Back in 1996, when Alloy Yachts created 121-foot sloop Atlanta, she was hailed by ShowBoats International as one of the finest yachts ever to come out of New Zealand. But even the best things in life sooner or later yield to the effects of time, and after eight years and two owners, Atlanta began showing some wear and tear under her well-maintained red skin. Among other problems, her electrical system required regular mending, and her generators were working overtime just to keep up. Her electronics, originally installed by a reputable company that has since succumbed to the passage of time (and finances), were far behind the considerable technological advances in maritime navigation and communications made since the mid-nineties.

Enter a woman who had never before owned a boat of any size, one who didn’t know the first thing about yachting. Kylie Cappelli and her husband, Louis, were lured in 2001 by a friend into looking at Atlanta. Stopping by their Long Island, New York, home in his 95-foot sailboat, the friend showed them a brochure on the yacht. Convinced of the yacht’s underlying quality, he wanted the couple to buy the boat with him and maintain joint ownership.

Kylie was suspicious. "I said, ‘This is ridiculous. It’s like a money pit. What do you do, just sail around? How boring must that be?’" For reasons unknown even to Kylie, they agreed to do a walk-through of the boat at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show and eventually bought it with their friend. (Click image to enlarge.)

"It would take a crowbar to get me off the damn thing now," says Kylie. "I love the intimacy of a sailboat. A powerboat doesn’t have a soul. This is a quieter kind of experience."

The Cappellis shared the boat with their friend for two years and, during that time, learned volumes about boats and the yachting lifestyle. When the ownership arrangement amicably ended, the couple walked away with full title to the boat. By then the Cappellis knew what they did and did not like about Atlanta, including some elements of her original design. So the two set about changing them.

In June 2004, the owners chose the Hinckley yard in Rhode Island (reasonably close to their New York base) for the refit. "We had a clear, defined mission," says Joe Kylie, project manager for the yard, "and that was to take a 10-year-old hull and put out a brand-new boat in an old skin."

Everyone agreed that Atlanta’s biggest weaknesses were her systems. "The integrity of the hull was fabulous. It was a well-built boat." It helped that Hinckley could do everything in-house, from running electrical systems to machining the many custom pieces original builder Alloy had made for the yacht.Atlanta was gutted down to her hull and virtually all her systems were replaced with new and improved versions. Kylie and two of her friends, Andrea Michaelson and Teresa Hill—who happen to be interior designers—set about revising Atlanta’s interior layout and décor.

The biggest change was in the salon just below and forward of the bar and interior helm station, where Cappelli reversed the positions of the side-by-side dining and lounge areas to make the space less formal. A centerline cabinet separating the two areas was removed, allowing more space and communion between the two now comfortably casual spaces.

The basic layout was maintained in the guest accommodations aft, save for a new entertainment area installed in the forward starboard portion of the master stateroom, but every room received a facelift that included luxurious yet casual fabrics. Rich, warm, custom chenille, leather weaves and high-grade linens were used throughout. Onyx countertops and teak and holly highlight the bathrooms.

The biggest changes, however, occurred in the yacht’s aging systems. Entirely replaced were her electrical, navigation, communications, entertainment and air-conditioning systems. Advanced Marine Systems of St. Maarten designed her new electrical system and installed new satellite, navigation and communications components. Fire safety was also improved by upgrading the carbon dioxide fire-suppression system, while all the PVC piping in the engine room was replaced with stainless steel.

In the yacht’s original configuration, some systems were virtually inaccessible, making servicing them nearly impossible. Remedying these problems became a major focus for the refit team.

However, just fitting the new systems into the available spaces was a challenge. "The one mistake I made, being a layperson, was that I assumed that technology automatically gets smaller [over time]," Kylie recalls. "So we’re ripping out everything in the engine room—fantastic. Everything should be smaller than it used to be—not the case." The solution: Cardboard mockups of generators, air conditioners and other large systems were maneuvered around the spaces to see if they would fit. If they didn’t, the team brainstormed ways to make them fit.

The old engines, 550-hp Lugger 6140 diesels, were upgraded to new 600-hp versions of the same, which added a knot to the yacht’s powered speed, putting it at just over 11 knots. The old 40-kW Northern Lights generators, which broke down at times, were replaced with the company’s newer, smaller 55-kW versions.Following the refit, the yacht’s engineer, Chris Henderson, estimates that he cut fuel and maintenance costs in half by upgrading to current technology in the engine room. The new systems lowered the yacht’s power consumption by about 5 percent and have significantly shortened service times for general maintenance and upkeep.

Atlanta’s Marine Air air-conditioning units were upgraded from 80,000-Btu units to a 210,000-Btu chilled-water system with a reverse cycle. Her watermaking capacity was boosted from 3,000 to 4,100 gallons per day for those times when the Cappellis want to stay out on the hook or visit remote islands.

The entire project took seven months to complete—two months longer than initially anticipated—and cost more than $4 million. But what the Cappellis got was a virtually brand-new boat that is faster and less expensive to operate.

They plan to mostly cruise the Caribbean and up north. The Bahamas are a favorite destination, and the yacht’s relatively shallow, nearly 11-foot draft makes places such as the Exumas accessible. Now completely hooked on sailing, the Cappellis have raced off Newport and spend as much time as possible on the boat.

Kylie now understands that yachting is so much more than "just sailing around"—and is anything but boring. "The beauty of having a boat, for me," she says, "is being able to have your own home and take it wherever you want."