M/Y ‘Lady Marjan’ stood out to me for several reasons. First, her current asking price for a boat of this size and calibre struck me as very good for a 27.8 metre steel explorer-style superyacht. You would be hard-pressed to find something close to Lady Marjan for a similar asking price.
At the time of writing, she is currently listed for sale with Yacht Broker (DK) - link to the broker's website below.
Second, her history. Based on what I could find, this beautiful vessel with her sleek, unassuming lines did not start life as an explorer yacht. Instead, she began life as a purpose-built cargo vessel, laid down in Broager, Denmark, a small industrial town on the Baltic coast.
If you know Europe, you will know that any boat builder based on the Baltic coast builds extremely capable vessels engineered to endure the harsh conditions found in and around the Baltic Sea.
The fact is that in the Royal Navy, when you are absolutely freezing and the wind conditions are howling, it is common to refer to the conditions as being ‘Baltic ’, on the understanding that everyone will know exactly what you mean owing to the reputation of the Baltic Sea.
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In the 1987 Danish Ship Register, this vessel appears under call sign ‘OVPF’ as a ‘Motorskib Lastskib’, which, according to Google Translate, means a motor cargo ship.
The name Reinhard Tychsen also pops up and, based on a bit more research, suggests that ‘Lady Marjan’ might have started life working for a local brickworks, moving bricks or building materials along the coast.
For her next owner, this means you have a solid steel hull beneath you, designed by naval architects to endure very tough conditions with a heavy load. Talking of stability, she weighs 86 tonnes, but I couldn’t find any reference to stabilisers in the broker’s listing.
However, this makes sense, given that her stability is largely inherent in her hull form and displacement. I don’t think this boat would suit someone who prioritises motion over the vessel’s seakeeping. So if you or your partner is prone to seasickness on multi-week voyages, this might not be the boat for you.
However, her length-to-beam ratio is about 4.7:1, and the relatively shallow draft is only around 6.5% of her length. So that combination, together with her weight, makes her surprisingly stable even without any stabilisers fitted.
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Between 2001 and 2002, she was transformed into the liveaboard explorer yacht that she is today. JB Marine oversaw the major refit at Hvide Sande Shipyard, working with Lars T. Olsen of CDE Danish Marine Design.
Hvide has an interesting history: it was founded in 1950 on bare sand and built on handshake deals with Jutland’s fishing fleet, then grew into the wider Seasight Group, which covered shipyard work, port services, and offshore wind farms.
If you are outside of the European boatbuilding community, then you would be genuinely surprised at just how many niche boatbuilders have businesses which are based on trust and handshakes, rather than thousands of pages of legal caveats and conditions.
It might sound odd, but it works…most of the time.
As she is now, her LOA is 27.8 metres, or 91.2 ft, with a beam of 5.9 metres and a draught of 1.82 metres. Power comes from twin Mercedes V12 OM 424 diesels (420hp each) driving twin shafts. She has two generators, dual bow thrusters and a stern thruster.
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The engines are listed as dating from 2002, with 2,950 hours recorded; she can carry 13,000 litres of fuel (3,434 US gallons), and can cruise between 9 and 12 knots. Fuel burn and range data have not been included in the listing, but assuming a fuel burn rate of around 70 litres per hour at ten knots, you would be looking at a range of around 2,000 nm.
Reduce the speed to 8 knots, which is more in line with traditional explorer yacht speeds, and I would expect a range of around 3,500 nm, but, of course, do not quote me on those figures!
Since her refit, she has had a varied second life as a private motor yacht, including stints as a private residence, an events vessel around Copenhagen, Skagen and Bornholm, and a guest entertainment platform.
She is also approved by the Danish Maritime Authority for operation under a Yachtskipper 3 certificate, which, according to the broker, can be gained in just two weekends, so this keeps her accessible, at least in Danish waters, to owners who might not have a professional ticket.
When you step inside ‘Lady Marjan ’, any reference to her commercial vessel heritage quickly slips away. She is laid out as four separate living areas, each with two metres of headroom. On most motor yachts of this size, you tend to get open-plan multi-purpose spaces, but in northern Europe, the vibe is more cosy living than Med open-plan summers.
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On quite a few of the steel conversions I have featured in this newsletter and on my YouTube channel, you end up ducking under deck beams or squeezing past machinery casings. But the broker’s description reads more like a house than a boat, leaning into its previous use as a private residence.
One of the benefits of converting a commercial cargo vessel into a private motor yacht is the sheer amount of space that you have to work with. I saw this with the converted beam trawler, Scintilla Maris, which you can also find on my YouTube channel.
The listing states a sleeping capacity of 8-10 across four cabins, with 220cm-long berths. However, the listing doesn’t confirm which cabins are en-suite and which have shared facilities (or, if it does, I couldn’t find it).
For those cold winters, her steel is fully insulated throughout, with no significant thermal bridging. She has double-glazed windows, an oil-fired boiler running hydronic heating and two insulated freshwater tanks. There is also a dedicated workshop space and a heated laundry room.
Shore power comes via a 400-volt Landstrøm connection, and she carries 12 batteries alongside her two generators.
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To read the rest of this analysis, upgrade to a paid subscription. In the premium section below, we explore:
Liveaboard Credentials: How Lady Marjan stacks up as a year-round, off-grid home.
The Math: A breakdown of how she could generate 400,000 DKK (~$62,100) per year in charter, Airbnb, and event income to cover her running costs.
The Financing Deal: An in-depth look at the seller’s unique 5-year interest-only financing offer and the part-exchange option.
Market Comparison: How she compares directly to three other steel hulls from her era (ranging from €87,000 to €13.5 million).
Thanks to my premium subscribers, I can keep this publication completely independent, unbiased, and sponsor-free. In addition to unlocking these deep-dives, premium subscribers also get exclusive, behind-the-scenes content, including private walkthroughs, market analyses, and early access to listings...
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