Some people argue there’s not a lot that can be done with the layout of a yacht in the 80-foot range. Well, Hargrave Custom Yachts has proved them wrong.
Take a close look at the photo above, of the main deck of Hargrave’s new 84 Hybrid Raised Pilothouse. Note especially how the forward portion is designed like an atrium, with two rows of big windows that wrap around each side and headroom rising up a full second deck level (especially notable to the port side, above the high-gloss wood of the bar, which is part of the galley). As the 84’s model name implies, she’s no ordinary raised-pilothouse design. Hargrave terms her a hybrid because she has a raised pilothouse in a way you’d never expect to see.
So where is it? Check the curving staircase to starboard in the photo. That’s it, perched like an aerie over the galley and dining nook fully forward.
You get a better sense of it in the photo below. It has direct line of sight out the large bank of upper windows, which from the outside of the yacht look like normal pilothouse windows. That’s because they are. Interesting enough, unless you know to look for the unusual helm when you enter the yacht from the aft deck, you don’t even realize anything is different until you begin entering the galley area. The design works really well. Besides lending a heretofore-unheard-of spaciousness to the main deck, it keeps the captain or owner-operator more in touch with the guests than a traditional raised pilothouse does, even one open to the skylounge.
It’s this kind of novel thinking that attracted the first owner, who christened the yacht Mar Azul, and the current owner, who rechristened her On a Roll. As Michael Joyce, head of Hargrave, explained to me during my tour at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, he and his team got together and thought, “What can we do different?”
It’s also the kind of novel thinking that I fully expect to attract further customers to Hargrave. Just because an owner wants a yacht in the 80-foot range doesn’t mean he or she is willing to settle for the same thing as everyone else, after all. Hargrave has recognized this since it started building yachts, offering full customization. And it’s among the few that still offer this in the “small” end of the megayacht market.
There are more special features aboard On a Roll, like the retractable sunroof in the hardtop, a walk-through shower in the his-and-her master head, and three well-appointed guest staterooms, two of which have Pullmans. Here’s more.
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