And now for something completely different, an all-aluminum workboat style cruiser from Sweden designed and built for “camper cruising.”  Camper cruising is a thing in Scandinavia and cold weather vacationing is also a thing since the summers are short and the winters long. Such is the origin of the new Ockelbo 25 Cab from this purveyor of aluminum sport boats. The brand’s boats are built by the aluminum boat specialists at Anytec.  The new boat is actually a multi-purpose sport boat with a cabin and the horsepower to top out at 45 knots. It comes with remarkably few amenities. There…

The Nordhavn 71, which was introduced in 2023, was designed for adventurous couples who want the look and feel of the builder’s larger yachts yet wants to cruise without a professional crew. As an owner-operator cruising boat, the layouts and systems have been created for ease of movement about the boat, ease of mooring and anchoring and ease of maintenance. At the Ft. Lauderdale International Boats at the end of October, I met with  Jim and Eric Leishman. Jim is Nordhavn’s Director of Design and Eric handles sales and customer relations.  We got talking about the Nordhavn 71 of which…

Greenline Yachts, based in Slovenia, has built a reputation for innovative designs that are intended to make the best use of sustainable hybrid-propulsion technology. They are also known for stylish lines and comfortable interiors. So, it is with some anticipation that we look forward to the huge boat show in Dusseldorf, Germany, in January where the builder will introduce the all new 42, their first new design to be launched in some time. The new 42 was designed by the Danish-Italian firm Marco Caseli Designs and bears their futuristic stamp. The sweeping sheer has a pleasing reverse curve near the…

For a family day boat with a large cockpit that is also a fine couple’s cruiser that will be home for a long weekend or a week away, 35 feet is a manageable size that hits a sweet spot in the compromise between cost, comfort and performance. While there is a bushel of boats in this size range and type, there are not many that are custom built by Maine craftsmen in a yard famous for building extremely high quality boats one customer and one boat at a time. Lyman Morse, which is based in what is known as Maine’s…

The future is aways just over the horizon and predicting what it will bring is an ancient and uncertain art. But, now and then the future decides to pay the present a visit and that is just what happens when California based Navier yachts appeared on the scene with their new N30 Pioneer Edition foiling motorboat. Foils have been around for a while and there are many in the boat business who believe that one day we will all go boating in boats with foils. It just makes sense. When you are up on foils, you fly above the waves…