The Rothbergs spend 14 to 16 weeks a year on their yacht. Last summer’s cruise included the U.K., France and the Netherlands.58YACHTINGFE BRUA RY2 01 8THE ADVENTURER’S DNA
The owner of the Amels 180 Gene Machine has a bite-out-of-life attitude that spurs on his globe-trotting goals.
By Kelley SanfordA
family awakens to a crisp, beautiful August
morning. The temperature is hovering in the low 40s,
the sun is shining, and the view out their window is
breathtaking. That’s because it’s of the glaciers in
Arctic Norway’s Svalbard Islands. And the window? It’s in the
salon of their 180-foot Amels Limited Editions, Gene Machine.
¶ Who knows what adventure today could bring? They might
see a polar bear hunting, or feed a blue whale. A lot is possible
in this icy frontier, on their cruise of a lifetime. ¶ The yacht
and family belong to Jonathan Rothberg, a cruising enthusiast
whose love of the water goes way back. “My family has been a
boating family since I was a child,” he says, describing their early
cruising aboard a 25-footer and, later, chartering bareboats
with his brother. In the early 2000s, Rothberg ’s parents gotjimmy jonesCURRENTS NAUTICAL LIFE