Your Choice; 47-50m builder?

Consider Christensen Shipyards Ltd.

My personal choice would be Christensen. They build a remarkable yacht, and the owners of the company will work with you to provide exactly what you want in a vessel. I personally know this to be a fact because a friend of mine worked with them and would not purchase any other yacht in todays market place. There may be one or two available at this time. Liquidity is a fine example of not only a beautiful yacht but also an example of a company using materials which are good for the enviroment. Take a look at their web site at http://www.christensenyachts.com., and let us know how your buying process goes. I beleive it would be of great interest to the fourm readers. By the way, YACHTFORUMS has a great review of Christensen's 157 Liquidity at: http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3129

45 - 50 mtr.

Hi,
first, any of the builders like Heesen, Christensen, Oceanfast or other yard will build you the exact interior you like.
This would be the cooperation with the interiour designer and yourself which leaves you with every yard available...

Well, good news is that you can objectively look at yards itself, prices etc. and incorporate the interiour designer into that choice.

Another option might be to look for an existing young ship (plenty on the market) and have the interiour made, the way you want it.

To give an impression of 45 - 50 mtr. yachts, have a look at this link;
http://community.webshots.com/album/63037845rldfef

gr. erik

Hi lady choice,

You might say we're in the same boat. I'm about to commission a new build too, but in the 43-45m range.

Heesen was at the top of a short list for me too, but I want something more traditional. The Christensen suggestion is also a good one, but this is a fiberglass boat and I'm going with aluminum. By the way, from what I've seen, the quality of Christensen might be the best out there.

A good name for a lady owned yacht? Intuition.

Good luck!

Given the lenght ánd the amount of "toys" you'd like her to carry i doubt if that would be easy on a monohull.
Something like the catamaran Moecca (i believe from Oceanfast) might be a better option; very good seakeeping, huge amount of space and certainly not industrial looking.

Did you look at this interiour designer?

Have a look at the Baron interior; seems to fit into your view.

http://www.egganddart.com/

We have a full review with extensive interior pics of the Baron (Kaiserwerft) here...

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2547

If you can give me a little while, I'll upload the images from Sweet Doll. In the meantime, you may wish too browse the interiors of over 40 yachts that we have full feature reviews on, located here...

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=142

I'm surprised anyone would say this. We've got pictures of Christensen's "Mystic" while she was in Alaska. To get there, you'll cross some of the most treacherous waters in the world, the Pacific Northwest. Here's the thread...

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1324

But, a better example of the strength Christensen builds into their hulls would be the following picture. This is Liquidity, literally suspended in animation from only two points, fore and aft... with NOTHING in between.

Thanks!

I have seen many pictures of Christensen's yachts and the one with Mystic and Liquidity in Alaska is great. I was getting a little ticked off when Christensen was slammed as a non-ocean going vessel. The company excels in design and construction and when you can work with the owners of the company to help you realize your dreams, there can be no better relationship between buyer and seller. Bigger is not better.

Not knowing Christensen that well, i still agree on material not being a problem.

In formula one (no that popular in the usa anymore i believe... ) but also in airplanes where strength and lightweight are wanted. No one would choose steel.

I doubt that the toughness of fiberglass was ever in question. Just look at the beating offshore race boats take. Rather the reservations were about scaling up fiberglass techniques to very large yachts. But now even Delta is using this -

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3401

Which settled my mind anyhow. If this is good enough for Delta .....

Kelly Cook

I think Westport should be looked at as well. They have a 50m in production with a couple more boats on the way.

Ladies Choice wants a yacht that can cross an ocean. The Westport has no keel and is a go fast. I owned a Westport 130 and you'll want a keel for trailing seas.

Anyone that has gone through the build process a few times like I have, would learn that "custom" is "questionable". When the total specification is to your customized requests from scratch, it becomes completely custom to the people who are building it. After owning several yachts I have learned to look for the specifications I desire that a builder is used to constructing. If I want something with low maintenance, fast, reliable and purely a day cruiser and intercoastal traveling, I would choose a Westport (Equivalent of a Fiberglass Broward). If I want low maintenance, composite, lower speeds, 17 to 18 knot tops, reliable, quiet 40 to 50 DB throughout, ocean crossing, yet still shallow enough to get into 8' waterways I would choose a Christensen. From my experience, truly custom builders end up spending huge amounts on warranty trying to fix the bugs for years beyond delivery. This of course keeps me the owner from using my boat. And that is if they have the financial stability to do it. Westport and Christensen build all of their yachts on their money and sell them along the way. They really don't compete with eachother since they are targeting different classes of buyers. But think of the quality each must put in with respect to their specific package so that when a surveyor comes along like Patton Marine, he can't tear them apart. I know from experience, either spares no expense striving to be the best in their specific market. It would be too big of a risk getting the boat almost completed and then have someone knock the quality.

Ladies Choice is looking for no more than a crew of eight. That means low maintenance, non metallic (non-corrosive) yachting. What 48m motorsailor out there has been built that operates and looks even decent with eight crew members? What steel or aluminium Feadship at 48M operates and looks good with eight crew members. I've owned two Feadships and Ladies Choice is alloting 3 to 4 months for maintenance per year. With a metal yacht that size, painting once every two to three years at way more than four months of down time, she is not going to get to go yachting her nine months per year. A composite yacht is stronger when done properly and one only has to paint every six years. All she needs to do is find one that can travel the world's oceans.

Maybe trying to find the right yacht is hard enough without going into paint discussions, but I have had steel, aluminium and composite yachts and used the same paint on all with the same interval...

Paint? Yes, I agree paint isn't the only thing, however, considering that between 20,000 and 75,000 manhours goes into a complete bodywork and paint job, it is pertinent when trying to find the right builder. There is no glamour in having your 25 to 30 million dollar yacht being drydocked shortly after delivery for one year because the metal underneath is causing the fairing material to lift.
I am not partial to any yacht, I own several. My point is, if one listens to Ladies Choice, I believe she is looking to find something that is refined, reliable, oceangoing, and carries plenty of toys along with operating with minimal crew thereby being maintenance friendly. A composite motoryacht fits the bill!
Also, I think I read a desire for a submarine. I believe the next Christensen delivery, the owner has a three person submarine on it along with a multitude of other toys.