87 Johnson Motoryacht Walkthrough [Boat Review + Video]

Take an extensive tour of the 87 Johnson Motoryacht in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with Sidney Ambroise.

This article is a transcription of the 87 Johnson video from Denison’s Youtube Channel. Tune in daily to discover the latest yacht video walkthroughs from the world’s largest yacht video collection. Watch the full video below:

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 If you’ve never been on an 87 Johnson before, you’re definitely going to want to hang out with me for the next 10 minutes. We just spent about eight hours traveling offshore, catching up with the owner, going through 1.5 million dollars of invoices, and I’m not talking operational cost or yearly upkeep. I’m talking improvements where it matters the most.

I’m Sidney with Denison Yachting. Today, we’re on board, NEVER SETTLE. She’s an 87 Johnson delivered in 2005. We had the privilege of representing the owners and purchasing this yacht in 2021 and the things that they’ve done to it, night and day difference, I can’t wait to show you what they did.

The overall layout of this boat, starting from the exterior, I mean, we’re talking Bill Dixon design, it’s iconic. This is a model that they still make to this day and that shows how timeless and creative he was in designing the yacht like this. Let me tell you right now why this 87 Johnson is second to none in her class. We even have to go a class above, why? Her beam, 23 feet, six inches, a few boats she has beat, Hunter Hargrave, hunter Hatteras, hundred Ocean Alexander. To get close to a beam like this, you got to go up to a one, to a Westport, which her beam in comparison to the one 12, is just three inches’ shy of boat. So what does that all mean? It’s self-evident. I mean, we’re standing in her enormous salon. This kind of internal volume carries out through all space of the boat, interior and exterior.

Just got back from shooting offshore, coolers swung over the shoulder. We find ourselves today here on the sun deck, which is obviously the preferred place to be. After all, you’re on a boat and if you love the sun, this is just one of the few spaces on board where you can catch some rays.

You have this U shaped settee right behind me. Of course, on this molded staircase, you have the stainless steel guardrail, which also has a cover if you have pets or smaller children. When you close that hatch, totally secure spot to be. You’ll also notice there’s no tender up here. This has a tender in the garage, which is very convenient and gives you the most of all the space here.

Moving forward, of course, we have this grab and go fridge here on the port side just starboard and Napoleon Grill, storage underneath. Moving forward to the shaded portion of the sun deck, we have our Al Fresco dining table to starboard just to pour the wet bar and up one step to the elevator helm, great spot to run the boat from. Al Fresco dining area seats more than enough. We have a leaf that comes out the middle in case people have to access in and out. Also beneath the table, we do have some cup holders in every corner.

Just behind the seating area, very functional shade behind the track runs throughout the entire 270 of this view. To port of the Al Fresco dining area, we have our fully serviced wet bar, three very nice stools under the lid, ice box. In terms of appliances, we do have an ice maker and refrigerator just aft. Normally you’d just be serving off the front part, but this aft part allows you to serve the aft deck portion of the Sundeck.

Owner just had done a $300,000 electronic refit. This is where some of the money went. All the way to port of the helm, you have your forward looking sonar, bow and stern thrusters, AB track stabilization monitor. Centerline, we have the autopilot throttles to starboard and also the fusion radio control, which is also powering the JBL audios above and also all the way on the aft portion of the sundeck.

Last detail I’m going to point out here is a sliding door access to the wheelhouse. And we are going to come back here, but for now we’re going to cover the foredeck.

When we sold this boat to the current owners in 21, this foredeck was hands down the deal closer for that. Me personally, what I love about this design is of course the wraparound windows on this deck and also the sun deck. Just beyond the lower set of windows here is the country kitchen on the main deck, and just above is the wheelhouse behind those windows. One step down here from the main deck, we have our anchor lockers on the port and starboard side and our two stainless steel windlasses.

Picking back up on the transom, I’m now going to show you the swim platform. One of three things we’re going to mention on this enormous swim platform just behind this door is service access to the machinery space where the Rudders are. Center line, we have our tender garage, which ascends up, a stainless steel carriage rolls out and the tender deploys. Lastly, on the starboard side, the Glendening cable coiled up here. Cable’s only wrapped up on the deck here cause we’re about to plug in, but it is powered by Glendening and retracts inside the boat.

Up five steps from the transom, we find ourselves on the main deck through the boarding gate here. Just behind me, we have a lid that opens, which exposes the controls for the tender launch system. Just forward of that on the port side here, one of two aft deck controls for the yatch, U-shaped settee, al fresco dining table with a leaf center line. Seats about eight to 10 guests here. When you’re seated here, either breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you do of course have some entertainment on the TV above. Refrigeration moving aft on the starboard side here, we do have that second helm station with bow and stern thruster controls and deck hardware right beneath.

Before we step inside, we’ll make our way up the port side deck and access to crew quarters, which I’m going to show you next. Down these stairs, we find ourselves in the crew landing, which connects you to a few things, the two en suite crew cabins, and also the machinery space, and crew mess. First, I want to show you the cabin over my shoulder where we have a bunk bed configuration and access to the ensuite. Making our way to the starboard side of the crew quarters, we have our common area crew mess. Just beyond is the access to the other ensuite cabin, which is used as storage on this boat. Moving back midship just behind me is the brand new washer and dryer that was installed a few months ago, and access to the machinery space just forward.

Moving a big boat like this from point A to point B requires some major effort. And these workforce Caterpillar, C32s make that so much easier. Few things to cover here in the machinery space. Outboard size, port and starboard, you have your Northern light generators. Just behind me, the distribution panel on the port side here, brand new battery charger, air handler was added into this engine room to cool it down a little bit. On the aft bulkhead, there is the air conditioning rack where all new chillers were replaced. The water makers there on that rack as well. Since we’re in the underbelly, I have to mention last haul out period for this boat when they were, of course going to do their yearly bottom, running gear, prop speed and stuff. They did discover a few blisters, but have no fear. These are the type of owners that said, hey, don’t patch those up. They actually stripped down about three layers of fiberglass and put back three layers of fiberglass. So it’s safe to say this boat has literally almost a brand new home.

About 11 years ago, I was at Marina Mile Yachting Center, working on a boat, doing some grunt work at the shipyard, and this boat was actually in the haul out slip as a representative at the yard, if they could first allow me to get on this big boat, I had no business being on. And secondly, take a picture of me on it. Fast forward to 2021 when I first sold the boat to the current owners, we are now full circle listing it for sale once again.

Just using what we have in the salon as an example. I mean, brand new carpet, LED lighting throughout all the hardware knobs, fixtures replaced headliners, the drapes, the soft goods. The owners of this boat, they were with this boat every step of the way. On the starboard side we have an L-shaped sofa, which is custom, has a pullout mattress, can sleep another two guests. And just above here on the starboard side, we have a 40-inch pop down TV, used as a secondary TV. The primary one is center line here, just past the formal dining. Moving forward to the salon, we of course have a beautiful formal dining table, seats eight, and just port of the formal dining area, we have our pop up bar.

Moving forward have to highlight the importance and functionality of this main foyer. You have the wing door starboard side, access to the day head. Just forward we have the access to the VIP accommodation, also the owner’s deck accommodation distribution panel conveniently located to the steps up to the wheelhouse, and bending this corner, we will take a look at the galley.

One of the hundreds of line items on the extensive refit list is this pocket door, which was custom made, and that brings us into the galley, which we’ll cover next. Upon entering the galley, we have the second access into this space. Brand new fridge, coat top, dishwasher garbage disposal, virtually all new appliance. I absolutely love this feature right here. It gives you the feel of having an atrium, but the functionality of it, you can get creative. You have a bunch of guests on board. You can easily pass trays from the galley up through the wheelhouse to the sun deck.

Just forward of the galley, we find ourselves in the country kitchen. Earlier on the foredeck, we had touched on the defining feature that is beyond the glass, and that’s what this space is. I’m sure you’re already aware, but a country kitchen will always feature something similar to this U-shape settee, high low table with a leaf in the middle, and an observation dinette as well.

Just on my starboard side here, we do have that main deck foyer that I mentioned earlier that leads down to the VIP accommodation. Before we have a look at that, we’re going to go take a look at the owner’s accommodation below deck.

I’ve showed you everything on this boat. Now we get to talk about the lowered accommodations we find ourselves here in the landing area for those accommodations. Just behind me, we’ll go through the owner’s suite. We talked a little bit about the beam. Where does it matter the most though? Right here in the owner’s accommodation. Let’s talk about storage in here. I mean, it’s abundance cabinets, hanging lockers underneath the bed, you name it. And we have to talk about this ensuite. You have an entrance on both the starboard and port side. Even in here, you still get that sense of internal volume and how much this boat offers.

Moving forward through the landing area, we are now in the starboard guest cabin, which is also an ensuite mirror hanging locker perfect for the kids. Directly across the hall, on the port side, we have another cabin which used to have twin beds, but it was refit with this beautiful queen berth. Lots of natural light here. Of course, the headliners and wall coverings do compliment that. The ensuite on the port accommodation here definitely deserves some extra attention. Reason being you have a nanny door that gives you access to the VIP accommodation.

There are two ways to enter the VIP accommodation. I just showed you the cool way, but the primary access is here on the starboard side. When you step inside, you obviously notice this is way different than the other cabins reason being the lighter finishes and the natural finish is complimented with the amount of natural light that pours into this VIP accommodation. To avoid any confusion, I wanted to remind you that the mirror behind me was the access from the other ensuite nanny door. This is the ensuite for this VIP.

The last space we have to show you on today’s walkthrough is the wheelhouse, the most underrated, but yet the most functional brand new radar domes, all new MFDs, autopilot systems, AV systems throughout the boat, satellite Internet. Just standing in this wheelhouse you get the true feel of what this boat is all about. It’s to me, the soul of this boat how the exterior and the interior blends right in this space through these windows.

We have covered so much ground today on the walkthrough of this boat. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. I have a full extensive refit list. I’ll put it in the listing as well, but it’s best to talk about it over the phone. Feel free to call me. Thanks for watching.

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