One couple’s Valiant journey to upgrade to a Horizon E81.
“We’re going to need a bigger boat,” the wife said. These were the words that ultimately led one couple to their decision to build a Horizon E81 model. The husband was retiring and wanted to live on board full time; the wife welcomed this idea, but she desired a boat that felt more like a house than their current Marlow 58.
They took their time deciding where to build their “house,” working with their broker, Jimmy Rogers, and speaking with several builders. This wasn’t their first rodeo. They were hands-on owner-operators who had custom-built their Marlow, so they each approached the project with a very specific vision.
The Unique Design Solution of the Horizon E81
When considering options for their new vessel, the Horizon E81 became their top choice due to its flexibility and willingness to accommodate changes to its designs, but the problem was none of the Taiwanese builder’s existing series quite fit the bill. She liked the space and light and a modern feel that Horizon’s FD series offers, but he preferred a sleeker exterior styling, like that found in the E series. “I wanted something beamier than the E, but I didn’t want an FD,” says the husband. “I wanted a boat that was more traditional-looking.”
Fortunately, Horizon was able to compromise. Another couple had the same reservations about the FD series’ looks yet appreciated its volume, so Horizon found the solution in marrying its beamy V series hull with the superstructure of the E, creating a new and more voluminous E model, the E81.
The first hull had just gone into production, and this couple commissioned the second.
The couples’ desire for more space is the trend now. Another couple had the same reservations about the FD series’ looks yet appreciated its volume, leading Horizon to find the solution in marrying its beamy V series hull with the superstructure of the E series, ultimately creating the Horizon E81. “Volume is the direction we’re going,” says Elise Caulder, sales and new build consultant with the U.S. dealer. “When people came to talk to us about new builds, and especially customizing new builds, it was always, ‘I want as much as I can get into this boat.’ We were constantly stretching the boat, constantly trying to figure out, ‘Okay, well, how do we get you four staterooms?’”
Customizing and Modifications for Comfort
While the length, looks, and volume of the E81 suited this couple’s vision, there were a few things that needed modifying. This is where Horizon, a true semi-custom builder, flexed its versatility muscle.
“The Horizon people, Roger Sowerbutts [director of Horizon Yacht USA], and company, bent over backward to continually change the design to meet our needs. And that was before we gave them a red penny,” says the wife. This is where the Horizon E81, a true semi-custom builder, flexed its versatility muscle.
“We must have worked for six months with them going back and forth with drawings and sketches and ideas. Then we finally made our first deposit,” adds the husband.
One of the most important changes was access to the engine room and crew quarters, which on the first hull is through the transom plus a hatch in the aft deck opening to a ladder. Horizon redesigned it to create a proper staircase from the aft deck leading below.
“It is really nice and useful because my wife and I pretty much run the boat by ourselves,” says the husband. “I like to do engine room checks while we’re running, and I don’t want to be climbing down a ladder. I’m certainly not going into the transom when we’re [underway].”
This modification required lengthening the aft deck. Instead of the staircase to the top deck being integrated into the house, there is space forward of it that opens to a staircase leading down. The side effect is a vast aft deck, taking away a smidgen from the interior salon, but not so much that it’s noticeable. The owners partially used this gained deck space to have a cabinet specially built to store a boarding ladder.
They also chose to enclose the bridge which adds living space in keeping with their aspiration to have a home on the water. In addition to the helm, there is a showpiece stone-clad bar with a convenient pass-through to the aft deck and a dinette opposite. The table can lower to convert the U-shaped settee to a temporary bed for an off-duty watch person during overnight hops. The enclosed top deck is also the quietest place underway, far removed from the hum of the Caterpillar engines.
With the helm protected by the enclosed bridge deck, the main deck is all open-plan living space. It’s on a single level with no obstructions from the aft sliding door to the dining area under the forward windows, a feature this Horizon E81 proudly displays.
Inside the Horizon E81: A Spa-Like Aesthetic
The wife created a spa-like aesthetic here and throughout the interior with a calming neutral gray and white palette and plenty of leather and stones, the most striking being the galley’s island waterfall countertop in quartz. “It’s light and bright,” says the wife. “With the enclosed bridge, we definitely have five distinctive areas, maybe six, each like little vignettes, but I can take a pillow from the bedroom and put it in the living room; everything is sort of a mix and match.”
Below are three staterooms—a cozy twin with sliding beds that make a double and a forward VIP in addition to the spacious full-beam master amidships. In place of a fourth cabin is an office. By making that room a bit smaller, the master gained extra closet space, an important consideration for liveaboards. The suite encompasses two good-sized closets plus a walk-in and a generous ensuite, lavished in the same deeply veined quartz used on the main deck.
Technical Innovations Within
Building a new model like the Horizon E81 also gave the husband a chance to install the tech and systems he wanted. This included air conditioning in the engine room for comfort during maintenance work, ElectroSea’s CLEARLINE system, which uses electrochlorination technology to prevent sea growth on the raw water lines, and Dometic’s Spot Zero. Coming from a blue-hulled boat, he is a big fan of the system that leaves no water spots after washdowns using tank water, but he found himself jealous of the pressure others enjoyed with dock water. So he fixed it on his new boat. “We plumbed in a separate system with wider, larger piping. I think we have a three-quarter-inch piping for the outside hose bibs, and a separate pump just to power the washdown system,” he says.
He picked 1,700-hp Caterpillar C32s, which offer a software upgrade over the standard 1,600-hp ones and eke out another knot in top speed, bringing them to 27 knots. For ease in maneuvering, he incorporated the Dockmate remote control and added fixed docking stations on either side of the main deck.
“I want to make everything as easy and redundant as possible,” he says. In line with that philosophy, he specified extra pumps for the A/C’s raw water and dual pumps for steering. He also appreciates the boat’s two fuel tanks with no belly tank. “I don’t want to be dependent on transfer pump working or not working and the switches going bad,” he adds.
The Horizon E81: Meeting and Exceeding Expectations
As Southern Boating toured the finished Horizon E81 yacht named Valiant at the Fort Lauderdale boat show when it was fresh off the ship from Taiwan, the owners were anxious to take delivery and start the next phase in their life. They were also thrilled with the results. “I have high expectations, but this exceeded them,” says the wife.
-by Kate Lardy
