Fleming 85 | Review and Owner Profile
Experiences Shared
For Tim Armand and his wife Lisa, building their dream yacht—a Fleming 85—is all about creating memories with family and friends.
Social media is a strange beast. Political, let’s call them debates, millions of companies trying to sell you everything from underwear to time shares, blurry screenshots from your second cousin, it’s enough to make you throw your iPhone into the harbor and go cruising; who needs it? But every once in a rare while, it does what its so-called mission is, and connects people.
That’s where I first met serial boat-owner Tim Armand, in the comment section of a Fleming 85 post on the Power & Motoryacht Facebook page. It was clear almost immediately that Tim was passionate about two things: 1) His new Fleming 85 Enclosed Bridge, the first Fleming in the world with that bridge type at the time and 2) sharing his experience with others. I was invited to join him, his wife Lisa and a pair of cruising friends as they passed through my home waters of Long Island Sound on their way south from their eight-week cruise through New England.(Within their first year with their 85 they’ve put 6,000 nautical miles under its keel.)
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Meeting in Greenport, New York, we began swapping boat stories like old friends right out of the gate.
“My very first boat that needed to be registered was a 1967 Shell Lake, the classic little red runabout with the plastic windshield and a 35 Johnson,” Tim said as we slowly cruised towards the open water of the Sound. Tim added that he owned a number of sailboats before making his return to power. “I had a 36 Carver, 44 Sea Ray, 48 Sea Ray motor yacht, 57 McKinna, 65 Outer Reef, 75 Viking Motor Yacht, and then this [Fleming 85].
Cruising along at 10 knots from the comfort of his beloved enclosed bridge, he called the 85–named St. Somewhere–his “final boat” before quickly correcting himself and saying instead, it was his ultimate boat. “Never say final,” he joked.
The Armands’ path towards becoming the first 85 owners who were not previous Fleming owners began with an infatuation with the builder’s famed 55. “It was my dream boat from the time I ever first laid eyes on it,” Tim said. “I just never could quite connect on the right timing of the 55. But then as we were looking for our ultimate boat, we really wanted a country kitchen and an enclosed bridge. We came very close to pulling the trigger on another traditional type of yacht with those elements. Then on December 10th, 2020, I got the newsletter email from Power & Motoryacht that Fleming was coming out with an 85 that they were going to offer with an enclosed bridge option, which would in turn, also have a country kitchen. And I called my friends at Burr Yacht Sales and said, ‘Where have you been hiding this thing?’ I signed a deal on it within 24 hours. I wanted to get our name on the next available hull number, which was number three.”
Building the boat was an experience that Tim found both fun and rewarding. “I can’t speak highly enough of Fleming and the way they work so collaboratively with their clients and how the answer to every request is almost always ‘yes,’” he explained. Because of the pandemic and strict quarantine regulations, Tim and Lisa weren’t able to make the trip to Taiwan to see St. Somewhere in-build but still, they felt a strong connection with their boat, even incorporating a number of design changes to fit their cruising style. “They give you a lot of choices to make but they also allowed for some reasonably significant changes as well, like that day head in the pilot house,” he said. “I also asked to add a climate break at the top of the stairs to the bridge so when we run with the bridge opened, we don’t spoil [suck up] all the air conditioning from down below. We also turned our master shower into more like a bathtub for a grandbaby.”
Besides regular calls, emails and meetings, Fleming kept Tim apprised of the build progress by sending copious imagery of the entire process, from the layup and preliminary woodwork all the way through the sea trials. “I probably have 8,000 pictures of the build,” says Tim. “It’s an amazing process to see.”
Up and down the coast, Tim and Lisa have been stopped by boaters of all levels, from day boaters to serious Fleming aficionados, wanting to see and learn more about St. Somewhere. No judgment here, even in a yacht hotbed like Greenport, her classic lines and styling made her a standout from the modern yachts with massive panes of glass that are so common today. The one comment the couple had been met with routinely was: “Fleming doesn’t build an enclosed bridge.” To which Tim would simply laugh and reply, “Well, they do now.”
As is often the case during a New England summer, we experienced a medley of conditions during our short jaunt down the coast. There were times when it was damp and raining when we had the bridge closed up tight; the air-conditioned quiet was perfect. And then on a dime, the weather changed to bright and crisp, allowing us to open the side—aft doors drawing in fresh air and the sound of water rushing down the hull. I was quickly sold on the dichotomy and versatility of the enclosed bridge.
“I know sometimes the enclosed bridge can be seen as a little unconventional for Fleming, which it is,” said Tim. “And I understand that it doesn’t look exactly the same as all the other Flemings, but the adaptability that we have and the flexibility that we have and getting the country kitchen that my wife loves is perfect for us. It’s been great; it’s been everything we’d hope for.”
Then there’s the 85’ss performance. I’d previously read that the 1,800-hp MAN V12-powered 85 (1,550s are standard) possesses not only ocean-crossing range and efficiency but a 27-knot top end—a best-of-both-worlds scenario for Tim and Lisa. Tim confirmed that top speed but said he preferred to cruise in the 10- to 12-knot range. I wanted to blurt out: “Why?!” but decided not to be a rude guest.
“The speed at 20 knots is only a 65-percent engine load,” Tim said. “For us, I don’t want to say that’s purring along but that’s an all-day speed. I don’t really focus on wide-open throttle speed; you’re never going to run it that way. But the real all-day legit cruising speed is in the low twenties for sure. So, we’re doing 10 knots right now and burning 14 gallons an hour. With nearly 3,200 gallons of fuel [3,170 to be exact] that’s a range of over 2,200 miles. At eight knots we’re burning eight gallons an hour and at idle speed, six and a half knots, it burns four gallons an hour. I don’t think anyone would cross an ocean at idle speed. It’d be a long trip across the Atlantic, but you could. We only fuel up a few times a year.”
Being avid anchorers, Tim and Liz also appreciate St. Somewhere’s versatility via a standard bank of seven lithium-ion batteries in a dedicated, air-conditioned machinery space forward of the engine room and accessed through the sole of the accommodations level. The impeccably organized space—an engineer’s dream room—is also equipped with four stacked 4-kilowatt inverters, offering 16 kilowatts of inverter power for silent living off the grid.
Tim and Lisa are born entertainers. As evidenced by my over-the-transom invitation to join them, they seem to relish sharing their good fortune and their boat with others. One of their first big cruises aboard the 85 was across to the Bahamas. Thanks to the airport in Nassau, the couple had as many as 19 different guests aboard at different points of their six-week cruise—and that doesn’t include all the boating friends that they knew previously or met along the way.
Describing her perfect day on the water Lisa said: “We’ll have friends, family, buddy boaters all together. We will either get together in the evening on their boat or ours and have cocktail hour and dinner. One of my favorite pictures is of when we had five or six dinghies just hanging off the back of the boat from people visiting.”
When I replied that it sort of reminds me of a grownup version of being a kid and there are a bunch of bikes lying in the front yard, Lisa nodded. “It’s like this is the ultimate adult version,” she said. “And because of the configuration of this boat with the dining room and the galley, we can seat 30 people for dinner without busting out a folding chair. Our basic philosophy is that nothing is worth having if you can’t share it. We always have friends, family, relatives, acquaintances on the boat with us—I don’t say all the time, but a lot. And the good news is we can run the boat-just the two of us.”
Seeing the 85 in person is the only way you can gain an appreciation for how big, beamy and beefy she really is. With a 20-foot air draft, 20-foot, 6-inch beam and 183,000-pound displacement, she looks every inch an ocean-crossing bruiser. So, hearing that in most marinas the couple handled the docking themselves and saved the two crew (or captain) cabins for stowage is simply impressive.
“The boat is totally operable by a couple for sure,” says Tim. “This is, by a very wide margin, the easiest boat to operate I’ve ever owned because of the joysticks and the thrusters and all that good stuff. The position-hold ability is impressive as is the ability to maneuver with the joystick and shifters, because the propellers can slip. If you put the boat in gear with your propellers doing 250 rpm right off the bat, you jerk forward. But if you just ease that to as low as 8 rpm [yes, really!] you get incredible control. And then also because it’s got a full keel, it doesn’t overturn. If you tell it to turn, it turns; if you tell it to stop turning, it stops turning. And I’ve put this boat in and out of some really tight spots just because of the systems that make it that way.”
Aiding the docking process is the fact that the 85 comes standard with no less than six total stations to control the boat from—the main helm and five wing stations.
With our destination coming into view on the horizon, I asked Tim not only what the 85 has brought to his life, but boating in general. He thought for a moment then said, “I think having raised my kids on a boat and then having been raised as a kid on a boat, I think boating is very family oriented. It’s a great way to get away from it all and connect with each other. I think it’s made my family relationships tighter, in all directions between us and our kids, our kids with each other and then with our friends. I think it’s a socially-binding activity that brings people together in a lovely environment. What’s not to love?”
Pulling into Port Jefferson’s harbor on Long Island’s North Shore would provide an opportunity to see Tim and Lisa’s docking claims put to the test. With an assist from their friend Ken, with whom they’ve cruised extensively, they donned their headsets, performed a quick “radio check” and then went about the business of inflating fenders and prepping lines with a smooth calmness more akin to docking a dinghy than an 85-footer. With measured queues from the crew through the headsets, Tim placed St. Somewhere exactly where he wanted her to be. I was impressed with the boat.
Walking out of the salon and into the cockpit, Lisa pointed to a smartly dressed young woman coming down the dock with a small suitcase. A few seconds passed before she exclaimed, “Oh my god!” and then ran down to meet her daughter, whom Tim had flown in as a birthday surprise for Lisa. I had only known Lisa for a few hours yet couldn’t help but smile at the surprise reunion. I was also impressed with Tim.
And with that, Tim proved what we had spent hours chatting about: that his 85 was a ship of the highest quality—more than living up to the hype and anticipation around the model. And more importantly, he made good on his belief that boating is best shared with family.
Fleming 85 Specifications:
LOA: 85’2”
Beam: 21’2”
Draft: 5’5”
Displ.: 183,050 lb.
Fuel: 3,170 gal.
Water: 500 gal.
Cruise speed: 20 knots
Top speed: 27 knots
Power: 2/1,550-hp MAN V12
This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
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Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/cruisers/fleming-85-review-and-owner-profile
