There can be few pleasures quite as rewarding to the soul as sailing a 37-meter (121-foot) sloop off Italy’s Ligurian coast on a balmy spring day in a steady 10-knot breeze. The yacht in question was YII, built by Holland Jachtbouw with naval architecture by Bill Dixon and interior styling by John Munford. The experience was all the more pleasurable because we were sailing in the company of both these gentlemen and had waited some eight months for the privilege after the yacht was first presented at the Monaco Yacht Show last year, presumably because the owner was having too much fun enjoying his boat to give up any time on it.

"The owner was looking for a comfortable performance sailing yacht to replace his old 30-meter," explains Dixon, who also designed the owner’s previous boat. "It had to sail nicely in the Med’s fickle breezes, which meant making the yacht as light as possible." Hence, the yacht’s all-Alustar construction and full Nomex-core interior.

Click on the Specs tab at top to see complete list of resources.

Tank tests were conducted to see where draft and keel could be pared away to minimize drag but maintain windward performance. At 33 tons bare weight with a 4.3-meter draft and a 46.5-meter mast, YII will power up very quickly in anything up to 12 knots of breeze with her big reacher and light-air genoa for full-on sailing. But with the blade jib, which can be flipped over without the need to furl when tacking, the yacht is also easy to handle short-handed. Mechanical steering with Spectra cables means tracking is both smooth and responsive.

The yard has earned a reputation for innovative engineering, but it had to pull out all the stops when it came to meeting the owner’s automation requirements, such as hydraulically operated coaming hatches, dodger and bimini.

"It took us six months to develop the hydraulics systems, and this is the most expensive bimini we’ve ever built," exclaims the yard’s production manager, Tako van Ineveld. There is even a small pneumatic-hydraulic TV screen in the guest cockpit, which is quite a novelty on a sailing boat. Since all this requires a huge amount of power, the yacht’s hydraulic and electrical systems can be run from the generators or the main engine, or in parallel.

A great deal of collaborative thought went into the interior design to ensure it coincided with the owner’s needs and the yacht’s exterior styling and performance requirements.

Top: YII’s clutter-free decks as seen from the bosun’s chair. Middle & Bottom: Munford produced a masculine, yet stylish and evergreen interior. (Click images to enlarge)

---

The starboard dining area is a wealth of warm, mahogany-colored leather with iconic Mario Bellini Cab chairs and leather-tiled countertops. A subtly molded fiddle edge—an often-overlooked necessity on modern sailing boats—provides firm finger holds where needed. The door and drawer handles were designed by Munford and manufactured by Turnstile using the same stitched mahogany leather with stainless steel push buttons. A small study area on a lower level to starboard neatly houses a computer terminal, repeat instruments, printer and fax machine. The crew quarters are located aft, which means crewmembers won’t have to tramp over or through the guest areas when the yacht is moored stern-to in the Med.Two columns clad in dark brown woven leather define the entrance to the forward passageway and the guest cabins. Something of a feature has been made of this area, which opens out around the polished black carbon fiber mast, with its vertical stainless steel handrails and subtle LED lighting by LightGraphix. The two simply furnished guest cabins feature pear set against Majilite linen bulkheads and deckhead coverings. The twin berths appear to "float," but they actually contain capacious drawers underneath, and the starboard guest cabin has an additional Pullman berth. The plain white bathrooms are contrasted with gold-veined black portoro oro marble vanity tops and detailing in the showers. The cylindrical showers themselves are ingeniously designed with top-hung, glass sliding doors in a guttered marble recess that is flush with the wengé floors.

The owner also commissioned Dixon to come up with carbon-fiber pedestals and seating for the twin helm stations. The large monitors weigh nearly 30 pounds each, but the cantilevered construction provides fingertip control. Built in-house by Holland Jachtbouw, they sum up what this modern yacht is all about: lightweight construction, clean-cut styling and practical design solutions.