Boat Reviews

New Prestige 520, the French Builder’s Latest Addition to Its Stylish Flybridge Fleet

By Peter Janssen on October 16, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The brand-new, French-styled Prestige 520, designed for easy cruising or entertaining, is making its U.S. debut at the Lauderdale show. With three cabins (plus an optional captain’s quarters) and a top speed of 26 knots, the Prestige 520 has a new luxurious, light-filled interior, where large windows create a bright, soft atmosphere in the salon. Its aggressive raked windshield and sleek, low profile mark it as a full-fledged member of the Prestige lineup. In the salon, the galley is aft, per the current custom, then a super-sized U-shaped lounge and table are on the port side, with an L-shaped settee…

New Low-Profile, Beautiful Vicem 58 Classic To Debut at Lauderdale Show

By Peter Janssen on October 16, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Vicem, the Turkish builder that produces Downeast-style boats, is introducing a new 58 Classic at the Fort Lauderdale show. The new low-profile 58 is made with Vicem’s trademark cold-molded mahogany to provide a strong, smooth and quiet ride, and it has Vicem’s long, graceful sheerline and eye-catching tumblehome aft. The 58 is a larger and newer version of Vicem’s popular 52, but its 16’7” beam provides more elbow room and the 58 has enough room for what the company calls an Open Galley below, with a generous eight-feet of headroom and a large amount of entertaining space all around. The…

Hunt To Build New 54-mph, 40-Foot Center Console with Three Outboards and a Large Cabin

By Peter Janssen on October 15, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Hunt Yachts, the legendary builder of blue-water, go-anywhere boats for more than half a century, just introduced a new, elegant 40-foot center console with a queen berth tucked into its cabin that is powered by three 300-hp Mercury Verado outboards. The new Hunt, with a 23-degree deadrise at the transom, combines two major trends: The move to larger and larger center consoles, incorporating more amenities to make them family-friendly, and the move to larger and larger outboard engines for fuel-efficient, quiet and reliable power. Hunt says the new 40 with standard power will top out at 54 mph; with three…

New Adler Hybrid Has Carbon-Fiber Hull, 3,500 nm Range, and iPad Controls

By Peter Janssen on October 10, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The all-new, carbon-fiber, aggressively-styled Adler Suprema Hybrid will make her U.S. debut at the Fort Lauderdale show, starting Nov. 1. The 76-foot yacht, designed by Nuvolari-Lenard, is powered by a diesel-electric propulsion system that includes carbon-fiber props, twin 100kW e-engines and twin Cat 1,150-hp diesels. It can run up to 8 knots under electric power, and it tops out at 28 knots under diesel. “It’s a unique yacht with a sophisticated design and a number of modern features usually found on much bigger boats, such as state-of-the-art hybrid propulsion, iPad controls, heated floors and a strong, lightweight and efficient hull…

A New 475 Blue-Water Pilothouse Cruiser Coming from Nordhavn

By Peter Janssen on October 5, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Nordhavn is designing a new 475 trawler to replace the popular 43 in the company’s lineup. And the new two-stateroom, two-head pilothouse cruiser, powered by a single 180-hp John Deere diesel, will be true to Nordhavn’s blue-water, world-circling roots, says Jim Leishman, the vice president of PAE, Nordhavn’s parent company. “Nordhavns have crossed more oceans than all our competitors combined,” he told me at the Newport show recently. The 475 will be built to increase that number. On the 475, the keel will be extended aft from the keel on the 43, the salon will be larger and the boat…

We Test the New Grand Banks 60: Fast and Smooth with Some Very Long Legs

By Peter Janssen on September 28, 2017 Boat Reviews

This is all you need to know about the gorgeous, all-new Grand Banks 60, the flagship of the legendary builder’s fleet: As we were cruising down Long Island Sound at 24 knots a few days ago, the ride was so smooth, so quiet and so comfortable, that Sue Weisman, the owner’s wife who had just spent a busy day provisioning her new boat, went below to take a shower. She emerged 15 minutes later, smiling and happy. No fuss, no muss, no problems. A hot refreshing shower, just like home, at 24 knots. Don’t try this on many boats. “This…

Hinckley Planning New 40-foot Picnic Boat, Largest Yet

By Peter Janssen on September 28, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

When he announced plans for the new 40-foot Hinckley Picnic Boat at the Newport boat show recently, Mike Arieta, Hinckley’s CEO, said that “it’s been 23 years since we launched the first Picnic Boat. It’s rooted in what we do.” That is certainly the case. Indeed, the first Picnic Boat, a drop-dead gorgeous 36-foot, single-diesel, teak-laden dayboat, has become an icon of yacht design, copied around the world. I fell in love with the boat when I first tested it outside the Hinckley factory in Southwest Harbor, Maine, and so did thousands of other people. Hinckley’s Picnic Boat lineup now…

New Sabre 45 Salon Express Is Voted the People’s Choice in Newport. Here’s Why

By Peter Janssen on September 19, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The all-new Sabre 45 Salon Express just won The People’s Choice Award at the Newport International Boat Show, meaning that more people who paid to go to the show liked this classic Down East two-stateroom, two-head, user-friendly cruiser than any other boat there. And it’s easy to see why. From start to finish, this new built-in-Maine beauty is made for the way people cruise today. At 45 feet, with IPS joystick controls, it’s easy for a relatively new cruising couple, or a pair of old salts, to handle. They can live on it for a long time, cruising by themselves,…

New Hinckley Picnic Boat 37 MK111: Bigger, Better, Faster. See It at the Newport Show

By Peter Janssen on September 4, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The newest iteration of the iconic Picnic Boat, the new Hinckley 37 MK111 is larger, faster and more comfortable than ever before. The new 37 has all the gorgeous lines of the original, but it now offers a cruise speed of 32 knots and, powered by twin 370-hp Yanmar diesels and Hamilton jet drives, it tops out at 35 knots. Hinckley launched its first Picnic Boat, Dasher, in its yard in Southwest Harbor, Maine, in 1994. It was 36 feet long, driven by a single diesel and it had water jet drives, so that you wouldn’t snag a prop 0n…

Hampton Endurance 658: A Serious, Spacious, Long-Range Couple’s Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on August 30, 2017 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

A high-quality, unusually spacious, long-range cruising boat, the Hampton Endurance 658 is designed to be run by a couple, and it’s designed with redundant systems throughout to keep them safe at sea. And if they want to cruise with a large family, or entertain a crowd back in port, there’s plenty of room for that too. Walking through the Hampton Endurance 658, as my colleague George Day and I did in Newport, RI, this summer, is a treat, because the boat offers a lot of surprises. It is essentially a three-stateroom, two-head cruiser, but it also has a crew cabin,…

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