All in the (Extended) Family

Bravo 78 Sparks a Trend

By Dudley Dawson

On a picture-perfect day back in the late 1970s, I was having lunch at a picnic table, enjoying cool breezes off the Intracoastal Waterway within sight of the Palm Beach Yacht Club, when a new 130-foot motorsailer, Shango II, arrived at her berth there for the first time. She was a huge yacht for those days–the largest yet built in fiberglass–and created quite a stir, not just for her size and construction, but for the fact that she was built by Cheoy Lee.

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954-527-0999
CheoyLeeNA.com

The Chinese shipyard was little known in America at the time for anything other than production sailboats and cruisers of considerably more modest size, and for finish that was more utilitarian than yacht quality.
Within a couple years, as a designer for Jack Hargrave’s studio, I was working on designs for Cheoy Lee myself – 84, 90 and 103 foot motoryachts – and came to know the growing operation, and the family behind it, on a first-name basis. First in Shanghai, then in Kowloon and now in mainland China, the company has been owned and operated since its founding in 1870 by the same family.

The public face of the yard here in the States is But Yang Lo, an affable ambassador for the family and the company, who is known to all simply as “B.Y.” Fortunately, B.Y. was receptive to Hargrave’s constructive criticism. With the designer pushing and with B.Y. and his brothers pulling, it wasn’t long before Cheoy Lee had taken its quality to a new level, benefiting both the yard and the buyers of today’s first-rate Cheoy Lee yachts. The yard is now capable of building to all classification societies, including Lloyd’s.
If Cheoy Lee hosts an owner’s rendezvous, it will have to pitch a mighty big tent to house the wide range of vessels the shipyard has built over the past 140 years. Not just sailing and motoryachts, but fireboats, cargo ships, tugboats, ferries, and almost anything else that floats. There simply is no such thing as “a typical Cheoy Lee,” although of late the yard has developed several series of yachts that are more obviously related in styling and purpose.
The Serenity Series will soon offer four models (59, 68, 83 and 90 feet) with classic styling, including rounded sterns, designed for long-range cruising at displacement speeds. The Global Series, ranging from a 103 foot raised pilothouse model to a 128-foot expedition, anchor the upper end of Cheoy Lee’s standard models. Marco Polo, an award-winning 147-foot explorer motoryacht designed by Ron Holland, is a Cheoy Lee product with a green hull and a green soul created with cruising efficiency and environmental friendliness in mind. She was the builder’s 5,000th vessel. Construction of a second yacht of this design, with steel hull and foam cored composite superstructure, is nearing completion.
Perhaps best known and most mainstream of the current Cheoy Lee offerings and growing in popularity is the Bravo Series of sport motoryachts, ranging from 68 to 93 feet, all modern designs with clean lines and contemporary interiors. Southern Boating first presented our take on the Bravo 78 in the May 2008 edition, and a new issue with some slight departures delivered to her owners at the Palm Beach Boat Show impressed us all over again. The first of this series of yachts was designed by the late Tom Fexas and later models by Mike Burvenich, whose work preserves the essence of the series. The success of both the look and the boat’s performance has solidified B.Y.’s inclination to recreate the entire Bravo line-up of fast, sporty motoryachts in the 78’s image. They are spacious, elegant in a contemporary way and have excellent space planning for active family use.
Soon to be added to the Bravo Series is a new 68, replacing the current model of that length with an updated version riding on a wider hull (20’ 2”) shared with the 78-footer. The update retains the excellent navigational sightlines and the full-length sidedecks of the earlier model, as well as the three-stateroom arrangement below deck. There’s a spacious owner’s stateroom amidships, a VIP stateroom forward, and a twin-berth cabin to port. The owner’s stateroom is outfitted with a king berth and two hanging lockers while the VIP has an island queen. All three staterooms have ensuite heads with showers, and the owner’s large shower, at the center of the new his-and-hers head, cleverly conceals a hidden emergency escape door in the bulkhead it shares with the engine room.
The Bravo 68 is a boat that can easily be handled by a capable couple, but Cheoy Lee has included a compact cabin abaft the engine room. Upper and lower berths lie to port of a passageway from the stern platform to the engine room, and a head with shower is situated to port for ready use by both crew and swimmers. Thanks to the extra beam, the new design also includes a small crew mess.
The Bravo 88, based on a 22’ 6” hull, will be arriving in the U.S. in time for the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show. As with her smaller sisters, she will feature an interior by Seattle-based interior designer Sylvia Bolton. The layout will accommodate eight guests in four staterooms, three of which are full beam, which will make for an excellent charter vessel. It has two separate crew staterooms aft. The entire series in benefiting from the builder’s use of High Modulus’ structural engineering expertise to reduce weight and improve hull efficiency throughout the speed range.
Whether you opt for the new Bravo 88 or want something a little smaller, or a little bigger, or a little different, or with a green hull, or with sails, the Cheoy Lee family of boats, yachts and ships is likely to have just what you want. If not, B.Y. is always happy to talk new designs.