Palm Beach 65, the $3.8 million super yacht named after one of Sydney's most elite suburbs

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Usually, when someone invites you to review their $3.8 million super yacht, they don’t actually let you drive. It’s understandable in a way; you don’t let someone test their fire hoses on your $3.8 million house by setting it on fire.

Fortunately, however, car companies always let you drive their cars, even if they may at times look sick about it.

So the experience of being allowed to accelerate a Palm Beach 65 – a work of craftsmanship and joinery that feels like a Nordic mansion that floats – from a bobbing start to 35 knots came as a surprise in many ways.

Shifting so much bulk so quickly, over water, is quite unlike any other experience of speed I’ve ever enjoyed.

There’s a brief sense of the ocean laughing and lapping at your absurd presumption, and suddenly it is being rent in twain by the sheer power of the 1000 horsepower you have unleashed with a snap of your wrist.

It’s glorious and grand and only just the tiniest bit terrifying, but you do feel like a king (or a Norse god) standing at the helm, holding a finely carved and perfectly hefted tiller.

Incredibly, this vast machine can cruise at that speed all day, and were you to need more pace it has a maximum speed of 40 knots.

Eventually, you find yourself lolling back on the luxurious, timber-trimmed couch, built to the owner’s orders by this high-end Aussie ship maker, which doubles as the skipper’s seat.

Palm Beach refers to the lush locale in Sydney where the company was born. Its incredible boats are now built to order for the super rich around the world.

The chief executive of the company is no less a fanatical perfectionist and salty sea dog than Mark Richards, the multiple Sydney to Hobart-winning skipper of maxi yachts called Wild Oats. His attention to detail results in a boat that feels like it was designed for use by Elon Musk. Expensive, yet beautiful; over the top and yet homely.

And unforgettably fun to drive.

Where to park it

The large and luxurious Palm Beach 65 is at risk of dwarfing your house if you moor it nearby.

Fortunately, that won’t be problem at this prestigious pile in Hunters Hill – the slipway to your private mooring is quite long, granting a sense of scale.

Tracey Dixon of McGrath Hunters Hill leads the sales campaign, and says the price guide currently sits at $5.7 million-to-$6.2 million.