On Board Billionaire Chris Dawson’s $80 Million Custom Superyacht Triumph

If you’re in the mood for some (weekend) escapism of the fanciest kind, you can’t go wrong with Triumph. The six-decker, previously and very shortly named Vogue, is owned by British billionaire Chris Dawson and his wife Sarah, and is used as a family yacht. Dawson is the founder, owner and CEO of The Range, and has an estimated net worth of well over $2 billion – which is to say, your idea of a family yacht is quite different from what he had in mind when he commissioned Benetti with this superyacht.

Delivered in the summer of 2021, Triumph offers a whopping interior volume of 1,244 GT, which puts it in the top 350 yachts in the world by size. Based on a naval architecture by Benetti and Pierluigi Ausonio Naval Architecture, it features an exterior by Giorgio M. Cassetta, and an interior designed entirely in-house. Suffice it to say that Triumph is impressive both inside and out, and equally luxurious.

Dawson opted to change the name after delivery because of his love for Triumph motorcycles. In fact, such is his passion for the brand, that he turned his favorite bike into an art piece, put on permanent display in the enclosed lounge on the upper deck. The connection between the two, motorcycles and superyacht, was highlighted in the marketing materials when the superyacht was briefly offered for charter, with prices starting at €650,000 ($713,000 at the current exchange rate) per week, not including expenses. You can see one such video at the bottom of the page.

Triumph has a steel hull and aluminum superstructure, and offers accommodation for 12 guests across six opulent suites, including a massive owner suite, and a smaller but just as fancy VIP suite. With a total length of 214.5 feet (65.4 meters), it has six decks, and offers separate sleeping on the lower deck for a crew of 15, including the captain. As the ideal family vacation yacht, Triumph is primed for luxury, so an in-house catering team is a must.

Amenities include touch-and-go helipad, sauna and massage room, and a fully-equipped gym that can open to the exterior on three sides, so you’ll feel less like you’re sweating your last drop of sweat in a cave, and more like you’re doing it while flying on water. A conference room can convert into a spacious private screening room, or a cinema, and there’s a jacuzzi on the upper deck and a sizable beach club aft, with a hydraulic drop-down platform, for direct access to water.

Also here is a large tender garage packed to the full with water toys, from jet skis and sea bobs, to towing inflatables and waterskis, paddleboards and flyboards. A 2022 Wally 48 tender in gunmetal gray and two smaller tenders are included. Even a pair of custom MATE electric bicycles is available.

If the laundry list of amenities is not impressive on its own, Benetti points to the uniqueness and exquisiteness of the finishes: only the finest and most luxurious materials have been used, and to a lesser extent, greener alternatives. In the former category, the shipyard includes Crema Marfil, Statuary and Amani marble, loom-woven silk, wool, Italian leather and natural furs. The styling is contemporary and cosmopolitan, with subtle touches that bring to mind sand dunes in the desert, or less than subtle ones that evoke a NYC penthouse, with vast expanses of glazing and shimmering surfaces of chrome and marble.

Triumph also doubles as a floating art gallery, at the request of the owner. Dawson himself made sure that the superyacht displayed only his favorite artworks by British photographer David Yarrow, in addition to the aforementioned Triumph on the upper deck. Lounge areas are located nearby or right next to these art pieces, allowing guests to sit down and fully take them in, just like they would at an art gallery.

Powered by twin MTU 12V 4000 M53R engines, this particular art gallery is fast. Triumph has a top speed of 16.5 knots (18.9 mph / 30.5 kph) and a cruising speed of 15 knots (17.2 mph / 27.8 kph). At a more leisurely 12 knots (13.8 mph / 22.2 kph), it has a range of 4,700 nautical miles (5,408 miles / 8,704 km).