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Historic yacht anchors at Harbor Marina
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
| Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/011911_clw-01.jpg) |
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| Photo by ALEXANDRA CALDWELL |
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| Captain Craig Cannon stands in The Highlander's pilot house. |
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CLEARWATER – The downtown boat slips, now called the Clearwater Harbor Marina, is presently home to Malcolm Forbes’ first large yacht, The Highlander.
First launched in 1967, the 44-year-old classic yacht has recently been restored to its original condition by its owner, Victor Muller of Holland, owner of Spyker and Saab.
The Highlander will make Clearwater its home until spring, when it heads up to New England, said its captain, Craig Cannon.
Forbes was publisher of Forbes magazine — which was founded by his father, B.C. Forbes – from 1957 until 1990. Although the family owned a series of yachts throughout the years, The Highlander was the family’s favorite, Cannon said.
The yacht is 116 feet long by 24 feet wide with a seven-foot draft, Cannon said, making it the largest boat in the Clearwater Harbor Marina. Muller bought it a few years ago and spent three years and $5 million to restore it to its original state. Its trek from the shipyard in Fort Lauderdale to Clearwater was its maiden voyage since the renovations, arriving at the Clearwater Harbor Marina Dec. 22.
Cannon of Clearwater said he is excited to have The Highlander in Clearwater.
“We are here primarily to get out of Fort. Lauderdale and help promote these new facilities for the city of Clearwater,” Cannon said. “And the mayor (Frank Hibbard) is a personal friend of mine, and I want to help promote the docks. They are very nice facilities and I am trying to promote bigger boats to come to the area from my contacts in Fort Lauderdale. So hopefully getting Clearwater, St. Pete, Tampa on the map for some bigger yachts coming this way.”
Personally, Cannon is happy for the local stay so he can be closer to his family for a few months, but he said he is also proud of the city’s new boat slips.
“What we’re most happy about is this facility,” Cannon said. “It’s great. We love it here. I like that it’s right in downtown Clearwater, it has plenty of space for us, with good power, and it’s quiet. It’s nice and quiet.”
The Highlander was originally built by Feadship in Holland, and the interior has been turned into almost a museum of the Forbes family, with pictures of them and the boat throughout the years. The interior is unique, primarily because of its fit and finish, Cannon said, because not many yachts have such a high gloss finish on its woodwork on the walls. Cannon believes this adds to the character of the boat.
One of the most challenging, time consuming and costly endeavors was to make it as close to the original as possible, Cannon said.
“You could have used newer, up-to-date products, whereas (Muller) wanted everything to be original,” Cannon said. “So he spent an enormous amount of money getting old systems to work properly. ... That’s what makes this boat unique, is that it’s in its original condition. Like our steering system and our stabilizer system. Our stabilizer system is original from 1967 and is quite an engineering feat. The stabilizers on this boat are actually retractable, and that’s something that was unheard of in 1967. So to keep that system running, it cost an exorbitant amount of money, and there are actually nine steps in order to deploy them.”
The stabilizers are fins that stick down into the water to keep the yacht from rolling, Cannon said, and these ones retract into the hull so there is nothing on the exterior sticking out that could get caught on anything in the water.
Another unique aspect of The Highlander is that it has a canoe stern, which is rounded in order to handle the large, following seas from around the world, Cannon said. A bedroom below deck, aptly called the Canoe Room, nestles into this unique shape, with two beds nestling into the curves along the walls. There is also a twin room with two twin beds, a large master bedroom and a VIP room that is situated in the bow on the main deck.
The yacht is equipped with satellite TV, conducts its own electricity through generators, makes its own fresh water through reverse osmosis, and has the mandated updated electronics, radar, weather system and autopilot.
“If we could make our own diesel, we would never have to come in to dock,” Cannon said.
In addition to use by the owner, The Highlander will be largely a charter boat for exclusive and corporate functions, costing about $60,000 per week to charter, not including food, fuel and other expenses.
“But the boat is very economical to run in today’s world,” Cannon said. “In today’s world, all the boats, they want to go faster. This is just a slow, old boat, we do about 10 to 11 knots, and we only burn about 38 gallons per hour, whereas these fast boats burn 100 to 120 gallons per hour. So it’s pretty economical in that sense, if you compare it.”
The Highlander will stay in town until April, and Muller will participate in the Honda Grand Prix in St. Petersburg at the end of March. After that, it will probably head up to New England for the summer.
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011
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