SHEER PLEASURE

Some of us of a certain age (and I will include Power & Motoryacht’s Executive Editor Bill Pike just so I’m not alone) grew up in an era of yachting when the word “sheer” was used to describe a yacht profile. Sheer was defined as the gentle rise of a yacht deck, which gave a curve for which the highest accolade was often “sweet,” as in a “sweet sheer.”

I admit that I have always been wary of boats where water runs forward off the bow, although I’ve owned a number of reverse-sheer sportfishermen and even some go-fast boats that had waterfalls off their anchor roller. Still, I wasn’t a real fan.

Until I met the new Horizon FD85.

It’s so cool that I don’t care which way the water drains. Silly me, I assumed the FD meant “Flush Deck” when, in fact, it translates to “Fast Displacement.” This means you get superyacht cruising speeds