QUINTESSA is a twenty nine metre Delta Marine, an American built motor yacht from 2000 kept to a high standard and refreshed in a 2019 refit. She looks after eight guests across four cabins with a crew of four, and her appeal is the quiet quality of a well built American cruiser matched to the clear water cruising of the Bahamas, where much of her charter life is spent.
Her point of difference is build quality and the comfort that comes with it. Delta Marine is a respected Seattle yard with a long record of custom motor yachts, and QUINTESSA carries that character into a length that stays easy to handle and easy to berth. Lined throughout in warm timber, she has the settled, almost residential calm of a yacht built for owners who valued craftsmanship over fashion, and a 2019 refit has kept her fresh without losing that character.
Life in the open air centres on the flybridge and the aft decks. The flybridge is the social heart, open to the sky with a jacuzzi, soft seating and a shaded helm, a clear outlook over the water and the natural place for breakfast and sundowners. Forward, a run of sun pads gives a quieter corner away from the party, and the aft deck sets out seating a step from the bathing platform, where the tender and the water toys are close at hand for a day of swimming and exploring the cays.
Inside, the main deck is laid out around people rather than around a floor plan. A generous main saloon sits aft, long sofas and soft chairs gathered with the light coming in through broad windows, the warm timber giving the room a calm, considered feel. Forward, a separate dining room seats the full party around a proper table for dinners aboard, a room apart rather than a corner of the lounge. The finish throughout is honest and well kept, warm wood against pale upholstery, the work of a yard that built to last.
Accommodation is arranged over four cabins for eight guests. The master stateroom is a generous, full beam room amidships in the same warm timber, with good storage, soft light and its own marble ensuite. A VIP cabin and two further guest cabins look after the rest of the party, each private and comfortable with its own facilities, the kind of rooms that reward a long, slow charter among the islands. The guest cabins convert readily for children or friends sharing.
Under way she is an easy, capable yacht, holding a relaxed cruise around twelve knots with a top end near twenty two, so a crossing to a new anchorage or a run along the coast is a comfortable, unhurried passage. Her natural ground is the Bahamas in the cooler months and the American coast through the summer, the inland waterways and the clear water of the cays, exactly the kind of cruising a yacht of her build and character was made for.
QUINTESSA suits those who value quality and comfort over the shine of a new build, a family or a group of friends who would rather charter something with real character and a settled, homely feel. Impeccably kept, recently refitted and quietly distinctive, she is a relaxed and good value way to spend a week aboard a true American motor yacht in the Bahamas and along the Florida coast.
