AGENT OF CHANGE
SHE’S LONG HAD A FAN CLUB, STARTING WITH HER CURRENT OWNER AND HER PROFESSIONAL CREW, WHO HAVE TRAVELLED ALL OVER THE WORLD ON BOARD
Not too many yachts out there have a monkey island. But then again, 68.8-metre Olivia is no average yacht. She was born a Soviet spy ship during the Cold War era and then maintained her low profile as a privately owned explorer yacht. In spite of that, she’s long had a fan club, starting with her current owner and professional crew, who have travelled all over the world on board – on average 10,000 nautical miles a year for the past decade.
The yacht’s owner was fascinated by her even before he bought her and knows much about her history from the time she emerged from a Finnish yard in 1972. “Her purpose was to spy on all the NATO movements of ships and submarines into the North Sea. This was the Cold War era, when both parties were doing nothing else but engaging in watching each other,” he says. “She had been equipped with Finnish and German machinery and was designed to go on long missions in the North Sea. The purpose of her design was to serve the Russian navy
