Wandering the Waterfront

Sometimes delayed flights can be a blessing. I was driving around the perimeter of the Ft. Lauderdale airport, dreading an inevitable security pat down and hours spent slouched in a tiny gate-side seat, flanked by cellphone-swiping holiday travelers and screaming babies alike when from the corner of my eye I spotted the sign for Derecktor Shipyards ( www.derecktor.com). I cut the wheel, making a needle-sharp U-turn, causing my girlfriend to point to the GPS and shout, “Wait, where are you going!? You were supposed to keep going straight.”

Driving up the gravel road to the front of the yard, the bridges of immense superyachts came into view and she immediately understood that we were about to go exploring. “Ohh, yeah this makes sense.”

It was a gray Sunday and little work was underway, but the 17-acre facility off the Dania Cutoff Canal boasted an abundance of eye candy, what with megayachts of all shapes and sizes resting atop enormous stands.

With 35 years experience in refitting and repairing the world’s largest yachts, Derecktor has become a homeaway-from-home for many stunning ships. From the flawless Feadship, Patriot (top right) to classic commuter yachts like Liberty (top left) it was a boat nut’s field of dreams.

If you—like the editors of Power & Motoryacht— prefer the smell of bottom paint and the sound of drills and orbital buffers to charred hot dogs and a ball field, you too might want to consider visiting Derecktor or one of the other outstanding shipyards (listed at the top of this page) that welcome guests.