It is hard to believe when watching the energetic and trim CEO of Horizon emceeing on stage that the company he founded is 25 years old this year. John Lu, a naval architect who steered his company through a successful course of continued expansion and diversification, marked this milestone with a lively party showcasing the yard’s varied production at its Premier shipyard. There were plenty of VIPs on hand among the 300 or so guests, but the star of the evening was Horizon’s new flagship, the impressive 148-foot ice-classed Polaris, designed in collaboration with J.C. Espinosa. Horizon has mastered the use of composites (engineered, tested and built to strict standards at its top-notch Atech facility) to build nearly all of its diverse production, which was represented by a wide selection of new craft featured at the open house, ranging from a great-looking 56-foots port yacht with IPS drives to an alluring 120-foot raised-pilothouse yacht sold to a Chinese client. However, the new reigning queen of the Horizon fleet is a steel-hulled beauty with an aluminum superstructure. The EP148, the first yacht built to ice class in Asia, will debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in October.

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For a feature article on the Horizon CC105, click here or to read this article in our digital edition, click here.