When I arrived at the marina, I asked the dock master where the Ocean Alexander 32E was moored. He grinned and said, “Oh, you’ll see it.”
He was right. The 32E didn’t so much float as tower head and shoulders over most other boats in the marina. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger at a debutante ball, or Kilimanjaro above the plains of the Serengeti. This is a yacht for grand adventures on the seven seas.
The 32E’s profile is forward-loaded, tapering aft from a tall plumb bow. It’s clear that the two decks aft, off the bridge and salon, are designed for alfresco living, with a beach club at the transom. The swim platform is full-on watersports, with a 2,500-pound crane to handle tenders from about 16 to 18 feet long, as well as personal watercraft. There’s also room here for toys and dive gear. Both hull sides butterfly out to expand the yacht’s beam from just under 22 feet to 27 feet. The air-conditioned beach club provides a lounge for guests to watch the action in comfort.
On the main deck, the salon has defined zones for entertaining, including leather U-shaped Poltrona Frau couches from Turin and a formal dining area for 10 guests, with electric sliding doors on each side for fresh air.
The enclosed galley is pure gourmet, arranged around an island that allows two chefs to prep, cook and plate without crowding. Equipment includes a 30-inch, five-burner Wolf cooktop and a Fisher Paykel fridge, and there are Berwyn quartz counters.
A companionway leads to the owner’s main-deck stateroom. It spans the yacht’s beam (no walkaround side decks) with a king berth and two walk-in closets. The head has a free-standing hot tub, a heated stone sole and twin vanities. The lower deck has four en suite staterooms for guests. The VIP is forward with a queen berth and a love seat. Two mirrored staterooms are abaft the foyer with queen berths, and there’s a guest stateroom to port with twins.
Ocean Alexander has a long-standing mantra that “happy crews make happy owners,” which is why the 32E has a crew space abaft the engine room. Access is safe in all weather scenarios with 24-inch-wide side decks. There is an en suite captain’s cabin and a high-low bunk stateroom with a head for crew. The mess has a kitchenette with a sink, a microwave and a fridge, and a washer and dryer are provided for the crew.
What Ocean Alexander calls the bridge deck, I see as a sky lounge with an outdoor component. It stretches full beam from the four-person hot tub (wrapped by a sun pad) aft to the forward helm. Along the way is a Poltrona Frau sofa facing a full bar to starboard with four swivel stools and sole-to-ceiling windows. A day head is convenient to the deck and the sky lounge.
The helm, as expected from a builder with a long history of producing oceangoing yachts, has a trio of 24-inch Garmin touchscreen multifunction displays for navionics as well as a closed-circuit camera feed from the engine room and on deck. A Garmin remote is built into the armrest of the skipper’s pedestal seat. Two husky pantograph doors lead to the single-level foredeck, with a forward-facing dinette/lounge and a convertible sun pad that faces fore or aft.
Standard power for the 32E is twin 2,000 hp MAN V-12 diesels, and they live in an impressive engine room. The engines are separated by a diamond-plate walkway with safety rails, and there is access to all sides. Outboard are a pair of 40 kW Kohler gensets with equally good access. The 32E sets a benchmark for color-coded, secured piping and electrical runs. Delta-T intake and exhaust fans have vents in the cabin sides, rather than the hull, because Ocean Alexander expects the 32E to shoulder through big seas. The engine beds are welded stainless steel surrounding large structural stringers. There’s a smart lube-oil-change system for the mains and the gensets, and a Gulf Coast fuel-polishing system should ensure clean food for the diesels in faraway ports.
This 32E is also outfitted with Side-Power Vector zero-speed stabilizers, a 53 hp bow thruster and a 42 hp stern thruster. The Dometic air conditioning is rated for extreme tropical climates, with heating designed down to 40-degree water temps. The 50 hz Atlas Marine Power Converter allows automatic marina connections anywhere in the world, and the aerospace-designed Octoplex provides sensors and controls for the ship’s systems and lighting.
Underway, the Ocean Alexander 32E is going to cause immediate cravings for anyone who has dreamed of anchoring off the volcanic peaks of Moorea or nudging a glacier to get thousand-year-old ice for a gin and tonic. This yacht exuded power and strength from the moment the bow touched the Gulf Stream, and I found myself glancing at the fuel gauge to consider how far the 3,600-gallon capacity might take us. On the pins, the 32E topped out at 21 knots, in case owners need to outrun a squall. That’s impressive speed for a yacht with a 274,233-pound displacement. Dropping back to 800 rpm and 7.1 knots (the MANs will last forever), the yacht has a 2,430-nautical-mile range. That’s about the distance from New York to Panama or Los Angeles to Honolulu.
The stabilizers held the yacht rock-steady in the lumpy Gulf Stream, and departing from and returning to the marina was fingertip easy with the thrusters. The 32E that I got aboard also had optional engine controls on each after corner for even easier docking.
Creating such a solid ride starts with the 32E being built tough. It has an infused-fiberglass hull and closed-cell structural foam with unidirectional carbon-fiber reinforcement on stress areas, such as stringers. There is a reinforced collision bulkhead forward, and watertight bulkheads are forward of and abaft the engine room.
Owners of this yacht could throw a dart at a world map to choose their next waypoint. The Ocean Alexander 32E is ready to go.
Meet the Designer
Yacht designer Evan K. Marshall says he grew up with a stack of Yachting magazines in his closet and doodled boats on his notebooks in school. Marshall introduced the split-level owner’s stateroom to yachts. From his office on the River Thames in England, he produces innovative designs for builders from Ocean Alexander to Hatteras Yachts and more.
Robust Reinforcement
Ocean Alexander reinforces the 32E’s hull and deck with straight aircraft-grade aluminum beams that are reportedly 10 times stiffer than wood or fiberglass, but that help keep the yacht’s overall weight low for safety and seaworthiness.
MAN Power
The 2,000 hp MAN diesels on the Ocean Alexander 32E are Tier 3 compliant for Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards, and they have a MAN gold-standard warranty for 60 months. A V-12 designed for luxury yachts, this four-stroke engine has strong torque to 2,100 rpm and displaces 24.2 liters (1,476 cubic inches).
Take the next step: oceanalexander.com
