New Sweet Melissa!

[ThirdHatt]

Well boys, here she is! Now, as you can tell by the lines she is not a Hargrave/Hatteras but she was designed by another one of the greatest American designers of all time, Tom Fexas.

The story goes like this: A gentleman is cruising his 1981 Hatteras 58 Yachtfish down the east coast in 1991 when he sees the 1988 125' Palmer Johnson Motoryacht designed by Tom Fexas called "Time" (which completely took the Yachting world by storm) pull out of a marina and he simply falls in love with her silouette. He has been cruising his 58YF for 10 years since he bought it new, and had been wanting to move up to something in the 70-80' range but nothing Hatteras was building at the time was going to fit the bill. He wanted an American-built shallow draft, wide beam motoryacht designed to be owner-operated with a low profile, 5 staterooms and gorgeous lines that would withstand the test of time.

He called Tom Fexas and conctracted him to custom design his dream boat. Fexas rose to the occasion and designed a 78' Raised Pilothouse Design with a 21'6" beam, Industrial Caterpillar 3412's, Northern Lights 30kw 1200rpm Commercial-grade gensets, holds 2450 gallons of diesel and tops 25kts. The interior is all high-gloss African hardwoods, Anigre for the walls (looks remarkably like Mozambique Teak) and a Paduak sole laid on a 45 degree angle with inlays all around.

Tom Fexas chose Trident Shipworks for the build, a high-end yard in Tampa, FL that specialized in full custom composite yachts. Interestingly enough, the Design Engineer on this project ended up working as Manager of Design for Hatteras Yachts for much of the 2000's. I spoke with him while researching and doing my due dilligence before pursuing this boat to make sure the quality was indeed extremely high, and he (among others involved in the project) confirmed what I suspected, that this was a world-class build that was built to ABS-Classification to be a true blue water boat.

As many of you know, I sold my beloved 58YF this summer and the ONLY reason that I did is because I fell in love with this custom boat. It has taken me 5 months of serious negotiating to convince the owner to part with his boat. Honestly, if I had the ~$7M that it would likely cost to do a full custom build like this today, I would build something very much like this incredible boat. Luckily a fellow Hatteras enthusiast with deep pockets already did that back in the 1990's, and with the economy and boat market being what it is today a boat of this caliber was within my grasp.

While she is not a Hatteras, her quality is unmistakable and built by the very best American craftsmen in the industry at the time with the highest quality American parts. I've only owned her for a few days at this point and I cannot manage to wipe the smile off of my face. What a dream come true.

See you guys on the water!

[Pascal]

gorgeous! i love Fexas' designs.... he's done some incredibly good looking boats over the years.

congratulations...

hope you can post more pictures and details.

the 3412s are great engines... we have 1400hp 3412Es on the 70 i run, i love them!

[captddis]

Beautiful yacht! Best of luck with it.

[Glory]

It's sweet!

JM

[SKYCHENEY]

Congratulations Byron. I know you loved the 58YF, but you'll make even more memorable journeys with this boat. She is a beauty!

[Capt. Tobb]

Wow! That is fine! Congrats....

[Jaxfishgyd]

If you want a captain to drive her so you can enjoy the ride.........

"I'm just saying"......

that's a heck of a 40th birthday present

[MarioG]

OH MY GOD! Shes beautiful Byron! congrats! we need more pictures asap... Mario

[Sparky1]

I say this in all sincerity... you suck!

That really is a gorgeous boat. So are you going to buy a token Hatteras as to remain a member in good standing?

[Passages]

Pictures.....PLEASE !!