Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2025 i Yachting

THE FIRST TIME I CRUISED in the Galapagos Islands, I thought the blue-footed boobies would be the most amazing thing I encountered. That’s what everybody talked about, these birds with the bright blue feet that stood perfectly still and let you walk right up to them, completely unbothered and unafraid. These wild animals of the Galapagos Islands have been protected for so many generations, they simply exhibit no signs of fear. ¶ And seeing those boobies from mere inches away was, indeed, a lot of fun, but not nearly as exciting as watching the frigate birds steal food. Talk about a bunch of hooligans—they basically harass the other birds until a victim coughs up its catch, which the frigate then swipes. Watching a battle with a frigate is kind of…

IT’S EASY TO get lost in the clean lines and razorlike sheerline of the VanDutch 75. This is the brand’s new flagship in a five-model series starting at 32 feet length overall, under parent company Cantieri del Pardo. But the apparent simplicity of the 75’s look belies the technical prowess found in places both obvious and less obvious. ¶ Take, for instance, what the builder calls the “invisible” anchor system. If you look at the vessel in profile, or even poke a head over the long teak foredeck, this system is out of sight. It’s hidden and uses cameras for deployment. The tech-forward setup, which took a measurable investment in time and engineering to perfect, is just one of several interesting and innovative details on this yacht. ¶ Head belowdecks,…

EAST CAPE, MEXICO AWAY FROM IT ALL: Less than two hours by car from the souvenir-hawking shops, restaurants and bars of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, is a personal favorite of mine: the region known as East Cape. It’s located on the back side of the southern Baja peninsula and is so far from Los Cabos, it could be on another planet. This is old-school Mexico at its best: virtually deserted white-sand beaches on the placid Sea of Cortez, friendly locals who are genuinely happy to see you, and some of the best cantina-style margaritas and seafood you’ll find anywhere. And not a tourist trap in sight. FROM DESERT TO SEA: The Sierra de la Laguna mountains hide freshwater swimming holes amid spectacular scenery, and the open desert offers miles to…

Night Moves FLIR’s JCU-4 joystick control ($1,799) works with a compatible FLIR camera system that’s integrated with a multifunction display. Users gain tactile controls for adjusting the camera’s pan, tilt, zoom and more. The controller has a dimmable 2.9-inch LCD screen with +80 to -80-degree viewing angles, a three-axis joystick and a backlit keypad. Teledyne FLIR, flir.com Onboard Illumination The Yacht Group’s Yacht Beam Performance Series Searchlight ($5,000) help time passages. In spotlight mode, the joystick-controlled LED light cannon kicks out 750,000 candelas, yielding more than 3,280 feet of range and a 262-foot beam diameter. In floodlight mode, it delivers 250,000 candelas over about a 660-foot range. The Yacht Group, theyachtgroup.com Flexible Glass The Orca Display 2 ($999) is a 10-inch tablet that’s sunlight readable with a 2.2 giga hertz…

OUTER REEF YACHTS’ 860 DELUXBRIDGE is designed for adventure cruising. It has four staterooms including a full-beam master, plus two crew cabins aft. With the protected upper helm eliminating the need for a main-deck helm station, the galley space below is greatly increased, creating an open country kitchen. Owners can cruise at an economical 8.5 knots or hit a 22-knot top hop. The hull is handlaid fiberglass with PVC coring above the waterline, and there are several engine options including 1,600 hp Caterpillar C32s. At press time, there were two available, starting at $4.99 million. FROM THE ARCHIVE “With the ABT-Trac stabilizers energized and the pointy end effortlessly knocking down a 3-foot, whitecapped chop, there was nary a bump, grind or groan. These yachts have a reputation for competently handling…

A QUA EXPEDITIONS CONTINUES to promote itineraries in parts of the world where other charter yachts rarely, if ever, travel. The last time we spoke with company founder and CEO Francesco Galli Zugaro, he was preparing to start booking itineraries in the remote outer islands of the Seychelles and Zanzibar in East Africa. Now comes word that he’s moving the 253-foot Aqua Lares to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago and the Arctic Circle, with bookings available starting in June 2026. ¶ “With Aqua Lares, we’re setting a new benchmark for luxury exploration at the edges of the map,” Zugaro says. “No other superyacht offers this combination of access, exclusivity and personalized service in the Arctic. From Svalbard and the Arctic Circle to East Africa, Aqua is pioneering a truly global, deeply luxurious…

THE COCKWELLS 11.7m Open Sport Catamaran is a performance-minded and water-ballasted tender that’s propelled by twin 725 hp Volvo Penta diesel engines paired with Hamilton jet drives. The boat’s bow ramp opens and closes via hydraulics to facilitate beach explorations, and electric motors raise and lower its Bimini top to enable garage stowage. • Whom It’s For: Anyone seeking speed, performance and the ability to transport as many as 12 guests and three crewmembers.• Picture This: It’s a gorgeous afternoon on San Francisco Bay. The crowd wants to catch the sunset, but your yacht is berthed at Sausalito’s Schoonmaker Point Marina. So, you hop in your Cockwells 11.7m Open Sport Catamaran and cruise to Point Bonita Lighthouse for the light show, returning in time for lazy cioppino at Scoma’s. COCKWELLS.CO.UK…

PAUL GOEDTEL says that when he was growing up, Georgia was a place most people drove through. What he sees today is different. From his vantage point as general manager of Safe Harbor Savannah Yacht Center, the city has grown into a great waypoint for yachtsmen and crew alike. ¶ “There’s good restaurants, festival activity—it’s kind of like New Orleans, but smaller, cleaner and more manageable,” Goedtel says. “It’s Southern charm. It’s easy to manage. It’s not a rat-race place. Its nickname is ‘Slowvannah.’” ¶ Safe Harbor’s setup can take yachts 200 feet and much larger, mostly for service but also for transient dockage if space is available. It’s not only the owners he hears talking about Savannah having interesting offerings. Crew, too, seem intrigued. ¶ “The crew that come…

The De Antonio D60 leaned into the 30-knot hard-over turn with the aggressiveness of a slalom skier cutting the most-efficient—and fastest—line down the hill. This express cruiser’s dual-stepped hull form, which is uncommon in this size and class, confidently gripped the flat ocean off Cannes, France, carving a near-perfect circle with minimal wake, moderate heel and no speed bleed. The sense I felt on the bridge deck was controlled, yet exhilarating. ¶ Top speed during my morning with the D60: 45 knots. (The builder says it has seen 48 knots.) That’s noteworthy velocity for a yacht displacing around 50,000 pounds. Cruise-speed range is 25 to 34 knots. Supporting the hull form is a combination of vacuum infused fiberglass with carbon fiber reinforcement. ¶ This is a vessel created for cruisers…

Madintec’s MADBrain autopilot systems use artificial intelligence to drive racing and cruising vessels ranging from 30-foot monohulls to 100-foot multihulls. Each MADBrain autopilot has three main operating modes—compass, wind (angle) and polars—as well as “super pilot” modes that include gust response, heel-angle limitation and velocity-made-good optimization. Unlike autopilots that react to sensor-captured data, MADBrain’s AI allows the system to anticipate windspeed and sea state changes. The idea is smooth, fast and humanlike reactions at the helm. ¶ “The biggest challenge was turning high-end innovation into a stable, industrial-grade product that could be reliably deployed on any boat,” says Paolo Serio, Madintec’s sales and marketing director. The cruising market, he says, demands rocksolid reliability and seamless integration with third-party systems. The product that Madintec came up with involved rethinking everything from…

About 20 years ago, an idea was officially floated to standardize the descriptions of life jackets across North America, in terms of how they’re designed and the performance characteristics they have. “You look at the Great Lakes, the boundary waters, the main coast, Nova Scotia—there’s a lot of shared space,” says Gordon Colby, certifications manager at Mustang Survival. “It seemed very sensible at the time.” ¶ This kind of standardization required input from multiple governments, agencies and others, and was also intended to align with Europe’s system. “The best bureaucratic minds got together and said, ‘OK, how can we make this more complicated and less useful?’” Colby says with a chuckle. ¶ Now, nearly two decades later, that standardization is actually happening. The US Coast Guard recently finalized a rule…

Pershing’s GTX models are its SUVs. They have a little more volume than Pershing’s X design, and they are a bit less ferocious when it comes to performance. As with the automotive origins of a GT designation—gran turismo or grand tourer—these Pershing models are intended to be more comfortable for cruising. They’re about marathons, lings. ¶ not sprints. ¶ The GTX70 is the third GTX model, and the second one designed by Michelangelo Vallicelli and his Rome-based studio. Both the GTX70 and GTX80 have triple Volvo Penta IPS installations, instead of the surface drives of their X-model sib Aboard the GTX70, those triple diesels and pod drives are tucked well aft beneath a two-level cockpit, with a lower after section and swim platform big enough for a jet tender and…

Sometimes a product’s design brief doesn’t align with its adopted uses. Such was the case with the AeroPress, a coffee maker that arrived on my desk about 20 years ago. The marketing material described it as perfect for cruising, camping and travel. While true, the AeroPress delivered world-class cups of joe, and it wasn’t long before coffee addicts (myself included) used it as a daily caffeine-delivery system. Today, there are deep online forums dedicated to perfecting its use. ¶ Garmin’s ultrawide GPSMap 1543xsv is similarly enjoying a reception that’s wider than expected. Garmin originally envisioned this product being an auxiliary screen aboard yachts, but vessels both mighty and modest are embracing the ultrawide format and features. ¶ The GPSMap 1543xsv is a sleek, 15-inch multifunction display that supports a variety…

CONSIDERED THE “PEARL OF THE ADRIATIC,” the Croatian port city of Dubrovnik captivates cruisers on European tours with its stunning historic Old Town, breathtaking scenery, pristine beaches, and a food and wine scene that celebrates both modern fare and traditional Dalmatian Coast cuisine. • THINGS TO SEE AUNESCO World Heritage Site and filming location for “Game of Thrones,” Dubrovnik’s magnificent Old Town reflects the city’s status as an important Adriatic sea power from the 13th century onward. Walk atop the 1.3-mile-long citywall that stretches more than 8o feet high and encircles the Old Town’s historic buildings, topped with trademark red-tiled rooftops. Then stroll along the main street of Stradun (also known as Placa) and visit such landmarks as the Jesuit Stairs, Rector’s Palace, Franciscan Church and Monastery, and gargoyle-guarded Onofrio’s…

In 1920, a young Guy Lombardo watched from the Detroit shoreline as Gar Wood’s Miss America roared to a 70.4-mph Gold Cup record. The moment would stay with him. Lombardo made his name not on the water, but in the ballroom. With his band, the Royal Canadians, he slowed the tempo of popular tunes into what became known as “the sweetest music this side of heaven,” helping to write America’s soundtrack for decades beginning in 1929. His band sold more than 300 million records. After World War II, Lombardo bought the racer My Sin, renamed it Tempo VI, and stormed the 1946 Gold Cup, breaking Wood’s long-standing mark with a 73.3-mph run. Two years later in Miami, repowered with an Allison V-12 aircraft engine, Tempo VI reached 114.8 mph—the first…