When the Westport 164 Legacy launched in 2012, the build team gave the owner exactly what he requested: an interior that was conservative, monochromatic and dark. The beauty of a customized interior is that it really can be finished in any style a yacht owner desires, but for resale purposes more recently, the look wasn’t exactly in keeping with the times.

“The boat really, really needed some help,” says South Florida yacht designer Patrick Knowles, whom the new owner tapped to do a refit. “It wasn’t run-down or anything like that, but the previous owner had commissioned her really austere.”

Westport 164s (50 meters) have good bones, as the real-estate saying goes, so the refit didn’t require moving bulkheads or redoing the original walnut woodwork, which Knowles says the previous owner kept “in tip-top shape.” Instead, the yacht—now known as Maison Blanche—got a makeover focused heavily on the exterior decks and interior décor. Knowles completed the project in two phases. Six-month phase one ended in June 2023, and the shorter phase two was yet to come as of this writing, with the installation of a custom de Gournay wall panel built for the forward bulkhead in the main-deck dining room.

Overall, Knowles says, the owner placed a heavy focus not only on brightening the entire yacht with neutrals, creams and blues, but also on ensuring that the refit didn’t look so much like a refit. The owner wanted everything new to look as if it was original to the yacht.

“He didn’t want for somebody who’s not familiar with the boat to walk on the boat and know it was modified,” Knowles says, adding that it was an unusual request in all his years of doing yacht refits. “He wanted it to look like he commissioned it from the yard.”

To that end, Knowles and his team approached several spaces on the sundeck in ways that required custom fabrications. Previously, this deck had seating that was low to the sole, no dining or bar, and no way for guests to interact in the hot tub or on the sunpads. So, Knowles designed a custom bar that was built in fiberglass and painted to match the superstructure, with a backlit natural stone top—all of it sized around existing columns so it looks as if it’s always been there.

“Most people would just see it as a bar, but what went into it and making it look like an integral part of the boat from the beginning was a big challenge for everyone involved,” Knowles says.

The sundeck also now has a dining space and a lounge, as well as a more elegant hot tub with marble around the perimeter, cantilevered teak barstools and sunpads that have a Knowles creation called sky tables.

“They are added into the actual sunpad,” he says. “One of the big issues is when you have eight people on the big sunpad, and they all want a drink, they have no place to put it. So we created these sky tables that go into the actual sunpad. It really does look integral to how the original boat would have looked.”

On the bridge deck aft, which previously had built-in sunbeds that were gated off, the new owner wanted alfresco seating. Knowles and his team removed everything, redid the teak decking, designed a new awning system and put in furniture to accommodate a half-dozen people for cocktails.

Similarly, there’s now a custom teak starburst table on the main deck aft, with a navy-and-white palette that freshens up the space compared to the original cement gray and mousy brown tones.

“Then the big element—the investment element, I would say—is the bar,” Knowles says of the main deck aft. “We reconfigured the entire bar cabinet and added the elevated guest level where you would eat or drink. The service level is now lower, so it’s a proper bar, whereas before, it was just a large cabinet.”

The bar, built with backlit stone, helps set a tone of relaxation for guests who embark via the passerelle.

“Westport has one of the most substantial passerelles. It deploys to starboard, and the bar is to port,” Knowles says. “When you enter, you see the bar across the space.”

Up on the Portuguese deck, which Knowles says was previously “utilitarian,” there’s now a high-low table in the middle of the sunbed, so guests can lounge there with a casual meal.

Inside Maison Blanche, the areas that underwent the most significant changes were the sky lounge and main salon. In the sky lounge, every surface was changed. A his-and-her desk set overlooking a window was removed, and a bespoke bar was created. It has a backlit top and a walnut wood frame, to match the rest of the yacht’s original woodwork. It’s finished with an alligator leather insert and polished nickel.

“He really wanted a nice, small, bespoke, quaint bar area, and he got it,” Knowles says.

There’s custom-commissioned art in this space—Knowles and his team commissioned about 35 pieces of art throughout the boat. More is in the main salon, where the dining room’s cabinet was heavily modified to add a lighted wine cellar behind glass doors. The wall panel ordered for phase two of the dining area’s refit is painted, embroidered and encrusted with semi-precious stones, all portraying an underwater scene featuring what Knowles calls “a pretty large octopus. Very, very engaging.”

Staterooms, too, got a face-lift, including a custom rug installed in the master. The guest staterooms all now have Taj Majal marble with blue and green accents, which Knowles says was enough of a change to make a substantial difference in the yacht’s ambience.

“Just focusing on the elements that will give you the largest return means you don’t always have to gut it,” he says. “Some boats are so tired and the woodwork is in such bad shape, you have no choice, but this was not one of those boats.” 

WHAT’S NEXT FOR PATRICK KNOWLES?

The longtime yacht designer says he’s been doing a lot of work for yacht clients who have unusual requests for their marine and airborne fleets.

“We designed a 63-meter [207-footer] that was built for a foreign client, and it was delivered in 2010. They’ve had it for 13 years, and now it needs to be refit,” he says. “They asked if there’s any way that I can find a lot of the same things to make the boat look like it did when it launched. So we’re embarking on a transformation to give her new life.”

Also on Knowles’ to-do list is reimagining the interiors on a pair of helicopters.

“We are designing it to be akin to being in the cabin of a Bentley,” he says. “It adds a whole different flavor to being inside a helicopter.”

For more information: patrickknowlesdesigns.com 

This article was originally published in the Spring 2024 issue.