From her seakeeping and transatlantic range to her well-planned storage, Pendennis explorer yacht Fox was built to roam, shares Captain Craig Dalgleish.
It was a thirst for adventure that attracted the captain of the 114-foot Pendennis explorer yacht Fox to this job. “A friend who set up his own agency reached out and said, ‘I don’t know if you’re available, but I’ve got this really awesome opportunity on an explorer yacht,’” says Fox’s Captain Craig Dalgleish. “He didn’t need to tell me anything further — I heard ‘explorer’ and said ‘I’m in!’”
Captain Craig shares his story during Fox’s debut at the Cannes Yachting Festival in 2024 as we sit in the shade of the cockpit, looking out over her huge open aft deck. The 1,110-square-foot main deck aft is certainly one of the yacht’s standout features. Fox can stow and launch a variety of tenders and toys, aided by two massive 2.5-ton Hydromar telescopic deck cranes. She carries an 18-foot Zodiac Pro Rib, but has enough space to have two 25-foot tenders — or a submersible, science labs, amphibious vehicle, sailing dinghy or even an Icon A5 sport aircraft, if her owner so desires.
“This is, in my opinion, what the industry should actually be like — all about the toys, the actual experiences you can have on board, not being inside watching television, but actually exploring and going wherever you want without any limitations,” Craig says. “The aft deck can fit all the tenders and toys. She’s ready for anything, whether you want to go diving or fishing, or just want to listen to music with your friends tanning on the aft deck.”
During the boat show, the open aft deck is set up for the latter, inviting relaxation with sunloungers spread about, but ready to morph into cocktail party mode. The expanse of flexible deck space makes Fox a natural born entertainer. And, to get the party started, there’s a custom-made DJ set-up on the upper aft deck above. “Standard fender hooks were utilized to make a frame to hold the DJ deck on the handrails,” Craig explains.
Hailing from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Craig was introduced to boating at a young age. His father was a four-time Hobie Cat world champion. Craig’s dad and his friends all had boats, so the kids in the group were always out on the water. “Whenever we weren’t at school, we were on a boat,” he says. “They’re some of the greatest memories I have.”
Craig attended a sporting school in Port Elizabeth and had planned to play rugby after school, but in the meantime he took on a cadetship program through Meridian Adventure. “It’s a two-year program where you work for free and they pay for you to do all your training and get all your yachting qualification tickets up to Master 500GT,” he says. During this time, cadets might work on anything from an 80-foot catamaran to a 200-foot yacht, running from France to Turkey to Singapore and beyond.
“It’s good to work on smaller boats and understand the breadth of the industry,” Craig says. “We weren’t just training in the bridge — we did interior, galley, engineering, sailing, navigation… the range in our education was quite vigorous. I was training with a group of six, and four out of the six are captains now.” It’s safe to say this training inspired his taste for adventure and propelled his career in yachting. He went on to crew on yachts, including 252-foot Samar and 172-foot DB9, a popular charter yacht. Prior to joining Fox, he captained a 98-foot Sunseeker.
I can’t help but notice Craig is relatively young for a captain — only 26 years old at the time of our meeting. Yet he’s already traveled further than some senior captains. “Before I was 24, I had seen over 30 countries,” he says. He credits his success as a captain with mentors he had when working on larger yachts over the years.
It’s a windy day in Cannes, but unlike the other boats nearby that are swaying in the strong breeze, the steel-hulled Fox sits calmly in her slip. Craig notes her new CNC stabilizers, and the fact that she’s a strong, heavy boat — one of his favorite things about Fox. “I love her explorer nature, I love that she’s heavy but short,” he says. “She’s 300 tonnes, you don’t get anywhere near that. If you can find me another 35-meter 300-tonne boat, I’d be very impressed.”
From her excellent seakeeping to her ample aft deck and transatlantic range, Fox is built to roam. This can be seen inside as well, with well-planned storage, including a massive linen store and drinks storage closets on the lower deck.
“I have to give credit to Pendennis; they really have utilized every inch of this boat,” Craig says. The yacht was built at the British yard, starting with a bare-bones hull from Tansu, and designed inside and out by architecture firm Q London.
Fox’s masculine, sturdy exterior is matched by an inviting modern beach house style interior. The interior is as functional as it is good looking. Comfort and low maintenance was part of the owner’s brief, and stain-, fade- and mildew-resistant outdoor fabrics from Perennials were used inside.
The engine room is notably spacious for a yacht this size, another of Fox’s assets, according to the captain. “A lot of boats don’t account for access to maintenance and how important it is for crew,” he says. “Every single piece of machinery on this boat, you can touch while standing upright, maybe other than the stabilizers, which are on the floor.”
Taking maintenance into account is just one of the reasons that Craig enjoys working for Fox’s owner. “The owner really takes pride in looking after the crew — that is worth more than anything in the entire industry,” he says. “I’ve found the owner I want to work with for the long haul; he’s professional, ambitious, extremely intelligent, good fun to be around and has every intention of looking after everyone.”
After Cannes, Fox crossed the Atlantic, bound for the Caribbean and Florida. The yacht is currently for sale with Burgess, but the owner has been making good use of her until she sells, while he cooks up a larger superyacht project. When the time comes.