Leander

LENGTH: 245ft. 6in. (75m)
SHIPYARD: Kusch Yachts/Peene-Werft, Germany
YEAR: 1992

Leander enjoys a great reputation as a charter yacht with worldwide destinations that range from the Baltic to the Bahamas. The English manor house décor features overstuffed sofas and chairs and a baby grand piano, and her stern and forward decks offer great vistas. Leander has a crew of 25 and a formal dining room that seats 20. She carries no less than six tenders plus a slew of toys and has an aft deck helipad to accommodate charter helicopters. Kusch Yachts Agentur designed the yacht with interior designer Pauline Nunns, and the Peenewerft shipyard built her in Germany on a hull constructed in Poland. Twin 12-cylinder Deutz engines power Leander to a cruising speed of 15 knots and give her a range of about 8,000 nm. Accustomed to hosting royalty (Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Wales were onboard in 2008), she recently completed a Caribbean tour with the Earl and Countess of Wessex as part of her Majesty’s 2012 Diamond Jubilee. Commodore Sir Donald Gosling—an active British philanthropist and owner of Leander—served in the Royal Navy and named her after a Royal Navy ship. The Sir Donald Gosling Award, presented in conjunction with the International Naval Engineering Conference, seeks to reward young engineers whose research provide viable solutions in areas such as ship design, electric propulsion, environment and safety, sustainability, submarines and affordability. Sir Gosling had significant entrepreneurial success with NCP, a private car park operator he co-founded in 1948 and sold to U.S.-based Cendant in 1998.

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