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Late Lands’ End founder Gary Comer equipped his 209-foot Royal Denship for pleasure, as well as for climate research.
by Bill Ando
photography by Jim Raycroft and Kristina Strobel
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10/01/2007
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| Royal Denship 209 |  |
Turmoil, the 209-foot (64-meter) yacht built for the late
Lands’ End founder Gary Comer and launched last year by Denmark’s Royal Denship,
is as much a research vessel pursuing the causes and effects of abrupt climate
change as it is a family yacht. Taking a rapid 12-day trip in 2001 through the
Northwest Passage—an east-west sea route connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific
that is normally frozen but for a few days each season—aboard his previous
Turmoil, a 151-foot 1996 Palmer Johnson-built expedition yacht, opened
Comer’s eyes. He likened it to having a front row seat to global warming and was
inspired to found the Comer Abrupt Climate Change Fellowship. Each August, for
two months, as the ice begins its melt along the coast of Greenland, Turmoil
hosts scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, UC Irvine,
Columbia University, the University of Maine and Penn State to study the
changing Arctic climate.
 Photograph by Kristina Strobel. (Click image to enlarge)
For the new Turmoil, the climate change mission remains
a priority. That is why, in addition to her spacious guest and crew quarters,
dedicated owner’s deck and hand-selected American cherry interior, Turmoil
has a wet lab. It is equipped so scientists’ air and water samples, taken
even while under way, can be analyzed and the results sent back to their
laboratories. Going aft, a lecture room where the scientists can compare
notes is equipped with a large plasma screen, a conference table and wireless
Internet connectivity. It also serves as a game and computer room.
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Philip Walsh, who was Comer’s captain since 1997 and served as
build captain and owner’s rep, says Comer built Turmoil because his
family was growing and the previous vessel was just not big enough. Comer saw
the lines of a boat that appealed to him on the Website of the late designer Tom
Fexas. He started the yacht’s design process in the summer of 2003.
 Much of the yacht’s luxurious furniture,
including the gold sofas in the main salon, was brought in from the owner’s
previous Turmoil. Photograph by Jim Raycroft. (Click image to enlarge)
Turmoil started out at 168 feet, recalls Wyatt Huggins,
operations manger at Tom Fexas Yacht Design. The design went through a few
length changes before Comer decided on what would be the realized length of 209
feet.
Walsh says that in a search for the proper yard, Royal Denship
quoted a two-year build time while other yards quoted three years. The build
contract was signed with Royal Denship in February 2004.
Although Turmoil is a utility vessel, Comer’s sailor’s
eye for sweet lines would not be denied. The yacht’s slightly sloping sheer,
flared bow, tumblehome on all decks and the compound curves of her cabin sides
are subtle aesthetic touches. Combined, they take the edge off the commercial
look usually inherent in this style of yacht and give the boat an external
ambiance and appeal reflective of her interior. Huggins says Fexas Design
fleshed out the concept, and then OSK-ShipTech in Denmark refined the lines
and transferred them to 3-D models.
Although the boat is constructed out of steel and aluminum and
is built to Lloyd’s Full Ice Class 1C rating, most of her superstructure
is steel. Only the bridge deck and the decks above it are of aluminum. Anders
Hansen, director of OSK-ShipTech, recalls that Comer wanted as spacious an
interior as the 40-foot beam would allow.
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