London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

Lucy the Tugboat by The Brooklyn Home Company

Lucy the Tugboat by The Brooklyn Home Company

The cofounders of The Brooklyn Home Company take their skill set to sea to give a 1983 tugboat a bow-to-stern revamp.

Lyndsay Caleo Karol spent summers as a child on Canandaigua Lake in Upstate New York-and while vacationing there recently, she spotted a 37-foot Lord Nelson Victory Tug and had a wild idea. Why not acquire a tugboat of her own, and renovate it to serve as a family getaway?



Lyndsay Caleo Karol and Fitzhugh Karol, husband-and-wife cofounders of The Brooklyn Home Company, rehabbed a 1983 Lord Nelson Victory Tug.

Lyndsay started her hunt, and didn’t have to look far. She found a 1983 Lord Nelson Victory Tug just up the road in Stonington, Maine. "I went back and forth from Maine three times to see the tugboat before deciding it would be our next project," Lyndsay says. "Since the boat had been out of commission for a while, it was pretty moldy and corroded, and it was clear that a lot of work needed to be done."



The duo gave the 500-square-foot space a complete overhaul that included rewiring the electrical system and refinishing the wood flooring.

Lyndsay and her husband Fitzhugh Karol are the cofounders of the design firm The Brooklyn Home Company, so they knew how to renovate brick-and-mortars buildings-but they had never taken their skill set to the sea. They had their work cut out for them.



"We kept the existing layout, but removed original cabinets above the peninsula of the kitchen to create a more open, airy space," Lyndsay says.

The couple learned that the 49-foot tugboat had an interesting backstory, with a handful of previous owners, the last of whom resides in Vinalhaven, Maine. "One fun fact we learned about Lucy is that she actually won Queen of the Miami Boat Show in 1987," Lyndsay says.



Design elements like white beadboard and brass hardware give the tugboat's interior a classic nautical vibe.

The couple named the old tugboat after their dog, Lucy, moved it to Brooklyn, and set to work renovating the 500-square-foot vessel.

"I wanted the boat to feel timeless, like every project executed by The Brooklyn Home Company, and the renovation was heavily inspired by borrowed details from antique yachts," Lyndsay says. "Even though the renovation included many modern amenities, like changing the kitchen and adding a bar, we kept the focus on the original details and design."



"Design choices, such as heavy bar stools in the kitchen, were made to ensure the boat could function well docked or at sea," Lyndsay says.



"I wanted to change the kitchen," Lyndsay says. "The cabinetry was too dark, so we wanted to lighten it up. At first, it was an orange wood-and we ended up painting it white to achieve this."

The stern-to-bow revamp took the couple nearly a year, and it involved rewiring electrical systems, restoring moldy and corroded parts, refinishing the teak and holly wood floors, and painting the interior in Farrow & Ball’s crisp Schoolhouse White. Brass details-from the light fixtures to the cabinet hardware-add a timeless, nautical touch to the old vessel.

"The biggest challenge was we had to redo the wiring, and we actually filled three 30-gallon garbage bags with old wiring. It had seen years and years of do-it-yourself fixes by previous owners," says Lyndsay, who serves as the company’s creative director. "We added a kitchen, redid the bathrooms, and added flushing toilets and a roof deck. We also put in a lounge, a bar, an extra bedroom, hidden storage, and lots of drawers everywhere."



"Sleeping spaces are strategically configured to accommodate the family and guests," Lyndsay says. She made sure to design the berths with ample storage.

As a family of four, the Karols had to make the tugboat’s layout and amenities work for their lifestyle. Lyndsay went maximal with storage to keep bedrooms, bathrooms, and living spaces clear of clutter-and loose odds and ends stowed when out at sea.

"I loved the line and shape of the boat with all the staircases," Lyndsay says. "It is really a compact, brilliant use of space."



Workstead sconces and lighting can be seen throughout the vessel. "We added the reading lights and sconces to create a cozy atmosphere in the space," Lyndsay says.



The renovation also added flushing toilets to the old vessel.

The couple reconfigured the main cabin as open-concept kitchen and living room, complete with a custom brass bar. It was also important to provide enough bunk space to accommodate friends and families on trips, so the pair created a third bedroom in the pilot’s house, behind the captain’s seat.



To maximize bunk space, the captain’s bench converts into an extra bed.

For additional square footage, they also added a teak roof deck with a swim ladder, an outdoor shower, and hammocks. The family now uses the space for sunbathing and al fresco dining.

"We take Lucy out three to four times a week from April to November," Lyndsay says. "Every year, we take a few longer trips to the Bahamas and Florida. We’ve also taken her to Charleston, and our longest trip was 15 days off the coast of Maine. We’ve even had friends out in Brooklyn sleep there for the night."



"The top of the boat was all storage, and I knew I wanted to make it into a larger outdoor space for entertaining," Lyndsay says. The new rooftop deck provides space for sunbathing and dining upstairs.

If the family longs for life on the open water, they’ll plan a sleepover on Lucy while she’s docked at One°15 Brooklyn Marina in Brooklyn Bridge Park.



The renovation took nearly a full year, and the family now uses the boat for vacation getaways as far as the Bahamas.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
×