b'Built in the early 1990s, the Royal Princess was purchasedWorking with a local naval architect, fellow PVA members by the couple in 2007 when they owned NY Yacht andDeJong & Lebet, to do a stability test, the couple learned Boat Charter in New York City. Capt. Rob oversaw exten- thatthevesselwasoverweightveryoverweight.The sive renovations of the Royal Princess to ready it for privateweight was also in the wrong part of the vessel, making events and charters.it top heavy. They began to look for items they could re-move to lighten the load. They took the granite off the bar In 2021 after the pandemic, they bareboat chartered thetops. The tiles in the bathroom were all marble and had Royal Princess to an another operator. It worked out well atto go. We took all the flooring out. We took it down to first, but two and a half years later, due to unforeseen circum- the studs, the whole boat, said Capt. Rob. After remov-stances, Capt. Rob and Lezlee repossessed the vessel. Theying tens of thousands of pounds from the vessel, DeJong thought about selling it, but after further consideration& Lebet performed another stability test and found that Capt. Rob told his wife, You know what? Im rebuildingthere were still weight issues. this boat. After all the work he had put into the vessel when they first purchased it in New York they couldnt partWhile working late one night, Capt. Rob wondered what with it, so they began the journey to completely rebuild itelse they could possibly remove from the vessel. He was and start a new operation in Jacksonville. Although severalstanding on it. On the first level, he discovered an inch other cities in Florida have yacht charters, Jacksonville hasandahalfofcementthathadoriginallybeenlaidto none, and they plan to re-energize the downtown with Jaxmanage sound and vibration. The next morning, he had Yacht Charter.a crew jackhammer out over 30,000 pounds of cement. In all, Capt. Rob and Lezlee ended up removing around It was a Monday evening when the Royal Princess came100,000poundsofweightfromtheRoyalPrincess. back into view, and she didnt look good. It looked likeAnd how do we know that? Lezlee asked. Because we shedbeenthroughwar,Lezleesaid.Imean,shejustweighed every bag.looked awful. The operator had painted it gray, which Capt. Rob said took him over a month to sand down. ThePlans to reroute the exhaust exits out the port and star-operator had also put flooring on top of existing carpet- board sides meant the thick cement floor wasnt needed as ing. The couple discovered that this meant that liquid hadthe new route would help reduce the noise. It also meant seeped into the carpet under the flooring and corroded theremoving a large amount of weight in piping. steel deck beneath it. Thoughtheywerentconcernedaboutnoiseorvibra-tions,theydiscoveredadifferentissue.Onthecruise back to their dock after having work done at PVA mem-ber St. Johns Shipyard, Capt. Rob noticed the deck was In all, Capt. Rob and extremely hot. The cement had also acted as insulation, so to manage temperatures they laid new cement above the Lezlee ended up removingengine room.around 100,000 pounds One of the projects tackled at St. Johns Shipyard was to have air conditioning valves cut out near the bottom of of weight from the the boat, plugs put in, and the holes covered. The couple haddecidedtochangetheairconditioningsystemon Royal Princess. And howthe ship. Capt. Rob rerouted air conditioning ducts on the top deck that had been under bench seating which opened the upper deck. Inside the vessel, they installed do we know that? split system air conditioning. PHOTOS: JAX YACHT CHARTERLezlee asked. Because An unavoidable hurdle of doing renovations is managing costs. The first quote for necessary fire dampers came in we weighed every bag. around $8,000 per damper. With eight dampers needed, it 11 JULY 2025'