First Impression: Axia

Date toured: December 2007

The 123-foot Palmer Johnson sailing yacht Axia is one of those classic beauties that draws a crowd. During the half-hour or so that I spent onboard doing interviews and taking photographs during the Antigua charter show, I watched several reputable charter brokers ooh and aah over the small fireplace in the large saloon to the point that they called friends on their cell phones and asked them to come aboard for a look, too. One broker took even more photos of the interior than I did, she was so impressed with the yacht’s traditional good looks.
     Built in 1990 with naval architecture by the venerable Sparkman & Stephens, Axia got a new owner in February 2007. He’s at least her third owner, according to the stewardess who gave me my tour, and he’s a Greek American who wanted to cruise Croatia and the Mediterranean. That’s what Axia did during the summer of 2007, before sailing into Antibes for a refit in July 2007. The work included all new soft goods and varnishing, to make her fresh for her first charter season in the Caribbean, beginning in November 2007.
     She’s run by Capt. Jackson McHorney, who has a good reputation from his many years of running charter yachts in the Virgin Islands and greater Caribbean. (His wife is reputable broker Ann E. McHorney, who owns the Sint Maarten-based booking agency Select Yachts.) Capt. McHorney is one of six crew onboard Axia, five of whom are permanent, and one who comes onboard as an additional freelance stewardess.
     “Between us, we speak eight and a half languages,” he told me. “English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, and some Arabic and some Portuguese. We can make a lot of different kinds of charter guests feel at home.”
     That’s true especially of families, Capt. McHorney says, because the owner’s children are 9 and 13 years old. The crew are well accustomed to having kids onboard, and the boat is outfitted to keep them entertained with wakeboards, children’s-size water skis, blow-up water toys, and the like.
     Accommodations-wise, Axia is marketed as available for eight guests, but the crew showed my why six adults with two children is actually ideal. There’s a master cabin aft plus two proper guest cabins, and the master contains a sofa that converts into two bunks. Those bunks are best suited for the children of whichever guests are in the master.
     Axia is a motorsailer that cruises at 15 knots, which makes her fast enough to look good in the St. Barth’s Bucket as well as New Year’s racing charters. She’s managed for charter by Perini Navi, which builds large luxury sailing yachts, and Capt. McHorney told me Axia is getting what he called “spillover bookings” from charter clients who originally requested the larger and more expensive Perinis, but saw Axia and liked her just the same.
     Her weekly base rate is $65,000, plus expenses. The sailing yacht is based in Sint Maarten during the winter, and at press time was still determining her charter location for this summer.—Kim Kavin