On board Crescent Custom Yachts' 50m Danzante Bay

At the yard, which is very much a working yard — no glitz, no art gallery or towering offices here — Danzante Bay, awaiting further sea trials, also seems to shy away from attention. A floating dock high against the hull — to facilitate access for the nonstop flow of workers — partly conceals the hull and her whisper-grey colour is muted against a cloudy sky.

Look at her on the water, however, and you’ll get a sense of her scale, her proud bow, and beautiful lines by Gregory C Marshall Naval Architect, complete with ample glass and what the design firm’s CEO, Greg Marshall, calls “Juliet balconies.”

Around the time Christensen ceased operating, the owner, who had been enjoying the 33.8-metre Horizon motor yacht El Mirar II for more than a decade, was looking to go bigger. Ever since his first boat, a Knight & Carver that he kept for many years, he’s been convinced there is nothing better than a private yacht to enjoy life in downtime.

“This is a vacation home where you have a different view when you wake up in the morning. I could not buy a vacation home in one place and go back year after year. I’d get bored after a while, and I just find that yacht ownership really fits my personality well; it’s enjoyable and it’s adventurous,” he says.

He had been shopping for a while but came up short of finding the perfect new yacht to explore the world further off the coast of North America. “I just could not find anything with the interior that I liked,” he says.

Just then a broker told him about an opportunity to make a good deal on the partially built Christensen. “I flew up to Portland and toured the facility. There was just the shell and I looked at the plans that they had for it, and I said, man, that’s perfect.”

When it came to the shipyard to finish it, the decision was somewhat easy. He’d seen a few Crescent yachts on the West Coast of the US over the years and he was confident in the artisanship you can find in Canada.

“My mentor in the resort business was Canadian, from West Vancouver. He was a great builder and a great businessman and taught me a lot of what I know today and that I’ve been successful with. I’ve worked with Canadians for a long time,” the owner says. “Also with the exchange rate, there was a [financial] benefit to working in Canada as well.”

A key decision for the owner was to hire as his on-site representative Robert Emerson, a long-time Christensen project manager, who moved to Richmond and stayed for the duration of the build (in part due to travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic).

“I was excited when they gave me a call. I agreed to move up to Canada although little did I know I would be stuck there for (the better part) of four years, but I had made a commitment,” Emerson says, who stayed the course.

His inside knowledge was also helpful to the shipyard as they sorted through what came as a complex puzzle. “We had unstructured building blocks and worked with Greg [Marshall] and his team to modify, change, restyle, build new molds and put everything together. I think it was a smart decision to use the proven information of Christensen and improve on everything else,” Charles says.

“H2’s beautiful design blends numerous lavish materials, which required a detailed eye and skilled installation”

One key decision was to downsize the planned engine package, or as Marshall says, “rightsize” it. “The reality is there was a whole era of [larger] engines that provided no value to the operation of the vessel. It’s just too much power. You have big engines, half serving the purpose of ballast, making the engine room hard to navigate and making the boat heavier,” he says.

It’s a big part of the sustainability conversation, and the owner was fully on board with the idea. Those big engines, the owner says, are “just a waste of money. I think we did it right. We invested the right amount into the right machines so that it will last a long time and be economical to use as well,” he says.

The new engines are two Tier III MTU 12V 2000s, deploying 1,700 horsepower each. “I think they’re the perfect size for the boat.” Emerson says the yacht tops out at 15 knots with engines at full speed and happily cruises at 12 knots. “Christensens were never fast boats,” he says, “top speed was around 18 knots.”

Interior-wise, the owner elected to work with H2 Yacht Design of London. “I saw a couple of boats that they did. And I really liked [their work] because it has that European feel of luxury, but it isn’t so high end that you can’t feel comfortable sitting down.”

Jonny Horsfield, founder of H2, says a conversation with the owner revealed he wanted something masculine. “He liked the interior of many Italian boats. He liked the crisp, sharper sort of look, the rib design and a more neutral palette.”

Being a developer, the owner was knowledgeable. “He’d obviously worked with design before and we had to impress him,” Horsfield says. “He liked mahogany, which is a warm, lovely wood and when you use it with ribs and white carpets and a lot of grey, it’s very cool.”

One complication of the build was Covid-19. H2’s team never got to visit the shipyard, and the builder ended up selecting substitutes for some of the fabrics and stones. Charles does not want to run a top-heavy organisation and prefers working with trusted sub-contractors. For this project, he worked with Genesis Interiors, which built the interior both in the US and in Italy and installed it on site in Richmond.

The owner brought in Vancouver-based family-run furniture maker Durante Furniture, and it crafted all the loose pieces on board according to H2’s design vision. “I have nothing but good things to say about them,” the owner says.

Danzante Bay has an elevator, but the centrepiece is a two-story-high light fixture from Crystal Caviar with teardrop-shaped crystals descending at the centre of the stairs. “The foyer and staircase are one of the most complex areas of the interior,” Crescent interior project manager James Plant says.

“The staircase, with its compound curve spanning three decks, is illuminated by a 4.5-metre chandelier running from the main to bridge deck. Nine companies worked together to create this centrepiece, which combines curved glass balustrades, leather-wrapped handrails, inlaid stainless steel and embellished leather panels. H2’s beautiful design blends numerous lavish materials, which required a detailed eye and skilled installation.”

Forward on the main deck is the owner’s cabin, which has an elegant wardrobe with a view. The backlit marble installed in a stunning V pattern in the bathroom’s massive shower comes from Canadian company SSC Countertops.

Fluted wood, stitched leather, stainless steel details and eye-catching marbles repeat in the lower deck cabins. In the VIP stateroom, a system of louvres separates the large bedroom from a bathroom with a backlit onyx wall and a bathtub.

The social hub of the yacht will be the two upper decks. The sky lounge has great big windows — nearly floor to ceiling — and a stunning bar and stools done by Durante, as well as a large space for dining.

“The owner says he’ll spend 90 percent of his time here,” Charles says, and it’s easy to see why. “The furnishings in this space subtly incorporate design elements found throughout the interior. Notably, the bar, credenza and TV cabinet carefully blend inlaid mirror-polished stainless steel, marble and leatherwork,” Plant says, who picks the sky lounge as the most representative space of the yacht’s design spirit.

Just a few steps above is the massive sundeck with its expanded hardtop providing extra shade.

It also has a custom bar with leather and stainless steel, a projector and movie screen and room for tenders and toys. The coffee tables have backlit agate stones. “It will be really impressive in the evening,” Charles says.

Genesis did all the crew area’s interior. “I put a lot of time and effort into the crew’s quarters. I think that’s important too because, in my experience, the crew is the difference between a great experience or just a normal one,” the owner says.

He’s happy that the early sightings of the nearly finished yacht quieted those among his entourage who thought he’d strayed on the wild side by buying a hull from a yard that had ceased business and given the project to a yard without a significant track record in the superyacht segment.

“[Crescent] never gave up and I never gave up. And she really came out great,” he says.

First published in the August 2024 issue of BOAT International US Edition. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.