It was an inauspicious start, but in the end, the incident helped give what would become a luxurious living space its New Orleans-inspired name.
Although typically welcoming and helpful, dockhands disregarded the ratty 88-ton motor yacht as it chugged up to the dock for the first time.
“Usually, someone will throw you a line or at least wave as you approach, but one guy actually looked at us, stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned his back on me,” recalled Mike Gillen, owner and captain of the hulking vessel pulling into port.
Owner Mike Gillen on the deck of the restored Lady Pontalba.
“Then, he said, ‘That thing looks like an apartment building.’ That got me thinking: ‘New Orleans … apartment building?’ I decided to call her ‘Lady Pontalba.'”
Over several weeks, Gillen, a retired officer from the Baton Rouge Police Department and founder and president of National Collision Technologies Inc., a firm specializing in the technical investigation and reconstruction of traffic collisions throughout the region, had spent weekends motoring the aesthetically displeasing yacht 1,400 miles down the East Coast to New Orleans.
“I would make it as far as I could, then find a marina, dock, fly back to Baton Rouge to work, then get back as soon as I could,” Gillen said.
Upon arriving in New Orleans, Gillen quickly sought the counsel of maritime attorney Jeff Peuler and maritime surveyors Brian Barton and David Wiggins to help him navigate the quagmire of logistics he faced in ultimately making the Lady Pontalba his home there.
The dining area's 10-foot rustic wooden table was custom-made in St. Francisville. The likeness of a blue heron moving through the marsh, turned into wallpaper, adds movement to the room.
From ghastly to glamorous
Four years and a fortune later, the Lady Pontalba is a hulking mass no more. Today, she floats serenely at her dock, which is located at the end of the last pier within Southshore Harbor. Her gleaming white exterior glints in the sun against a blue sky.
Through blackened windows, to her starboard, the harbor is visible; to her rear, the art deco-era terminal building of the Lakefront Airport; to port, a narrow rock jetty separating the harbor from the open waters of Lake Pontchartrain.
“It’s quiet here,” Gillen said. “Peaceful.”
The bronze lights in the bathroom were salvaged when the boat was stripped down for restoration.
It was through an online search that Gillen found his would-be lady “sitting in the muck, rotting” in a Wilmington, North Carolina, shipyard. She had been there, decommissioned, for several years. A boater since childhood and a do-it-yourself kind of guy who has “renovated everything I have ever touched,” Gillen found the challenge of restoring the 100-foot by 20-foot, 5,000-square-foot yacht stimulating. He did the redesign himself.
A retired dinner cruise boat, the yacht was built in 1994 by SMI Shipyards in Amelia, just outside of Morgan City.
In New Orleans, the yacht was dry-docked, stripped to bare steel and painted. The process revealed one unexpected treasure: The painted-over exterior lights were crafted of bronze. Gillen removed them from the exterior and striped them to bare metal. They now illuminate the ship’s heads, or bathrooms.
The main spaces
The primary of the ship’s three levels, plus a rooftop deck and a pilot house, are accessed from below via a cable-railed staircase that terminates at the entryway to an open galley, or kitchen. Its honed white quartz counters offer seating for two, and stainless appliances include a six-burner induction range.
The kitchen's white quartz counters offer seating for two, along with wallpaper created from a sepia-toned photograph of the apartment building built by the yacht’s namesake, Baroness Micaela Almonaster Pontalba, in 1849.
The space is punctuated by wallpaper created from a sepia-toned photograph of the stately four-story, oak-shaded apartment building constructed by the yacht’s namesake, Baroness Micaela Almonaster Pontalba, in 1849. It is the oldest continuously rented apartment building in the United States.
This level of the yacht is unified by pale walls, pale engineered oak floors, and art and furniture accents in tranquil shades of blue.
To the rear of the kitchen is a hallway leading in from the aft deck, where occupants board the vessel. To either side of the hallway is an en suite stateroom, each with a queen-sized bed and a private bath.
Forward the kitchen is an open saloon, or living room, and a dining room divided by a half wall. Picture windows that appear black from the outside are clear from within, affording panoramic views while washing the space in light.
A wall of windows offers water views in the living areas, unified by pale walls, pale engineered oak floors, and art and furniture accents in shades of blue.
Gillen had the 10-foot rustic wooden dining table custom-made in St. Francisville based on one he fell for at a Royal Street antique store. He walked away from it because “I just about had a heart attack when they told me the price.”
Padded linen arm and side chairs ensure guests will linger around the table.
The likeness of a blue heron moving through a reeded marsh, based on a painting by John James Audubon, has been rendered into wallpaper and dominates the wall behind the table, lending movement and energy to the space.
This baby grand piano, which belonged to Gillen's mother, is a focal point in the living area.
A focal point in the living room is a graceful W.W. Kimball baby grand piano given to Gillen’s mother — who studied under Castro Carazo, an LSU band leader and composer who collaborated with Gov. Huey Long — a high school graduation present from her parents. “It means a lot to me, her piano,” Gillen said. “It goes where I go.” Despite his mother’s musical talents, Gillen declares himself a failure at both the piano and the guitar. “I can play ‘Chopsticks,’” he said. “It’s a real treat when a talented pianist comes aboard.”
More changes on the way
Still to come to facilitate frequent entertaining, Gillen is constructing a bar with counter and table seating at the fore end of the living room in a deep alcove, which is adjacent to the doors leading out to the vessel’s slender, jutting bow over the water.
Gillen also is in the process of transferring the plums from the extensive book collection he inherited from his late father into a library that opens into what will soon be his 1,000-plus-square-foot master bedroom suite.
Despite the state-of-the-art pilot house, the yacht rarely leaves the dock.
Like the primary level, this one has picture windows to either side plus a deep, comfortably furnished terrace over the yacht’s bow. A wet coffee bar will eliminate the need to venture down early for morning libations. A spacious master bath complete with a rain shower, a generous walk-in closet and a dressing area with a massive, gilded floor-to-ceiling mirror brought over from his Baton Rouge home flesh out the space.
“The only thing really standing in the way is carpeting,” Gillen said. “I want my bedroom carpeted, but every time I tell an installer it's for my boat, they back out, saying, “I don’t do boats.
“What’s the difference?”
The yacht’s rooftop deck, already plumbed, awaits the installation of a hot tub, outdoor kitchen and banquette seating around the perimeter.
The yacht’s pilot house is accessed from the rooftop deck.
Resting in place
Instead of a wheel, Lady Pontalba is steered with a commercial-grade lever. Though luxuriously restored and seaworthy, with a state-of-the-art pilot house, propulsion twin diesel engines, 42-inch propellers, electric power and twin 115kw diesel generators, the yacht rarely leaves the dock.
Instead, she serves as hostess to the weekly potluck cocktail parties Gillen hosts for friends and neighbors. He splits his time between life on the yacht with life as a landlubber in Baton Rouge, where he continues to run National Collision Technologies while planning his eventual full-time life aboard Lady Pontalba.
“I am content just sitting in the marina,” Gillen said.
He shares his homes with Callie, an affable, elderly retriever who sleeps at his feet, and P.G., a surly cat with an impressive condominium in the corner of the living room.