Special delivery: Sign up for the free Yachting email newsletter. Subscribe to Yachting magazine for $39 for 1 year and receive 3 bonus digital issues.

IYC has listed the 130-foot classic motoryacht La Perla for sale. The asking price is about $3.27 million.

Built in the 1970s by the Scheepswert yard in the Netherlands, La Perla has a steel hull and a steel superstructure. The yacht underwent what the brokerage house says was a “major refit” this year.

The yacht can accommodate 26 overnight guests in 13 staterooms, with additional quarters for nine crew.

Underway, La Perla reportedly has a top speed of 14 knots and a cruising speed of 10 knots.

Tenders and watertoys include snorkeling and fishing gear, towables, personal watercraft, Seabobs and a Highfield tender.

Where is La Perla located for viewings? The yacht is in Croatia.

Take the next step: Contact sales broker Jamie Swaine at iyc.com.

The post A Recently Refitted Classic appeared first on Yachting.

Special delivery: Sign up for the free Yachting email newsletter. Subscribe to Yachting magazine for $39 for 1 year and receive 3 bonus digital issues.

Describing the refit of the Westport 112 Montrachet, Destry Darr of Destry Darr Designs in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, says with a laugh, “This was never going to be what I call a fluff-and-puff.”

That’s what she calls a refit consisting of changing pillows and upholstery.

“But we were never going to be a full gut-and-chuck either,” she says, noting that, while the finished yacht was unrecognizable on the interior from the original build, it didn’t involve ripping out bulkheads or rearranging major features.

Montrachet’s experienced owners bought the 112 with a refit in mind. Since the yacht had undergone a mechanical overhaul just two years earlier, they were free to focus on a new interior.

“They wanted clean and fresh,” says Darr, noting that the owners asked for Nantucket chic. “They brought photos of what they liked, and we went with pale blues and whites, with dark-blue accents, to give the coastal look.”

The owners also planned to use the yacht with an extended family that includes young grandchildren. “This meant using the new fabrics that not only are great outdoors and look terrific indoors, but are crayon-proof,” she adds.

Safe Harbor Lauderdale Marine Center was the refit yard of choice for several reasons. First, she says, it has an excellent reputation. Second, it works comfortably with outside subcontractors. Last, Darr has done many refits there and knew what to expect while lightening the interior and retaining much of the Westport’s woodwork.

One mechanical project was to replace the HVAC system. That work was coordinated with the removal and replacement of the headliner to allow for indirect returns. This setup required removing and redesigning a recessed soffit over the dining table.

A second significant task was to refresh and renew the master stateroom’s en suite head, which required removing the striated marble from the counters and bulkheads, and replacing it with a simple, clean look, including chrome fixtures on an all-white vanity. Like all the yacht’s en suites, it got updated stone, new wall coverings and shower enclosures, and new plumbing with chrome faucets.

The VIP stateroom forward was challenging because the plan was to use beadboard paneling to lighten the interior as well as to create a classic sailboat look. The angles from the changing hull shape and overhead were difficult, but Darr’s team incorporated recessed overhead lighting soffits and black-and-white nautical photographs. Shoji screens were also replaced (in all staterooms), and beadboard was fitted around ports and windows.

The master stateroom also received the beadboard treatment on its bulkheads and overhead (and on an elegant headboard). Newly designed bookshelves were finished with polished chrome fiddles that are decorative and useful to keep things in place. A sculptured carpet softened the stateroom sole.

In the lower foyer leading to the staterooms, the stone sole was replaced by warm engineered cherry-wood planking. White textured wall coverings create interest. Whiter LED lighting was installed, along with ribbed-glass sconces to match the staterooms and brighten the corridor.

The stairs leading from the main deck to the foyer also received cherry-wood borders with a textured carpet runner to create a waterfall effect as well as secure footing.

Without removing the original Westport cabinetry, new bullnose trim was fitted throughout the salon and staterooms, with caning topped with glass for a timeless, elegant sensibility. The salon received a new L-shaped couch and loose chairs with classic styling in white, easy-clean fabrics. A game table for two to starboard has cane chairs to tie in with the countertops and invites not only cards, but breakfast croissants too. New window treatments finished the salon look.

One feature of the Westport 112 is a forward country-kitchen-style galley, which incorporates an island and a dining settee with a table. It’s intended as a gathering place for guests and the chef. On this boat, it has stainless-steel appliances and white quartz Silestone counters for a clean, contemporary look that’s easy to clean. The dinette has sleek upholstery around a Silestone table to match the galley. Chairs that tuck under the island overhang let guests use the galley counter for snacks or to chat with the chef.

“I’m seeing more sleek-looking stones, such as Cambria quartz, with a cleaner and larger pattern of movement,” Darr says. “Marbled colors and veiny patterns are losing favor, while synthetic stones offer a contemporary look.”

The yacht’s exterior was updated with new upholstery, cushions and accent windows. On the bridge, white all-weather, childproof upholstery with blue piping continues the white-and-blue look. Montrachet also now has lighted nameboards.

With an interior that matches the owner’s dreams, the Montrachet project took six months. “That time frame is doable,” Darr says, “but it requires both careful planning and talented subcontractors.”  

Westport 112

The Westport 112 is a popular yacht for refits. More than 60 hulls have been built, and they have what buyers call “good bones,” with four staterooms, quarters for five crew, proven construction and an aesthetic that is receptive to a variety of design styles.

Colors for Relaxation

“Grays, blues and shades of white have been dominant lately,” says Florida-based designer Destry Darr. “These colors create warmth, happiness, joy, relaxation and rejuvenation—everything an owner wants to feel to get away from their fast-paced, day-to-day life.”

Choosing Color Schemes

Florida-based designer Destry Darr says, “I am seeing more contemporary interiors with interesting colors combined with unusual accents in classic colors such as warm orange, soft yellow, and majestic pinks and plum. I see a lot of organic and natural colors, such as leaf green, and, of course, earthy neutrals never go out of style.”

Take the next step: destrydarrdesigns.com

The post Westport 112 ‘Montrachet’ Completes Refit appeared first on Yachting.

Special delivery: Sign up for the free Yachting email newsletter. Subscribe to Yachting magazine for $39 for 1 year and receive 3 bonus digital issues.

Whenever a shipyard comes under new management, there is always concern about how day-to-day operations might change. That’s especially true at a facility like Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine. Founded in 1960 by Joel White, and managed since 1990 by his son Steve White, the yard has earned a reputation for combining traditional craftsmanship and modern technology on new builds, refits and restorations alike—sometimes with classic and smaller boats that no other yard has the willingness or expertise to take on.

Earlier this year, Steve White stepped down as company president. That role is now held by Brian Larkin, a former project manager who has been with Brooklin Boat Yard since 1987 and who says he has every intention of keeping the facility engaged in classic, traditional work.

“I don’t want to let that go,” Larkin told Yachting. “There’s less and less people doing that now. It’s great clients to work with.”

The clients don’t just come to the yard with boats that need fixing, according to Nick Bellico, service and yard manager. Instead, they come with boats that have decades-long stories and treasured histories within families.

A recent example is the Ray Hunt 36 fast cruiser Kairos, which was built in 1969 as a custom one-off design. The man who commissioned it was the grandfather of the current owner, who, about a decade ago, was looking to buy a boat. His grandmother told him she had found a boat off the side of a road, decaying in the trees, that she thought had belonged to the grandfather. Sure enough, it was the same boat, completely waterlogged and rotted from the waterline down.

Kairos might not be the type of boat it makes financial sense to save, but in terms of preserving the family’s history, the project made all the sense in the world.

“We created a fiberglass keel and then replanked in plywood and cold-molded in fiberglass on the outside,” Bellico says, adding that they got Kairos back in the water within a year. “That’s what makes us stand out over anybody else. We don’t know what the word ‘no’ means. You bring us something, and we will figure it out, no matter how big or custom or unique or small it is.”

The number of refits and restorations that Brooklin Boat Yard takes on varies from year to year, Larkin says: “We’ve had several years where we’ve done all restorations and a new build, and then the next year, it’s all new builds. We take them as they come through the door.” He’s fine with that marketplace reality, he says, because it keeps things interesting for the yard’s 70 employees. “One of our goals is to keep the eclectic diversity of the yard,” he says.

Sometimes boats return to Brooklin Boat Yard again and again throughout their lives. The 57-foot Impala, as an example, is a Sparkman & Stephens design that launched in 1954. The yard restored its hull in the 1980s, then gave it a new teak deck in the 1990s, and just had the boat back again to take core samples and make sure it’s still structurally sound.

“The question was, ‘Is this boat sailable? Will insurance cover it? Is it at the end of its life, or does it have another hundred years?’” Bellico says. “You come to Brooklin Boat Yard to get those answers. We know these types of vessels so well that we can give confident answers to surveyors and insurance companies to save these types of vessels.”

And, indeed, the yard was able to get Impala back in shape to head out on the water, following work on the deck seams, covering boards and more. The owner, Bellico says, is thrilled that the boat will live on.

“I truly feel that Impala—if he didn’t come here, he would not be sailing next year,” Bellico says. “We were able to find the answers, we worked with the insurance companies, he got a clean survey, and he’s bringing it back to Nantucket to go sailing in June.”

Yet another recent project was a Dark Harbor 17 built in 1914. The owner wanted to bring the boat back to its original glory. The yard did all kinds of work, including saving the original canvas and rebuilding the varnish up eight coats from bare wood. “It makes it look like it looked on its original launch date in 1914,” Bellico says, adding that other yards don’t always take such small hulls. “Our intention is to create an environment, a home for all of these old, forgotten, loved vessels, and be known as the place to come when all other options are out. We will take care of you and give your boat a home.”

New Builds

Outlier, launched in 2019, was Brooklin Boat Yard’s second collaboration with the designers at Botin Partners in Spain. The underbody is modern, but the aesthetic is traditional above the waterline.

The post Preserving History at Brooklin Boat Yard appeared first on Yachting.

Special delivery: Sign up for the free Yachting email newsletter. Subscribe to Yachting magazine for $39 for 1 year and receive 3 bonus digital issues.

The iconic, 288-foot Perini Navi Maltese Falcon has completed a six-month refit at the Lusben refit yard in Italy. Some 80 people joined the yacht’s crew on the project.

The refit included repainting the yacht’s hull in its distinctive “Perini blue” color. Maintenance was done on the main engines and propellers, and the mast-handling system was overhauled.

New generators were installed to increase efficiency and reduce fuel consumption. For similarly eco-friendly reasons, main-engine mufflers were changed out—also helping to reduce noise.

Work also was done on the rig, and teak decking was replaced. Interiors were refurbished, and lighting was replaced with LED technology for energy savings.

“It was challenging project for all of us, not least because the sheer size of this sailing yacht required us to design and build a special system to accommodate the vessel in dry dock,”

Gianni Paladino, Lusben’s commercial director, stated in a press release. “We worked in synergy with the various teams involved in the refit work and with the customer, satisfying their wishes and at the same time suggesting improvements with a view to increasing efficiency and energy savings.”

Where is the Maltese Falcon headed next? Back “to the sea in all her splendor, regaling her guests with new and unforgettable experiences,” according to Capt. Pierfrancesco Cafaro.

Take the next step: go to lusben.com

The post The ‘Maltese Falcon’s’ Refit Is Complete appeared first on Yachting.

Special delivery: Sign up for the free Yachting email newsletter. Subscribe to Yachting magazine for $39 for 1 year and receive 3 bonus digital issues.

How do you improve a 20-year-old yacht that continues to be a perennial favorite on the charter market?

That was the question facing the owners of Force Blue, which was 206 feet length overall when Royal Denship delivered it in 2002. The yacht is now 229 feet long and has a redesigned exterior, a swim platform extension to create a beach club, a redesigned main deck aft and refurbished staterooms.

“The whole stern of the yacht is redefined, creating an exceptional open lounging and sunbathing area at sea level,” says Daniela De Marco, Fraser’s head of charter management in Europe. “This fantastic new space connects directly to the yacht’s well-being area to offer an incredible space for relaxation and pampering, and also offers direct access to the water to jump straight from treatment to the sea.”

That well-being area has long been a calling card for Force Blue, which had an oversized spa long before it became common practice to incorporate them into superyacht designs. There’s a dedicated masseuse and beautician on board, and the well-being area includes a steam shower, hammam, mud bath, sauna, hot tub, hydro massage, massage room and hairdressing salon. The space is in addition to the onboard gymnasium, which has a treadmill, a Power Plate, a stationary bicycle, a Kinesis gym machine, a leg press, free weights and more—should guests tire of being outside with the Flyboard, hoverboard, paddleboards, scuba gear and various other water toys.

Force Blue also has a rare ratio of 12 guests to 21 crew, who, De Marco says, are “always going the extra mile to exceed the guests’ expectations.”

The Big Booking: Eight Weeks of Onboard Relaxation

This past summer, Force Blue completed an eight-week charter for clients, who, according to management company Fraser, are already talking about booking the yacht again for another vacation. Fraser has managed the yacht since 2005, keeping it in the fleet through several owners. Unlike some yachts that occasionally charter, it’s a priority aboard Force Blue to secure charter bookings. The yacht alternates seasons between the Mediterranean and Caribbean. 

The post New and Improved Royal Denship ‘Force Blue’ appeared first on Yachting.

Special delivery: Sign up for the free Yachting email newsletter. Subscribe to Yachting magazine for $39 for 1 year and receive 3 bonus digital issues.

Huisfit has completed a major refit of the 203-foot Holland Jachtbouw Athos, which has been extended to 208 feet length overall during a conversion that changed the yacht inside and out.

Work on the 2010 build included a stern extension; redesigned cockpit layouts; a new forward navigation deckhouse; new booms, sails and carbon rigging; updated systems; and significant interior renovations.

Hoek Design was involved with all the naval architecture and some of the restyling. Peter Mikic Interiors handled the layout and some of the styling.

The new cockpit is wider and longer, and can accommodate 12 people for dining. The space also includes smaller relaxation areas, and tables that can be adjusted for cocktails or dining.

Another major change is to the owners’ stateroom, which was stripped out and rebuilt. It now has additional portholes, two bathrooms instead of one and a new walk-in closet.

In the guest spaces, changes included removing a fireplace and adding a media room. Crew areas were also updated, with a galley rebuild and new appliances in the crew quarters.

How many people worked on the refit of Athos? Huisfit says as many as 50 people were regularly employed on the project for more than a year.

Take the next step: go to huisfit.com

The post Huisfit Completes Refit of 203-Foot ‘Athos’ appeared first on Yachting.

Historically speaking, designer Patrick Knowles says, refits have often been considered less exciting than other projects. Yacht owners and designers alike dreamed of new builds—of starting with a blank sheet and letting creativity take them anywhere they wanted to go.

That thinking changed with the pandemic, which caused such a run on boats that some builders are now taking orders for deliveries well into 2026. Buyers who don’t want to wait are turning to the brokerage market, which also has been bought up. They’re finding boats with good bones that need major makeovers—and make doing refits far more interesting for leading designers.

“The market has shifted,” says Knowles, who has changed the business model at Patrick Knowles Designs to meet current conditions.

The adjustment is necessary because completing a major refit in a reasonable time frame right now requires navigating supply-chain and other problems that persist from the pandemic. While clients want fast turnarounds on big projects, designers are being blocked at every pass.

“It’s a problem on things you’d never guess,” says Destry Darr, owner of Destry Darr Designs. “I was just meeting with my carpenter, and they’re still struggling to get glue, drawer slides. There’s just shortages on things. There’s long lead times and little roadblocks everywhere you turn.”

Knowles is navigating this reality by accepting projects only from owners willing to work within certain parameters. Gone are the days of owners wanting to see 25 samples of everything from door handles to fabrics before making a choice. Doing a refit that way is not practical today. What does work, he says, is the owner and designer setting a protocol at the outset for the refit’s style and overall budget, and then the designer having leeway to get it done without micromanaging.

“When you send an email to the client and the protocol is established, and we send a video that shows we have three possible solutions to a challenge, please let me know which one you want and we will execute it, that answer from the owner is what matters,” Knowles says. “It’s about trust and not having to go through layers of people to get things done.”

Not every owner is comfortable with that kind of relationship, he says, and that’s of course OK, but in the current business climate, Knowles is only looking to work with owners who are on the same page.

“I want large refits. High-dollar refits. Quick time frames,” he says. “And control within the parameters we discuss.”

Darr is not necessarily seeking those same types of clients, but she is also trying to help owners understand that market conditions may not be what they expect, and that they have to be realistic about how their wish list is likely to bump up against intractable problems.

“If owners think they’re going to need two or three months, they need to anticipate even more than that,” she says. “It’s always been to expect the unexpected with a refit, but now it’s even more so. Shipping is a problem now too. And we still have a labor shortage all over the place. The shipping issues—we’re all trying to do our best.”

By “all,” she means far more than just designers working on boat refits. When her team, Knowles’ team or any other designer’s team try to source parts, components and other supplies right now, they are being thrust into a world where all kinds of people are battling to get their arms around a limited supply.

“Things that I would never, after doing this for 25 years, have expected to run into—that’s what we’re running into,” Darr says. “I have a client who was a contractor, and they ran out of the yellow striping paint for a parking lot, and they couldn’t find it anywhere. It’s happening in all trades, all over the world, these things you would never expect to have problems with.”

Knowles says he has instituted internal protocols to help blow through the roadblocks his team is encountering—but those protocols require yacht owners to step back from projects in ways they may not have had to step back in the past, whether previous experience was with a new yacht or with a refit where the owner was deeply engaged in decision-making about every little thing.

“The owner has to relinquish involvement in changes,” Knowles says. “We’re going to produce something within the parameters. We may have to swap out components, but at the end of the day, the picture of the puzzle will look about the same. If a sink isn’t available, I’m going to select another one that’s within the parameters. If it’s $150 more, then I’ll find that money somewhere else. That’s the kind of autonomy we need right now.”

If owners are willing to work that way, Knowles says, then even amid today’s challenges, they can absolutely get what they want, within their budget, in a reasonable time frame.

“When we have issues or decisions to make, you will be a part of it, but it will still be an option of solution A, B or C,” he says. “Let me tell you: Some amazing projects can be developed in a relatively short period of time.”

The post The Evolution of Refitting Projects appeared first on Yachting.

At first, the owner thought he and his family would use the 112-foot Hannah without making any changes. Then, his wife looked at it.

“The original idea was just to change a few things inside, but you start one thing, and you say, ‘Why don’t you do the next one?’” he says. “We kept going and going and going.”

After buying the Westport yacht in early 2020, the owner brought in Destry Darr Designs for the refit. She ended up orchestrating a total overhaul, finishing the project at the end of 2020. The yacht’s post-refit maiden cruise with the family was during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays that winter, then Westport Yachts began offering Hannah for charter.

By the end of 2021, the yacht had done 12 weeks, with clients continuing to line up for more.

“The styling of the yacht, the look—it’s just beautiful,” says Kim Vickery, who manages Hannah’s charter program at Westport Yachts. “Clients are very drawn to it. It’s modern with open spaces. You send them the photos, and they say, ‘OK, I want that one.’”

The parts of the interior refit that charter guests can see in those photos include the flooring, headliner, woodwork, paint, galley countertops, appliances, upholstery and guest-stateroom layouts. “We had twin berths in the VIP that the [previous] owner originally used for bodyguards,” the owner says. “We destroyed all that and made a new VIP with a queen bed. It had two bathrooms; we made one of them a closet.”

He and his wife weren’t even close to being done after that.

“Then in the master bathroom, it had a column in the middle,” he says. “We removed that and did a brand-new shower with new marble, new showerhead and so forth. We have new marble sinks and whatnot. New toilets. New flooring.”

The owner also invested in an engine-room refit because, he says, what was there “was not very appealing. We had the engines painted, we had a full service done on the engines—that wasn’t needed, but we figured we might as well do it. We put in new risers, lights in the engine room because it didn’t have any.”

And he gave Hannah a fresh paint job. “Bottom to top, the whole thing,” he says. “We did some silver paint on top to give it some contrast.”

Additional investments included new electronics at the helm, new wiring and low-voltage lighting, and additions to the toy chest.

“I got a second Jet Ski because we only had one,” the owner says. “We got rid of the 14-foot tender and got a 35-foot Whaler as the tender.”

The decor was selected in large part because it’s what the owner likes. “What I did originally was take Destry to my home,” he explains. “I said, ‘This is the way I live. This is what I would like to see on my boat.’ And that’s exactly what she duplicated.”

Except, Darr says, all the materials for the boat’s refit were chosen with charter in mind. The yacht had to be ready for bookings to begin the minute Hannah relaunched.

“The wife was very nervous about how it would hold up for charter, especially if the boat was heavily chartered, but it’s holding up phenomenally well,” Darr said in early 2022. “We thought about the stone, the wall materials, the paints that we used—we used so many different materials, from papers to fabrics to quartz stone and vinyls. We used a lot of outdoor materials, veneers, different kinds of paints. It all added to the interest of the design.”

Darr says one of her favorite spaces on the yacht post-refit is the lower foyer.

“It’s a custom-made tile and a custom-made wall covering,” she says. “They have silver studs in them. It was something that the owner loved when he saw the wall covering, and we wanted to play one off the other, so we came up with this custom tile that we designed.”

The owner says he could not be happier. He ended up with what he says is “basically a brand-new boat,” and he got it for less than half of what he would have to pay to order the same yacht new from the shipyard.

Darr says the owner had a palpable level of excitement all throughout the refit project too.

“I rave about him all the time,” she says. “It makes all the difference in the world to have a wonderful client, somebody who really has a great eye for design and knows what they like. He loved the project. He was there all the time. If it wasn’t for COVID shutting things down, he would’ve been there even more. It was nice that he wasn’t micromanaging—he just loved to see what was going on.”

Today, the owner also feels more comfortable as a first-time charter-yacht owner.

“I have a very good captain and crew who make sure that it’s maintained in pristine condition,” he says. “One of the concerns I had was that you charter and people destroy what you have, but the crew is very keen on making sure the boat is taken care of. When I get on the boat, it looks like the first day that I got on it.”

Details, Details

Westport Yachts manages Hannah for charter. Accommodations are for eight guests in four staterooms, including a master with a California king berth on centerline. There are five crewmembers on board. Cruising speed is 18 knots for exploring Florida and the Bahamas. The lowest weekly base rate is $60,000.

Waiting for the Right Opportunity

Hannah’s owner says he waited 10 years for a Westport to pop up in his price range. “This one came up, and I bought it in two seconds,” he says. “There was a bidder who had done a survey and all that and then negotiated more with the owner, and the owner said, ‘No more.’ I was the underbidder, and I got it.”

Take the next step: westportyachts.com

The post Refitting the 112-Foot ‘Hannah’ for Charter appeared first on Yachting.

Toward the end of October 2018, Adam Voorhees of Adam Voorhees Design took a call from a client asking him to take a look at a 171-footer he was considering buying. The yacht was Rasselas, a 1994 Feadship. Classically styled down to its wood cap rails, the yacht bore an equally classic raised-panel mahogany interior and was largely unaltered since launch. More significant, despite 25 years afloat, it showed little age. “I thought it was a pretty nice platform, with the Feadship pedigree we all love,” Voorhees says.

Having just worked with this client on a 10-month refit, Voorhees knew two things were important. First, how fast could a transformation take place, to ensure the owner’s treasured time with friends and family could begin? Second, how clever could they be in profoundly changing a number of things without radically altering the yacht at its core?

Less than nine months later, during summer 2019, Rasselas was in the hands of Royal Huisman’s Huisfit team, with a lengthy work list to turn the superyacht into Broadwater by the following spring. Tasks such as adding 13 feet to its transom and leaving essentially no part of it untouched were challenging enough for the timeline. Then came the pandemic. Peter Wilson, co-founder of MCM and the owner’s representative, says it “turned everything upside down.”

Decisive action—from the owner to Royal Huisman and everyone in between—made the refit succeed. Voorhees describes the design changes as “an evolution rather than revolution,” and it also helped that the owner knew about yachts and refits. While he’s owned boats of varying sizes, he’s acquired and extensively refitted two other Feadships. The first was a 163-footer built in 1990, the ex-Mi Gaea, refitted at Rybovich as his first Broadwater. The second was a 165-footer from 2000, the ex-Blue Moon, transformed at Florida’s Lauderdale Marine Center. That yacht also became Broadwater.

The newest Broadwater underwent a lot of work too, but its refit couldn’t have been more different. “The previous Broadwater was approached as a gut job because we’d planned to do it that way,” Voorhees says. “This was different because she’s really classic and functional, so we thought, ‘Let’s see how much we can respect of this lovely vessel’” while layering on what matched the owner’s aesthetic and lifestyle.

Wilson agrees: “The owner wanted to breathe new life into the boat, but at the same time leave the original Feadship DNA intact—just make her more current and to have the features that one would expect of a superyacht today.”

Those features include a beach club, which in combination with a more welcoming main deck aft came from a 13-foot transom extension, designed by Voorhees and fabricated by the shipyard. New features also include the sun deck, where “a ton of physical transformation completely changed the layout,” Voorhees says. For the owner and charter guests, five sun-deck areas cater to different activities, while still feeling connected. Two or three people can choose an intimate corner, for example, while boisterous conversations go on at the bar and adjacent sun pad. Alternatively, the entire deck can become one large party platform. The radar mast and hardtop are new designs—with the addition of a day head in the base.

The most dramatic changes are inside. Whereas Rasselas looked and felt like a proverbial gentlemen’s club, Broadwater is “a dialogue between the casually elegant with the cleverly unexpected,” Voorhees says.

Scant paneling retains its rich stain; instead, it’s painted white, letting the custom furnishings and the owner’s art collection shine. (No one wanted to remove the old-growth mahogany.) Added in are brushed, rift European oak, open-grain black walnut and fumed eucalyptus. These materials combine with textural stones and patinated bronze without adhering to one particular theme. Influences range from classical nautical tradition to equally classic French and Italian art deco, as well as from midcentury Scandinavian to a dose of California modernism.

Broadwater is even more different behind its walls. Bringing a private-use, 25-year-old yacht into compliance for charter is no small feat. It involved replacing the fire-suppression system, establishing new fire boundaries, rebuilding the gantry cranes for the rescue tender, and more, along with numerous conversations with Lloyd’s classification and Jamaica flag-state officials. “It’s not just combing through a rule book,” Wilson says.

As if that weren’t complex enough, COVID-19 hit. Wilson credits Royal Huisman with creating three factory shifts to maintain social distancing and momentum. As helpful as the effort was in minimizing delays, though, it meant “questions were coming day and night,” Wilson says. “A lot of caffeine was involved to keep answers flowing.” Having the owner’s captain on-site for the full yard period, “a great set of eyes and ears,” aided greatly. So too did the limited visits he and the owner could make.

“It’s profoundly important to make on-site decisions,” Wilson says. “Plus, he enjoys it.”

With the new-and-improved Broadwater in his hands for several months now, the owner is pleased with the results. Among the three Feadship yachts the owner has transformed, Wilson says, “This is his favorite one so far.”

The post Refitting the Superyacht ‘Broadwater’ appeared first on Yachting.

Buying a new yacht is an exciting, and sometimes complicated, process. it’s hard to get everything at the helm right on the first try, or to anticipate what kinds of electronics might come along next. That’s why planning for future refits is just as much a ­necessity as ordering everything brand-new today.

Future-proofing a helm includes researching how a yacht is constructed, to better understand its ­down-the-road accessibility options. The task also can include working with a builder to augment data backbones or power supplies, and working with a top-notch marine electronics shop to spec and install a package that lends itself to upgrades.

Different builders and refit shops do things in different ways. Nordhavn, which builds oceangoing yachts from 48 to 120 feet length overall, recently began factory-installing Maretron backbones (NMEA 2000) and vessel-wide USB outlets, giving yacht owners options for the future.

“We’re not always the first company to use the latest and greatest. We like proven technology,” says Mike Telleria, Nordhavn’s ­electrical-systems designer and technical writer. “This is new for us. Before, customers had to request it.”

Nordhavns are built with PVC tubing serving as wire runs, keeping cabling organized, discrete and protected. Buyers with long-term plans tend to request extra-wide tubes.

“It’s worth putting in PVC pipes with lots of room and little [messenger] strings so that people can pull [future wire],” he says.

Likewise, savvy buyers think about future ­power-supply needs: “We [deliver] more capacity than the boat we’re building requires,” Telleria says. “This helps for refits, as you’re not running power cables. It’s much more plug-and-play.”

On the opposite end of boatbuilding’s philosophical spectrum is Monte Carlo Yachts, which aims to achieve the same goal in a different way. That shipyard uses aluminum frames on interior modules when constructing yachts. “It guarantees complete access to wires and sensors,” says Fabrizio Iarrera, managing director.

Monte Carlo Yachts’ technicians pre-assemble roughly 90 percent of all electronics and associated wire runs in or around the interior modules, he says: “Almost all electronics are assembled before the interior module and the hull are joined.” Once complete, the interior module is fitted and glued into the hull, leaving room in the bilges. “All electric and hydraulic cables are installed just below the aluminum floor, giving almost unlimited [inspection] possibilities and favoring the addition of extra cables,” Iarrera says. “Any refit activity [is] much easier.”

Another important philosophical difference between these boatbuilders (and many others) is their approach to specifying electronics. Monte Carlo Yachts typically equips its yachts with user-customizable Raymarine and FLIR electronics packages, while Nordhavn directs its customers to a network of marine electronics shops, which design a package for installation at Nordhavn’s overseas factories or at the installer’s shop.

There are advantages to both installation routes. One important consideration, says Larry Schildwachter, owner and founder of Emerald Harbor Marine in Seattle, is the manufacturer-supported shelf life of the electronics. Given the lead times for new-build Nordhavns, a common pitfall involves purchasing the electronics too early (see sidebar).

“It’s critical to maximize product run time for satellite-communication equipment,” says Schildwachter, adding that he often consults with a customer for months or even years prior to purchasing electronics equipment. “Our preference is for the owner to bring the boat here and do the electronics installation at the end. The owner gets what they want, and we know where every connection is.”

That last point is significant for owners who plan to have the same shop service a yacht’s electronics year on year, and it can make a big difference for globe-girdling cruisers. For example, Schildwachter says, Emerald Harbor Marine creates a bespoke schematic for each new or refit yacht, providing a road map to the vessel’s central nervous system.

“The biggest advantage is that it lengthens the serviceability of the yacht’s current electronics package,” Schildwachter says. “As an owner travels the world, techs who have ­never been aboard can zero in on any issues.”

In all cases, a detailed schematic will help a commissioning shop or future technicians if troubles arise, or as equipment is upgraded.

“Schematics make a night-and-day difference when refitting a yacht,” Schildwachter says. “It helps installers plan where pieces of equipment will go.”

Two additionally important decisions an owner can make during any yacht’s build are whether to spec multifunctional displays or marinized black-box computers networked with touchscreens — and what kind of networks to install.

“One of the most important things that we do is to help people decide between a black-box system and an MFD,” Schildwachter says. “Not everyone is a circumnavigator, and MFDs are fine for cruising the San Juans, but 10- to 20-year owners are black-box clients.”

That’s because using black-box systems lets users swap out modules for faster, more contemporary processors and operating systems while continuing to use original screens, provided that the connectors are still compatible. In all cases, Schildwachter says, long-term owners are wise to invest in glass. “Screen size is critical,” he says. “Buy the biggest screens that the boat will tolerate and that you can afford.”

Behind the graphics and glass, yachts rely on networked information that’s typically shared over an NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 data backbone. While NMEA 0183 has long been a go-to standard, NMEA 2000 (N2K) has now exited its early-adopter stage, and forward-looking owners are choosing it. A top-notch shop will design an N2K backbone and install it using factory-built fittings, rather than failure-prone field connections. Owners can further consider future-proofing their investment with the addition of NMEA’s coming OneNet standard, which works with N2K backbones and delivers ­significantly higher levels of network security.

It can be hard to peer a decade or two down the waterways when buying a new yacht, but a good place to start is ­understanding how its construction style will lend itself to future refit work. Moreoever, it’s important to incorporate the right power supplies, networks and late-model ­electronics. Yes, these steps add cost, but they also deliver a strong return on investment over the years.

“I always tell my clients that when they get in the dinghy, if they’re not spending more time looking at their boat than where they’re going, they bought the wrong boat,” Schildwachter says.

The post Future-Proofing Your Yacht appeared first on Yachting.