sits one level down beside a wet bar.
Her toy list is deep, and the headline item is a boat rather than a board: a 39-foot HCB centre console that most yachts this size would be pleased to own outright, rigged for offshore fishing and long island runs. Behind it come a 5.5-metre Nautica RIB, two Yamaha WaveRunners, two SeaBobs, a Hobie sailing kayak, paddleboards and a BOTE inflatable dock wired for music. Diving and snorkelling gear is aboard, and bikes for going ashore.
Zero-speed stabilisers hold her steady at anchor, which counts for more across a charter week than top speed does. She cruises at 12 knots and makes 16, with 2,200 nautical miles of range behind her. Captain Wes leads a crew of seven who have kept her presentation sharp, and the repeat-charter record reflects it.
LEVERAGE is not the newest yacht working the Bahamas. At her length, she may be the most comfortable.
Her profile explains the volume. Palmer Johnson drew a long, level sheer with a near-plumb bow and stacked the decks back from it, so the superstructure reads low against the hull rather than piled on top of it. Aluminium throughout, hull and superstructure, which is why a tri-deck of this size still moves on 2,200 nautical miles of range and sits shallow enough at 2.7 metres to work the Exuma banks properly.
