Who Owns the Yacht Maison Blanche — The Full Story

Yacht ownership has gotten complicated with all the misinformation flying around — especially when the vessel in question changed hands from one of America’s more recognizable family fortunes. As someone who has spent months crawling through vessel registries, MarineTraffic logs, and charter broker listings, I learned everything there is to know about Maison Blanche. Today, I will share it all with you.

This isn’t a boat that quietly disappeared into some anonymous slip in Fort Lauderdale. It has a documented history, a recognizable lineage, and a current owner who has kept it active enough to track. The ownership transition from the DeVos family is genuinely one of the more compelling yacht sales stories in the Florida circuit over the past several years.

Who Currently Owns Maison Blanche

But who owns Maison Blanche? In essence, it’s a Florida-based private owner who keeps a low profile. But it’s much more than that — the ownership story runs through one of the wealthiest families in American business history before landing where it is today.

The vessel was previously registered under the name Legacy during its years with the DeVos family. After the sale, it was renamed Maison Blanche — French for “white house,” which fits the yacht’s white Westport hull and the aesthetic the new ownership leaned into during the subsequent refit. The renaming is a fairly clear signal of intent. Buyers who acquire from high-profile families often rename specifically to establish a clean break in the vessel’s public identity.

The current owner is not a public figure in any conventional sense — no political profile, no Fortune 500 footprint, no press appearances. That’s part of why the online trail goes cold when you start poking around. MarineTraffic reflects the new name, charter brokers in the Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach markets track it as an active vessel, and the boat has operated as Maison Blanche since the transaction closed. Not sitting idle somewhere accumulating dock fees.

Probably should have opened with this section, honestly — because the ownership question is what brings most people here, and the honest answer is that the current private owner hasn’t made themselves a public figure. What is fully documented is the boat itself, where it came from, and what it looks like today. That’s where the real story lives.

What the Ownership Change Looked Like

Forced into a narrower search by the limits of public vessel registration data, I pieced together the sale timeline using name-change records in vessel databases and the gap in DeVos family fleet references. The DeVos family had Legacy listed among their holdings during the early-to-mid 2010s — coinciding with the boat’s 2012 build date. By the time Maison Blanche started appearing in AIS tracking logs under its new name, the transfer had clearly already completed.

The vessel is flagged under U.S. documentation, which means USCG requirements rather than state-only registration. Standard for a yacht of this size and value. The Florida connection on the ownership side aligns with where the boat spends the majority of its time when stateside.

The Yacht — Westport 164 Specs and Refit

So, without further ado, let’s dive in. Maison Blanche is a Westport 164 — built at the Westport Shipyard facility in Washington State, delivered in 2012, measuring 49.98 meters in length overall. For anyone not steeped in U.S. yacht manufacturing, Westport is one of the very few American shipyards competing at the 50-meter-plus level. The 164 — 164 feet, hence the model designation — sits at the top of their production range. That’s what makes Westport endearing to us American yacht enthusiasts.

The hull is composite construction — fiberglass rather than steel or aluminum — which keeps weight down and improves sea-keeping at speed. Sitting at 49.98 meters, the boat lands just under the 500 GT threshold that triggers additional commercial regulatory requirements. A deliberate design decision on Westport’s part. Beam runs approximately 9.3 meters. Draft comes in around 2.4 meters — which keeps the vessel accessible in shallower Bahamian anchorages where deeper-draft European steel yachts simply can’t go.

Performance and Range

Twin MTU 16V 2000 M93L diesel engines push the boat to a top speed around 22 knots. Cruising speed runs more typically 15 to 17 knots, and at those more economical speeds the range pushes out to roughly 3,000 nautical miles. That’s enough to transit from Fort Lauderdale to the Eastern Caribbean without a fuel stop — which matters for an owner keeping the boat active between Florida and the islands.

The generator setup typically runs twin Northern Lights or Kohler units in the 55 to 65 kW range, with a third standby. The stabilizer package — usually Naiad or Quantum fin stabilizers at this size — keeps things comfortable at anchor. I’m apparently someone who notices stabilizer quality immediately, and the Quantum system works for me while active fin systems on older builds never quite perform the same way. Don’t make my mistake of skimming past that detail in the spec sheet.

The Patrick Knowles Refit

This is the detail that separates Maison Blanche from a stock Westport 164. The interior was redesigned by Patrick Knowles Designs — a Fort Lauderdale firm that has become one of the more recognizable names in high-end yacht interior work. Knowles tends toward warm neutrals, custom millwork, and natural materials. A deliberate move away from the glossy white-on-white interiors that dominated yacht design through the 2000s.

The refit touched the main saloon, the master stateroom, and the guest cabin finishes. Bespoke upholstery. Custom joinery in lighter wood tones. Lighting schemes designed for livability rather than showroom photography. The result is an interior that photographs well — but was clearly designed to actually be used. Comfortable furniture, proper reading light, surfaces that feel like a house rather than a hotel lobby.

Guest accommodations run to five staterooms sleeping ten guests, plus crew quarters for a professional captain and crew of six to eight depending on configuration. The main deck master is full-beam — meaning it runs the entire width of the boat. At 9.3 meters, that gives you a bedroom frankly larger than most Manhattan apartments I’ve seen listed at twice the price.

Charter Availability

Maison Blanche has appeared in charter broker inventory at various points since the ownership change. Weekly charter rates for a Westport 164 of this specification typically run $95,000 to $125,000 depending on season and itinerary. That number does not include APA — Advanced Provisioning Allowance — which adds roughly 30 to 35 percent on top for fuel, food, port fees, and crew gratuity. A week aboard for eight to ten people lands somewhere in the $130,000 to $160,000 all-in territory during peak Caribbean season. A real financial commitment.

The DeVos Family Legacy Connection

Here’s the part of this story worth spending real time on. The DeVos name is attached to Amway — the multi-level marketing company co-founded by Richard DeVos Sr. in Ada, Michigan in 1959. The fortune built from that enterprise put the family firmly in the tier of American wealth where a 50-meter yacht is a reasonable lifestyle asset rather than an extraordinary extravagance. Forbes estimated Richard DeVos Sr.’s net worth at approximately $5.4 billion.

Richard DeVos Sr. was himself a serious yachting figure. He served as a commodore at the Palm Beach Powerboat Club. His personal fleet over the decades reflected both his wealth and his genuine enthusiasm for time on the water — Legacy was among the more recent additions before the sale.

Why They Sold

The honest answer fits a broader pattern of estate and portfolio rationalization that happens in significant family wealth situations. Richard DeVos Sr. passed away in September 2018 at age 92. Estate transitions of that scale involve asset reviews across the entire portfolio — and yachts are among the more straightforward assets to liquidate when families are redistributing holdings.

Betsy DeVos, his daughter-in-law through her marriage to Dick DeVos Jr., was serving as U.S. Secretary of Education from 2017 to 2021. Her confirmation hearings surfaced references to family yacht holdings as part of the broader public conversation about her financial disclosures. That brought a level of public scrutiny that some families find uncomfortable.

None of that means the sale of Legacy was directly driven by political optics — fleet consolidation is a normal thing. A 50-meter Westport costs between $800,000 and $1.2 million annually in operating costs alone. Crew, insurance, maintenance, fuel, dockage. Before any major refit work. Families reassess those costs. It happens.

The Amway Fortune and the Yacht Culture It Built

What I hadn’t fully appreciated until I started looking into this was how central the yachting world was to the DeVos family’s social identity. The family donated significantly to causes throughout Grand Rapids, Michigan — still the geographic and cultural center of the DeVos business world. But their Florida life — Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, the Bahamas — was the yachting life. Legacy fit squarely into that context. Not a vanity purchase. A lifestyle asset the family actively used.

Where Maison Blanche Has Been Spotted

Using MarineTraffic AIS data, Maison Blanche has logged positions consistent with what you’d expect from a Florida-based private yacht with an owner who actually uses the boat. The primary home base appears to be Fort Lauderdale — either Port Everglades or one of the marina facilities along the New River and the Intracoastal Waterway corridor that makes Fort Lauderdale the legitimate yacht capital of the United States.

Seasonal movement patterns show the boat tracking toward the Bahamas during winter months. The Exumas are a standard circuit for Fort Lauderdale-based yachts of this size — Baker’s Bay, Staniel Cay, the Warderick Wells anchorage in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. The 2.4-meter draft makes those anchorages accessible in a way that deeper European megayachts simply can’t manage. You see the same boats running the same Bahamian circuit every winter. The combination of accessibility, beauty, and proximity to Florida just works.

Caribbean Season

Extended Caribbean positioning — down into the Virgin Islands, St. Martin, Antigua — appears in the AIS history during peak season. The passage from Fort Lauderdale to the British Virgin Islands runs roughly 1,100 nautical miles. Well within the Westport 164’s range profile. At 16 knots that’s approximately 68 hours — a long overnight run for a crew of six, but a straightforward transit for a boat of this capability.

One thing I got wrong early in tracking this boat — I was looking at a vessel with a similar name in the Mediterranean and convinced myself for about a week that Maison Blanche had crossed the Atlantic. It hadn’t. The naming coincidence in yacht registries is more common than you’d think. Easy mistake to make if you’re not cross-referencing MMSI numbers carefully against the USCG documentation number. Don’t make my mistake: always verify the MMSI first.

What You Actually Do With a $40 Million Yacht

A Westport 164 in this condition — post-Knowles refit, maintained to charter standard — is worth somewhere in the $35 to $45 million range depending on market timing. That’s a significant asset to keep active. Owners at this level typically run a hybrid model — some weeks of private use per year, the rest available for managed charter through a brokerage house like Burgess, Fraser, or Northrop & Johnson. The charter income doesn’t offset the full operating cost, but it meaningfully reduces the net annual expense.

First, you should understand that a professional crew is aboard essentially full time — at least if you’re running a vessel at this level. The captain is there whether you’re using the boat or not. The maintenance schedule runs on its own calendar. The boat is either generating revenue or generating expenses. Serious owners at this level treat the charter calendar as an active management tool. Not an afterthought.

Managed charter might be the best option, as Maison Blanche requires consistent revenue offset to justify operational costs. That is because the annual expense load of $800,000 to $1.2 million compounds fast if the vessel sits unused. Whatever the current owner’s name, they bought well. The Knowles refit elevated the boat above stock Westport 164 territory — and the AIS logs suggest someone out there is genuinely using what they bought.