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In the maritime world, adopting the name of an old vessel for a
newly constructed one is a tradition as old as shipbuilding itself. For the
owner of the recently delivered motor yacht Happy Days, a ship model in the library and a group of framed
photographs displayed on the wheelhouse bulkhead tell the tale of the lovely
yacht for which his new one is named.
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Built in 1927 to a design by the prestigious New York firm Cox
& Stevens, Design No. 361 was one of several important yachts built for
Americans by Krupp Iron Works’ renowned Germaniawerft shipyard, in Kiel,
Germany. Her owner enjoyed the impressive boat with an overall length of 195
feet, a beam of 27 feet and a draft of more than 10 feet
until the U.S. Navy acquired her in January 1942. That April, she was
commissioned USS
Almandite and served during World War II as a patrol
boat with a complement of 75. Almandite was decommissioned in San
Francisco on January 22, 1946, and was struck from the Naval Vessel
Register a month later. Her fate, say historians, is unknown. Not so her
164-foot (50-meter) namesake, which was launched by Delta Marine in June.
Delta’s design chief, naval architect Jay Miner, explained that with the
increased volume that resulted from a longer hull, wider beam and larger
superstructure than any previous composite yacht delivered by the company,
Happy Days now enjoys the record of being the largest FRP motor yacht ever
built in the United States.
 The cantilevered sections of the hardtop lighten
the look of the profile, while the structural details remain faithful to the
design’s modern roots. (Click image to enlarge)
Miner noted that one factor that contributed to this increased
volume came as a result of the owner’s design brief, which included a
requirement that he have an enclosed aft-deck lounge abaft his suite, which is
located on the bridge deck. Both the lounge and the adjacent stateroom are full
beam, which means not only a substantial amount of climate-controlled
space, but thanks to large sections of glazing, spectacular views as well.
Nevertheless, as with many design exercises, solutions often create new
problems. "The challenge was to take a boat with this much mass and make
it seem lighter," said Miner. "I think it’s successful." Adriel Rollins agrees. Responsible for the styling and interior
design of such Delta yachts as Triton, which employed the same hull tooling,
Rollins performed the identical design functions for the Happy Days project. He
noted that special care was taken in the exterior to sculpt the exposed
structure wherever possible to lighten the boat’s look. In addition, the use of
a subtle pastel blue for the hull diminishes the perceived weight of the
superstructure while extending the horizontal line of the sheer. Miner added
that other features that lighten the superstructure, both visually and actually,
are the carbon-fiber–reinforced cantilevered hardtop and the frameless
vertical windshield on the sun deck. Despite the model, the photographs and other mementos of the original
Happy Days, the overall interior design is not at all yachty. Indeed, it is, for the
most part, a study in what Rollins deems mid-century modern—a residential
representation that is reminiscent of the 1950s and sixties, albeit one of far higher quality than might be found in any
house of that period.
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