I owned iconic 80ft motor yacht Blue Legend (and it didn’t cost me a penny…)

Paul Markland managed to buy and run one of the world’s most iconic motoryachts for four years and still break even. Here’s how he did it…

Growing up near the tidal creeks of the South Devon coast, the ocean was never a choice for me, it was a calling. I first caught the bug sailing a battered Enterprise dinghy. Those early years, learning to read the wind and trim a sail, laid the foundations for everything that followed.

Next came an old Fletcher speedboat with a 90hp outboard and the adrenaline rush of waterskiing behind it. So perhaps it was inevitable that when I failed to secure a place in further education, I took a job as a merchant navy cadet instead.

Over the years I’ve travelled to almost every corner of the globe, working my way up through the ranks from crewing on supertankers to captaining a dive support vessel, project managing in Mexico and working in Hong Kong before finally moving back to the UK to become MD of a shipping company.

After a brief spell in the countryside, my wife, Myra, and I settled in Salcombe, Devon, and bought a Ski Nautique waterski boat. Most summer mornings we were up at the crack of dawn, carving across the glassy waters of Hope Cove and Torcross.

In 2012, a chance conversation with a friend changed the way we went boating. He suggested pooling our resources and buying a bigger boat together. We found a lovely Windy Khamsin 34 in Abersoch, North Wales, bought it and cruised it back to Devon.

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It was such a success that by the end of that first season, with trips to the Isles of Scilly and Guernsey under our belts, we wanted to go bigger still, so in 2014 the Khamsin made way for a 44 Chinook. That expanded our cruising horizons even further, including a long passage through the Irish Sea to the Western Isles of Scotland. But even I couldn’t have predicted what came next.

In 2016, the broker at Berthon who’d sold us the Windy Chinook sent me a booklet of yachts for sale. Leafing through in an idle moment I stumbled across an advert for Blue Legend, the largest Nelson ever built. Commissioned in 1994 by an experienced British owner, she was originally 68ft long but built to Lloyd’s Classification like a genuine superyacht. The owner liked her so much that in 2006, when he needed more space for guests and crew, he had her extended to 80ft.

Brief encounter

I’m not entirely sure what happened after that but some years later she was acquired by an Italian, who had passed away leaving Blue Legend languishing in a shed in Porto Ercole. Even on the page, she looked stunning, the kind of boat I’d always dreamed of owning, but at an asking price of €1.1 million she was far too rich for me.

It was my cancer diagnosis the following year that changed everything. Although treatable, it brought home how precious life is. Knowing that Blue Legend was still for sale, I suggested to Myra that we at least go and take a look. Somewhat reluctantly, she agreed, on the condition that the trip included a few days in Rome. I booked the flights before she could change her mind!

By the time we saw her, Blue Legend had been ashore for three years. To the untrained eye, she looked forlorn; the carpets and curtains were dated, the decks needed a good scrub and she was in desperate need of some TLC, but none of that mattered because the hull and engines were immaculate.

Mentally, I’d bought the boat before we even went aboard but having now seen her, I was totally smitten. After some firm negotiation, I drove the current owners down to €400,000 and agreed to buy her, subject to sea trials.

In the meantime, I brought in a surveyor to carry out a full coding survey, not because I was planning to charter her but because I wanted to be sure it was safe for my children and grandchildren to enjoy family holidays aboard. His list of amendments was mercifully short: some safety equipment updates, a few railing modifications and a 12-man liferaft that had to be sourced before the sea trial.

The morning of the sea trials arrived carrying the full weight of my hopes and dreams. After three years out of the water, the yard had decided to leave Blue Legend in the slings overnight – a wise but ultimately unnecessary precaution – she floated perfectly.

The two 1,000hp Caterpillar diesels fired up on the button and we motored triumphantly away from the dock. We’d just managed to clear the harbour entrance when both engines suddenly died. After a momentary panic, the Italian Captain managed to get them restarted, only for the steering to start misbehaving.

I began to wonder what on earth I’d let myself in for.

Test of nerve

Luckily, I’d brought an engineer from the UK as a second set of eyes. It turned out to be a case of operator error, after three years ashore the Captain had simply forgotten how everything worked. Within an hour, Blue Legend was back up and running, her deep-keel hull slicing through the Mediterranean chop with the nonchalance that only an 80ft Nelson can muster.

There was still a list of smaller problems that I tried to use as further leverage, but having already negotiated a hefty discount, the owners weren’t having any of it. I signed the contract and Blue Legend was officially mine. I can still remember that first night, sitting on the aft deck with three friends and a bottle of something suitably strong, gazing at the night sky in wonderment. I was now the owner of a bona fide superyacht.

Two days later we set sail for the UK. The engines ran perfectly but the steering was still a bit floppy, the autopilot refused to work and most of the navigation equipment was well past its sell by date. Despite the foul weather, we plugged on, steering her manually through the Bonifacio Straits to Palma, Mallorca, with nothing but a magnetic compass to guide us. It was hard going but the seakeeping of her legendary semi-displacement hull and the power of those mighty Caterpillars matched her iconic reputation.

We arrived in Palma to a warm welcome from other superyacht skippers, excited to see Blue Legend back at sea. This really brought home how lucky I was to own such a unique and recognisable boat. We spent three weeks in Palma sorting out the steering and fitting a new autopilot. This and one faulty radar aside, everything worked perfectly: both generators, the watermaker, the air-conditioning and, most importantly, the heads – all four of them!

With the crucial issues sorted, we sailed to Gibraltar for fuel. She carries 11.7 tonnes of diesel, more than enough to get us home, but as the fuel gauge was a little suspect, I wasn’t going to take any chances. The trip home was largely uneventful; Biscay was at peace with the world and we arrived back in Salcombe to be met by a rather surprised-looking Harbour Master, unused to the sight of an 80ft motoryacht on his patch.

Winter work

Over the winter of 2018, and with the help of a friend, we worked through a long list of improvements, from polishing the topsides to fitting new carpets and curtains under the watchful eye of Myra. Every hatch was lifted to check underneath and we installed a whole new Simrad navigation and tank measuring system along with flow meters, a digital compass and broadband radar.

Chris George, the mechanic who accompanied me on the sea trial, serviced the engines – with only 2,500 hours logged, he reckoned they were barely run in. They certainly went well, giving Blue Legend a top speed of 22 knots, but now I could
see how much fuel they were burning, we only ever used full revs for flush through purposes – and showing off!

In the spring, we set off back to the Mediterranean. I had decided to take on two young crew, helping to train them up for a career in yachting. In return they looked after the boat and my family. This time crossing Biscay was no picnic, a severe gale hit us about 120nm from Coruna.

After several hours of taking huge rollers over the bow, we turned around and surfed our way across the bay and into Belle Isle. The two youngsters were somewhat taken aback by their baptism of fire but went on to become splendid crew.

After our unexpected visit to France, we sailed on to Palma and spent the summer exploring the Balearics. At the end of the season, we sailed up to Sardinia. I had decided to winter Blue Legend in Olbia as I could have her lifted ashore and kept in a shed for only marginally more than the cost of keeping her in the water. Not only did this ensure she stayed warm and dry but it meant we could work on her through the winter.

Lucky lockdown

In January 2020 I went out to see how work was progressing and got trapped by Covid. I ended up spending six months on board, cruising around Italy. Initially we were restricted to Sardinian waters but by late April I’d managed to fly two crew out to meet us and we sailed in early May.

A trip to Bizerte, Tunisia, followed where we loaded up with tax-free fuel and then spent the whole summer cruising the Mediterranean with family and friends joining us when Covid restrictions allowed. Ironically, my crew and I enjoyed one of the best seasons ever!

In the winter of 2020, we returned to Olbia for a second year of work. By now Blue Legend had been returned to her former glory and we started the next season cruising around Sardinia before heading over to Tunisia for fuel again. I was concerned that I was spending too much time away from home and after much thought I decided it was time to return to the UK.

The trip back to Salcombe was uneventful but all the more enjoyable for it. We spent the summer of 2021 cruising around the South Coast and the Isles of Scilly with the occasional hop across the Channel to Guernsey, Jersey and Brest with the help of two excellent young crew, one of whom went on to become a second engineer on a superyacht and the other, taking a respite from the NHS, went back to being a senior midwife.

My time with Blue Legend was coming to an end but the four years we had owned her were unquestionably some of the happiest of our lives. In 2022 I put her on the market and the first person to see her, bought her. Despite the sadness at saying goodbye to such a wonderful craft, I was delighted to find a new owner who loved her just as much as I did. Like any true legend, her story will live on long after we do.

How did we afford it? How the numbers stack up

Despite her size, Blue Legend is actually very economical – at 10 knots she burns just 60 litres per hour. On average, we cruised 1,500nm per year, consuming around 11,000 litres, so a single trip to Tunisia, where fuel is less than half EU prices, saw us through the whole season.

Although we love marinas, they can be expensive so we spent most of our time at anchor, using her 3.8m tender to run ashore and replenish supplies. We also carried two bicycles, three electric scooters, a Seabob, two paddleboards and a kayak – enough to keep the grandchildren amused for days on end!

Running her cost us around £25,000 a year for fuel, insurance, coding and port fees. I also spent about £150,000 (and a lot of my own time) bringing her back to almost as-new condition. This meant that when I sold her, I managed to recoup enough to cover all those costs and the original purchase price, so my four years of ownership didn’t end up costing me a penny!

Even if it had, nothing can describe the pride and delight in owning such a unique and well-loved vessel. The four-and-a-half years we owned her flew by and but for circumstances we would still be on her today.

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