M/Y Elandess is 74.5m LOA, 13.0m beam, 4.0m draft, 1,994 GT, built Abeking & Rasmussen 2019 with a Reichel/Pugh hull, Harrison Eidsgaard exterior, and Reymond Langton interior. Twelve guests in six cabins, 24 crew, hybrid diesel-electric propulsion, top speed of 17.5 knots and a transatlantic range of 5,000 nautical miles at 12 knots. She is not on the charter market in May 2026 and to our knowledge has not been on the charter market at any point since delivery. If someone is quoting you a weekly rate, ask which broker holds the central agency and ask for written confirmation of charter availability before a deposit clears.
We profile Elandess anyway because she comes up in the charter-shopping conversation often enough that the question is worth answering once, properly.
Why she gets asked about
She has shown publicly at the Monaco Yacht Show in 2019 and at subsequent events, which puts her on the charter-shopper's mental shortlist. The exterior styling by Harrison Eidsgaard is the most distinctive in the 70 to 80m Abeking range, and the observation lounge forward on the bridge deck (the so-called "snow room") is photographed more than any other single feature on a 2019 build. She presents like a charter yacht. She is not one.
The pattern with high-profile private yachts at this size is well established. Owners build the yacht for personal use, run her on a private flag for the first three to five years, and then either list her for sale, place her on selective charter through a central agent, or continue private operation indefinitely. Elandess is in the third category as of May 2026.
What she actually is
Three things distinguish her in the 70 to 80m, hybrid, 2019-2022 build window.
The first is the hull and naval architecture. Reichel/Pugh is not a typical superyacht naval architect. The studio is best known for grand prix sailing-yacht hulls (Comanche, Wild Oats XI). Bringing that team onto a 75m motor yacht produces a hull that is easier through the water than the average displacement Abeking. She holds her cruise speed at low fuel burn and behaves well in beam seas.
The second is the hybrid system. Diesel-electric on the original spec, with the option to run on generator-driven electric motors at low speed and on the main pair (MTU 16V 4000 M73L) at cruise and higher. The system is not the marketing trick that a few late-2010s yacht hybrid packages turned out to be. It works. Owners and charter clients who book hybrid-equipped yachts for the at-anchor quiet usually get what they came for here, on the rare weeks she has reportedly hosted guests other than the owner.
The third is the interior detail. Reymond Langton is restrained on this build. The materials are leather, white oak, brushed bronze, and natural stone, and the volumes feel European rather than American. There is no Vegas in the interior. There is no movie-screen master bedroom. The bridge-deck observation lounge ("snow room", "ice room", various nicknames depending on the journalist) is the rare yacht-design feature that delivers on the photograph in person.
The crew, the captain, the cadence
Crew is 24, which is at the upper end for a 75m motor yacht and reflects the standard set on a private yacht with high owner-use. The captain has run her since launch. Crew rotation is on the private-yacht cadence, which is typically 2-on/2-off for senior crew and 4-on/2-off for junior crew. Crew gratuity convention on a private yacht is not standardized in the way it is on a charter yacht, so we do not list one.
Why she does not charter
There is no single answer. The likely combination is that the owner uses her enough that opening the calendar to charter is not financially worth the disruption, the crew has been built around private operation rather than the rotating-guest tempo of a commercial yacht, and the insurance and flag-state structure has not been moved to a commercial register. Switching a private-flag yacht to commercial MCA-compliant operation is a 6 to 12 month process and involves more than paperwork. The crew has to be re-certified, the safety package upgraded in some cases, and the interior wear pattern from charter use is more aggressive than from owner use.
For charter clients, this matters in one specific way. A yacht that has never chartered has no charter reference list. There is no public record of how she handles 12 guests across a Mediterranean week, how the chef performs on a tight provisioning window, how the chief stew handles a difficult dietary brief, or how the captain responds when a guest wants the itinerary changed mid-week. All of these unknowns are known on a yacht like Madsummer or Lana and are not known on Elandess. A first charter on a yacht with no prior charter record is a meaningful risk premium.
Comparable yachts that do charter
For clients who liked the Elandess brief and want a real charter option, the closest comparables in the 70 to 80m Abeking and Abeking-adjacent set, all currently in the charter fleet:
- Cloudbreak, 73m Abeking, charters Mediterranean and Caribbean with reported ski-charter capability in winter Norway and Alaska. The closest emotional match.
- Amaryllis, 78m Abeking, charters Mediterranean. More conventional layout, larger guest count flexibility.
- Here Comes The Sun, 89m Amels (different yard but the size and feel are comparable), well-established charter record.
We would route the charter inquiry to Cloudbreak first if the priority is the explorer-style brief, and to Amaryllis if the priority is the conventional Mediterranean week.
What we would change about the conversation
The single thing we would change is how Elandess is presented in the charter-shopping channel. She is on no central agent's active list. She is on the Monaco Yacht Show floor every other year and in the yacht-press features regularly, which keeps her in the conversation. Brokers should not be quoting speculative weekly rates on a yacht that is not actually on the market. Clients should not be sending deposits against rates that do not reflect a contracted central agency.
If you are with a broker who quotes a rate on Elandess without naming the central agent and providing written availability, the broker is either guessing or sourcing the booking from an offshore intermediary. Ask for the central agent name in writing. If the broker cannot produce one, move to a different yacht.
Verdict on the underlying yacht
Elandess is the right kind of 75m if you ever do see her on the charter market. The hull is fast and dry. The hybrid is real. The interior holds up. The crew is large enough for the size class without being theatrical. The bridge-deck observation lounge is genuinely well-executed. If the owner ever lists her, the asking will sit in the €120M to €145M band based on comparable Abeking sales and the 2019 vintage.
In the meantime, charter clients should look at Cloudbreak and Amaryllis, both of which deliver most of what Elandess would deliver if she were available, with the addition of a known charter track record.
What the brokers will not tell you
Two pieces of background that the charter conversation skips.
First, the "Elandess" name has been used by Lloyd Dorfman across multiple yachts. The 75m Abeking is the third Elandess. The first was a smaller, and the second was a different build. The Heritage naming pattern is relevant if you are reading older charter coverage, because some pieces from the early 2010s on a yacht called Elandess refer to a different vessel entirely. Do not mix the references.
Second, the Abeking yard at Lemwerder has a small annual capacity (typically two large deliveries a year) and a long order book. New-build slot allocations through 2029 are reportedly committed. Anyone shopping for a new-build Abeking should plan for a 4 to 5 year delivery window from contract.
FAQ
Is Elandess on the charter market? Not as of May 2026. She has never been a regular charter yacht. Any rate quoted should be verified directly with a central agent before any deposit.
Who owns Elandess? Widely reported as Lloyd Dorfman, founder of Travelex. The ownership has not been confirmed via flag-state filing.
What is the snow room? A bridge-deck observation lounge with a low ambient temperature and full glass forward. It functions as an indoor viewing lounge with a noticeable temperature drop from the rest of the interior. Not a sauna and not a cold plunge. A lounge.
Where is Elandess kept? Her movements are tracked publicly via AIS when she is operating with AIS on. Typical Mediterranean season May to October, Caribbean and Atlantic crossings in winter, and Northern Europe in early summer in some years.
What flag does Elandess fly?
Could the owner be persuaded to charter her? This is the wrong question to ask. The right approach is to identify a yacht that is already in the charter fleet and book her, not to try to persuade an owner to convert a private yacht into a charter yacht for one week. The economics rarely work for the owner.