What Luxury Means to Me: Anthony Lassman, founder of Nota Bene Global

‘When I started Nota Bene more than a decade ago, it was because of my wife,’ says Anthony Lasssman. ‘Together, we’d successfully run a business developing and designing properties – she is a designer – but I was fascinated by travel, forever making notes about my favourite places and experiences.

One day, we were on a plane and I was complaining that a journalist who had written an article in a magazine about somewhere clearly hadn’t been there. And she said, “You have all these opinions but instead of criticising, why don’t you do something about it?” It was then that I decided to publish my notes in book form, and that’s how Nota Bene started.’

The response was extraordinary, he says. The books were, he admits, ‘a cottage industry’, with photos he’d taken himself and highly personal takes on hotels, restaurants, beaches, museums and the like. But they struck a nerve with a certain type of traveller. Over time, Lassman began to interact with his readers, and some asked him to help plan their trips.

Today, Nota Bene no longer publishes books but instead puts together extraordinary travel experiences for people who are looking for something different. Leaning into his previous life in property, Lassman also finds places to buy in locations that his clients love, should they wish to make their visit more permanent.

‘Typically, my team and I will consult with someone about some ideas they may have for a trip and then come up with a plan of action,’ he explains. ‘Recently, we took a group of US Army veterans and their wives to Normandy and got private access to the American war graves and chartered planes in which to fly over the D-Day beaches. We try to find really unique opportunities – for example, a couple wanted to see art in Colombia, so we arranged for them to visit the studio of Olga de Amaral and meet her.’ It’s all about understanding what somebody might enjoy and then seeing whether it can be achieved, he explains.

But what Nota Bene (Latin for “note well”) has taught Lassman is that luxury means different things to different people. ‘What one person might find delightful, another will feel is very pretentious and very grand. I gravitate towards people who have similar values to me, and I understand them. You have to understand the kind of tribe you are dealing with.’

This is precisely what he finds interesting about J Craft. There are many white, “plastic” motor yachts on the market, all perfectly good vessels that will do the job. But a J Craft Torpedo is a different thing altogether. It’s not just the look of the boat, with its vintage-inspired mahogany deck and curves, it’s also that it is seaworthy, so can be used for exploration and expedition. The type of person who will find a J Craft appealing, rather than a more conventional boat, is someone who wants a different sort of experience. ‘This is very interesting,’ says Lassman. ‘The idea that if you own a J Craft you belong to a luxury tribe with an eye for something special, a desire not to follow the herd.’ And a tribe that appreciates that a J Craft is genuinely handmade from the keel up by 12 master craftsmen and women in Visby, Gotland, taking well over 8,000 person-hours to complete. Plus, because of the multiple customisable features, including an extensive range of materials and colours, every J Craft, of which there are a maximum of three built a year, will be rare and unique.

So, what is luxury to Lassman? ‘Well, it's that moment in time. It's where your cares just go, and you're experiencing something that takes you way out of your daily life, and you feel really special to be there at that moment, in that place. It's something that stays with you and becomes a part of your life diary. Those very special moments.’

It's not about everything being perfect, he explains, ‘Because too perfect makes imperfect.’ Certainly, there is a market for what he calls ‘five-star’, but he says this sort of quantifying is not what he is talking about, pointing out that in places like Dubai there are now hotels claiming to be seven-star – ‘As if anything could be more than 100 per cent!’ Lassman observes. ‘If you want that cookie-cutter, absolute perfection in everything, fine. There are people who like that, and for them, that's luxury. But to me, luxury is all about uniqueness, people engaging with special people, seeing wonderful things. I love wonderful art. I love meeting interesting people, hearing all about their life's journeys, being with great friends in special places, eating great food, having lovely wines. Great food can be the simplest of food. It can be the moqueca at Silvinha’s beach shack in Praia do Espelho in Brazil, for example, the best I have ever eaten.’

Lassman talks of a particular day on the water that sums up what a luxury experience is for him: ‘I remember being on a gulet in a completely isolated bay in southern Turkey, and after a day of pure solitude and simple relaxation with my wife, when we swam and did very little but soak in the elements and the surroundings, we had dinner on board. There was nobody around, just the clear sky of the night, spangled with stars, and the stillness of the water.’

This sort of experience is exactly what J Craft is designed to deliver. Yes, it’s a boat that has all the features you would demand of an intelligent, luxurious design – crafted from the finest materials and stacked full of modern technology to make it easy to use – but more than this, its allure lies in its difference to anything else you will see in any marina. Or moored in a Turkish bay.

And now, in a move that is straight out of the Nota Bene playbook, J Craft has launched a tour programme where those who own a Torpedo can get to experience the unique seafaring properties of the boats under the guidance of J Craft captains. The first is a Baltic Sea tour on which owners and their guests visit six Baltic Sea states (Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark and Germany) over three weeks aboard a 42-foot Torpedo crisscrossing the Baltic Sea, starting in Gotland and ending in North Germany. The second tour will take place on the French and Italian Rivieras. In this way, a Torpedo owner gets to see what the boat can really do and is carried with his or her guests from one beautiful place to another via a truly bespoke service that J Craft now offers to its clients.

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