For the past decade, Christensen Yachts has developed its 157-foot (47.85-meter) motor yacht series into a highly respected brand with an increasingly sophisticated clientele, customers whose experience in the yachting world draws them to the company’s beautifully finished, value-oriented products. The attractive pricing of Christensen boats is the result of the streamlining that is inherent in the semi-custom construction process the company adopted several years before moving toward manufacturing its boats on speculation. While costly and somewhat risky, building yachts on spec has a number of benefits, and if the design of the product is attractive to potential customers, as the Christensen yachts have proven to be, the program will allow a builder to plan its workflow and cashflow better than any custom builder might.

Photograph by Scott Pearson. (Click image to enlarge)

Despite a reluctance to return to its custom building roots, Christensen has, in recent years, developed a measured response to requests from its customers for more individualized boats. What has evolved is the Custom Series, a line that allows customers a certain freedom of design within the parameters of the boat’s predetermined limits, which are set by the placement of the structural bulkheads and some of the main joiner bulkheads. It is this latitude that attracted Denise Rich, the owner of the company’s latest delivery, Lady Joy.

"One of the things that we were really excited about, as a team, was that it made the boat very, very personal. And that there was an extensive collection of art that she was bringing onto the boat."

There were several requirements that Rich brought to the table. Two of them, explained Williamson, were for additional storage and for the capability of handling large numbers of people.

"It was very important to Denise that the exterior space for entertaining was maximized, especially on the boat and aft decks for large dinner parties. And so, on the boat deck…we can seat 50, using the main table and four others that set up around the perimeter of the deck.

Top: Elegant, yet understated, the salon has a cozy feel. Bottom: The custom dining table blends seamlessly with the joinery, done in-house. (Click images to enlarge)

The need for stowage drove other modifications as well. In the owner’s suite, the arrangement remains fundamentally the same as all of the boat’s sisterships, but custom joinery—a modified desk in the study, a full-height armoire and an additional desk in the stateroom, and increased clothes storage—was added that makes the spaces more functional.Another area that was changed is the cabin deck, where the standard arrangement calls for four guest staterooms in the midships section and a large VIP cabin in the aftermost section.

Rich requested that the VIP be reconfigured so that in its place were installed two cabins. The first cabin is a fifth guest stateroom located to port, while the second cabin is to starboard with upper and lower berths that can serve as a space for unanticipated guests or, more likely, a nanny or a pair of pilots.

Many of the custom pieces are the work of designer Nancy Corzine. (Click images to enlarge)

In addition, Cochran noted, the units are compliant with the latest IMO emissions guidelines and MCA’s LY2 mandate, which is also the impetus behind the new arrangement for the boat’s crane.

"We’ve changed the crane design to allow it to operate on twenty-four volts," Cochran explained. "This means that the tender can qualify as a rescue boat," he said, adding that high-visibility covers are employed when the tender is enlisted to serve in a rescue capacity.

Other areas where new equipment is being used are the stabilization system, which now employs Quantum’s ZeroSpeed units, and the exhaust system, where Soundown mufflers have been fitted to the main engines and, soon, will be fitted to the generators as well.

"We are also going to parallel the generators as a refit, and, of course, we’ve started doing that with all our boats from here on out. Some of the work on Lady Joy was already done at the yard to expedite the delivery,
so she could leave for New York.

The sun deck retains the yacht’s residential ambiance. (Click image to enlarge)