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Northern Marine hits a game winner with the semi-custom, 151-foot After Eight.
by Mark T. Masciarotte
photography by Stephen Cridland
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11/01/2007
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| Northern Marine 151 |  |
Since its founding in 1995, Northern Marine has built its reputation on custom builds
targeted at yachtsmen who prefer long-range, bluewater yachts in what is known
as the expedition style. With the successful launch of Pete and Lynn Murphy’s
152-foot motor yacht Lia Fail in 2005, the company firmly positioned
itself to bring to the market larger, world-girdling boats of not only an
entirely different type, but as a line that would be manufactured on a
series-production model that would steer the company away from custom building.
While somewhat risky from a financial perspective, this move follows a trend
very much in play at other Pacific Northwestern composite yards as well as at
highly respected yards across Europe.
Large areas of glazing bathe the interior in natural light. Extra
volume allows public spaces to handle residential-scale furniture. (Click images to enlarge)
Over the last several years, Northern has continued to expand
its production capacity at its facility in Anacortes, Washington, while at the
same time consolidating the operation into a more compact footprint. When the
decision was made to design a new series, the company turned to Jonathan
Barnett, who began work on a boat that eventually came in at 151 feet (46
meters). The first yacht of the new range, After Eight, was launched last
spring, and there is little doubt that she holds great promise for the company’s
future.
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Yacht broker Peter Kehoe represented the owner in the purchase
of the boat and remained active throughout the course of the project. He said
that although the owner has bought and sold a number of boats, the latest of
which was a 118-foot Shaw motor yacht, no boat purchase that he or Kehoe had
ever experienced was as complex as the deal at Northern, primarily because the
shipyard was being sold to its current owner at the same time as the After
Eight deal was being inked.
"There were so many moving parts," Kehoe explained, adding that
the deal dovetailed together thanks to an effort by the parties’ attorneys, the
owner and his son. "In the end," said Kehoe, "it…moved forward because everyone
was at the top of their game."
 Dockside, what is immediately apparent is Barnett’s exterior
styling, which is even more of a departure from Northern’s signature workboat
look than were Lia Fail and Magic. After Eight is far more
contemporary, with bold, unbroken, horizontal lines in the brows and sheer,
crisp edges on the knuckle, bulwarks, fashion boards and pilasters, all of which
combine to make the boat look longer and hint at Barnett’s roots as an
automobile designer. The use of black glazing and a judicious application of
metallic paintwork further add to the sculpted, automotive effect. (Click image to enlarge)
To produce the new product range, Northern developed entirely
new tooling while further perfecting the resin-infusion processes that are now
employed for all parts, including hulls and superstructures. According to Bud
LeMieux, one of the company’s founders and the executive in charge of
production, one of the many advantages of the infusion process is its ability to
retain the definition called for by the designer without having to resort to a
great deal of costly and time-consuming fairing by hand.
Once on board, one is pleasantly surprised at the interior
volume. Barnett explained that one of his goals in designing the new series was
to maximize the amount of usable space within the specific size constraints set
forth by the builder, adding that the profile and general arrangement were
produced before the hull lines were drawn in a process that LeMieux said began
nearly four years ago.
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