The Discovery Series explorer yachts, designed by Nick Boksa of Boksa Marine Design in collaboration with Cheoy Lee Yachts, has evolved into an exciting line of long-range megayachts from 108 to 127 feet. Cheoy Lee recently released the general arrangement (GA) of the third model in the series, following the 127 and 120: the Discovery 115. Not only does it offer the volume, accommodations and amenities of a much larger yacht, but it also features an owner’s stateroom on the bridge deck, combining eagle’s-nest views with ultimate privacy.
“The best part of the boat is on the bridge deck where you have the view of everything passing by. So, we put the owner’s stateroom up there on this model, and gave it a private exterior deck,” Boksa said. (He added that it will be no problem to provide owners who prefer a main-deck master with an alternate layout.)
Designed to be a true “pocket superyacht”, the Discovery 115 tri-deck explorer boasts many other features and amenities more commonly found in a yacht in the 130-foot range. These include a sun deck with bar and jacuzzi on the flybridge, captain’s stateroom aft of the pilothouse on the bridge deck, unique forward dining salon served by a huge galley on the main deck, and four spacious guest suites on the lower deck. Like its sibling yachts in the Discovery Series, the 115 also has beach club with wet bar, head and hidraulic swim platform.
“The Discovery Series yachts are explorers, so they are wide for their length, which makes them very stable. The large beam – which is 25’6” for the Discovery 115 – also makes for a lot of space inside,” Boksa said.
While interior volume is a design priority for the Discovery Series, Boksa made sure service access was not sacrificed on the 115.
“The main deck has walkaround side decks, and we designed it so the crew can come into the galley from the port side without disturbing the guests in the salon,” he said. On the bridge deck, he continued, “I added steps leading up from the anchor deck on centerline so the crew can run up and access the captain and run down to handle lines, etcetera, without entering the owner’s space.”
In addition to the separate captain’s stateroom, there is an engineer’s cabin aft of the engine room, which allows for the Discover 115 to carry a crew of up to eight people. This provides an extraordinary 8:10 staff-to-guest ratio, extremely rare for a yacht of this size. It also makes the Discovery 115 ideal for charter yacht operations.
“We are designing the Discovery Series for Cheoy Lee to span the size range of the pocket superyacht but still incorporate all the comforts that typically would fit into a much bigger boat,” Boksa summed up.
