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Welcome aboard the diesel-powered version of the impressive MJM 4 performance day yacht. We recently tested the MJM 4, looking specifically at her performance and handling as powered by the new Volvo Penta DPI advanced drives. We begin our look out of the water, with Volvo Penta’s twin, counter-rotating Duoprop propellers. This next-generation design features a double hydraulic clutch pack that performed silky smooth and with zero clunking in our testing. With the trim and steering hydraulic, the control unit is mounted on the transom inside the engine compartment. The DPI is a fully integrated package with the drive paired with the latest \ computer-controlled version of the 440-horsepower Volvo Penta D-6 inline 5.5-liter diesel engine. MJM These drives are fly-by-wire and rigged with sensors and lots of anti-corrosion features…
While scrolling through Instagram recently, I found some good posts by The Boat Mom, or Paula Sleiman. She’s the mother of 3-year-old Kai, and the owner of two 21-foot Nautiques. She drives the version with a direct-drive inboard; her husband, Dusty Able, prefers the 21 powered by a V-drive. Sleiman’s feed was in its infancy, but it appealed to me, as she was addressing hot topics for women trying to raise children and learn about boating simultaneously. I remember being in that position many years ago, and too often feeling like a Nervous Nellie, as I could get myself worked up about creating a safe environment for the kids. Sleiman, on the other hand, seemed completely comfortable in her own skin and at her own helm, in videos on everything…
LOA: 43’o” Beam: 14’10” Draft: 2’9” Displ.: 32,000 lbs Power: (2) 550-hp Cummins QSB6.7 diesels Back in the day, when a much younger Jim Turner was learning the ways of business at his family’s jam-packed Ritz Bakery in Manasquan on the Jersey Shore, there was a hub of sportfish boat-building activity absolutely booming about an hour to the south. “In my mind, the three hotbeds for builders of sportfish boats is South Florida, the Carolinas and New Jersey,” he says. “All the influence in South Florida came from Rybovich and Merritt, but the most skill, I feel, came from New Jersey.” South Jersey was home to Pacemaker, which was owned by the same family that created Ocean Yachts. “Then you had Egg Harbor, that was known as the Rybovich of the…
So why do we fish? First there is the joy of being out on the water or in the surf. Then there is the excitement when we actually catch a fish. These are the obvious answers to the question, but they don’t get at the heart of the matter, or examine the compulsion. For me, fishing is about focus. I am locked into the hunt, the presentation and the expectation that at any moment I’m going to be battling the biggest fish of my life. This single-minded focus alters the normal passage of time. When the fishing is good, time passes by at warp speed and when it’s slow time crawls, but I’m still concentrating on how to find the fish. More importantly, at least for me anyway, fishing is…
One of the beefs against electric outboards is their limited range, but Newport—an electric outboard builder from Stockton, California—is challenging that perception with its lightweight lithium batteries. We clamped a Newport NT300 3-hp electric outboard with a standard-length shaft to the stern of an 11-foot, 7-inch fiberglass rowboat, added one of Newport’s LiFePO4 (lithium, iron and phosphate) batteries and loaded the boat up with more than 400 pounds of people to see what it could do. Unlike some other small electric outboard makers, Newport does not mount the battery on top of its motors. Instead, it sells lithium batteries in two voltages and multiple amperages (24V/50Ah, 36V/30Ah and 36V/40Ah) and connects them via a cable, which allows the weight on the stern to be reduced and a larger capacity battery…
LOA: 36’6” Beam: 12’0” Draft: 2’7” Displ: (dry): 17,603 lbs. Power (standard): (3) 400-hp Mercury outboards I felt like a fish swimming upstream as I tried to get aboard the Boston Whaler 365 Conquest. Hours earlier, it had won an Innovation Award from the National Marine Manufacturer’s Association for best new boat in the cabin cruiser category. Now, the 36-footer was drawing foot traffic from all around the Miami Beach Convention Center, where she was on display for the international boat show. Bobbing and weaving, I was able to flit past big schools of spectators and up the ladder that climbed to her boarding gate. There, I collided with another wave of passengers, but the energy on the boat was so upbeat, the jostling in the cockpit produced only good-natured…
