A TOUCH OF GLASS
A yacht christening can be a heady experience, especially when the champagne is flowing and the photographers’ bulbs are popping – bright-white halos in the hot, black night. Such was the scene at the Fort Lauderdale Pier Sixty-Six last fall for the official launch of Ziggy, hull No I of Ocean Alexander’s new 35 R series. The owners stood proudly at the top of the high, plumb bow and, with a few sweet words, let a bottle of bubbly on a rope swing freely to break itself upon the yacht’s forward section. It was a memorable sight, save for just one small problem. The bottle, built like a tank, refused to break – because this isn’t the movies, and things don’t always work out perfectly. The sale of the first two 35 Rs, though, makes a pretty good run at flawlessness. Hull No 2, built on spec, arrived in Fort Lauderdale for the boat show, where she was snapped up by a client who named her Entrepreneur.
Ziggy’s story began at the 2019 Cannes Yachting Festival, where Marine Max’s broker Scott Roberton met her future owners, Bonnie and Harold Zeigler. “They knew they were looking for something new,” he says, “and as much as they liked the (previously introduced) 90R, they wanted something a bit larger. I told
