The Torpedo 42: My Day Aboard a J Craft Yacht

The most beautiful yachts in the world occupy slips at Sag Harbor’s Long Wharf. Some are 200 feet in length with a uniformed crew, but a smaller one, a 42-foot-long sleek runabout, caught my eye last Tuesday. Called the Torpedo 42, its designed and built by J Craft, a Swedish company. And the first of these ever made — this was in 2003 — was turned over to the buyer, the King of Sweden, with great ceremony at a boat slip on the Riviera at San Tropez all those years ago.

Since then, the J Craft company, building variations of this stunning craft at a Swedish boatworks on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, 21 of these ships have been sold to well-to-do buyers’ specifications that include details of mahogany, fabrics, leather and steel from designers such as Ralph Lauren, Loro Piana, Hermes, Alcantara and Rolls-Royce. Even the ship’s wheel is special. It’s built to oversized specifications created by the makers of the 1965 Ferrari 250 GTO.

Tradesmen and artisans work over 10,000 man hours to build each Torpedo to the individual preferences of buyers. The wait to completion is 10 months. And, if you want, you can get a matching special edition Rolls-Royce convertible automobile to go with it — there’s a partnership between J Craft and Rolls-Royce.

Aleksandar Milakovic, a partner in the firm that builds the Torpedo yachts, took this writer and some of my friends out in this particular Torpedo 42 at Long Wharf for a two-hour cruise. We sailed over to Crescent Beach in Shelter Island to stop at the Pridwin resort, and then motored back to Long Wharf.

“You hardly hear the engines,” he told me as we motored along at 20 knots. “That is because in our unique system water rushes through intakes in the bow to be pushed out again by the twin 600 horsepower engines below the lower deck toward the rear.

We’re insulated from it. The sound you hear is the water. And using our system keeps the bow down even at high speed in rough seas. And we heel over with levelers below to make these sensational and safe turns at this speed.”

With that, he ordered his mate at the wheel to perform such a thing. It was a thrill everyone on board enjoyed.

The Torpedo 42 is designed to look like one of the special runabouts built back in the 1950s and 1960s during the era of La Dolce Vita. Sophia Lauren would be right at home aboard the Torpedo. But the ship also has the most modern nautical technology available. It’s just not immediately visible.

For example, no sonar navigation screen is visible among the beautiful gauges in the wheelhouse. But with the press of a button, the screen rises up above the dashboard.

Much else comes and goes at the push of a button. A forward cabin below serves as a low table living room lounge. But the table can disappear into the floor to be converted to a king-sized master bedroom, or, conversely, rises up to become a dining room table.

As we motored back to dock at Long Wharf, many visitors strolling on the wharf marveled at this stunning craft.

Interested? Your runabout, which can hurry along at 44 knots, will cost between $1.8 million and $2.2 million depending upon your extras. For more info, contact Aleksandar Milakovic at +44 779-555-7481.