If you hear someone say they’re going to the Eastern Pacific Yacht Club (EPYC), don’t envision a brick-and-mortar facade with a bunch of slips located a few hundred feet down a rolling lawn. Instead, picture the 160-footer above, complete with comfortably appointed staterooms (see below), a Jacuzzi and other amenities you’d expect to find aboard a megayacht, meals served by a permanent onboard chef, and a fleet of sportfishermen and other watercraft at your disposal. This is Pacific Provider, the 160-foot mothership that’s the first in an anticipated fleet of vessels comprising a new kind of yacht club.
The EPYC is the brainchild of Tom Ellsworth, a lifelong boater who wanted to give boating and fishing enthusiasts another way to interact with one another and enjoy adventures in a variety of locations. He envisioned having a floating yacht club that would take amenities and services typically found shore-side-ranging from creature comforts to mechanical support-to offshore locations and have the club follow the fishing bite throughout the year. Ellsworth worked with Yacht Escort Ships (YES)–the same company behind the 173-foot converted yacht SuRi–to source and convert an appropriate craft. Stabbert Maritime collaborated with YES by providing some of the facilities and hot work that went into the conversion of the 30-year-old crab boat Shelikov (Pacific Provider’s original name).
A mothership like this opens up a world of adventure to both yachtsmen who are well-traveled as well as ones who’ve wanted to venture to far-flung regions but haven’t thus far, mostly due to costs. As Capt. Stan Antrim, owner of YES, told me, “It is absolutely–and even before fuel prices went bonkers–the best yachting value going.
Fishing in style and comfort at the best locations worldwide at a fraction of what it costs to operate a 40-footer out of your own marina should capture the imagination of fishermen everywhere.”
Ellsworth seconds that. “I can honestly agree with Stan that in these tough days for the boating community, we are a breath of fresh air and great value. We are truly unique and the first to market the concept of using a club format on a mothership to support private boaters offshore when and where it is needed.”
So while EPYC members are, of course, free to use their own boats when they stay aboard Pacific Provider (and have fueling and spare-parts services at their disposal), they’ll also have the club’s sportfishermen at their disposal. The first game boat should be in San Diego, where Pacific Provider presently is, by this week. She’s an L & H 33, seen here, custom built at Merritt’s boatyard. A 17-ton telescoping crane that extends out 51 feet will lift her on and off the deck. (Incidentally, two crab cranes had been on the deck before Pacific Provider’s conversion.)
One more reason to be impressed: The EPYC, the Billfish Foundation, and Scripps Institute of Oceanography have joined conservation forces to ensure the proper stewardship of the ocean by club members. The club will host a variety of fisheries scientists and researchers throughout the year in hopes of bringing more public awareness to oceanographic studies.
When I last e-mailed Antrim over the weekend, he let me in on yet another interesting bit of news: “I am already shopping for the conversion platform which will become #2 in the EPYC fleet. It is an important point that the members will be able to use any of the ships in the EPYC fleet, not just the Pacific Provider.”
If you or someone you know will be participating in the Santa Catalina fishing tournaments in September, you’ll get a good look at Pacific Provider, as she’ll be the host vessel. In the meantime, for more details about the club, or to download a membership application, visit the EPYC Web site.
Leave a Reply