You wouldn't expect a galley to have decorations with a deeper meaning. On the port side of her E98 galley, however, the owner placed a plaque with her life motto: "Live life to its fullest, every moment of every day. What you want to do, do it now!" Jo Ellard, the warm-hearted and friendly owner of the "Do It Now", has mounted this motto on board her Horizon for good reason. Firstly, this motto corresponds to the name of the Horizon, and secondly, it suits her. Ellard knows what she wants and usually achieves it successfully; she is definitely one of those people who are decisive. When it came to choosing her boat, she often wanted to invite her family and friends on board. More specifically, she wanted a boat with as much accommodation as the number of guests.
In other words, Ellard herself is almost 1.90 metres tall. And her sons make her look small next to them. Her specifications looked accordingly when she started talking to designers. Horizon Yacht USA was receptive to her wishes. In fact, the US representatives of the Taiwanese shipyard proved so open-minded that they designed a completely new model, the E98.
Yacht is customised for the owner
Ellard had already been a Horizon customer. She had purchased an E76 through a broker in 2010, regularly travelled with it and attended many Horizon owner meetings. At the Horizon rendezvous in 2015, she told the shipyard representatives that she was interested in an open-bridge version of the E88, which had made its debut about two years earlier.
However, a few problems arose. With its width of 6.40 metres, the 88 didn't really feel any bigger than the 76 with its width of 5.70 metres. The 88 also offered no His-and-Her partitioning in the owner's bathroom. "I want to have the boat I like and I want to have the equipment I need," says Ellard, describing the situation at the time. And this equipment also included three guest cabins "with beds instead of bunks". Horizon commissioned John Lindblom, the designer of the E88, to develop a model that met the wish list. The result was the E98, customised for the owner. With a width of 7.07 metres, the E98 feels "perfect", says Ellard.
It's the volume that counts
This perfection also includes a room height that far exceeds the dimensions of all other Horizon models. "When people go on board, they usually notice the length first, but here on board they notice the volume," explains the owner. Nevertheless, Horizon did not build a much more voluminous yacht for this reason. The E98 also owes its impression to its interior. Horizon's interior design department also customised its tasks according to the client's requirements, namely with regard to the custom-made furniture, which is also tailored to a larger audience. The largest piece of furniture on board - literally - was the five-seater sofa on the port side of the saloon, supplied by Horizon's cabinetmakers. Not only is it unusually long, the furnishers also gave it wide XXXL seat cushions to make it comfortable for long legs.
Anyone who is not a short person will know how important it can be to have a seat that is long enough so that the knees are not too far away from the front edge. This can be very uncomfortable, especially with car seats. Ellard's sofa on the E98, which she sketched herself, solves this problem. The deck height also affects her dressing area in the owner's suite, which saves Ellard from having to bend over.
Dining on board the Horizon E98
Horizon also built the saloon larger than usual. The standard layouts for yachts such as "Do It Now" offer a dining area directly in front of the saloon seating area. Ellard decided to deviate from this, firstly because of the open country galley and secondly because of the dining area at the top of the bridge. Instead, the E98 utilises almost the entire length for the sofa.
Horizon reduced the usual dining area to a breakfast bar between the saloon and galley. Glass panelling closes off the galley from the saloon when required. Instead of an interior helm station, there is a dinette table in front of a U-shaped seat and two stools under the windscreen of the main deck. To starboard, a staircase leads to the lower deck with the accommodation. The crew also sleeps there, but behind the engine room. There, the E98 offers space for a captain's cabin with a double bed and en-suite shower room, two single cabins that share a shower room and a crew mess.
Horizon shipyard as wish fulfilment
Horizon Yacht is still managed today by Naval Architect John Lu. Lu gained his first experience of shipbuilding in his home town of Kaohsiung before founding the shipyard in 1987. Today, in addition to Horizon Yacht, Atech Composites, Vision Yachts and Premier Yacht also belong to the Horizon Group.
"I've built quite a few things in my life," says Jo Ellard, "and negotiated a lot with contractors." This also means that something has failed from time to time. Fortunately, she had the opposite experience with Horizon during the development of "Do It Now". When she asked for a day toilet with double access from the saloon and aft deck, the shipyard realised her request without any problems. When she suggested wall panels made of walnut wood with a horizontal grain, Horizon immediately fulfilled her request.
"What this shipyard promises you, you'll get." This reliability means a lot to a woman who says of herself:
I know what I want and how I can get it."
Technical data
- Length over everything: 30,33 m
- Width:7,07 m
- Depth: 1,83 m
- Displacement (empty): 107 t
- Material: GRP
- Motor: 2 x Caterpillar C32A
- Engine power: 2 x 1200 kW
- Speed (max.):22.5 kn
- Speed (travelling):19 kn
- Fuel: 17 000 l
- Range:1250 nm @ 10 kn
- Water: 2270 l
- Generator: 2 x Onan 27 kW
- Design: John Lindblom, Horizon
- Interior design: Jo and Ornella Ellard, Horizon
- Shipyard:Horizon, 2017
- Dealer Europe:Horizon/Mallorca
This article appeared in BOOTE EXCLUSIV issue 4/2017 and was revised by the editorial team in June 2023.
