Delta Marine has built relatively few yachts at 70 metres and above, which makes Laurel a rarer proposition than her length alone suggests. Launched in 2006 and brought current with a 2014 refit, she carries the American yard’s reputation for volume and steel-hulled solidity into a seven-cabin layout designed less around square footage than around the number of people who can genuinely dive, fish and play from the same base.
The crew make the case before the itinerary does: two dedicated dive instructors, a fitness instructor, a masseuse and a hairdresser all sail as part of the twenty-four aboard, alongside a swim platform built to launch three tenders from both sides at once. Certified guests can dive properly rather than snorkel at the edges of it — twenty tanks, a fast-refilling compressor and gear for ten sit ready below, backed by crew who actually hold instructor qualifications rather than a token certification between them.
The toy inventory reads like it was assembled by people who use it rather than people who sell it. A waterslide drops from bridge-deck height into the sea; a rock-climbing wall and a diving board share the same launch point; wakeboards, waterskis and a full set of towables sit alongside two Lift e-foils and a pair of SeaBob F5s for guests who want to cover water rather than float on it. A fully enclosed, air-conditioned gym means the fitness routine survives a stretch of rough water at anchor, and mountain bikes are stowed for anyone who wants to leave the boat behind entirely once ashore.
Inside, the main salon opens through a run of full-height windows onto the aft deck, with a formal dining room finished in dark wood for evenings that call for more structure. A full-beam owner’s suite occupies its own deck, private and separated from the guest cabins rather than simply larger than them. Six further staterooms — a run of doubles and a twin — share the same warm cherry panelling that runs through the yacht, so the accommodation reads as a single considered scheme rather than a patchwork of renovations.
Outside, the aft deck runs the full width of the yacht beneath a fixed awning, set up for lunch under shade and re-set for dinner once the sun drops — the single space that does the most work across a charter day. A swim platform astern serves as the transition point for everything: guests step from lounging straight into a dive briefing, a wakeboard pull or a slow float behind the tender, with the crew resetting the space in the time it takes to change.
Laurel’s charter pattern mirrors her equipment: the Mediterranean through summer, then the Caribbean, the Bahamas and Bermuda once the season turns, chasing warm, clear water rather than sitting out a shoulder season at anchor. At 73 metres with a genuinely deep crew skill set and a fleet of tenders and toys built for actual use, she suits a charter party that measures a week by what they did rather than where they moored.
