Trinity’s 120-foot Finish Line delivers premium, family-oriented amenities in a well-dressed package.

By Capt. Bill Pike | Photos by Jim Raycroft

It’d been a long, long day, and while I love boats with tried, true and totally tireless verve, I gotta say—I was flat beat at the end of a recent ever-so-sweltering afternoon, having spent almost the entire day doing yacht-related business in the South Florida sunshine. So I responded with instantaneous gusto when a kind woman by the name of Joanne Lockhart pointed invitingly at a lounge on the cool, hardtop-shaded sundeck of Trinity’s new 120-foot Finish Line and said, “Why don’t you have a seat, Bill? If even for a moment.” I went down like a Navy standard stockless anchor in free-fall.

Not since I’d spent weekends as a kid at my Uncle Jim’s wonderful old Adirondack hunting camp, with its billowy, cloud-like feather tick mattresses, had I experienced such a soft, sumptuous, ergonomically excellent landing. After a long, appreciative moment, I asked Lockhart, the boat’s interior designer, to explain how she’d created such a magnificently comfy piece of furniture.

“Well, it’s a funny little story,” she began, settling into a pillow-backed, faux-rattan chair nearby. “You see, I’ve worked for this owner for over a decade now and, really, comfort is one of his highest priorities. Every sofa onboard this boat, every settee, every mattress, every fabric, whether outside or inside, has to be soft. He simply does not want his family to sit or lie down on anything that is the least bit uncomfortable.”

Designing an array of fiberglass modules with the appropriate dimensions was easy for Lockhart, but coming up with a cushion fabric that would be super-soft as well as weather-resistant enough to withstand rain showers was way more challenging. Indeed, ultimately the task proved impossible: There simply was nothing on the market that would fit the bill.

“So what I did,” she explained, “was cover custom-filled Dacron pillows with very pliable, lightweight, waterproof Stamoid Marine vinyl sleeves and then cover the sleeves with an outdoor fabric, Perennials. We sewed grommets into the bottoms of the sleeves so air could escape whenever someone sits down or leans back. The result, I’d say, is as comfortable as a residential product, perhaps even more so. And it’s a fun look.”

As Lockhart finished her story, her husband, Billy, Finish Line’s captain, pulled up another chair and introduced himself. Then, perhaps because the ambiance of the sundeck around us seemed so promisingly fun and adventurous, with a go-anywhere helm station forward and an array of festive water toys stowed astern, the three of us fell silent for a bit, each of us undoubtedly lost in some sort of nautical imagining. At length, the skipper broke the spell with a suggestion that we tour the boat, starting with the engine room.

Never have I seen such a display of chrome-plated stainless steel, whether onboard a yacht, boat, ship, tug or whatever. The triplex Racors for the mains and gensets were chrome-plated stainless. The engine-mounted secondary fuel filters were chrome-plated stainless. And then there were the two giant, waist-high sea chests, a gleaming phalanx of fancy engine valve covers, all the compression posts and exhaust trunk hangers and every single fuel line. Even the aluminum diamond-pattern decking of the centerline walkway was chrome-plated.

“Right at the start, we told the guys at Trinity that we wanted every separate space on board this boat to have a wow factor,” Billy said, “and this is the engine room they came up with. Pure aesthetics, of course. But plenty of wow, eh?”

I found two additional aspects of Finish Line’s engine room appealing. First is the top-shelf exhaust system from Von’ Widmann Designs. By comparison with more conventional arrangements, a Von’ Widmann setup keeps big, powerful main engines running cooler and more efficiently and cuts backpressure, noise and performance-robbing hydrodynamic drag. It does all this via a set of finely tuned, rectilinear, straight-pipe-type exhaust tunnels (there are no mufflers or baffles) that stretch all the way from each main engine to two expansion boxes well aft, port and starboard. The boxes vent exhaust gases through squarish holes in the bottom of the boat, a process energized by suction-producing wedges bolted athwartship along the leading edge of each hole. Idle-speed exhaust is vented through smaller bypass ports along the hull sides and well aft.

Second is the fuel system. With day-tank delivery to each engine, and triplex Racors on the transfer pump that fills the day tank from the boat’s three storage tanks via a big Alfa Laval centrifuge, the whole thing is commercial-grade all the way and, at least seemingly, bad-fuel-proof.

“And she’s a wonderful sea boat—enormous bow, very little top-hamper weight, great stability,” Billy said as we exited the engine room. “She’ll do 24 knots wide open and cruise at 20 knots all day. My first trip back from the Bahamas we had 25-knot winds out of the north and 7- to- 10-foot seas almost abeam, and I sat in the wheelhouse drinking coffee while we did 18 knots coming across, towing a 32-foot Fountain center-console.”

I completed my tour of Finish Line with both Lockharts alongside. We started on the main deck, where the layout is straightforward. At the rear is an immense cockpit with a full wet bar and dining table with seating for eight. I hit the switch for a vast set of glass sliders and we went forward into the salon, which features a formal dining area, another full wet bar, entertainment options galore and L-shape lounges that are at least as soft and comfortable as those on the sundeck. Venturing all the way forward brought us to a very American-feeling country kitchen-style galley.

The lower deck is much more family-centric by comparison. The full-beam master is immense with a king-size berth, a generous head and a full-beam—yes, full-beam—walk-in closet. “I was told it had to duplicate the menswear department of Barneys New York,” Joanne said with a grin, “but I think it’s turned out nicer.”

All three ensuite guest staterooms are immense as well, with a conventional queen berth in one, a queen (convertible for playroom usage) in another and twin berths and a Pullman in the kid-friendly third.

“Way back when Finish Line was just an idea,” said Billy, leading the way into a glass-bridge-style pilothouse, “we wanted a modern, sexy, stylish and high-quality yacht, but also a comparatively small one with a Bahamas-friendly draft. Big boats are slow, need larger crews, often take ages to move and simply can’t get into some places. We didn’t want that. Instead, we wanted a comparatively small, big boat.”

“But a very comfortable one as well,” added Joanne, with a smile.

For more information: 228 276 1000; trinityyachts.com

SPECIFICATIONS

LOA: 120ft. 7in. (36.75m)
Beam: 26ft. 2in. (8m)
Draft: 5ft. 6in. (1.67m)
Construction: aluminum Displacement: 209.5 tons
Engines: 2 x 2,600-hp MTU 16V2000 M94 diesel inboard
Propellers: 53 x 64.5 6-blade Veemstar-LC Interceptor
Fuel: 9,789 gal. (37,055L)
Water: 2,466 gal. (9,335L)
Speed: (max./cruising): 24/15 knots
Range: 3,670 nm @ 10 knots
Generators: 2 x 80-kW Kohler
Stabilizers: Arcturus TRAC w/ zero-speed capability
Classification: ABS, MCA compliant
Naval architecture/engineering: Trinity Yachts
Interior design: YachtNext
Year: 2013