ShowBoats International — May 2017

MAY 2017 WWW.BOATINTERNATIONAL.COM

PHOTOGRAPHS: JEFF BROWN

MAY 2017

OWNERS’ CLUB

“When I was a baby and my father was

trying to start his technology business

from our kitchen in Brazil, he told my

mother: ‘When I make it we are going to

get a boat.’ My mother laughed out loud and told him

to ‘keep rocking the baby,’” says the vivacious Brazilian

Sabina Nasser. Fast forward more than 30 years and it

appears that her father has had the last laugh. I am

sitting with the then baby, Sabina, and her younger

brother Roy on the sundeck of their 142 foot

Mondomarine yacht Bina, watching the sun set across

Gustavia harbor in St Barths, after three days cruising

the surrounding islands.

Superyacht ownership may have started as their

father’s vision but Bina is the realization of a family

dream. “We weren’t born into this,” says Sabina. “This

happened as the result of ambition, hard work and

good luck together.” Hard work is clearly something

that no members of the family are allowed to avoid –

and both siblings have achieved success in their own

right. In 2001 Roy co-founded the software company

NeoAssist, and his commercial spirit has seen him

recognized by Endeavor, a worldwide organization that

aims to increase entrepreneurship worldwide,

especially in developing countries. Sabina now focuses

on managing the family’s property and assets from

New York but her background is in neurology (she

specialized in AIDS and Parkinson’s disease research).

Despite being a family affair, not all Nassers fell in

love with sailing at the same time. Roy’s introduction

<

Sabina (left, with

Roy) knew that

142ft Bina was the

yacht she wanted

to buy the first time

she boarded her

<

The extensive refit

gave Bina a modern

Hamptons beach

house feel. Every

detail was

considered with

both style and

practicality in mind

ON BOARD WITH

Roy and

Sabina

Nasser

From kitchen dreams to custom

build quarrels, siblings Sabina and

Roy Nasser talk Sophia Wilson

through their path to family

superyacht ownership

was an unpleasant one, on Lake Geneva aged

eight. “We used to spend the summer in

Switzerland with my grandmother,” he says, “and

I was annoying her so much by taking everything

apart in the house that she ordered my mother to

get me out. So I was sent to sailing school. It was

cold as hell that summer and the teacher was

mean. I learned to sail but I came home crying

every night.” A week sailing Hobie Cats in St Barths

later that year managed to lure him back to the water.

The path to Bina has also been a winding one. The

Nassers’ first foray into yacht ownership was in 2001

with a 43 foot Ferretti. Shortly afterwards they traded

up to a 52 foot Pershing before opting to custom build

a 79 footer. “Building her from scratch was an

incredible experience,” says Sabina. “She is for sale

now but she is very much a part of our lives.”

It might have been incredible but the siblings are the

first to admit that it wasn’t always straightforward. “My

mom actually threatened to pull the plug on the whole

thing because my dad and I were having constant

fights,” Roy laughs. “In the end we both realized that it

was better to not fight and have the boat.”

The Nassers’ yacht progression has been deliberately

gradual. “When you first buy a yacht there is a big

chance you are going to buy a yacht you are not going

to like. The bigger the yacht, the bigger the problem.

We were very conscious not to make that mistake,”

explains Roy. It was not until 2011 that the family

started looking for their first superyacht. “We were not

looking for anything as big at first,” says Sabina. “We

were looking at around 105 feet. We saw a 125 footer and

it seemed crazy.”

Below: a comfortable

couch for napping

was a priority

“We weren’t

born into this.

This happened

as the result of

ambition, hard

work and good

luck together”

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