Over The Rainbow of London Yacht:

Custom-built in 1930.

HISTORY

Over The Rainbow of London was custom-built in 1930 for Scottish magnate W.G. Hetherington of Glasgow by the Welsh Yard Dickie & Sons in the United Kingdom, with a specific commission for maximum levels of luxury and comfort. Built in teak-over-oak frames, she was originally christened Janitha IV and spent her early years cruising around the Scottish coast with Hetherington and his family and friends.

At the outbreak of World War II, Over the Rainbow of London’s destiny dramatically changed when she was put to use as a coastal patroller, and the yacht’s dining room became the principal officer’s mess, where the main distraction was a game of darts. The original Honduras mahogany panels still show the scars of darts missing their target, one of many factors that speak of the yacht’s history and character. In the post-war years, she shed her classic dignity for a while and became a notorious gambling gal while anchored off Athens, Greece, where she was a highly popular floating casino, allowing the locals to bypass the laws forbidding gambling.

Into the 1950s

In 1952, at the end of her gambling days, her then owner, Count Raben-Levetzau of Copenhagen, sold her to the Hellenic Mining Company and she was moored at Famagusta, Cyprus. In the late 1950s she was bought by a Mr Athanasiadis, moored in Piraeus, Greece. She remained in the Mediterranean until an English yachting enthusiast purchased her and introduced her to the charter market in the Cote D’Azur in the 1990s.

The Early Millenium

In the early millennium, a Belgian artist set eyes on the yacht and instantly fell in love with her classic charm and romance. After acquiring Over the Rainbow of London, he took her to an Italian shipyard where she underwent a painstaking two-year rebuild at a cost of over € 5 million. The rebuild preserved her precious past and onboard atmosphere of last-century adventure, with the addition of all the advantages of 21st century needs, including unbeatable logistics, communications and adventure equipment.

Over the Rainbow of London Today.

In 2017, when Dan Olofsson first set eyes on the yacht, he too fell in love with her, purchased her, re-named her Over The Rainbow of London (OTR), and incorporated her in the Thanda Group of operations, including Thanda Island, Thanda Safari and Thanda Classic Cruise. During the yacht’s most recent refit in 2018 by the Italian shipyard Cantieri Navali Di Sestri, the entire vessel was surveyed to ensure structural integrity and upgrades were made. After one season spent off the coast of East Africa, she returned to the Mediterranean where she is now based in Cannes and is available for charter.