Secret

Sorgiovanni lines on a German hull

Secret brought together an unusual pairing, the sculptural, ocean-liner curves of Australian designer Sam Sorgiovanni and the sober engineering culture of Lemwerder. At 82.5 metres she was among the largest yachts the yard had delivered when she left the Weser in 2013, and her sweeping sheer and softly raked superstructure still read as classic at anchor a decade on, with no hint of a dated period piece.

The exterior conceals a thoroughly conventional and well-proven platform underneath, steel hull, aluminium superstructure and a beam of 12.4 metres. That conservatism was deliberate. The brief asked for a long-legged, comfortable world cruiser dressed in memorable lines, and the yard's response was to put the drama above the waterline and keep everything below it boringly dependable, which is the combination brokers love ten years later.

Volume arranged for guests

At 2,240 GT, Secret carries her volume across decks arranged for a full guest complement, sleeping 12 in seven staterooms with a crew of 23 to run the operation. The ratio of crew to guests is the quiet number that matters on a yacht like this, nearly two to one, which is what full silver service across an 82 metre platform actually requires.

An elevator connects the decks, and the amenity list runs through a cinema, a gym, a massage room and generous spa facilities, with two large tenders housed for guest operations. None of it is exotic by today's standards, which is rather the point. Secret represents the mature, fully sorted expression of the classic large motor yacht, every system in the place where a professional crew expects to find it.

Drama above the waterline, dependability below it. Ten years on, that is still the combination brokers ask for.

Renewed at the five-year mark

Secret went through a significant refit in 2018, five years into her life, the interval at which a well-managed large yacht renews itself. Interiors were refreshed and systems updated while the yacht kept her essential character. For a buyer surveying the brokerage market, a documented refit history from a disciplined ownership matters nearly as much as the original build yard's name on the plate.

Her subsequent life confirms the care. Secret has run consistent charter seasons through leading houses, a demanding schedule that exposes any weakness in a yacht within a few months. Vessels that charter well and survey well at the same time are rarer than the listings suggest, and Secret's record in both columns is the practical translation of what Abeking & Rasmussen build quality means over time.

Ocean legs and honest numbers

Twin Caterpillar engines totalling around 4,000 hp drive Secret to a top speed of 16.5 knots, with an easy cruise at 14 and a range in the region of 5,000 nautical miles. Those are unspectacular figures on paper and exactly right in service, sized for Atlantic crossings and long Mediterranean and Caribbean seasons without stressing the machinery.

The engineering philosophy is visible in the operating record. Caterpillar mains are a deliberate choice for worldwide support, and the yard's installation standards mean the engine rooms of its yachts tend to pass survey with short snag lists. An owner buying at this level is buying running costs and reliability curves as much as staterooms, and Secret's were established by a builder that also answers to navies.

The brokerage case

Secret has traded on the open market, with her sale reported by the international trade press, and she has remained in demand as a charter yacht throughout. That liquidity is worth dwelling on. The pool of buyers for 80 metre yachts is small, and the ones writing cheques gravitate to a handful of pedigree names their surveyors and captains already trust.

Abeking & Rasmussen sits firmly inside that circle, and Secret is the demonstration hull. She offers a buyer the rare middle path, a fully custom German yacht of serious scale, already built, already proven, available for a fraction of the time and money a new build at Lemwerder would command. For owners who want the pedigree without the four-year wait, this is what it looks like.

Now sailing as Sea Pearl

The yacht built and delivered as Secret in 2013 no longer carries that name. Nancy Walton Laurie, a Walmart heiress and philanthropist, was her first owner and kept her for roughly five years before the 2018 refit. Industry reporting on her commission notes that Laurie had owned an earlier, smaller Secret of 61.2 metres beforehand, which was itself renamed Majestic once the larger yacht replaced it, a naming pattern experienced owners commissioning a bigger successor sometimes follow. A 2022 sale, introduced by Andrew Bond at Fraser and handled by Matt Emerson at Burgess, saw her renamed Sea Pearl, the name under which Boat International, SuperyachtTimes, YachtCharterFleet and Yacht Harbour all now list her. A reader searching only for Secret will miss most of what has been written about her since, including her own current specification pages, so this page notes the rename as prominently as the original name it was written under.

SuperYachtFan reports the current owner as Sri Prakash Lohia, the Indonesia-based Indian industrialist behind the Indorama petrochemicals group, though no broker or the yard has confirmed that identification, so a careful reader should treat the name as reported rather than settled fact. Current Sea Pearl-era listings also describe her as a private yacht rather than an active charter vessel, which conflicts with the charter activity this page describes above; that description reflects her pre-2022 history under her original name and should be read as historical rather than current. Whichever name a broker or database uses, the underlying hull, her 2018 refit and her Sorgiovanni exterior have not changed.

Para quién es: A buyer who wants proven Abeking & Rasmussen scale on the brokerage market, with charter income and a documented refit behind it.