Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i Yachting

YACHT DESIGNER WardSetzer, who worked at Hatteras Yachts in the mid-1980s before launching his own firm in 1991, returned to the North Carolina builder as chief product officer in January. Setzer plans to revamp existing Hatteras models and create new ones. ¶ Following are edited excerpts of Setzer’s conversation with Yachting. Returning to Hatteras is a real homecoming for you. I started with Jack Hargrave right out of school and did big boats with him, and I was there less than two years when I went to Hatteras around 1985 or 1986. Jack was designing the 92 to 130 series for Hatteras, so I ran that program on the production line. What made you want to give up your own business at age 58 and go back? I was semiretiring…

THE DEVELOPMENTAL BUTTON RULE. At SeaLife Cameras in Moorestown, New Jersey, that’s what they call the guidelines for how simply a camera’s features need to operate. ¶ “Our lighting has one button — you control everything with it,” says Sven Harms, the company’s vice president. “Our cameras usually have three buttons, and our most sophisticated camera has four buttons and keys. That’s it. We figure that if you have any more than that, it’s too specialized.” ¶ The company got its start in 1995, when film was dying and digital technology was evolving. By the late 1990s, SeaLife had developed an underwater digital camera. ¶ “We had a 1.3-megapixel camera,” he says. “That was a big deal back then. It was very low resolution, but it worked, and it was…

PEARL YACHTS’ NEW FLAGSHIP, THE PEARL 95, MAJORS ON STYLE. As with her smaller sisterships, the Pearl 65 and Pearl 80, Bill Dixon’s U.K.-based design studio was responsible for all the practical elements that make up this feature-rich semicustom yacht. And, as with the Pearl 80, Kelly Hoppen created the 95’s high-style, low-key interior. ¶ The Pearl 95’s profile includes a great deal of side glazing. It is visually busy, but the long hullside windows, with all the main-deck glass such as picture windows and double-width doors, deliver vista views and vibrancy to guests looking out from the inside. And all the glass gives the yacht a sporty exterior look, one that creates the impression of a two-decker with a flybridge as opposed to the raised-pilothouse design that this yacht…

60' LENGTH OVERALL 15'11" MAXIMUM BEAM THE SEA RAY 55 SUNDANCER was a family-focused yacht outfitted with two or three staterooms. Depending on the layout, the master was positioned full-beam amidships (two staterooms) or forward (three staterooms). ¶ Construction was hand-laid solid fiberglass below the waterline. ¶ The bridge deck’s seating was on tracks to adjust positioning. ¶ Our test vessel had 800 hp MAN diesels. Top speed was 31.6 knots. Twin 900 hp MANs were optional.¶ At press time, there were 10 Sea Ray 55 Sundancers on the market, ranging from $683,510 to $899,995. FROM THE ARCHIVE “The 55’s blend of shapes and form takes the eye on a visual adventure that voyages far from tradition. In profile, our test boat’s black hull accentuated the gentle slope of her…

FOUNDING PARTNERS AT FURRION, an innovations company based in Indiana, met while working as mega-yacht crew — giving them a hands-on chance to see what technology worked, and what might be improved, out on the water. They took their ideas to the Turkish boatbuilder Numarine, outfitting a 78-foot yacht with everything from artificial intelligence to drone security. Earlier this year, that 78-footer — the Adonis concept yacht — became the first-ever yacht displayed at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, where companies from Apple to Microsoft present products that they see as technology’s future. ¶ At the heart of the yacht’s systems is a virtual assistant called Angel, which is networked to everything from the audio system to the galley. Angel’s technology is rooted in artificial intelligence, meaning the…

50'3" LENGTH OVERALL 15'4" MAXIMUM BEAM IT’S COMMON FOR boatbuilders to create a new model in a size and style that resides squarely between two popular yachts, cutting and pasting, as it were, with design features of each sistership. Tiara Yachts’ C49 Coupe is different. It falls between the C44 and C53 sizewise and pricewise, but it has a host of unique features. ¶ From the C49’s swim platform, there is single-point cockpit access. The solo entry leaves space in the cockpit for an L-shaped settee — a pebbled, leatherlike luxury the boat’s fleet mates lack. With a varnished table set atop a chromed-stainless-steel removable pedestal, the settee is as well-suited for morning coffee on the hook as it is for crew to socialize while the yacht’s wake stretches back…

37'9" LENGTH OVERALL 12' MAXIMUM BEAM THERE IS NO DENYING that there is a certain look to the tenders zipping about Port Hercules during the Monaco Yacht Show, ferrying buyers, sellers and brokers from yacht to yacht and dock to dock. The tenders have a European look: clean and open, axe-bowed and surprisingly burly. ¶ A boat like that is exactly what I saw the first time I laid eyes on an image of the X40 Express from Reliant Yachts, and the styling was a surprise. I was expecting something more staid, a teensy bit more downeast-y from the Rhode Island-based builder of power and sailing craft. Reliant calls the X40 Express a modern interpretation of an express cruiser. To my eye, it’s ready to impress all across the Mediterranean,…

54'8" LENGTH OVERALL 27'7" MAXIMUM BEAM FOR A QUIET YACHT, THE FIRST SILENT-YACHTS 55 power catamaran has made a lot of noise. It is the world’s first mainstream yacht with a fully functioning solar installation as standard power. ¶ And it works: When I got aboard a 55 in Spain’s Balearic Isles, it had been cruising for a month without any need for a port or marina services. My arrival was an excuse for the skipper to top off the tanks and fire up the generator for the first time in days. ¶ The yacht comes in three versions: Cruiser (which is what I got aboard), E-Power and Hybrid. Cruiser is solar-focused. E-Power ups the capability of the e-motors as well as the batteries, while Hybrid has twin diesels and…

THE PROBLEM of keeping cocktail glasses upright aboard yachts has led to magnet systems, Space Age cupholders and more. Now, in answer to a challenge from Princess Yachts, a student at the U.K.’s Plymouth College of Art has come up with a solution that wobbles in all the right ways: the untippable martini glass. Princess presented it at boot Düsseldorf, announcing that customers would be able to have the glass in the future. ¶ The college couldn’t be prouder of student Andres Boraita, with program leader Kevin Jenkins saying, “Andres developed new skills across almost every area of the college, learning wood turning to create one of his molds and learning metal casting to create the pewter base. From sketching concepts digitally and designing prototypes for 3D printing in Fab…

CHRIS DABNEY has been cruising on Alabama’s Mobile Bay with his family since he was 18 months old. Now the commodore of the Fairhope Yacht Club on the eastern shore, he still loves boating on the bay all year long. Occasionally, he says, there are 3- or 4-foot rollers, but generally, the cruising is a breeze. ¶ “All throughout the year, you’re going to have good weather,” he says. “We do have commercial traffic: container ships and tugboats going to the port of Mobile. You’ll see ’em coming. Just give ’em some room. A 40-foot boat, you don’t even have to stay in the channel. You’re not going to be drawing that much. You have plenty of room across the bay to just go.” ¶ Mobile Bay is really several…

THE BAY OF MALI STON IS LOCATED on Croatia’s Pelješac peninsula, near Dubrovnik. Because the Neretva River regularly flushes fresh water into the bay, the overall water constitution is brackish — making it ideal for what the locals call shell farms. Oysters are the primary crop, with mussels in the mix as well; this area has been known to produce as many as 2 million oysters a year. The shell farming here goes back centuries. Remnants have been found of oyster farms dating to the Roman Empire. NATURE’S RECIPE What makes the oysters from Mali Ston among the world’s most sought after is the constitution of water in the bay. There is the original salt water, which mixes with mineral-heavy fresh river water and phytoplankton. The blend of nutrients is…

The silent-yachts line of 55- to 79-foot solar-powered catamarans delivers cruise speeds of about 7 knots and top-ends of 12 to 14 knots, sans emissions. MG Energy Systems batteries represent some of these vessels’ critical technology. ¶ “We develop energy-storage systems that help accelerate the use of renewable energy,” says Gerard van der Schaar, owner of MG Energy Systems. It builds each battery’s mechanical packaging, software and integrated-management system. ¶ “The output of the batteries are used for long-term discharge, three- to five-hour discharge for example,” van der Schaar says. “Performance of the batteries is [dependent upon] the temperature of the batteries.” ¶ Battery space must be temperature regulated via ventilation or, if necessary, with a small air conditioning unit. POWER PROGRESS MG Energy Systems’ HE-series batteries come in four…