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Christensen’s new 157-foot Barchetta is packed with art deco motifs, custom-glass creations and first-time outfitting never before seen from the Pacific Northwest yard. Don’t let the semi-custom designation fool you: This yacht fulfills its owners’ vision, and then some. |
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About seven years ago, a West Coast couple took their first charter vacation. It was onboard a 120-footer built in the 1930s for the Boeing family, a classic wooden motoryacht that made them feel quite comfortable as they cruised the San Juan Islands.The experience was enough to get the husband thinking. He read boating magazines and talked to friends who owned yachts, and finally bought the 120-foot Cacique on the brokerage market.
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He and his wife cruised extensively onboard the 1995 Christensen, becoming more familiar with their boating desires—and the boatbuilder—along the way. “We took it from Mexico to Alaska,” the husband recalls. “We did the Inside Passage, we did Cabo, La Paz. We liked it. As we were finishing up, I asked Cochran what he was working on. He said, ‘Your next boat.’”
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It was Hull 028, the third 157-footer in Christensen’s semi-custom production series—and what would become the first new yacht the West Coast couple ever owned. They wanted a main-deck master stateroom, more room for water toys, and a décor more to their tastes, plus cutting-edge technology.
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They got all of that and more. When the yard delivered Hull 028 this June as Barchetta, she stood as a striking example of just how customized a semi-custom production motoryacht can actually be. She is easily the most distinctive build thus far in the Christensen series, with several features the yard has never before incorporated on any yacht of any size.
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But back in late 2003, when the couple bought her, she wasn’t much more than a hull—an empty shell they promptly set about making their own, just as the semi-custom series is meant to be. The husband focused on machinery, outfitting and maintaining the $25-million yard budget, plus an extra bankroll for water toys like a four-person submarine, a Nitrox scuba system and a 35-foot Marlago fishing/diving tender from Jefferson Yachts.
Meanwhile, the wife created the yacht’s décor with Jacqueline Mann, her Oregon-based interior designer of nearly 20 years. |
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In the middle of it all was Cochran, whom the couple retained as in-house project manager.As the yacht neared completion in late May, the four key players sat in Barchetta’s sky lounge, so excited about what they’d accomplished as a team that they were finishing one another’s sentences. They started by discussing the interior décor, which is beautifully done but so unusual for a yacht that it begs to be the first thing noticed.
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“The style they wanted was art deco, so everything reflects art deco,” Mann begins, referring to all the loose furnishings, the owners’ collection of Louis Icart artwork, and even some fixed elements like woodworking and overheads. “Usually, Christensen does raised-panel [woodwork], but we went flat-panel, straight-grain cherry with [black resin] inlays that reflect art deco.”
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“It’s a first for Christensen,” the wife interjects, referring to how the wall-panel inlays are echoed in every door onboard in an asymmetric pattern reminiscent of New York City’s Chrysler Building.
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“We’ve done flat panels before, but not with this kind of molding and chair rail,” Cochran adds, pointing out the molding’s modern, stepped design. “Usually on a yacht, you find off-whites, browns and taupey greens,” Mann continues. “We went a lot more dramatic with blacks and greens, golds, coppers, touches of reds.” “But with materials that have wonderful feels,” the wife adds.
“He asked me right off the bat whether the fabrics would hold up,” Mann continues, motioning toward the husband, who had sunk into the corner of the plush, copper-colored sofa.“He really wanted durable fabrics where people would feel comfortable, where you could put your feet on them, spill on them.” |
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“My job is to say, ‘It’s lovely. Looks great,’” the husband responds with a chuckle, looking over to his wife. She rolls her eyes playfully and looks past Cochran, then back to Mann, who picks up the conversation by explaining how all the fabrics were handpicked from Italy and France.
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The talk bounces so quickly around the sky lounge, it’s like watching Manchester United’s forwards move a soccer ball downfield: well-coordinated and with a nearly poetic, unified purpose.
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Which, it turns out, is also an accurate way to describe Barchetta’s build process—quite a compliment, given the number of firsts this yacht represents for the yard. For starters, she’s the first Christensen ever designed with a bulbous bow, which the yard created in cooperation with the renowned Webb Institute in New York. Barchetta is also the heaviest Christensen ever built, weighing in at a whopping 70,000 pounds more than the next-closest launch—but with an extra knot of speed thanks to the bulbous bow’s efficient design. Her top speed is 18.9 knots fully loaded, and she has increased fuel efficiency and range over the other 157s that have launched in the semi-custom series (which is why all future launches will also have the bulbous bow, according to company President Joe Foggia).
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Barchetta is also the first Christensen to be outfitted with DeviceNet, a system the shipyard has customized to allow remote monitoring of engineroom and communications systems. “It lets us troubleshoot and diagnose problems from the factory,” Foggia explains. “It’s a smart boat.” He pauses, then adds with a chuckle, “We’ve got the new Wonkavator in here, too.”That’s an obvious stretch, but the yacht is engineered for possible later addition of a Dynamic Positioning System, which offers different stabilization technology than the onboard Naiad 620s.“The biggest challenge was trying to keep it on the cutting edge without being on the brittle edge,” the husband explains.“You want all the latest proven technology,” which, in his mind, does not yet include DPS. |
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It does, however, include a mast-mounted night-vision system that the captain can control by remote, for better visibility during dark-sky passages. There’s also WiFi throughout the yacht, individual satellite servers for each stateroom’s television, and a master Kaleidoscope entertainment system that holds 600 full-length DVDs. “They’re loading the music onto a separate server,” the husband says. “We’ve only got about 10,000 songs right now, and we’ve got about 10,000 more to go. I think about five good songs have ever been recorded, but people like having it.”
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By “people,” he means future charter clients—who have been a key concern in the boat’s outfitting. (“I’m a businessman first and a yacht owner second,” as the husband puts it.) In addition to the submarine and scuba system, the boat will carry four Jet Skis, four kayaks, plenty of fishing gear, a below decks self-serve laundry area and pantry—all to appeal to future charterers. Barchetta has a weekly rate of $220,000 plus expenses for 12 guests with nine crew. The owners expect to make the boat available about half of each season, starting this summer on the West Coast and in Alaska and then this winter in the Caribbean, following Barchetta’s public debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
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The wife believes the yacht will be a big hit: “I think that this boat is so appealing, even if somebody doesn’t like art deco, they’re going to fall in love with the sophisticated feel. It’s not underdone, it’s not overdone. It will win people over.”She thinks for a moment before adding, “And even if the men don’t like it, they’ll love the submarine.” |
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For now, the owners and their two grown sons are happily enjoying the yacht—which they see as a realization of their every desire. “When we started, we talked about a spec boat,” the husband says. “We haven’t done that in a while. It’s a custom boat. If I ever build another one, it’ll be a Christensen. For now, this is good.
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“You’re only here for so long,” he adds. “You might as well enjoy it.”
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Written By Kim Kavin, editor of www.CharterWave.com
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