Hargrave Debuts Innovative New "Disappearing Raised Pilothouse" Design

There are few things in this world that look more pleasing to a power yachtsman than a raised pilothouse flushdeck motoryacht. Owning one is the sign you have arrived. Yet, as beautiful as they are, they have one unpleasant drawback – they waste from 200 to 300 sq. ft. on the main deck. That space under the “raised pilothouse” typically has about 40” of headroom and is used to store soda or canned goods, and may hold some electrical panels. Invariably it makes either the dining area and main salon smaller, or the galley smaller, or both areas smaller.

It Takes 100’ –

In order to have appropriately-sized living spaces on the main deck, until now raised deck pilothouses could be put only on boats of about 100’ or more. Yet, Hargrave has customers who want the pilothouse look, but in a size range where a man and wife can easily handle the boat. What to do?

A New Idea –

That is the genesis of the “disappearing raised pilothouse.” When you go inside the boat – it disappears. In its place you have a huge open galley with dinette and salon, using every square foot of the main deck. On what amounts to a landing of the companionway to the flying bridge is the inside helm, complete with all of the navigational screens, instruments and controls one needs.

Increasingly couples are looking for boats that can be handled by an owner-operator, with provision for crew only on long passages. Mike Joyce told us that the new 84, Mar Azul, is equipped with bow and stern thrusters, cameras all over the boat, remote steering and warping winches -- all to make boat handling and docking comfortable for two people. “In addition to that,” Joyce told us, “we put everything we could think of on this boat – she is loaded.”

“We wanted to build a boat with the room of a 100’ yacht for people who don’t want to have a 100’ yacht,” Mike Joyce said. “By creating this design we picked up the 15’ of normally wasted space under the raised pilothouse – that’s what gives us the space that before you could get only in a 100-footer,” he said.