BY TOM FEXAS
Back in 1966 a young Marine Engineer and aspiring yacht designer opened his office desperately trying to break to the yacht design field - a dream of his since he was four years old. Living in Mystic, Connecticut, he had a well paying full time job designing nuclear submarines at Electric Boat Company in Groton, and had build up a decent part time business doing marine surveys and boat modifications. As he would crawl through numerous boats during surveys, he invariably would remark to himself "I can damn well do better than this". And so, in 1973 with no custom yacht prospects in the horizon, the young man decided to sit down and design his ideal boat without any consideration for the wants or needs of the marine market place. That young man was I.
Ever since I was a little tot, I have always had this strange, almost obsessive interest in pre World War II commuter boats and World War II PT boats - two different kind of boats on the surface - but not really. Both were fast and had a very special "aura" about them that I recognized even as a child. Elco built the majority of the famous PT boats used in World War II and, after the war, continued building high quality recreational "mini PT boats" from left over military specification material. The boats had that mean, lean, PT look with an advanced monohedron bottom and V drive engines sequestered in the stern. Sadly, Elco closed shop in 1949. Not surprisingly, in the '60s and '70s I owned a 1948 Elco 35 footer followed by a 1946 40 footer.
Rewind to 1956. I was a teenager and, through a family friend, I was offered a job assisting the captain of a 62 foot Consolidated high speed commuter boat named the "Go-Go" out of Port Jeff. Go-Go with her distinctive grey hull was rather famous on Long Island sound. She was maintained by the fanatical captain Ferimaih Sluker who had 40 years experience aboard commuter boats. He maintained the boat exactly as she was built in 1929. Captain Sluker would take great delight blowing away newer, modern "fast boats" during impromptu races on Long Island Sound despite (or, perhaps because of) Go-Go's original Speedway engines with pistons as big as buckets. It was a chance of a lifetime to study the inner workings of a real, unmolested commuter boat. I learned well, took notes and made sketches.
It is, therefore, the experience aboard "Go-Go", extensive PT boat research and the ownership of two Elco "mini PT boats" that led to the design of the prototype Midnight Lace Express Cruiser. (People always ask about the name. "Midnight Lace" was the name of an Alfred Hitchcock movie from the '60's. As a teen, when I first heard "Midnight Lace" I thought it would be a great name for a very special boat and locked it away in my memory bank). Borrowing design elements from commuters, PTs and Elcos with a good dose of new thinking, personal preference and a strong belief that it was the right thing to do, the first Lace drawn as a 52 footer was born. Like the skinny commuter boats, the beam was held to a minimum at 13 feet. She had an "S" shaped sheerline similar to the World War II PT boats and post war Elcos. She had a clipper bow and a long, low raked back superstructure reminiscent of commuters. The engines were in the stern under the cockpit and she incorporated two staterooms and a mini office as well as a large saloon. After months of fiddling, the preliminary design was completed. I framed the profile and hung it on a wall in my office - a dream that I believed would probably go nowhere but was fun to do nevertheless.
Back in 1975, after the fuel restrictions, economical long-range cruisers (most people call them "trawlers") became very popular. Low and behold, I got a request from Singapore for a 50 foot "trawler" design. I jumped at the opportunity designing the boat for nearly nothing just to have a real live, breathing boat on my portfolio. When the vessel was finished, I ran some ads and small magazine articles about the boat appeared which resulted in a call from a fine gentleman named Scott Meissner from Willoughby, Ohio. Scott wanted to come up and meet me to talk about designing a line of "trawlers" for him. When he arrived, we started talking "trawler" but his eyes kept drifting up to the wall where my 52' Midnight Lace hung. He asked about it and I gave him the whole story. Fascinated with the design which promised high speed with "trawler" efficiency, Scott eventually decided to go ahead with the construction of a Midnight Lace prototype, however, he felt 52 feet was too big a leap so we scaled the concept down to 44 feet. We put together a bid package and submitted them to boat yards around the country. The low bidder came from a yard in Stuart, Florida named Matllack Yacht Builders (now called Stuart Yacht Builders). As I recall, the price was around $100,000. I visited the yard and they eventually were selected to build the boat. The final design was started but there was a problem. The yard had recently been taken over by a knowledgeable young man named Greg Burdick. During the transition, the boatbuilding expertise at the boatyard had departed. And so, I quit my well paying job at Electric Boat Company, put my house on the market and moved to Stuart, Florida in November 1977 to go on Stuart Yacht Builder's payroll (at much reduced rate). The 44' Lace was started in November 1977 and needed to be ready for the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in October 1978. We started with a decent shop but no boat building personnel - the whole thing had to be put together from "scratch". The boat needed to be completed in about ten months.
And the prototype was finished in 10 months and we did make the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show thanks to a superhuman effort by Burdick and his boys. The boat performed as promised and really did provide high speed with "trawler" economy. She did over 26 knots and attained about 2 NMPG at 20 knots powered by a pair of 210 HP engines. Reaction to the boat was overwhelming. Don Canavan and Dave Jackson, of Rex Yachts Sales, saw the boat at the show. At the time, Rex represented Cheoy Lee and, before I knew I was happening, the boat was put into production in Hong Kong. Shortly thereafter, we started construction of the 52 foot Midnight Lace based on my original drawing done in 1973. All told, about 45 production Midnight Laces were sold and are still in use around the world. In the '80's, we also designed a production Midnight Lace 40 footer, a custom Midnight Lace 65 footer and a custom Midnight Lace 36 footer. Sadly, in the late 80's, production of the Midnight Laces was superceded by bigger, more profitable boats. In retrospect, we got out of the classic boat business too soon. In the years after the Midnight Lace production was halted, a great market sprang up for the original production Midnight Laces with the boats, viewed as unique collector's items sought out and lovingly maintained by their owners. Midnight Lace rendezvous were organized in South Florida and the Chesapeake Bay. In 2000, it was time to get back to my original love and do a new line of Midnight Laces. The opportunity came when a boat builder friend of mine - Jack Chen from Taiwan, who we have worked with for over 20 years - suggested we do a joint venture on a new boat. When asked me what type of boat would be most suitable I immediately suggested a new, production 52 foot Midnight Lace. The first new boat was delivered in 2003. Additionally, a new version of the classic 44' Midnight Lace is in the works as is a 52 foot double cabin flying bridge Midnight Lace (see illustration).
The design of the new boats departs somewhat from the original Midnight Laces. We realized that people were willing to sacrifice some of the extremely efficient performance of the narrow boats for more interior space and so the boats were widened. The 52 footer's beam was increased by three and one half feet and the 44 footer was stretched to 45' with the beam increased by 4 feet. Advanced bottom development and new, light weight materials allow us to retain some of the economical aspects of the original designs with the newer designs although the newer boats will never be as efficient as the early boats. Most of the unique styling ques have been carried over: the S shaped sheer with the clipper bow, the laid back, low superstructure, the abundant stainless steel trim, the black hulls, the varnished teak, the forward cockpit and the "throne" flyingbridge fitted well aft all remain. It is all there in a bigger, better, modernized package. Spurred on by two fuel crisis, the original boats were designed with fanatical attention to speed and efficiency. The quest for speed with small power was an academic exercise and we proved our point, however, in the present day world, greatly increased interior room and much higher speeds seem a good trade off for somewhat lesser fuel economy. The new boats are much faster - albiet with more power. Maximum power for the new 52 is a pair of 700 HP engines. Top speed is about 31 knots (the original 52 footer was powered by a pair of anemic 240 HP diesels for a top speed of 23 knots). However, the siren song of the long, skinny boats will not die and we anticipate building custom Midnight Laces for individuals who don't need the extra space and appreciate the extreme efficiency and spirited performance of the original boats.
The new 52 is unusual in many aspects. The aft cockpit and the saloon forward are on one level which can be completely opened to one another via four bifold doors creating a spectacular aft lounge area nearly twenty feet long. The aft cockpit incorporates a classic stern settee. Engines are sequestered aft below the cockpit in a watertight compartment easily accessible via flush hatches avoiding having to disrupt the saloon. Noise and odor are outside of the interior accommodations. A separate machinery room is fitted forward of the engine spaces. The saloon is fitted with opposing sofas, a desk and a lower control station. Forward are the galley (which is open to the saloon), a dinette and two staterooms and two heads. The forward cockpit is accessible from inside with a portable ladder mounted to the bulkhead. Two optional bridge configurations are available: what we call a "command bridge" which is a two person control station located aft as on the original boats and a full flyingbridge above the saloon. The boat is constructed of the finest high tech materials. Massively strong but light, the hull incorporates four deep stringers and seven structural bulkheads. No structural wood is used in the hull or superstructure. The whole boat, except for the inboard areas of the bottom, utilizes Core-Cell foamcore sandwich construction. High quality, old world interior joinerwork was inspired by vintage custom yacht interiors.
While there are many "classic cruisers" available on the market today, few have the heritage of the Midnight Lace. Although the first Midnight Lace was completed in 1978, the Lace heritage goes back much further than that - back to the pre-world war II commuter boats and World War II PT boats creating a distinctive vessel that will never be mistaken for anything else. Rex yacht Sales of Fort Lauderdale is the East Coast US distributor and Mikelson yachts of San Diego is the West Coast distributor.