Viking’s 75 Motor Yacht—a cutting-edge cruiser with the engine room, performance, and soul of a salty convertible sportfisherman.

I was truly intrigued as I crossed the street from my rental car. Viking, a preeminent purveyor of sportfishing convertibles, hadn’t built a motoryacht since the early 2000s, but here, just beyond the entrance of the company’s southernmost outpost—the Viking Yacht Service Center of Riviera Beach, Florida—was what qualified as an exuberant return to the genre: a brand-new 75 Motor Yacht. Would she be anything like the company’s rather angular, convertible-esque motoryachts of yore?

“They’re expectin’ you, ” the lady in the guard shack said as I breezed past, heading for a rough and ready pier that sported Vikings of various ages, styles, and sizes, most of them salty convertibles in the midst of refurbishment and smelling sweetly of resin, varnish, and sawdust.

“New motoryacht that way?” I asked a young man sanding a covering board. I could see the transom of what looked like a curvaceous, contemporary megayacht out at the end. Could that possibly be what I was looking for?

“Yup, ” he replied, pointing, “That’s her.”

21st-Century Style

Standing dockside near the 75’s starboard quarter, I saw little of the flat expanses and angularities that had characterized the earlier motoryachts, especially those dating back to Gulfstar’s merger with Viking in late ’80s. Instead, there was a subtly complex amalgam of sleek lines and ethereal curves. Darkened teardrop windows augmented both the saloon level and the lofty enclosed bridge.

I gawked for a moment. High-profile designer (and Power & Motoryacht columnist) Michael Peters had worked closely with Viking’s design team to produce the 75’s styling, as well as her running surface and layout. So while a certain European cachet seemed to predominate, there was a whiff of the modern, dramatically raked, aquiline-nosed Viking convertible in evidence as well.

“Come on aboard, ” said Bob Burke, Viking’s Motor Yacht sales manager. He was standing on an immense swim platform (actuated by Opacmare hydraulics) crisply coated with teak. Behind him were two stairways, port and starboard, leading up to an expansive aft deck and, between them, a big, centrally located, pantograph-style, Opacmare-hinged transom door, swung open invitingly.