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s a kid my family and I would cruise hundreds of miles
each summer on our annual three-week voyage. One
summer we ran our 25-foot cruiser halfway up and down
the Mississippi River, dodging wing dams, barges and
houseboats along the way. We stopped in a small river
town where, 20 years prior, my dad had bought a Honda motorcycle
and wanted to see if the dealer was still there. Less than an hour later he
rode out of that dealership on a whim and a new Honda motorcycle,
right back to the marina.
It took a great deal of help from the locals to hoist our teak swim
platform up onto the dock, and it gave our little cruiser an odd bow-
down attitude for the 20 minutes it took him to drive the bike on
board and lash it down properly. We had three days and 300 miles to
go. We liked to cruise at 25 knots, and none among us wanted to lose a
motorcycle overboard. That’d just be bad form.
Many curious stares later the motorcycle made it back to our home
port, the one with considerably higher docks than the backwater
marina in “Cycle City.” A bit of daring creativity is all it took to get the
new Honda off the boat and motoring down the dock, admittedly an
odd sight for the dozens of cocktailing cruisers watching us that late
afternoon.
Ours was a temporary motorcycle installation, to be sure. But it’s not
unheard of to see a pair of Harleys on a larger yacht today. As I see it,
few things strip the allure off a gleaming white 150-foot motoryacht
like a pair of Hogs strapped to the flybridge rail. No matter how clean,
chromed and airbrushed, they inevitably look cheap next to the
$90,000 worth of outboards on the center console chocked on deck a
few feet away. And they look cheap compared to the $15 million yacht
atop which they perch. They just look ... wrong.
But maybe the motorcycles aren’t the problem. Maybe it’s the blandHog Wild
INSIDE ANGLE
Planning to cruise with a motorcycle aboard? I have advice for that.
30By Bill PrinceBR
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formality of the white layer-cake look of the motoryachts they’re on
board that’s the problem. Maybe it’s the incongruity of the tires on teak.
Or the simple fact that the motorcycles look like they’re out of their
element. I think that’s it, and I think I know how this all began.
We have the legendary publisher Malcolm Forbes and his bankroll
to thank for blending these pursuits. Forbes kept two Harleys on board
his 151-foot Feadship, The Highlander. Styled by Jon Bannenberg in
the ‘80s, The Highlander looked nothing like a staid white layer-cake
motoryacht, which meant it could pull off having a pair of Harleys
on the flybridge, tucked neatly between the custom Cigarette and the
Donzi on the boat deck. Underneath the helicopter.
As I write this, my office is designing a gray and black 77-foot alu-
minum motoryacht with Tactical Custom Boats for an adventurous
American. This fast pilothouse cruiser intentionally looks a lot like a
military patrol boat. This will be a fast yacht, designed to carry a pair
of BMW R 1250 GS Adventure bikes probably painted in kalamata
metallic matte, so they’ll look as serious as the boat. Come to think of
it, the boat is really a 77-foot motorcycle support vessel. These bikes
will be right at home on this boat, because they look like they belong
there. The motorcycles will also look good next to the amphibious air-
plane and the six-wheeled landing craft which the boat also carries, the
latter on board to get the bikes to and from the beach in Alaska. This
will command plenty of curious stares, no doubt, but they’ll be of the
“I want that!” variety. Because the purpose of the boat and the bikes is
inherent by their very presence together.
If you’re carrying motorcycles on board, make sure your boat looks
the part. Two Ducatis on the aft deck of an old Hatteras motoryacht
would look as bad as a pair of “coffee can” exhaust tips on a 1983 Cadil-
lac Seville. It brings the whole look down, so tread carefully.
And no wheelies on the dock after 9 p.m. U