Christensen 162
You’d think that for someone who’s owned more than a dozen craft ranging from speedboats to megayachts, choosing a yacht name would be easy. But John Rosatti actually had a heck of a time with his newest prize, a 162-footer from Christensen Shipyards. He knew he wanted the name to reflect his enjoyment of the cruising lifestyle. After all, he’d christened two previous yachts Take It Easy for that reason — same for Nice N Easy. Rosatti wanted a different take on the theme this time around, but the right words just wouldn’t come. He kicked around the simple Easy for a bit, but ultimately it didn’t speak to him.
Funny how things have a habit of working themselves out when you least expect it. One day, while he and some friends were gathered aboard his last yacht, the 157-foot Christensen Nice N Easy, they started reminiscing. Remember when we did this? one friend began, going on to relate a fun event that had occurred on board. Everyone began nodding and smiling at the recollection, and soon more friends started chiming in. Remember when we did that? Another would say; the storytelling and reminiscing went on and on.
Suddenly, it hit Rosatti: Remember When.
It’s an especially fitting name when you realize that Rosatti enjoys regularly entertaining aboard and wanted Christensen to build him a yacht largely similar to Nice N Easy. He spent the past five years cruising extensively aboard her (launched as Liquidity in 2005), both stateside and in the Mediterranean. This, he says, gave him an appreciation for the yard’s workmanship, as well as the layout of its semicustom yachts. In fact, in his estimation, Christensen offers “one of the best boats built in the world.” He’s partial to its reliance on composite construction too, due to the lower maintenance required.
He used Nice N Easy as a starting point. “From using that boat for so long, I made [Remember When] more comfortable,” Rosatti says. Indeed, while Remember When — with her six staterooms and black-walnut paneling — is similar in layout and décor to her predecessor, there are a few notable differences.
Rosatti and his longtime captain and project manager, Johannes Buys, worked closely with Christensen to ensure that specific areas gained the most from the extra length and could be reconfigured. The sun deck is a good example. It’s a popular spot throughout the year for Rosatti and his guests, whether they’re gathered beneath the warm Caribbean sun or, a particular favorite, the glow of fireworks in New York Harbor on the Fourth of July. Fully forward, a built-in bar and three barstools accompany the Jacuzzi tub, which was positioned here aboard Nice N Easy too. Rosatti also says the yard made Remember When’s sun deck about six feet longer, handily accommodating the extra water toys and land toys he wanted to take along. Among them are the customary PWCs, but there’s also a Vespa and Harley-Davidsons. Another benefit of the extra length: no trouble gathering a crowd at the bar beneath the hardtop, where nine barstools are lined up. Christensen was also able to include a day head just forward of this area.
Another difference that’s notable both in profile and from inside Remember When is the vertical windows in the pilothouse, instead of raked ones. It’s a design element that debuted on another Christensen, Casino Royale, which was delivered three years after Nice N Easy. Rosatti points to a gain of about two feet in the pilothouse with the different configuration. In addition to easing Buys’ job, the wraparound effect of the windows should also ease the guests’ tough task of enjoying the yacht from the observation settee situated aft.
One of the biggest differences aboard is something that can’t be seen but still directly affects the comfort of the guests and crew. It comes in the form of a station-keeping system. Rosatti had read about dynamic positioning (DP), which has been used for many years on survey ships, drilling ships and other commercial and military craft to keep a vessel on a specific coordinate. In brief, DP controls a vessel’s motion, even in poor weather conditions, through the use of thrusters. When Rosatti and his captain asked the yard whether a DP system could be installed, Christensen agreed to research the possibilities, not having prior experience with it.
The resulting setup aboard Remember When is a telescoping, azimuthal vessel control system, supplied by U.K.-based Ocean Yacht Systems (OYS). OYS has worked with a number of megayacht builders, both sail and power, on custom thruster applications. According to John Cochran, Christensen’s in-house project manager for Remember When, the system contains a 100-horsepower electric bow thruster in a tunnel and a 100-horsepower hydraulic stern thruster that rotates, deployed about four feet down, when the station-keeping mode is in use. Retracted, it has minimal effect on drag. Cochran adds that, operating alone, it’s capable of moving the yacht at around 3 knots. He notes that when the main engines are engaged the stern thruster will retract at 5 knots of vessel speed, so that it can’t be torn off. The setup is further linked to the yacht’s GPS so that it can be programmed to keep Remember When within a fixed distance — a few feet! — of a setting. (Cochran emphasizes that while the control system is similar to DP, it is not exactly the same, since DP includes additional components that Remember When’s system does not have.)
Rosatti is thrilled that Christensen achieved such a significant first. “There’s no need to keep the engines on when we throw a party in the bay,” he says. Plus, “anybody can dock the boat.” That’s because the OYS setup is linked to a Navis joystick control system. Designed for yacht and workboat applications, the Navis controls lend assistance when limited maneuvering space is available and can also provide position-holding functions.
At press time, Rosatti was cruising on Remember When in Costa Rica. He anticipated putting the 16-knot top speed and 14-knot fast cruise to the test on the delivery to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. He was also particularly looking forward to experiencing the station-keeping system and its 3-knot propulsion ability.
Somewhere along the way, Rosatti will also put his customized Kahlenberg horns to the test — not to alert another vessel in the area to Remember When’s presence — well, at least not the way these horns usually do. Rosatti had the horns set up to play a few bars of the song “Remember When.” Written and recorded by country-music superstar Alan Jackson, the poignant piece reflects on the major life events that he and his wife have shared so far. One set of lyrics: “Remember when 30 seemed old? Now, lookin’ back, it’s just a steppingstone to where we are, where we’ve been. Said we’d do it all again. Remember when.”
Surely it will encourage a renewed round of storytelling and reminiscing on this special yacht.
LOA: 162’0″
Beam: 29’6″
Draft: 8’0″
Displ.: 499 tons
Fuel: 14,300 gal.
Water: 3,600 gal.
Construction: Fiberglass
Interior Design: Carol Williamson & Associates
Engines: 2 x 1,800-hp mtU 12v 4000 M90 diesels
Generators: 2 x 160 kW Northern Lights ; 1 x 99 kW Northern Lights
Stabilizers: Quantum QC1800 “Zero Speed”
Bow Thruster: OYS 100-hp
Range: 4,000+ nm
Price: $37 million (turnkey)
Christensen Shipyards Ltd., 360-695-3238; www.christensenyachts.com
