TANZANITE was built for owners who wanted an American motor yacht that could fish seriously and still put ten guests to bed in proper suites. Westship delivered her in 2004 at 44.2 metres, and a full refit in 2023 reset the interior, the systems and the soft goods. What survived both is the layout, and the layout is the point.
Her aft cockpit is oversized by any standard. It was drawn for fishing, rod stowage, deck drains, working space around a fighting chair, and it now serves equally as a beach club, with the water a step away and the tender alongside. That duality runs through the whole yacht. She will run a serious tournament week out of the Leewards and then reset as a family charter without changing anything but the crew’s brief.
Accommodation is five suites for ten guests, and the flexibility is unusual. The master sits on the main deck with windows at bed height, dark timber joinery and a beach view from the pillow. Four further king suites sit below, two of them convertible to twins, so a charter of five couples and a charter of two families with children both work without compromise. Every en-suite carries a jacuzzi bath alongside a separate shower, rare at this size, and one of the details charter brokers actually remember her for.
Inside, the main deck reads as one dark-panelled volume: a beige sectional and a swivel chair aft, formal dining for ten forward, and a spiral stair rising through the middle of it. Glass runs the length of both sides, so the darkness of the joinery never closes the room in. A deck up, the sky lounge is the yacht’s social centre, blue velvet sectionals, a bar with six stools, a wall of glass forward and the wheelhouse just beyond. Guests are welcome on the bridge, which on a yacht that covers this much ground matters more than it sounds.
The top deck carries a jacuzzi with seating built into its surround, sun loungers on the teak, a grill and a bar. In New England that deck earns its keep in July; in the Leewards it works from December through April.
Her toy list is built for the water rather than the marina: a 33-foot Grady White towed tender, an 18-foot unsinkable aluminium-hulled Life Proof, two Yamaha waverunners, four inflatable paddleboards, four kayaks, a wakeboard, fishing and snorkelling gear, and a full beach set-up with chairs, tent and tables.
She cruises at 14 knots and makes 21, running summers out of Boston or Portland and winters in the Leeward Islands. Those two grounds ask different things of a yacht, long, cool passages down the New England coast in July, then short hops between Antigua, Barbuda and St Barths from December, and a 44-metre hull drawing 2.26 metres handles both without excuse. Her crew of seven has a reputation for charter pace rather than formality, and on a boat that fishes at dawn and serves dinner for ten at eight, that matters.
TANZANITE is not a yacht that trades on newness; she trades on volume, flexibility and a refit that took her seriously. For ten guests who want fishing, water time and five real suites, she is one of the better-value 44-metre charters on the American east coast.
