FLIBS World Debut: Pearl 80

The Pearl 80 made her world debut this week at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. "Pearl will be a major player in the 50- to 100-foot flybridge range," says Iain Smallridge, managing director at U.K.-based Pearl.

Length overall is 78 feet 5 inches, and the beam is 19 feet 6 inches, allowing for internal volume that felt substantial when I stepped aboard. Her cockpit, with a settee, teak table and two chairs for alfresco dining, connects to the full-beam salon. That salon has an L-shaped settee with additional seating around a coffee table. While many yachts have a dining area in this space too, Pearl opted for extra seating.

“We found our clients rarely actually ate [in the salon],” Smallridge says, “preferring to eat on deck or on shore.”

Forward of the salon’s starboard-facing settee is a bar with three stools, then the galley and helm station, which has an L-shaped settee and table. The interior décor by Kelly Hoppen is warm and elegant, with a neutral color palette that includes white and browns with grey touches, materials like suede and wood, and white lacquered ceilings.

Belowdecks are four en suite guest staterooms with white wood paneling that feels clean and warm. The full-beam master is aft, with a settee to starboard and vanity to port under the hull-side windows. Each of the two amidships staterooms has twin berths that can slide together to form a double. The forward VIP has an athwartships berth and settee.

This Pearl 80’s exterior is by Bill Dixon of Dixon Yacht Design, which emphasized glass as well as aerodynamics. “The end result is fantastic, I’m really pleased,” Dixon says. “This is a step up for Pearl.”

Up on the flybridge are a U-shaped settee and table to starboard, just abaft the helm station. Forward are a sun pad, settee and table to port, plus a hot tub. Far aft, where other yachts might stow a tender, are two lounge chairs. (The 80’s garage can hold a PWC and tender.) More guest space is down one level on the foredeck, with a U-shaped settee, Bimini top and sun pad.

Next for Pearl Yachts: the new flagship Pearl 95 is scheduled to launch in spring 2018.