PHOTO: Facebook/Horizon Yachts USA
Here’s your first look at Skyline, commissioned by an American family for their frequent cruising. The bright-blue hull hints at their youthful enthusiasm—an enthusiasm that extends to this being their largest yacht to date, too. As you might expect, they’re eagerly awaiting delivery from Horizon Yachts, set for early next year.
Skyline is an FD87, part of Horizon’s Fast Displacement series. The first FD87, she evolved from the Horizon FD85, created by Cor D. Rover Design. The differences aren’t just in LOA, however. (Skyline measures 90’1”, or 27.5 meters. The FD85 is 85’6”, or about 26.07 meters.) They come down to personal preferences of the owners. In fact, the owners took a good look at the FD85 and liked a lot about her. However, since they don’t solely cruise in warm regions, they didn’t want an open bridge. Instead, they wanted a skylounge. They also wanted a beach club. As you might imagine, other Horizon customers considering the FD85 had their own ideas, too. Since Horizon actively solicits buyers’ input, the builder and Cor Rover got to work on a design incorporating all of these concepts. John Lu, Horizon’s CEO, was quite taken with the results, and inspired to start a new series.
Since she’s still part of the Fast Displacement series, Skyline should be quite fuel efficient through the full speed range. She has what Horizon calls a High Performance Piercing Bow to fulfill part of that requirement. Expect a range of about 2,000 nautical miles at 9 knots, for example, under Caterpillar power.
MegayachtNews.com will get to step aboard Skyline at Horizon’s Taiwan headquarters in January. We’ll also interview the owners, ahead of delivery. Among the things we’ll get more details on: the bet they lost to their captain. A few years ago, he bet them that their then-50-footer would be just a starter yacht.
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