INDY is a Hatteras 85 that has been brought forward twenty years. Delivered in 2005 and refitted through 2023, she keeps the hull, the joinery and the sea-keeping that made Hatteras motor yachts the American east coast default, and replaces almost everything a charter guest actually touches.
The refit is most obvious on the main deck. What was a dark, close saloon is now one long, pale volume: cream leather sectionals down both sides, blue and grey cushions, a light rug over bleached flooring and dining for eight forward against a stone-topped console. Teak framing still runs the windows and the overhead, the yacht has not been stripped of its character, but the light is entirely different.
Above, the sky lounge is the room that sells the week. A curved settee wraps a granite table, a bar with two stools sits to starboard, and glass runs forward over the bow. It is where charters play cards, watch weather and wait out an afternoon squall. Aft of the main saloon, the shaded aft deck carries al fresco dining for the full complement, with a second cushioned seating corner outboard of it.
Four cabins sleep eight. The full-beam master sits amidships with a padded headboard, sconces, mirrored joinery and his-and-hers en-suite bathrooms, a layout that at 26 metres normally requires compromise and here does not. The VIP takes three portholes above a settee and a generous floor, a guest double sits forward, and a bunk cabin with a proper lower berth handles children or a travelling nanny. Ceilings run to 76 inches throughout, which sounds like a specification and reads as comfort by the third day.
Her galley and dinette sit on the main deck in high-gloss teak, and the arrangement is deliberate: the chef works in daylight, the crew eats in the same space, and the guest areas stay guest areas. A five-foot hydraulic swim platform extension drops the stern to the water and gives the tenders and toys somewhere sensible to live.
She carries two tenders, matched to her two seasons: a 26-foot Nortic Star with twin 200hp Yamahas for Florida and the Bahamas, and an AB Nautilus with a single 70hp for New England, where the water is colder and the runs are shorter. Inflatable toys, towables, snorkelling and fishing gear complete the list. Starlink is aboard, which on a yacht that spends July in Long Island Sound and February off Palm Beach is worth more than another water toy.
Twin Caterpillar 3412s give her 12 knots of cruise and 19.5 flat out, stabilised underway, drawing 1.83 metres. She summers out of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, within reach of Block Island, Newport and the Vineyard, and winters in West Palm Beach with the Bahamas a day away.
At $45,000 per week with a crew of four, INDY is priced below what her volume and her refit would suggest. For eight guests who want a genuine full-beam master and a yacht that works on both American coasts, she is straightforward value.
Her crew know both cruising grounds properly, and the yacht has been set up so a family can move aboard on a Saturday morning and be swimming off the platform by lunch. Very little about a week aboard needs organising in advance.
