A royal Sweep
Inventor James Dyson, and a yacht that connects him with humility, home, and the most famous abdication to the throne Words: Danny Bowman
F
or a man whose ingenuity, craft and eye for technological innovation has made him not just globally renowned, but a multi-billionaire – his reported worth is £7billion – James Dyson’s yacht is something of antique innocence.
The luxury vessel, Nahlin, which was made in 1930, doesn’t come with any of the swirls or swishes of modern craft that dominate the wide sea horizons. Nor does it boast a girthy engine required to power a floating party venue.
Instead, the 75-year-old inventor’s yacht is an exercise in temperance, style and finesse – worthy of royalty you might say. In fact, in the late-summer of 1936, it was chartered by King Edward III, who took the yacht out to Novigrad Bay in Yugoslavia, with American Wallis Simpson.
Edward had only been King for seven months, and by Christmas 1936, he would abdicate the throne.
Some iconic images of Edward and Wallis on the yacht were caught by a Belgrade photographer, who disguised himself as a fisherman to capture the early parts of a story that would unravel as the year continued, rocking the royal family to its core.
In 1937, the yacht was purchased by King Carol II of Romania, and in later life the John Brown and Company (of Clydebank) craft continued to steer a course away from the front pages of British newspapers. It became a floating restaurant, was displayed on the Danube as part of a nautical museum, and went through various other owners before Dyson purchased it from JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford, in 2006.
“I never really thought I would be the sort of person to own a yacht,” begins the entrepreneur, whose eponymous brand has revolutionised the way we clean, tidy, heat, cool and organise our homes.
“I grew up in Cromer, midway up on the western coast of England. It’s a seaside town, very charming, very unassuming, and that certainly fuelled my love of the sea, of its ruggedness and roughness, and that feeling of reaching out, embarking on a project and finding something,”
It might be supposed the similarities are clear between Dyson’s exploration of invention, and his desire to sail uncharted territory, even if his formative years were spent in locations somewhat further from the coast – London, notably; and he now owns a sprawling estate in Gloucestershire, in the south-west of England.
“I think when you are of an outward-looking mind, that feeling of treading a new path is hugely exciting,” he says. “I know many businesses that do very well by replicating an existing project, albeit doing it better. That was never of interest to me – for me it had to be something original, something that solved a problem.”
In that respect, his yacht – which is a 300ft, six-bedroomed beauty that also has a traditional dining area, library, ladies’ sitting room (possibly at the insistence of Wallis Simpson) and gym – is the antithesis of innovative. Its top speed is 17 knots, and as it sails its way towards a century on the seas, even a full refurbishment upon its purchase over 15 years ago hasn’t taken away its shimmering and sympathetic appeal as it glides across the eye with all the grace of a Mississippi steamboat.
22 | WINTER 2023 | ONBOARD
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