Bill Ando
06/01/2007
An 86-foot (26.4-meter) Horizon enclosed-bridge motor yacht is a rare
sight. That’s because only one has been built, which is not surprising since
it’s not even in the builder’s model line. In fact, if it weren’t for Lionel and
Connie Yow’s granddaughter, the one and only 86 out there may never have been
built.
It wasn’t that they had their hearts set on an 86-foot yacht.
The couple, who were buying their first large yacht, liked Horizon’s 82-footer.
They wanted a boat they could enjoy with their family. "Our 15-year-old
granddaughter wanted her own shower," Connie said.
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Rather than direct them to the next largest boat in its fleet, a 92-footer, Horizon congenially lengthened its 82-footer in order to fit a bath for the fourth cabin. The 82 features two guest cabins with a shared bath and a VIP, in addition to the full-beam master suite. The three feet Horizon added to the 82’s hull opened up the vessel enough to fit the additional ensuite. The extra footage also extended the swim platform. With the added length and the enclosed bridge, the 86’s profile is even better proportioned than the 82 that inspired it.
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Buying the 86 was a big, but necessary, step for the couple, who live on the Intracoastal Waterway in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. "We’ve been watching the cruisers go by for a long time," Connie said.
Lionel isn’t trading in his 26-foot Regulator, though. "We’ll be towing that," he said.
They own an 84-slip dry-storage marina in Surf City and, at the same time that they signed the contract on the Horizon, they decided to buy the well-known Dockside in Wrightsville Beach, a popular food and overnight stop for day and distance cruisers. The 86 will likely frequent the facility when the couple is not cruising.
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Their decision to buy the Horizon was thoughtfully weighed.
Lionel said they looked at a couple of cruising yachts of similar length and for
their prices didn’t care for them. Another builder wouldn’t indulge
modifications of any sort. Horizon was accommodating and encouraging—always
desirable traits in a builder. (Click image to enlarge)There were a few other items the Yows had on their list. The forepeak VIP berth was upgraded to a king. "That’s my son’s cabin, and he’s six-foot-two, 250 pounds. He’s a big boy," Lionel said. There isn’t any room for compromising on comfort. Even the single berths were built a bit longer than normal. Connie’s experience of being trapped in a house fire led to her insistence on having a second way out of the master suite. Horizon disguised an escape hatch in the overhead that exits onto the galley floor. It worked so well that it is now standard equipment on Horizon yachts 73 feet and larger.
The Yows’ choice of Horizon was supported by diligent reading and by attending boat shows to touch and feel as many boats as they could. The Horizon had the most headroom of any of the boats they considered, which was a requirement, given the vertical orientation of the men in the family and the crew.
"Our captain is six feet, six inches and he stands tall in the galley," Lionel said.
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Once the factory items were dealt with, the next step was to put their personal stamp on the boat. The name was never in question. They would christen her Xanadu. Lionel explained a familial connection to the name. His father’s 500-acre corn and soybean farm on the Intracoastal Waterway is named Xanadu after a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Kahn.
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree," says the poem.
"This is the pleasure dome," Lionel said.
To ensure that the boat would look like the pleasure dome the couple envisioned, Connie enlisted North Carolina yacht interior designer Dawn Moffitt. Rather than select fabrics and stones from pictures in the builder’s pamphlet, they visited Keys Granite in Miami. There they selected the stone slabs for the yacht, which included the lively blue lapis lazuli in the guest heads and the blue Bahia granite outdoor bar tops. They had them cut to size and air-freighted to Taiwan where they were finished and installed on Xanadu.
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The bath has an ivory onyx counter. (Click image to enlarge)Selecting makoré and camphor burl as the interior woods, the couple wanted to do "something a little sleeker than raised panels, yet not incur a lot of cost with the yard," Moffitt said. She had 3/8-inch-wide ebony, cherry and maple marquetry manufactured in North Carolina, then shipped to the yard where it was inlaid throughout the cabinetry and interior passage doors, artfully separating the two woods. The ebony provides the black presence, Connie’s neutral color, which is included in every room. Connie also hung paintings by six North Carolina artists that had been in their home. The overall effect is pleasantly contemporary with enough of a classic hue to keep it cozy.
A continuous though subtle motif throughout the décor is the "X" of Xanadu’s name. Moffitt was able to work the letter into the shoji screens, mullions and overheads, mirrors in the owner’s and VIP staterooms and lacquered panels in the salon. The panels are mitered and quartered with the joint forming the "X."
Xanadu has many features to make life offshore more pleasant. She is equipped with a Headhunter sewage treatment system, a Besanzoni passerelle that extends hydraulically from the portside top transom step and a three-chiller, 188,000-Btu air-conditioning system. Fuel capacity was increased from 2,250 to 2,700 gallons for greater range.
Xanadu’s first destination was Turks and Caicos. There the avid divers tested the Brownie’s air compressor plumbed to the transom. Four underwater stern lights brighten things up for night dives—a nice touch befitting a pleasure dome.
Contact Horizon at 206-223-9333. www.horizonyacht.com
| Yacht Name: | Xanadu |
| Yacht Type: | Motor Yacht |
| Draft: | 6' 1" (1.85m) |
| LOA (Actual length): | 86' 6" (26.37m) |
| LWL (Length of water line): | 78' 0" (23.77m) |
| Displacement: | 80 tons |
| Max Speed: | 23 kts |
| Range: | 850 nm @ 12 kts |
| Beam: | 20' 0" (6.10m) |