NORTHERN LIGHT

NORTHERN LIGHT is a 22.6-metre Hatteras built in 1987 and refitted in 2018, and she is one of the longest-serving charter yachts working the San Juan Islands and the Inside Passage. That record is the point of her. She is not the newest boat on this coast and does not pretend to be; what she offers is a crew of three who have run this itinerary many times over, a hull and machinery that have been maintained for the job rather than for a brokerage photograph, and an interior laid out for people who are going to live aboard for a fortnight in changeable weather.

The main salon is a single open volume across the width of the deckhouse, a large sectional to port, occasional chairs opposite, and a dining table for six forward against the galley bulkhead. It is finished in figured mahogany with deep carpet underfoot and windows on three sides, and it reads as a room in a house rather than a yacht saloon. Forward and one level down, the galley opens onto a leather dinette booth with a fixed table and bookshelves overhead: the working heart of the boat on a long cruise, and the informal breakfast room.

Six guests sleep in three staterooms. The owner’s suite is finished floor to deckhead in figured mahogany, with a queen berth on a raised base, bookshelves built into the forward bulkhead and drawers down both sides; a private office area with a desk and a mirrored bulkhead opens off the same room, which is genuinely unusual at this size and useful for anyone working part of the trip. A guest stateroom carries a double berth against the outboard bulkhead with a mahogany chest opposite, and a twin cabin runs two singles either side of a fixed bedside cabinet under high-gloss lockers. Each has its own head; the guest bathroom carries a combined tub and shower.

Outdoors, the covered upper deck is where the boat is really lived in. A table with a varnished edge sits against wraparound striped banquettes, enclosed on three sides by roll-down clears, which is precisely what makes alfresco dining possible on this coast in June. Forward of it sits the upper helm with its own seating, and aft the wet bar, grill and the tender davit. The aft cockpit carries a two-person soft-tub spa, and the foredeck is laid out with configurable seating that can be set as chairs facing forward or cushioned sunpads.

She is powered by twin turbocharged GM V-12 diesels of 770 horsepower with twin 21 kW Onan generators. Her published cruise is 9.5 knots with a maximum of 23, in practice she is run at the lower figure almost all the time, because that is the speed the Inside Passage is properly seen at. Air conditioning, satellite television, televisions in every cabin, an outdoor sound system and wifi are aboard.

Her toy inventory is built for this cruising ground rather than the Mediterranean: an 18-foot Novurania tender with a 115 hp Yamaha, a 13-foot Boston Whaler with a 40 hp outboard, two sit-on-top kayaks, two inflatable kayaks and two stand-up paddleboards. Two tenders on a 22-metre yacht is generous, and it means a group can split, one boat fishing, one going ashore, without the yacht having to move. For a family of six exploring the Pacific Northwest, that flexibility is worth more than a newer hull.