Browsing: Back Cove Yachts

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Newport Show Opens with More Great Looking – and More Powerful – Boats than Ever Before By Peter A. Janssen The Newport show, the first of the fall boat show season, just opened, with more boats than ever before and, to my mind, more great-looking and great-performing boats than ever before. The brand-new Palm Beach 50GT, for example, just launched for the show, is boating eye-candy writ large, with a head-turning sapphire blue hull, low profile, drop-dead gorgeous tumblehome and curves everywhere. The fact that it tops out a 42 knots, driven by twin 600-hp Volvo IPS800s, is just icing…

Boat Reviews
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Back Cove Tests Twin 300-hp Yamaha and 350-hp Suzuki Outboards on Its New 34O. The Suzukis Are 3 Knots Faster

It’s not often that you can compare the performance of a brand-new boat with different power configurations, but Back Cove has just released that information for its new 34O (for outboard) cruiser that will make its public debut at the Newport International Boat Show, starting Sept. 13. The standard power for the Maine-built couple’s cruiser is two 300-hp Yamaha outboards; two 350-hp Suzukis are an option. Here’s how they performed. Back Cove tested the two power options three days apart in mid-August with about the same fuel, water and load in similar sea conditions on West Penobscot Bay near the…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Maine Builder Back Cove Planning Its First Outboard-Powered Boat, a 34O, with Twin 300-hp Yamahas By Peter A. Janssen There’s big news this week from Back Cove, the Maine company that’s been building single-engine, diesel-powered cruising boats since 2003: It is now working on the Back Cove 34O, and the O stands for outboard power, as in two 300-hp Yamahas. The boat will be ready for sea trials in August and will make an appearance at the fall shows. This is a big change for Back Cove, which is part of Sabre, and an acknowledgement that the market, even for…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Report from Newport: “Best Show Ever,” “Outstanding” and “Fantastic” By Peter A. Janssen The first show of the fall season, the Newport International Boat Show can serve as a bellwether for the coming year. And this year all the signs were good.  Many new boats were introduced at the show – the Grand Banks 60, Sabre 45 Salon Express, Hinckley Dasher all-electric boat, MJM 35Z, Nordhavn 59 Coastal Pilot, Outer Reef 610, Beneteau Swift Trawler 35, and Hampton Endurance 658, among them. Nancy Piffard, the show director, said attendance was up 10 percent over the previous year. The show “was…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Claret Red? Awlcraft Shark? Owners Make Individual Statements Even on Traditional Down East Boats By Peter A. Janssen Most Sabre Yachts, of course, come with blue hulls, in keeping with their classic, Down East heritage. But times may be changing. We couldn’t resist a second, or third, look at this new Sabre 45, photographed by our friend Billy Black, off Nahant, Mass., on the North Shore above Boston. The hull is Claret Red. The picture reminded me of the color of hull number one of Dirigo, the 66-foot Sabre flagship, which was an eye-opening combination of blue and gray with…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Long-Time Boaters Take First Extended Cruise on Back Cove 37. Want To Keep Going By Peter A. Janssen After cruising in the Great Lakes for 34 years, Mike and Melodie Kapolka pretty much know what they like (Georgian Bay and the North Channel are at the top of their list). But now that they have a Back Cove 37, their largest boat so far, they’re taking their first extended cruise, and they like it so much they’re planning for more. The Kapolkas are fairly typical of American cruising couples. They started boating from their home port in Algonac, Michigan, on…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

Report from Palm Beach: “The Best of the Season.” Traditionally, the Palm Beach boat show is a buyer’s show; a lot of people, so the thinking goes, look at the Miami shows, but then a month later they actually buy in Palm Beach. The Palm Beach show, which just ended, certainly had a lot of the major cruising boats that had already been displayed in Miami, but it also had some new ones, including the Vicem 46IPS from Turkey and the Minorca 34 from Spain, while the new Sabre 45 (from Maine, of course) was undergoing sea trials just up…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

A Look Back at Miami: Let’s Hear It for the NMMA and Virginia Key I haven’t seen such an upbeat boat show in many years – probably before 2008, in fact. At the Miami International Boat Show last week on Virginia Key the docks were crowded, people were having fun, taking demo rides, buying boats. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have enough to choose from. Indeed, the show had 1,300 new boats for sale, including 550 in the water: big boats, small boats, outboard boats, inboard boats. If it floats it was there. And people were happy. Several told…

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Back Cove 30 Video After Mid-Coast Maine Cruise

I just came across this old video by my friend Billy Black after we had taken a mid-coast Maine cruise six years ago on the then-new Back Cove 30, a great time. It’s particularly appropriate now since I’ll be taking a similar cruise next week on the brand-new Back Cove 32. I’ve go to say that the Maine-built Back Coves (and Sabres too – their big-brother brand) are among my favorite cruising boats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GmS6_deOh8

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