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The Monaco Yacht Show, a
cosmopolitan crossroads if ever there was one, was a fitting location to debut
Burger Boat Company’s first emissary to the Middle East. Mirgab V, which
departed from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, July 27, on her maiden voyage, was now
closer to her home than to her birthplace.
It is no stretch to say that Mirgab V is a metaphor for
the global nature and geopolitical openness of today’s megayacht world. While
hostile actions fomented by cultural and religious intolerance grabbed
September’s news headlines, pitting pope against mullah and Arab against Jew,
Monaco serenely hosted the world at a glittering yacht show whose dates this
year spanned both Rosh Hashanah and the beginning of Ramadan. The United Nations
could take a tip about the power of a shared enthusiasm.
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Top: Shimmering glass steps fan out around the glass
elevator. Bottom: The main salon. The distance from the aft-deck door to the
owner’s suite forward is an impressive 60 feet. Photography by Dana Jinkins. (Click images to enlarge)
The confluence of Ramadan and Rosh Hashanah was brought about
by the coincidental collision of two ancient calendars. The joining of a Middle
Eastern yachting family and a Middle American boatbuilder was not coincidence,
but design—literally—the design of a magazine display advertisement.
Operating more than 1,000 high-visibility shops in a retail
empire stretching from the Persian Gulf to Russia, Mirgab V’s owners are
no strangers to the power of a well-planned, thoughtful ad campaign. To replace
its 100-foot Falcon motor yacht, the family first widened its search beyond
Europe, and then narrowed its focus to shipyards demonstrating pedigree and
tradition, as well as a willingness to build something fresh and special.
Top: Photograph by Dana Jinkins. Bottom: Photograph by Matthieu Carlin. (Click images to enlarge)
Burger Boat Company, whose rapidly modernizing shipyard on Lake
Michigan carries the mantle of a 143-year tradition of American yachtbuilding,
has one of the most thought provoking ad campaigns of recent memory. Once
the reformed company proved it could build solid boats, Burger’s ad campaign
began targeting the imaginative customer who would engage the yard to build a
boat capable of sparkling on the world stage. When Burger’s ad caught the
attention of an Arab yachtsman, it was as if the stars aligned. From a magazine
ad to a boat show to a shipyard tour to contract, no lecture at the Wharton
School could have crafted a better example of matching customer to product.
Twenty-nine months later, something "fresh and special" was gently lowered onto
Lake Michigan.
At Mirgab V’s May 6 launching ceremony, the son of
the family patriarch seemed truly touched by the turnout for the yacht’s launch.
The mayor presented him with a key to the city, and more than a thousand
well-wishers turned out to see the largest boat ever to carry the Burger brand.
The original link between his homeland and America had been forged in battle;
this new link forged in craftsmanship was immeasurably more pleasant. And as the
son complimented his father’s vision in beginning the yacht project at the
not-insignificant age of 78, it is interesting to note that, in Arabic, "mirgab"
means a hill or other vantage point with a surrounding view. Their ancestral
village had been a mirgab, and the towering tri-deck Mirgab V would
continue that role. For those who see an image of a raised-pilothouse motor yacht
when hearing the name Burger, Mirgab V requires a new mind-set. At 144
feet (43.9 meters) and 392 tons displacement, she is a big boat; or, as Burger
project manager Mike Donovan said, the magnitude of the job was like building a
pair of raised-pilothouse yachts simultaneously. Mirgab’s voluminous
28-foot beam supports this rationale and enables tankage for transoceanic
range.
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