All Ahead Full

Silver lining opens a new chapter for washington.State’s christensen yachts.

- Anthony Brown

Vancouver, Washington-based Christensen Shipyards has been refining its line of cored-composite motoryachts for nearly 40 years. The company’s latest delivery, 164 foot (50-meter) Silver Lining, represents a new design philosophy from the generally conservative company while introducing an interesting and, until now, unavailable option.

Christensen’s operations manager, Chuck Singleton, said that as the first of what the company is calling its High Volume (HV) Series, Silver Lining has design differences that he believes will bode well for future sales. HV motoryachts incorporate two structural modifications that differentiate them from the builder’s Custom Series yachts that were introduced in 2004 and updated in 2009 with 160-foot (48.7-meter) Odessa.

The first modification is a hull redesign that altered the aft deck and swim platform arrangement, and that moved the transom farther aft. This increased the usable length of the cabin deck by 8 feet 5 inches (2.6 meters), for gains in the crew quarters, guest accommodations, engine room and lazarette.

The second modification enlarged the superstructure, allowing for gains in the main and dining salons, as well as in the bridge deck lounge. More noteworthy on the bridge deck, however, was the elimination of exterior side decks from just abaft the wheelhouse to the forwardmost part of the exterior lounge, allowing the interior lounge and adjacent spaces to be extended athwarthships.