VESSEL REVIEW | Boardwalk – 117m custom yacht built for family retreats
German shipbuilder Lürssen handed over the 117-metre (384-foot) motor yacht Boardwalk on May 13, 2026. Built for family use, the yacht has a sliding structural plate that closes over the stairwell between her main deck aft and beach club.
An American owner commissioned Boardwalk in 2022. She was launched in December 2025 and headed into the North Sea for trials in March of this year.
Lürssen said the owner remained involved in decisions about the yacht’s structure and use of space throughout the design process.
The Cayman Islands-registered Boardwalk measures 18.55 metres (60.86 feet) in beam and has a gross tonnage of 5,602. Her hull is steel while aluminium was used for her superstructure. Lürssen was also responsible for the naval architecture.
A yacht lising gave her a 4.5-metre (15-foot) draught, while a propulsion listing indicated two MAN engines.
Sliding structural plate providing additional deck area
Frank Woll designed the exterior and worked with the late Amy Halffman, Suzanne Glover and Teresa Francis on the interior spaces. Woll said he drew on, “the fluid and streamlined geometry of the sea’s most agile marine life, sculpted by water itself,” for the yacht’s classical profile and sculpted bulwarks.
The sliding plate is fitted over an exterior stairwell leading from the main deck aft to the beach club. Lürssen said the closed section forms a hermetic seal and has class approval. It completes the deck surface above the stairs, allowing that area to be used without leaving a permanent opening in the aft deck. When the plate slides open, the upper steps deploy automatically.
Lürssen traced the concept to a development on Hadar, its 136-metre yacht built as Flying Fox in 2019. According to the yard, Boardwalk is the first of its yachts to use a sliding structural plate to uncover a stairwell (the earlier installation did not use this arrangement).
A large swimming pool and adjoining whirlpool are installed level with the deck in the same aft deck area. The glass doors to the main salon can open fully, connecting the indoor space with the pool deck.
The closure serves a different purpose from the salon doors. Those doors open the accommodation to the aft deck, while the sealed plate forms part of an exterior deck above a passage to the lower level. Its class approval applies to that closed arrangement, Lürssen said.
Maximising void space for cables and piping, thus allowing for wider passages
Lürssen made the guest corridors as wide as the structure would allow. To retain that width, the builder concentrated piping, cabling and other services in insulated voids behind wall finishes and overheads. The arrangement placed technical runs in confined spaces around the accommodation rather than taking more width from the passages.
A catwalk with glass walls traverses the machinery space. Lürssen described the walkway as an engineering gallery: the glazed sides keep the engine room in view along the route through the space. It is an unusual point of access to a part of the yacht normally arranged primarily around machinery and its operation.
Exterior lighting forms another extensive technical installation. Lürssen put the number of light points at roughly 3,000, about one-third more than the yard considers conventional for a yacht of this size. Woll said the lighting was intended to show the shape of the yacht after dark, when the profile and bulwarks would otherwise be less visible.
The volume available for these arrangements is considerable, but the corridor layout also shows how much planning lies behind the published 5,602GT figure. Widening a passage leaves less room immediately beside it for services; on Boardwalk, the builder placed those runs in the insulated wall and overhead voids.
Lürssen’s 2021 yacht Ahpo offered a close comparison in length. She measures 115.1 metres (377.6 feet) with an 18.21-metre (59.74-foot) beam and a gross tonnage of 5,257. Boardwalk is 1.9 metres (6.2 feet) longer and 0.34 metre (1.12 feet) wider, with 345 more recorded gross tonnage. Both yachts have steel hulls and aluminium superstructures, though their published accounts emphasise different equipment.
Lürssen also indicated generator heat recovery for pool heating and dynamic positioning among Ahpo’s systems. On Boardwalk, the builder’s account centred on the sealed deck section and the concentration of services behind the guest area finishes.
The comparison puts the new yacht’s volume in context without treating length alone as a measure of the space available on board.
Multiple vehicle and tender options
At delivery, Boardwalk had aboard three Hodgdon tenders, each custom-built and 12 metres (39 feet) long, as well as an amphibious tender, quad bikes and other land vehicles. A substantial tender garage accommodates the craft and equipment. The three Hodgdon boats alone represent a sizeable storage requirement within the yacht’s hull.
Two helipads provide another means of reaching the yacht. One certified pad is forward on the guest deck.
Together with the tender complement, the aviation provision gives Boardwalk separate facilities for transfers by air and by water.
The yacht has 11 guest staterooms. A forward VIP suite includes a private outdoor lounge overlooking the bow, while glass doors provide the other suites with direct access to terraces along the wide side decks.
A cinema, a putting green, a spa, and a gym are also among the spaces available to guests.
