Planet Nine's many adventures, Hollywood included

The British-born financier and his family have used the yacht as a home, spending weeks at a time on board – and longer during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was almost always for holidays. One exception was a detour to New York for a business trip.

Dockage at the Brooklyn Marina, fuel from Gibraltar to New York and on to St Barths proved to be cheaper than a week’s stay in a suite at the Carlyle on East 76th Street for each of his family. “That tells you something about New York hotel prices, don’t you think?” he says with a laugh. And perhaps something of the yacht’s fuel efficiency.

Yes, there were visits to St Barths, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos, but some of the most memorable trips weren’t on the typical yacht itineraries: Albania, the Seychelles, the Maldives, Patagonia, Fernando de Noronha – a hard-to-reach island off Brazil that Lord Rothschild describes as “incredibly beautiful, rather basic and full of hippies” – and art collector Jean Pigozzi’s private island of Simca in Panama: “truly a James Bond island, incredibly remote and unbelievably beautiful”.

Patagonia also left a lasting impression. First getting to Argentina, Planet Nine had to again prove her mettle in six- to seven-metre seas for eight hours straight. In Patagonia: “We almost immediately reached a different world of glaciers reaching to the edge of the sea, whales, seals and continuous ice floes,” Rothschild says.

“We disembarked the yacht every day for hikes along deserted beaches or ventured inland, although the terrain was invariably wet and boggy. It was extremely cold. We swam in fjords after using the steam room, daily. We saw nobody except for a beautiful single-masted sailing boat in the distance.”

At the antipode of this experience are the Greek islands where Rothschild grew up and which remain among his favourites. “If I were to pick one incredible island I would recommend Kythira, the forgotten Ionian Island. The southern coast reminds me of Scotland,” he says.

And Greece’s appeal is one of the reasons Planet Nine is now on the market. “My wife and I have recently inherited a large property in Greece, and it’s time to go back to land,” he says.

But letting go of their home on the water, he admits, could prove difficult. Aside from extended trips with the family aboard, Planet Nine has taken multiple trips with charter guests, from Antarctica to Bermuda and Cuba. Although planned for both warm and cold climates – she has a beach club as well as a “boot room” – in Antarctica she was in her element with her ice belt and helicopter.

“At one point south of King George Island, we encountered an iceberg that had broken off the continent and was tens of kilometres long – among the largest recorded at that time,” says Williamson. “The landscape is spectacular and generally hostile from a human point of view, with very few places that are safe to land. The marine life is abundant with seals, whales, penguins and so on in constant view.”

During those years, the yacht also had a starring role in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Tenet – an extended charter along the Amalfi Coast, serving as a stand-in for Vietnam in the film – which perfectly filled a gap during owners’ trips. That explains the 115,000-plus nautical miles (without an extended Pacific trip) the 73-metre explorer yacht has travelled since leaving Marina di Carrara, Italy, six years ago.

A few months ago she was back in Italy, at the Amico Shipyard in Genoa, undergoing the last stages of a multimillion refit under the guidance of Williamson, who has been instrumental in Planet Nine’s adventures since her construction resumed at The Italian Sea Group’s facility in Marina di Carrara.

I visited Amico on a sunny day. Planet Nine’s mast was at the end of a taut line being returned to its rightful place as the crowning feature of a newly painted arch above the refinished sundeck. The sun touched the fresh new paint, a lighter grey than the original, which was applied to the hull and parts of the superstructure, highlighting the sturdy features that designer Tim Heywood gave this purpose-built Ice Class explorer.

“Timeless and crisp” were the original directives for the design, based on three inspirations: the Amels adventure yacht Maupiti – custom-built for experienced cruisers – Pigozzi’s former Amazon Express, a conversion to an expedition yacht, and the Lürssen Ice.

Of course, practical considerations, including a commercially certified helipad that can handle a twin-engine Agusta Grand and a hangar below, dictated much of the exterior. Planet Nine operates with an easier-to-maintain and nimbler Notar MD600 craft and has space for massive tenders. These sturdy Swedish-built 33ft Rupert RIB chase boats were central to the operation and Lord Rothschild is known to drive them to the next bay wherever they stop.

He is no novice. “I’ve been driving boats for 40 years. My first boat was a 21ft [6.4-metre] Phantom with a 200-horsepower two-stroke Mercury that I bought in the early 1990s. Today I am more grown up. Jean Pigozzi taught me you need oversized tenders, and they need to be easy to launch,” he says.

“That is one reason why Planet Nine is such an interesting yacht: the size of the heli hangar allows you to have two enormous tenders in bays with overhead gantry cranes making launching in rough weather relatively straightforward.

This capacity proved useful during a deep-sea rescue of a sailing boat in distress in the mid-Atlantic. Seen from the ground, she is massive and a look under the hull is instructive as to her impeccable cruising credentials; a big centre keel, anti-roll bilge keels on either sides, massive propellers and a pump jet stern thruster are evident on the aft section.

“We have dynamic positioning, Rolls-Royce steering, which is a brilliant choice along with the Quantum stabilisers, and Schottel bow and stern thrusters,” says Williamson. “There is nothing you can’t do with this boat.” The hull itself, which was tank tested at MARIN at the time of construction, has proved her worth.

Relief captain Phil Atkinson had a mechanical issue in the Bahamas during the pandemic and there was no way to fix it. Rather than remain stuck, and confident in his charge’s abilities, he decided to head back home. “He did the Atlantic crossing on one engine running at 900rpm at something like 10 knots,” Williamson says. “The point really is the confidence we have in the boat.”

The refit did not do much to the bridge, but all mechanicals were reviewed bottom to top. The teak decks are like new, and the interior by acclaimed designer Tino Zervudachi received a refresh in a few areas. “[Planet Nine] has one of the most elegant and liveable interiors I have seen on any yacht of her size. Welcoming rather than flashy, she combines functionality with style,” says Fraser broker Stuart Larsen, who has been involved with the boat since 2017.

As far as I can tell, the crew has taken immaculate care of the interior as well, which comes alive with whimsical art and ship models. The space is amazing, allowing an easy flow through the rooms and decks.

Among details I notice are the big red rotary phones – rigged to work with today’s software – and lots of books. Although Planet Nine has a comprehensive entertainment system by Lavie, it is discreet, and she offers an escape from the digital age without being a throwback to Lord Nelson.

The yacht is also very interesting in her layout and very high gross tonnage for the length – more typical of an 80-plus-metre yacht at 2,189GT. This is in part due to the engine room being on the under lower deck. The headroom, which is up to 2.3 metres at its highest, adds to the spacious feel.

The crew quarters and service areas are appropriate and of the efficient crew galley, the captain says “nothing short of amazing has come out of there. If you want to cook in Antarctica in a rough sea, you don’t want to roll around a big galley,” Williamson adds.

However, most of the gross tonnage has gone to the guest area, which includes an observation lounge on the upper deck with a guest office, a cinema, a library/conference room part of the owner’s deck, a VIP cabin on the bridge deck aft and six lower-deck guest cabins (one is designated as a staff cabin), all connected by a lift.

There is also an inside/outside space adjacent to the heli-deck, which opens on all sides, and affords an unusual and very liveable area.

Her elegant volumes are the reason she caught the attention of Christopher Nolan and crew for Tenet. “Chris wanted the biggest yacht in the world. They passed us over a couple of times,” Williamson says. But they found themselves in the neighbourhood, which gave the captain the chance to do a new pitch. “I did my best sales job and Nolan agreed to come look at it.”

That’s all he had to do. “During the filming we had up to 100 film crew on the boat at any one time, which gives an idea of the scale of the production, and it was quite a logistical challenge. Our helicopter was painted in a special temporary paint just for the filming,” he says, keeping the best stories to himself due to an NDA.

Lord Rothschild never did get through the movie. “I tried it for 30 minutes and couldn’t understand what was going on,” he says, which is not such an uncommon experience. The film may have raised the yacht’s profile, but he was not too impressed with the production team’s lack of understanding of how charters work.

“They never left a tip for the crew who worked their guts out to make the movie a success,” he says. The crew, experienced, professional and discreet, did not mention that. What came through during my visit was their allegiance to (and dare I say love for) Planet Nine. She does seem to operate on a higher plane.

First published in the October 2024 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.