The late Thomas J. Watson, Jr., IBM’s longtime chairman and CEO and a former ambassador to Russia, commissioned a series of seven sailing yachts named PALAWAN after the idyllic island in the Philippines. PALAWAN VI was designed by Sparkman and Stephens for the express purpose of long-distance blue water cruises to any corner of the world, and built in aluminum by Abeking and Rasmussen in Germany. She was launched in 1984 with her maiden voyage being the Baltic, bound later for Antarctica.

Among her crew on that maiden voyage were young family friends who formed a particular attachment to PALAWAN. Learning eight years ago that her second owner, the former Formula One driver and Le Mans winner Jochen Mass, might agree to part with PALAWAN, a ZMI principal was asked to fly immediately to Europe to inspect her. They purchased her and had her shipped back to the U.S. to be restored by ZMI.

Their instructions to us were twofold: first, restore her to her identical as built appearance; and second, upgrade all systems to the highest level of functionality and quality. During two refits at the yard, the first after her purchase in 1999 and the second in 2005, the talented men and women of ZMI tackled a wide variety of challenges. PALAWAN carries some 450 gallons of fuel and 450 gallons of water in four integral tanks. Each had to be inspected, cleaned and serviced in order to ensure their reliability. To gain access to them, 75% of the cabin joinerwork had to be removed, catalogued, stored, varnished and reinstalled. While the joinerwork was in storage, all electrical and plumbing systems were upgraded and renewed. The faithful Caterpillar diesel was removed and rebuilt, and the engine compartment fitted with state-of-the-art sound insulating materials. We also replaced the teak decks and repainted the hull and superstructure in her original colors of “PALAWAN” blue for the hull, two subtly contrasting shades of grey for the house, and off-white for the cabin tops and hard dodger. All had to be custom mixed.

PALAWAN has resumed the role of blue water cruising, re-tracing the voyage of Odysseus in the Mediterranean, crossing the Atlantic, and cruising both Caribbean and Canadian waters when not in her home waters of Maine. She returns each fall to ZMI, referred to by the owners’ now college age daughters as “PALAWAN’s spa”, for service. She is a beautiful and seaworthy yacht.”