The new Prestige M7, whcih is to be intrpduced at the Cannes Festival of Yachting in September, joins the M48 and M8 in the now three-boat line of power cats. A flybridge liveaboard cruiser, the new design focuses on expansive outdoors spaces, fuel efficiency and a solar-powered silent mode.
The designers have incorporated a wide platform aft between the catamaran’s sterns that becomes a kind of beach club with three levels and easy access to the water. Combine this with the outside lounge on the foredeck that has a sunken foot well and forward facing sofas and the almost 300 square feet of living space on the bridge and you have plenty of places to sun and relax.
The design has four cabins, including a full width owner’s cabin that will be larger than most bedrooms ashore. The salon and cockpit flow together through large glass doors, so you never lose a wide vista of the seascapes around you.
The builder asserts that the new M7 will be its most efficient cat yet under power. It comes with Volvo D8 engines with V-drives and these deliver a top speed of about 22 knots. At full throttle, Prestige predicts that it will burn 40% less fuel at 22 knots and 25% less at 17 knots than a comparable 58-foot monohull.
One of the options owners will find useful is the solar powered silent feature that combines panels on the hard top with a lithium battery bank that provides enough stored energy to run all house functions for 10 hours through the night without the need to run the generator.
At 58 feet, the new M7 will not be too much for a couple or family to handle but is large enough, at 2,100 square feet of living space, to be a spacious home away from home.
