Tell us something about previous boats you’ve owned?
I actually owned the first Sunseeker in the US – a Sunseeker 55 Camargue. There was a dealer in New York who I knew from racing and he told me I had to check out the Sunseeker brand. At the time I was building a race boat with Cougar in the UK and went to the Sunseeker yard and loved what I saw. The Camargue was a great boat and I kept it for a year-and-a-half, then sold it for more than I had paid for it! From there I moved up to a 64 flybridge motor yacht, then an 80-foot Baia, and then a 110 Horizon. I must say I learned something from owning all of them. Then came the 40-metre Oasis. You know, you get that 5-foot-a-year disease… It doesn’t always happen on an annual basis, but sometimes you save it up and 5-feet becomes 20!
Boat of the Week: This Sleek 131-Foot Superyacht Has a Wheelhouse That’s Straight Out of a Sci-Fi Flick Michael Verdon
The owner of
Rebeca, Benetti’s first 131-foot Oasis 40M, is a rare breed of waterman. Tim Ciasulli is both boater
and yachtsman. Typically, the two only cross paths at the dock, the boater wind-blown and sunburned from bouncing around the ocean, and the yachtie looking like he just emerged from a spa. They are two very different worlds that Ciasulli navigates quite easily.
Ciasulli, who owns Planet Honda and several other businesses in New Hampshire, grew up on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey, developing the water gene at a young age. “I was always attracted to speed on the water,” he says. “When I was in sixth grade, my parents bought me a 13-foot Boston Whaler, which was marketed as unsinkable.” He sank two by running them so hard and fast in big waves on the lake the transoms fell off. “My parents refused to buy a third,” he says