Johnny Carson’s Yacht Serengeti Is in New Book

Whether or not you think about it serendipity or destiny, Howard Smith would by no means have met the late Johnny Carson if he hadn’t retired in his 40s and moved to Malibu, California. In actual fact, the TV host and comic simply so occurred to be a neighbor. They subsequently turned fairly shut pals, too. In a brand new guide, Howard shares that friendship with the world, together with instances spent aboard Carson’s yacht Serengeti.

The guide, My Pal Johnny: The Final 20 Years of a Lovely Life with Johnny Carson and Buddies, offers perception into the famously non-public celeb. For example, Carson was a automobile fanatic, with a prized basic automobile in his storage. In response to Howard, although, “greater than any automobile, John liked his boat.” He provides, “Nicely, boat is a unfastened time period. It was 130 toes lengthy with a beam of 26 toes.”

Carson’s yacht Serengeti—which nonetheless cruises, although in numerous house owners’ arms—launched from Westport Yachts in 2002. She’s a part of the profitable Westport 130 sequence (sistership under), with 5 staterooms, a scorching tub, and a 20-knot prime finish. Overeall, the sequence bears the facilities that preserve quite a few house owners within the American yard’s fold. These facilities and the general house appealed to Carson. In a printed excerpt from the guide, Smith writes, “John spent lots of time on the Serengeti, utilizing it nearly as a trip dwelling.” He cruised each U.S. Coasts, for instance. Notably, typically Carson merely hung out aboard on the dock.

Howard and his household loved a day doing simply that with Carson. “The spotlight of the day was that John himself grilled hamburgers for us! John liked being on the water, it was his ‘peaceable place.’”

As for the inspiration behind the identify, Carson selected it “due to his love for the African plains,” Howard writes. He provides that they reminded him of the U.S. Midwest. Carson was born in Iowa and moved to Nebraska at age eight, remaining within the state via school.

The guide My Pal Johnny is on the market beginning June 10. The yacht Serengeti, in the meantime, continues to constitution up and down the U.S. West Coast. Moreover, she’s presently on the market, for simply shy of $8 million.

Westport Yachts westportyachts.com