Boat Reviews

Zodiac Launches 32-Foot Hybrid Flagship

By Peter Janssen on May 22, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Zodiac has just launched a new 32-foot X10CC, the largest its ever built. It’s something of a hybrid, designed to combine the advantages of a conventional RIB with those of a fiberglass center console. The X10CC (Center Console) represents three years of R&D from the French builder, once a worldwide force in the RIB universe. It has high freeboard (something missing from most RIBs) with a rigid hull surrounded by tubes that offer both protection and floatation. Zodiac said it listened to RIB owners and potential owners, and realized that the market was changing. “They’re looking for bigger and bigger…

New Rossinavi Cat with Artificial Intelligence

By Peter Janssen on May 21, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new 140-foot Rossinavi Seawolf X doesn’t look like your average superyacht catamaran, but that’s the whole idea. Indeed, Fulvio De Simoni, the Italian design studio that did the cat’s exterior, said the goal was to liberate our minds “from preconceptions” about the way big multihulls should look. “We set out to envision the boat of the future, unbound by convention yet grounded in feasibility with cutting-edge technology for minimal environmental impact,” it said. For its part, the Genoa-based Rossinavi issued a statement saying that the big cat was its “most innovative project yet,” in that it combines hybrid power…

Aicon Finishing New 68 Vivere

By Peter Janssen on May 20, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Aicon Yachts is finishing its all-new 68 Vivere in its factory in Sicily, and it’s scheduled to be launched in June. In announcing the 68, Marc-Udo Broich, the chairman and CEO of the Aicon Group, said it would be the first of three new yachts to be built in the next 12 months. The new 68, like its predecessor, the Aicon 66 Vivere (“to live”), was designed by the HydroTec team of Sergio Cutolo, which he and his wife, Silvia Humsolt, co-founded north of Genoa in 1995. They have designed a wide variety of luxury yachts since then, everything from…

New Jeanneau DB37 Outboard: Style and Speed

By Peter Janssen on May 20, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new DB37 Outboard by Jeanneau is a premium day cruiser with outboard performance and an international pedigree. Jeanneau is an upscale French brand, part of the worldwide Beneteau Group. The DB37 is the second in its DB (Day Boat) brand, following on the success of the initial DB43 that was launched two years ago. Camillo Garroni, the Italian designer, did the interior and exterior styling for the DBs, and Michael Peters, the American naval architect from Sarasota, Florida, did the hull. The DB line represented a new style for Jeanneau, with its plumb bow, low profile and Euro-modern design.…

Sanlorenzo Launches Innovative 90A

By Peter Janssen on May 15, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Sanlorenzo has launched its new SL90A yacht with a new design twist. In an effort to maximize the size of the salon, the new Sanlorenzo 90A (the A stands for asymmetric) does not have a deck on the port side. As a result, the interior salon extends out to the port side, where a deck usually would be, adding at least another 10 percent of interior social space. Guests and crew can still reach the large foredeck, which has its own sunning and lounging social space, via the starboard side deck. And Sanlorenzo has built something of an upper port…

Aspen Joins Forces with Yanmar in New C100

By Peter Janssen on May 15, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life, Engine Room

Yanmar and Aspen Power Catamarans just announced a partnership where Aspen will use Yanmar’s 250-hp diesel in new 32-foot Aspen C100 power cats. The two companies said that the combination of the new Yanmar with Aspen’s unconventional asymmetrical proa type hulls will set new standards in the power catamaran field. Indeed, they said that the new Yanmar 4LV250 achieved an eye-opening 4.1 mpg at 18 mph in the Aspen C100, a 32 percent increase in efficiency over previous engines. Larry Graf, who founded Aspen in 2008, said the new Yanmar was also light, smooth and quiet. He praised Yanmar for…

Archipelago Unveils New Explorer with Helipad

By Peter Janssen on May 15, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Archipelago just announced that it’s building a new 80-foot explorer yacht that’s designed to go anywhere in the world. The diesel-electric hybrid catamaran has an optional helipad on the roof and room for a 20-foot submarine in the garage. The new 80 will be the British company’s flagship when it’s completed at the Chartwell yard. The hull is based on Chartwell’s line of ships built for the commercial offshore wind industry. Dr. Stephen Weatherley, Archipelago’s founder, said the first hull is being built for “a visionary owner” who shares the company’s “passion for pursuing the boundaries of boating.” The new…

New Sport Utility Yacht from Antonini Navi

By Peter Janssen on May 13, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

If you don’t want to leave anything behind while you’re exploring the oceans of the world, take a look at the new expedition yacht now being built by Antonini Navi. The large Italian yard says its new 143-foot yacht is meant to serve as a yachting version of an automotive Sport Utility Vehicle, so Antonini Navi calls it simply SUY (for Sport Utility Yacht) 135. Powered by twin 1,029-hp MANs, SUY 135 has a range of 4,000 nm at 10 knots; top speed: 16 knots. The SUY 135 is the first in a new line of expedition yachts from Antonini…

Galeon Launches Creative 560 Fly

By Peter Janssen on May 13, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Galeon has just launched its new 560 Fly, an innovative flybridge cruiser with extensive side glazing and terraces that drop down from the salon sides so you can have a breakfast coffee or an evening cocktail overlooking the water. Designed by Britain’s Tony Castro, the Galeon 560 Fly is a 32-knot cruiser with a lot of creative touches inside and out. Most notable: a port side terrace that drops down to extend the beam from 15’ 10” to 22’ 4”; it comes with two plug-in stools and a window opening to the aft galley. It’s also made of reinforced glass…

Saxdor Unveils New 460 GTC Flagship

By Peter Janssen on May 12, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Saxdor, the creative Finnish builder, just announced that it’s planning a new 460 GTC flagship, with the company’s usual twin-stepped hull but with three Mercury Verado outboards for power. Like the previous flagship, the 400 that Saxdor launched at the Cannes Yachting Festival last September, the new 46-footer will have a full-width wheelhouse with sliding doors on each side that open to drop-down balconies that extend to about a third of the hull length. The balconies have large glass inserts, providing a view of the water even when they’re upright. In the down position, the balconies are the same level…

Browsing: Boat Reviews