You probably aren’t going to take a new carbon fiber Delta 60 up the Inside Passage (although I once drove a 35-foot Donzi from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska, and back), but it certainly would be nice to cruise down to the Florida Keys over to the Bahamas on one. You – and a lot of your friends – will be comfortable enough on board. The Delta 60 has three staterooms and two heads below, and there’s room for a crowd up on the main deck with sunning and lounge areas that seem to go on forever. And you can carry your jet ski on the swim platform.
With its clean, low profile and lots of light colors offset by nautical teak, the Delta 60 is the latest example of a sophisticated, modern Scandinavian boating esthetic. It’s elegant in its simplicity, while employing the most high-tech construction (it has an all-carbon hull) with Volvo’s IPS800 pod drives for easy maneuvering and fuel-efficient cruising. The boat tops out at 39 knots and cruises at 33 knots, very respectable speeds for a 60-footer. (But then it’s super-lightweight, with a displacement of only 29,762 lbs.)
Sold in the U.S. by Delta Carbon Yachts in Miami, the 60 Open is the latest design from Delta powerboats in Sweden, introduced at the Fort Lauderdale boat show. The company was founded in 2003 and claims to be Scandinavia’s fastest-growing boat company. It makes boats from 26 to 88 feet; everything from 54 feet and up is all carbon fiber.
The company has won several European design awards, testimony to the talents of Lars Modin, one of Delta’s co-founders and its chief designer, who lives on an island an hour from Stockholm (he says it’s only 25 minutes in his Delta).
On the main deck, there are matching double-wide seats port and starboard for the captain and passengers. Sheltered by a hardtop, a cooktop and grill are in a console behind the port passengers’ seat, while there’s a sink and fridge in a console behind the starboard captain’s seat. Aft of that the boat is open with plenty of lounging space over hand-laid teak decks. Twin L-shaped settees, with teak folding tables, are aft a bit, and then a huge sunpad is all the way aft.
The accommodations deck is five steps down from the helm. The ultra-modern master stateroom forward (pictured above) has a platform king bed, a strip of hatches overhead to let in natural light, and an en suite head (complete with heated towel rack). The guest cabins are amidships; one with a queen bed to port and one with double berths to starboard. They share a head.
Specs.: LOA: 60’2”; Beam: 15’1”; Draft: 4’5”; Disp.: 29,762 lbs.; Fuel: 766 gals.; Water: 238 gals.; Power: 2×600-hp Volvo IPS800s.
