YV&C International Yacht Vacations & Charters Magazine reports:

The Mia Elise. She is 180 feet of sheerest ocean-going poetry. Imagining that your charter aboard her is an Elizabethan sonnet; the first quatrain is her classic opulence, the second her state-of-the-art outfitting and the third the impeccable professionalism of her crew. The closing couplet is comprised of the perfect, indelible memories you will savor of an absolutely unsurpassable yachting experience, rhyming beauteously into your future.



Built by Trinity Yachts, Mia Elise launched in February of 2005 at the New Orleans shipyard. Seventy years had passed since a yacht of such dimensions and capacities launched in the United States. Trinity Chairman Felix S. Sabates, Jr. has said: “It was an exciting and proud moment for the Trinity personnel, ushering in a new era of American yacht building. Yacht owners around the world now have a viable, American-made, world class alternative to the finest European builds in full-displacement steel hull motor yachts.”

Star designer Dee Robinson left no diamond unturned in fulfilling the owner’s vision of an ultra-luxurious vessel appointed in the classic manner. She logged more than 3,000 hours in perfecting this ship, and says it was “an extreme team effort” in which she worked with recognized authorities in all relevant specialties. From the six staterooms with en suite baths to the main salon, formal dining room and the sky lounge, the Mia Elise positively sings with an artist’s voice.

Speaking of art, the owner selected the pieces gracing this yacht as the finishing touch of elegance. Working with both Dee Robinson and Lisa Levin of the New River Gallery in Ft. Lauderdale, he exercised discerning taste, beautifying the Mia Elise with paintings and sculptures by eminent artists. Beyond Chagall’s “La Carousel du Louvre” and a Picasso etching are an acrylic-and-bronze work by Frederick Heart, (who created the Three Servicemen Statue at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.), and works by M.L. Snowdon, Daniel McDermott and Villanova-Royo.

A custom-made, 600+ pound Schonbek crystal chandelier is suspended over the Mia Elise’s formal dining table, mounted directly to the overhead structural beams, its every crystal specially attached for stability at sea. The dining room textiles are from Ferragamo’s Blue Home line. Rich woods are used throughout the yacht and the ceilings are hard overheads with applied moldings, as seen in the fedships of a golden age.  To give you an idea of how truly, no effort was spared to make the Mia Elise utterly exquisite, consider that to enhance the application of those hard overheads, Dee Robinson commissioned the Majilite Corporation to develop a material to surround the painted panels, with the stipulation that the material have a color, sheen and smoothness identical to them.

In keeping with the Classic design scheme, period design furniture for the Mia Elise was custom-made in Italy by Baker, Knapp and Tubbs. Dee stresses that Deetails, Deetails, Deetails are vital to the harmonious impression made by the ship’s design elements. That little orthographic play is mine, though. Of her working method Miss Robinson says: “I try to listen, learn and apply my best talents with the help of a few hundred experts who make me look good every time.”

Imagine that the details in question include a holographic fireplace in the owner’s stateroom. Bathrooms are equipped with heated marble floors and heated towel bars. There is a separate refrigerator for flowers so that on each day of a Caribbean or Mediterranean cruise one is able to enjoy fresh heliconia, nasturtium and peonies.

Dee is particularly proud of having achieved so fine a design result in full compliance with Maritime and Coastguard Agency safety regulations. Doing so was sometimes a challenge... she had to change a certain wall sconce because it protruded from the wall just far enough that two people shoulder to shoulder would not have been able to pass together in the event of an emergency ...yet she ultimately made no aesthetic sacrifices.

Paramount to a yacht charter vacation, of course, is five-star gourmet food service. The Mia Elise galley is a chef’s wildest dream of luxury come true, and then improved upon. Within the galley, the chef has his own kitchen area, designed to give him 360o accesses to double ovens, grills, a griddle, warming drawers, a cappuccino machine and a dedicated undercover freezer for sorbets, among other deluxe features.

The ideal outfitting extends to the formal dining room where a Eurocave wine cellar is incorporated into the millwork and covered by grotto-like wrought iron gates reminiscent of the wrought iron railing on the Mia Elise’s tri-level staircase.  A dumbwaiter facilitates service from the main to the upper decks, and there is a supplementary prep station accessible via concealed staircases for the crew.

The Australian Stephan von Loggerenberg is the passionate master chef who dazzles with the magic he performs in this realm.  Raised in Australia in a family of refined culinary culture, he remembers that his parents educated him “through food, thus opening the door to color, sound, smell, taste and just about everything that makes you feel you are alive.”   

Chef von Loggerenberg has to his credit many caviar creations, among them tempura lobster with Petrossian Tsar imperial beluga caviar and key lime mayonnaise, and a tian of seared scallops, cucumber and basil served on beluga 000 blinis and a beetroot glaze. A perfectionist about procuring the finest, freshest caviar, he recalls one time this past summer when the Mia Elise’s guests wanted a particular beluga caviar. He relates that following several phone calls to his caviar contact in France and a helicopter ride from Bonifacio, Corsica to Rome and back, he was able to offer the desired beluga, served at sunset in the port of Bonifacio. Life is sweet!

Chef von Loggerenberg starts each day of a charter early, shopping local markets for the finest and freshest of regional products. He also relies on many proven contacts in the procurement of specialty items. To test his preparedness for fulfilling exotic requests, I asked what he would do if on a Mia Elise charter in the Caribbean, the touring party unexpectedly requested an ostrich egg omelet filled with manchego cheese, capers and pancetta, and lavishly adorned with shaved white truffles.