Adventures ahead: Meeting the owner of Lynx’s Crossover 27, Avontuur
July 12, 2022
One of the world’s foremost superyacht news outlets, SuperYacht Times, sat down with the owner of the first-ever Lynx Crossover 27 and discussed all things water sports, family-friendly cruising and the vital importance of onboard space for adventurous owners. Read on and discover what made this experienced Californian opt for this totally unique Lynx yacht.
Words by Georgia Tindale
As a seasoned sailor based in the USA, the owner of Avontuur is certainly no stranger to the water. As he explains: “I grew up with sailboats. My parents owned a Swan 36 as our first ever family boat. My early life was always about being out on the water sailing. But then as my parents grew older and my three sisters and I had children, it became impractical to fit everyone on board a sailing yacht. As a consequence, we switched from sailing to a motor yacht: Avontuur.”
For this super-sporty owner, a motor yacht also provided a key benefit in the form of additional space to store his extensive collection of watersports equipment. This includes PWCs, windsurfers, SUPs, Scuba gear, foils, as well as a 23’ wakeboarding boat with all the necessary boards. “After a lifetime of struggling with storage, with Avontuur I can finally keep everything on board in a well-organised manner. This means I have the ultimate freedom to do whatever I want, at any time – which I love.”
Thanks to his professional background in residential home building, the soon-to-be Lynx owner was never going to build his yacht on shaky foundations, and it took time for him to finally settle on the decision to build his own yacht. “I already had access to a pretty nice vessel, and so there wasn’t a strong need in my life that I could see for another cruising yacht.”
But there was something about the design of Lynx’s YXT-24 which caught his interest. As a result, he sent Lynx an email which expressed his interest in the vessel and his desire to incorporate all of the toys and water sports equipment he’d want on board. The next step? A trip to the Netherlands.
“After a few meetings, I flew to the Netherlands with my wife to visit the shipyard and we were very impressed with the build quality. In my experience, this is something you can’t know for sure until you see it in person. The YXT-24 was also so much larger in person than I thought: the back deck is 70 square metres and the “garage” below deck is absolutely huge. Once I’d seen it, I thought: ‘Oh my gosh, I will be able to store so much amazing stuff in here!”
Although he concedes that building a boat during a global pandemic posed its inevitable issues – such as having to conduct many of the meetings with Lynx via video call – it was the strength of the relationships with Lynx that help keep up the energy and momentum throughout the build.
The owner explains: “It was a fantastic relationship between myself and Lynx as they were so honest from the start, and completely focused on delivering quality throughout the entire build process. I took a surveyor along to the build with me and he confirmed it. This was really important to me – I’d never built a boat before, meaning that if they wanted to cut corners, they could probably have gotten some past me. Even with change orders, Lynx’s team were the fairest I’ve ever worked with.”
As a competent captain with an impressive yachting resume, Avontuur’s owner has logged 1300+ days’ experience on the water across a huge range of locations around the world, including Tahiti, Canada, Alaska and the Mediterranean. Despite his globetrotting experience, Avontuur offers a welcome opportunity for this owner to pack in as much quality time with his wife and daughters as possible, and he’s not planning to venture very far from home.
“Of all the places in the world I could go to, my favourite place has to be Catalina Island in California, so I’ll definitely be taking Avontuur there with my family.”
Finally, for the owner of Avontuur, his new yacht allows him to make the most of that precious family time which can often be elusive for the busy owners of 2022.
“I value this time with my family so highly. It means that can go paddleboarding before everyone wakes up, go scuba diving with my daughters during the day, and go wakeboarding in the evening. It can be really hard to get everyone to sit down and enjoy quality time together, even for meals, especially with the pull of friends and social media. But when we are on board Avontuur, we are all ‘trapped’ together, and this couldn’t be a more welcome experience!”
To discover Avontuur for yourself, come and visit her at this year’s Cannes Yachting Festival in September, or get in touch with the Lynx team via info@lynxyachts.com.
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