Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2025 i Yachting

CHARTER YACHTS all have ways that they attempt to stand out in the fleet, be it a bigger waterslide, an award-winning chef or a groundbreaking audiovisual system. Aboard the 144-foot Palmer Johnson Alta, which charters through IYC at a weekly base rate of $185,000, guests can order cocktails made with a one-of-a-kind spirit from Yacht Life Vodka. “The crew is also serving up a signature drink, the Alta-nate Reality, created by one of the most awarded bartenders in the United States today, Rob Husted,” according to a press release. “The cocktail will only be available aboard superyacht Alta, making it one of the world’s most expensive cocktails to experience.”…

WATERSPORTS TOYS AND GEAR are essential elements in countless boating experiences. Hopping off the swim platform and into a kayak to explore an anchorage, grabbing a sea scooter to dive beneath the surface and check out the coral, tossing a dry bag into the tender to protect phones and glasses while playing with tow toys—all of it adds layer after layer of happiness and excitement to being on a boat. In recognition of how integral this kind of gear is to fun days afloat, the boatbuilding company Axopar partnered with Jobe Watersports to create the Adventure Collection. “The gear is perfect for bringing along on the boat, but its possibilities are so much greater,” says Jan-Erik Viitala, founding partner of Axopar Boats. “Imagine packing an inflatable two-person kayak or SUP…

IN FALL 2001, A GROUP OF SAILORS in Newport, Rhode Island, organized a regatta called Sail for Pride to raise funds for New York City fire fighters and others affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The 180-plus-boat race around Narragansett Bay’s Conanicut Island raised more than $100,000. Now called the Sail for Hope, it’s become an annual event benefiting a host of nonprofits. I’ve competed in this event on multiple occasions on a wide variety of yachts, but last fall’s edition, sailing aboard the C&C 30 Chinook, was easily the most interesting. Never before had I sailed with a crew that included several Iraq War veterans, including a helmsman named Steve Baskis who lost his sight while serving in Baghdad in 2008 when an improvised explosive device blasted his vehicle.…

POWER CATAMARANS tend to excel in several key areas. One is their effective use of interior space, not only to wow guests but also to provide one of the most comfortable cruising experiences on the water. Case in point: the new 50-footer from Aquila Boats. Easily identified by their distinctive hull-side windows, Aquila’s five outboard-powered Sport and Molokai models range from 28 to 47 feet length overall. They are in addition to four models of the inboard-powered Yacht line from 42 to 54 feet, and a Luxury 70-foot flagship. The 50 Yacht Power Catamaran is aimed at the owner-operator and charter markets, and is equally adept on a mooring at sunset in the British Virgin Islands as it is cruising the Great Loop. The length overall is 52 feet, 6…

INFORMATION MADE EASY Actisense’s WGX-1 ($385) connects to a vessel’s N2K backbone. It shares networked information such as boatspeed, windspeed, course information and automatic identification system data, all of it via Wi-Fi with third-party apps running aboard wireless devices. It also converts N2K data to NMEA 0183 data (and vice versa), facilitating bilateral data exchange. Actisense, actisense.com GUNWALE ROCK Banshee Marine’s LSUG Audio Under Gunwale Speaker system ($300) includes two speaker arrays, each with a pair of 4-inch drivers and a tweeter with a speaker horn. The arrays are designed for DIY installation under gunwales or can be mounted on bulkheads. The IPX6-rated speakers measure 17.6 inches long by 5.35 inches wide by 5.75 inches high. Banshee Marine Audio, banshee.rocks CYBER SHIELD DigitalYacht’s NET Protect ($350) helps secure onboard networks…

BENETEAU BROUGHT in designers Carlo Nuvolari and Dan Lenard when it was creating the Gran Turismo 40. They helped to give the 40-foot express cruiser a thoughtful two-stateroom layout. In the engine room, the two Volvo Penta powerplant options are twin 300 hp D4s or twin 380 hp D6s. Top speed varies depending on the engines: 33 knots with the D4s or 38.5 knots with the D6s. With the latter, the GT 40 can cruise at 30 knots for more than 200 nautical miles. At press time, there were 17 Beneteau Gran Turismo 40s available, from $259,000 to $498,000. FROM THE ARCHIVE “Beneteau has essentially made this boat float, both on water and on air. I was surprised by the handling of the GT 40 as well. Beneteau’s US sales…

HYBRID AND ELECTRIC POWER continue to evolve, with designers and builders improving the speed and range that’s possible on boats with more eco-friendly propulsion systems. For certain uses, quite a few of today’s models have become feasible options for boaters who grew up pumping diesel into fuel tanks. Cruising at high speeds across long distances remains a challenge, but models such as the Sialia 57 (shown above and on the next page) can top 25 knots, with space for a dozen people to stretch out and relax along the way. In the following pages, we offer a look at this yacht and others that are expected to generate buzz on the docks during the spring boat-show season.…

THE IYBA IS AN ASSOCIATION of brokers that created the yacht-shopping site Yachtr, which keeps adding broker-bio features, most recently videos. The goal is to help shoppers feel more comfortable with the brokers they’re contacting. “The only information on that page is the listing broker’s information: his name, his cellphone number, his email address directly,” says COO Paul Flannery. “They’re not being routed through some switchboard. They’re not being sent to somebody who has a rooster crowing in the background and has to take their information and call them back. If you see a 72-foot Viking that you like, at the bottom of the page is Carmine Galati’s picture, his name, his face, his email address, his phone number and a link to his bio. You get a chance to…

WILLIAMS Jet Tenders’ Electric EvoJet 70e is a RIB based on the company’s EvoJet 70, but with an electric jet drive. The tender has an EVOA motor built by Yasa, a 58.5 kWh lithium-ion battery bank designed by Williams Advanced Engineering, and a custom-built Garmin multi-function display that presents critical battery, range and charging information. Some standout features include a single-lever throttle, an optional carbon-fiber folding T-top and one-hour recharging.• Whom It’s For: Superyacht owners seeking a quiet tender powered by a jet drive.• Picture This: It’s summer-time in the San Juan Islands, and you and your family want to go for a quiet cruise. So, you leave your main ride at Roche Harbor and quietly zip over to Lime Kiln Point State Park in your Electric EvoJet 70e. WILLIAMSJETTENDERS.COM…

IT’S FAIR TO SAY THAT yacht building has become dream building for most owners. The question nowadays is: What’s the next adventure? Maritimo has a good answer with its flagship motoryacht, the M75: Whatever owners want it to be. This enclosed-bridge motoryacht is an offshore long-distance cruiser with well-appointed amenities throughout. “The size and volume of the M75 will obviously impress,” Keith Teynor, managing director for Maritimo Americas, stated in a press release. “However, it’s the thought and fit-and-finish that are setting the M75 apart from the market.” Like all Maritimos, the M75 is built for the tumultuous waters off the Australian coast. To ensure a solid ride, the M75 sports a variable-deadrise hull form with a deep keel and sharp entry. A flattened hull progression aft helps to deliver…

The music was powerful and happy. The vibe was positive. It felt like a house party. Nearly 15 people milled about the Pearl 82’s flybridge, with room for a couple dozen more. The area seemed large enough to accommodate a pickleball court. Maybe it is? Heck, it had space for two people at the helm, a sun pad aft to starboard for several more, a hot tub for six, U-shaped seating around a table to starboard, and L-shaped seating with a table to port for another 10 or so—with both seating spaces under the retractable hardtop. There’s also a grill, a fridge and loose seating aft. Our sizable crew was jetting off Cannes, France, to wring out this builder’s 82-foot raised-pilothouse yacht, which fills out a four-model lineup ranging from…

CREATING A YACHT from scratch is challenging, but reimagining one of your own designs might be an even tougher task. That’s exactly what designer Filippo Salvetti did when he reinvented the Ferretti Yachts 670, which, coincidentally, was his first model for the Forli, Italy-based builder in 2019. One of the immediately noticeable and impactful changes is found in the hull side glass. Previously, there were three glass sections between the fore-peak VIP stateroom and the amidships owner’s space. They were collectively shaped somewhere between a rectangle and a trapezoid. While there are still three glass sections in the current 670, the forward two have a more aggressive, lean-forward attitude and are larger, while the amidships glass is now shaped like a knife blade: thicker forward and narrowing as it travels…

SUPERSEDE’S Marine Board is a replacement for wood-based marine-grade plywood. The company builds its Marine Board by extruding bulk post-industrial recycled plastics. The manufacturing process eliminates adhesives and volatile organic compounds. Because Marine Board is recyclable, Supersede regrinds and re-extrudes its solid manufacturing waste into fresh sheets. Better still, Supersede’s buyback program lets users sell unwanted cuts—and full sheets—back to Supersede. Shane Kenyon, Supersede’s co-founder and head of engineering, says it was a challenge to create a composite equivalent to marine-grade plywood: “This challenge then boiled into four sub-challenges of maintaining cost, weight, recyclability and performance.” The solution required real-world testing and creating an intensive benchmark catalog of existing marine boards. “Using that benchmark catalog as a design matrix,” he says, “we drove all engineering decisions and development through a…

Author Carleton Mitchell, who penned a plethora of seafaring stories for Yachting back in the day, was a lifelong sailor with a serious case of wanderlust. In 1968, Mitchell wrote his autobiogrphy in this publication: "Somewhere around 10, when asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, my mother has said I answered, 'I want to sail and write about it.' In later life, I have been lucky in making that boyhood wish come true-with a measure of power-boating thrown in." If you read these pages, then you have likely shared Mitchell’s dream. His statement brings us to the image seen here. It’s his 1968 Grand Banks 42 Sans Terre, which translates to "landless." And he was indeed landless-often. His first powerboat, Sans Terre, had some memorable adventures,…

SIALIA 57 Sialia is a new brand in the United States. The Sialia 57 is the debut model that premiered during the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show a few months ago. It’s an all-carbon yacht with fully electric propulsion that reportedly can achieve a cruising speed of 20 knots and a top hop of 29 knots. The main deck has multiple seating zones, and there are overnight accommodations for four people. The exterior styling, according to the builder, is influenced by race-car design with a focus on “optimizing weight, balance, naval architecture and secondary systems for sustainable performance and durability.” NUMARINE 45XP This is the new flagship in Numarine’s seven-model lineup of long-range cruising yachts. Range is reportedly 6,000 nautical miles at 9 knots, which makes this yacht a possible…

FALCON TENDERS’ Project KD is an enclosed limousine tender designed to fit inside the cozy garage of a 220-foot Sanlorenzo superyacht. The tender is built using fiberglass, green epoxies and epoxy-foam sandwich construction, with carbon-fiber reinforcements. Interior details include book-matched Macassar ebony veneers, “nylo noir” ceramic marble soles, a skylight and Foglizzo leather seating. The tender has Yanmar diesels totaling 500 hp paired to sterndrives, as well as a Seakeeper gyrostabilizer to keep the horizon stable.• Whom It’s For: Superyacht owners seeking a limousine tender that can fit in specific-size garages. • Picture This: It’s windy in St. Barts, but the gang wants to explore Gustavia, where the main ride is berthed. So, you load into your Project KD and enjoy the scenery through the limo’s generous glazing. FALCON-TENDERS.COM…

THINGS HAVE changed at the Town of Palm Beach Marina on Florida’s southeast coast—in ways that are good for transient boaters who want to enjoy the popular shopping and dining that’s just steps away. “In the old marina, we were at such a high occupancy with long-term leases that a lot of people wouldn’t even reach out for transient dockage,” says Marina Manager Mike Horn. “I think a lot of people still believe that, and it’s just not true.” In 2021, the marina reopened after a $40 million renovation. The old facility was demolished and replaced with new docks and amenities. “It was cheap to stay in our marina back then, and people would sign up for a lease even if they weren’t there,” says Carolyn Stone, deputy town manager,…

THE SPORTS-BRIDGE OR SPORTS-FLY YACHT genre didn’t really exist 20 years ago. Back then, most 65- to 85-foot planing motoryachts with two decks were classified as express cruisers or flybridge yachts. But evolution is a relentless tide. Flybridge models have steadily grown in volume. They have sprouted hardtops and become semi- or completely enclosed. Coupe styles have sun pads on their superstructures, along with proper stairs, lower helm stations, dinettes and wet bars. Today, an 80-foot sports-fly is likely to have amenities similar to a 20-year-old flybridge design, especially with today’s wider beams and lack of tender cranes on the upper deck. The Princess Yachts S80 is a feature-packed example of the modern standard, putting its own spin on the same lower-deck platform as the British builder’s Y80 flybridge yacht…

BOAT-SHOW SEASON IS THE TIME when new-product announcements drop faster than daylight hours. This is great news for anyone looking to upgrade a boat’s electronics, and it’s also a chance to see all the fascinating ideas that have been percolating in companies’ R&D departments. As you’re touring the docks and tents, keep an eye out for these products, which are all worth a closer look. FUSION While achieving playlist consensus can be tricky, all ears can agree that high-quality speakers outperform the low-end alternatives. Fusion’s Apollo speakers ($550 to $800) and subwoofers ($450 to $950) use redesigned motors and composite materials for everyone’s listening pleasure at higher volumes. Embedded dual-hue LED lighting, hexagonal-shaped tweeters and interchangeable grills enhance the onboard aesthetics. The coaxial speakers come in three sizes—6.5, 7.7 and…

CORSICA, THE ISLAND OF Napoleon’s birth, reigns as France’s “Isle of Beauty.” Its mountainous landscapes, breathtaking beaches, noteworthy historical sites, gentle climate and 300 miles of spectacular coastline make Corsica an appealing port of call on any Mediterranean cruising itinerary. NATURAL ATTRACTIONS Scandola Reserve, part of Corsica’s only UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the island’s most beautiful spots and accessible only by boat. Its crystalline waters teem with marine life. Osprey and other species nest in the wind-sculpted, red-tinted cliffs. With 20 peaks topping 6,500 feet, Corsica is a big destination for adventure travelers. For those who prefer paved roads to hiking paths, Route de Bavella through the Regional Natural Park of Corsica offers stunning views of Aiguilles de Bavella, the island’s iconic red granite pinnacles. In northwest…