OWNERS’ CLUBSunrise,” Cohen says. “It was a dance that went on for
probably 18 months.”
It was only after meeting Benetti, and being shown
a concept drawn by Dutch designer Cor D Rover, his
first collaboration with the Italian yard, that the fog
lifted and their vision took shape. “We looked at that
and we said, ‘Wow, that is spectacular,’” Cohen says.
That vision now lies just beyond Seasense’s main salon
doors: an aft deck that does indeed make you think
“wow.” The 32ft pool is magnificent and was a key part
of the thinking. “When we had the other boat, and
when people are on boats or cruise ships, there’s a point
when you want to get off, when you want to go to a
beach, or you want to go to a swimming pool,” Cohen
says. “And we felt that why, after investing this kind of
time and money, should we feel like a poor relation and
not be able to enjoy swimming on our own boat?”
This is why what started, in Cohen’s head at least, as
a 140ft boat ended up being half as long again. “I
dragged the swimming pool out of the shadow of the
overhang, because I thought, that’s not outdoors. That’s
like an indoor pool. I want a pool that’s out[doors], and
as I kept pulling, the boat kept getting stretched.”
The pool, the deck, the loungers, the louvers, the
misting system, the space – the Cohens have all they
need to hardly ever go ashore. “It’s really got everything
that you would find in a great seaside resort – a pool
that overlooks the sea,” Cohen says.
At home in New York, or in Connecticut on
weekends, they like to relax. “We watch movies at
home, we drink our wine at home. We don’t entertain
with a lot of people.” Movies and wine are particularly
important to him. In high school he made short films
and dreamed of being a director. “That was my
generation. We wanted to make the great American
film. The generation before me wanted to write the
great American novel.” But after majoring in English
and then going to law school he couldn’t make it
happen. “I tried to get a job after law school working
for an entertainment law firm in New York but I
couldn’t break in.”
His father had come to New York from Virginia and
set up a property company, building factories,
apartments and offices. Cohen joined the family firm
aged 29, eventually taking over from his father. It has
been a huge success, quadrupling in square footage
under his control.
Film-watching and film-making are serious
passions. In 2008 he was the executive producer for the
Oscar-nominated, Sundance-winning Frozen River.
That same year he founded Cohen Media Group,
through which he distributes restored classic films
such as the Merchant Ivory collection, which he
acquired in 2015. Some of these play at Cohen’s newly
revamped Quad Cinema, which was New York’s first
multiscreen cinema when it opened in 1972. “I hadThe 32ft pool on the
aft deck is
Seasense’s wow
factor. And the color
blue reinforces the
boat’s relationship
with the sea96