123 Fitzroy Sailing Yacht [Boat Review + Video]

Take an extensive tour of the 123 Fitzroy Sailing Yacht [ANEMOI] in Newport, Rhode Island with Chris Davis.

This article is a transcription of the 123 Fitzroy 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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Chris Daves: I am Chris Daves and we’re here in Newport, Rhode Island aboard the Ed Dubois Design 123 foot Sloop ANEMOI. This boat was built in 2005 by Fitzroy Yachts. As you’re about to find out, she’s a hell of a boat.

Captain Laws Marriott: My name is Captain Laws Marriott. If you turn around and look from the bow of the boat to the stern, you can see the volume that the vessel has. Good for sailing, good for entertaining, and a very safe environment as you move through the boat when you’re sailing. My sailing experience stems back to around 30 years, sailed the wrong way around the world with a group of novice sailors for my sins. I took part in a race called the Global Challenge, which is taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things. So we had 17 novice sailors, never been on board a boat before, and we sailed against all the prevailing winds and currents around every great cape. Longest stint at sea was 48 days. It was uphill all the way.

Laura: My favorite thing about the boat is how it’s a classic style. She sails absolutely beautifully. My name is Laura. I’m from England, from the southeast of London, and I’m the chief stewardess on board Sailing ANEMOI. We have two twin cabins, which have Pullmans as well. So we can sleep three people in each twin cabin. There’s a double cabin and the master.

Captain Laws Marriott: We are in Newport, Rhode Island, a very famous sailing area. A lot of history with the America’s Cup. Challenging sailing, lots of headlands, lots of rocks. Lots of reefs. Lots of sandbars. It’s gonna be a flighty sail. We’ve got plenty of breeze, but you’ll see what the boat can do.

Chris Daves: So the first area we’re gonna talk about is this area on the stern here.

Captain Laws Marriott: So this area allows us to have a very relaxing after sail location with the chaise lounge type sun lounger, but also we have the ability to remove the large sofas and create a more open space. In the past, we’ve had a still band on the back of the boat, so we end up with a nice dancing area, but it also allows us to have a lovely, safe, comfortable area when the boat is sailing, that guests can sit in while the boat’s operational. After sailing, once the anchor is down, we can open up the swimming platform all the way down to the ocean.

Chris Daves: A lot of times on a large sailing boat like this, it’s a little more difficult to get down to the water, but with this setup, you have easy access to the water, whether you’re swimming or using the tender.

Captain Laws Marriott: We have two Lumar 122 inches, which are used for flying spinnaker, trimming sails, but also for our running rigging to support the mast.

Chris Daves: And I see these little buggy seats back here. These look like a lot of fun.

Captain Laws Marriott: We call them the peanut seat. And they’re the most populous place on the boat when we’re sailing. ANEMOI always hound controls, replicated on both sides of the boat, allowing us to stand either side when we’re sailing. Generally on the high side with a guest driving I can be on the lured side controlling the sails and making sure the navigation’s looked after. All our sail controls are done from this helm console, we have joysticks that allow us to operate captive winches, furling systems and hoisting sails, reducing size of sail and sail controls. We also have engine controls here, which include a bow and a stern thruster on this vessel making maneuverability very, very easy. The engine controls can be flipped from side to side, so if you need to look from the opposite side, it’s all possible. We also have our navigation up here on deck with a good sunscreen, meaning that we have good day and night visibility of the nav screens, but also we have four inputs into these screens. So we can look at our monitoring system, start and stop generators. Add the power takeoffs for the hydraulic PTOs. We have a lot of information very easily available to us.

We replaced the teak five years ago. All teak aspects of the boat were changed apart from the capping rail. Teak is maintained by the crew. We don’t use any acid products on the teak.  It’s all been hand scrubbed.

Chris Daves: We’re going forward to talk about the rigging here. I’m noticing how wide these side decks are. 

Captain Laws Marriott: It’s fairly normal for a boat vessel of this size. But the one thing you’ll notice, the height of the guardrails and the height of the capping here means it’s a very safe comfortable place to walk when we’re underway in sailing. So guests that can walk around the boat feeling very comfortable when we’re underway. We have a carbon mast made by southern spas. In 2021, we replaced all the rod rigging. We repainted the mast as well and the boom, all the spreader ends and caps were rebuilt. We have in the boom furling, which means it’s a huge amount of control over our sails. The sail can be stowed and hoisted very easily with the touch of a finger. Chris, we also have a sunbathing area here, it was additional to the boat. People can sit here, feel safe, they can see the sails hoisting, they can see the boat sailing. You’re at an elevated position and it’s a beautiful place to sit when we’re sailing.

Chris Daves: Just forward the mass, this is a six and a half meter tender. How do you get this on and off the boat?

Captain Laws Marriott: The six and a half meter ribeye, we lift using a pole that is attached to the front of the mast and the vessel’s halyards, it gets lifted in a vertical position, swings out over the side of the boat and then we lower it into the water. This can be done underway over anchor. We can be very fluid with our sailing into anchoring into tender in the water and being fully ready to go ashore. The sail plan we have on the boat is very versatile. We can sail in very light winds, anything from 10 knots of wind, we can get the boat rolling and sailing. The Reacher at the front of the boat, which is the largest head sail we carry, allows us to sail in light winds and also in stronger winds across the wind. The next sail is the blade. This is the workhorse of the boat. This is an upwind sail. We are able to reef this sail to two different sizes. The next we have the stay sail. This can be put in in conjunction with the Reacher to have three sails up when you’re sailing, which is a very nice combination across the wind, but also it’s the strong wind sail. So as the wind gets stronger, we reduce the size of the main sail and we can start using the stay sail. All of these sail are on hydraulic reckman fulers all controllable from the back of the boat so we don’t have to have people up here. Everything can be done away in the safe position of the back of the boat. We have two anchors, two CQRs. The reason they’re flip up anchors is that when we’re sailing, we can get rid of the anchor system and stow it below decks. So the decks are nice and clean and fluid for sailing. It gives a much better line to the boat, but also you don’t have things in the way that sails can get caught on. In these scenarios, Caribbean style will just use the one anchor.

The part of the job as captain is to train your crew and having a crew that are able to take over from you is very important. Max, our first officer on board, French National, has a very good sailing background and engineering background that he may want to run his own boat at some point. Having a trained crew is very, very important. Yachting has the ability to throw many different problems at you. My philosophy is there is never a problem. There’s only a solution. And the way to do that is to surround yourself with the right crew, with the right people to make that happen. And we are very lucky to have some very talented crew on board ANEMOI.

Chris Daves: Laz, as we’re passing the helm station here, we’re coming into the cockpit area, which is typical of the Ed Dubois design. You have this beautiful covered space with eyes and glass windows, which you can remove. But on a day like today when it’s cranking 20 knots out there, it’s pretty nice to sit out here.

Captain Laws Marriott: Having the ability to close off. Certainly in the Caribbean where you get the rain schools coming through. We’ve got the coffee table set up here, the main dining table set up here. And these can all be converted at any time. So we can actually seat eight people very comfortably for dinner and lunch around two tables.

Chris Daves: Connecting the exterior and the interior is this large door, which brings us down into the upper salon.

Laura: This is such a fantastic entertainment area. It’s light, it’s spacious. You’ve got this absolutely beautiful panoramic view here, which you can watch the world go by outside while you’re relaxing on the sofas. Perhaps you’re reading here with a coffee in the morning. Here we’ve got our bar area, which is just fantastic for sitting and having a little sip of something cold in the evening. A really lovely communal area, where you can chat with the crew and enjoy relaxing on the sofas here as well. We’ve got the upper salon here and the lower salon downstairs. And downstairs is a little bit more private. There’s a dining area downstairs. There’s a TV, which is great for movie nights. It’s also, as I say, it’s a little bit more private. So you can take conference calls forward of the lower salon is the crew area and the galley, which we’ll come back to a little bit later. And down here is the passageway into all of the cabins. As far as the layout of the guest state rooms, we have two twin cabins, which have Pullman’s as well. So we can sleep three people in each twin cabin. There’s a double cabin and the master en suite bathrooms. There is also a day ahead as well for guests that are just visiting for the day. Each cabin is individually controlled by the guests that are staying in the cabin. When they come on board, they’re shown how to use the Sona systems for the music. And we also have thousands of movies downloaded, ready to watch in the comfort of your own cabin. Here you have a TV system and sound system here as well. You can come down and relax and have some quiet time on your own, away from everybody upstairs, if you wish. And you are fully in control of everything in the cabin.

Chris Daves: Hands down, the best place to be on a boat like this underway is low and aft and that’s exactly where we find this master. Over here, we’ve got lots of closet space. A nice desk if you want to knock out some emails. A beautiful couch area, king size bed with drawers on either side and a beautiful master bathroom. The final area that we’re gonna look at today is the galley crew area. How do you like having this area combined with the crew mess?

Laura: Yeah, it works really well because you’ve got the chef in here, the galley, everything is stowed in here for their purposes. Gimbled oven, refrigeration, the freezer systems are all here. Then you’ve got the stew service area, which is over here.  Laundry, but also with all the counter space. There’s lots of room for us to kind of help preparation and for everything to go up, ready for meals to be served as well.

Chris Daves: Just after the galley, behind this door is the engine room. This is where we’ll find a single Caterpillar, 34 06E main engine and twin 55 KW Northern Lights generators.

Laura: The crew area is over here. That means that there’s just a flow of communication all of the time because we’re all in the same area at the same time. We all know what’s going on and that’s how the magic happens. We have three crew cabins on board, three bunks. There’s six crew on board and that’s at the forward there.

Captain Laws Marriott: We are an ocean going vessel. Our sail plan allows us to sail to many different locations. The setup of the boat allows us to sail in warm and cold conditions. We can sail pretty much anywhere.

Chris Daves: On behalf of Dennison yachting, I’d like to thank Captain Laws, Laura, and the full crew for doing a terrific job today. If you have any questions about this magnificent sloop, please give me a call.

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