Boat Reviews

First Look: Outer Reef Launches 830 MY

By Peter Janssen on October 17, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Outer Reef just launched the first of its new 830 Classic Motoryacht series and is now shipping it from the factory in Taiwan to a young American couple who previously owned an Outer Reef 700 Classic. Wanting more room for entertaining, the new owners moved up in size, but were loyal to Outer Reef for its combination of craftsmanship, luxury and long-range cruising performance. Outer Reef has been building on its cruising pedigree lately. Two Outer Reef yachts have gone around Cape Horn, one with the company president, Jeff Druek, on board. The new 830 has a clean and contemporary…

Mathews Launches 40 Flybridge Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on October 16, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

I had an unexpected treat at the Annapolis show last week. Walking down the outer dock, a new 40-foot flybridge cruiser caught my eye. It had just enough of the lines of a classic trawler to remind me of my old much-beloved Grand Banks 36, but it was slimmer, newer, lighter. I was looking at hull number one of a Mathews Brothers 40 flybridge, the latest of the company’s “true Chesapeake boats,” a tough customer with an all-fiberglass hull made in the family’s yard in Denton, up the Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Mathews also makes a sedan version…

Boston Boatworks 44 Offshore Express

Boston Boatworks Unveils New 44 Express

By Peter Janssen on October 16, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Boston Boatworks has unveiled plans for its second Offshore Express model, a 44-footer, powered by twin Volvo D6s with Aquamatic Drives. It’s already started work on the first two hulls at its factory in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The new 44 comes a few months after Boston Boatworks introduced its first Offshore Express, a 52, made for an owner-operator. The Offshore Express series was designed by Doug Zurn, the Marblehead, Massachusetts, naval architect who’s worked with Boston Boatworks on several other boats in recent years, while Winch Design, the London firm that usually works on superyachts, has done the interiors. Boston Boatworks…

Absolute Building New Navetta 70

By Peter Janssen on October 12, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Absolute just announced that they’re making a new Navetta 70 that they’ll launch at the Cannes Yachting Festival next September. The new 70 represents a new direction for the Italian yard. The Navetta 70 will keep much of Absolute’s original architecture, including the open lateral gunwales, covered walkways, extensive glazing on the main and lower decks, fold-out terraces in the cockpit, high ceilings, and minimal use of steps to make moving around the yacht safe and easy. But now it will introduce a contemporary interior with bleached wood and bronze finishes, a larger galley, and an enlarged flybridge that’s a…

New Electric Frauscher x Porsche Just Launched

By Peter Janssen on October 11, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom Air was just launched at Lago di Garda in northern Italy for the first time. The innovative new 28-foot electric runabout uses powertrain technology from Porsche’s all-electric Macan, which is still under development. The Frauscher x Porsche comes with 400 kW of electric power and has a top speed of 46 knots. At its optimum cruising speed of 22 knots, the lithium-ion battery with a 100 kWh capacity lasts about an hour; the battery also comes from the Macan. The boat uses 80-volt technology for fast charging. The battery can be charged with…

Sirena 78 To Make Debut at FLIBS

By Peter Janssen on October 10, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Sirena 78, the upscale Turkish builder’s first enclosed-flybridge cruiser, will make its U.S. debut at the big Fort Lauderdale show starting Oct. 25. The new, four-cabin, 25-knot Sirena comes with an impressive pedigree. Germán Frers, the famed Argentine, designed the exterior, while Cor D. Rover, with his award-winning studio in The Netherlands, did the interior. Frers at first resisted the idea of the flybridge; it added weight up top. To compensate, he added five tons of ballast in the keel along the centerline. With twin 1,550-hp MANs and V-drives, the elegant new 78 tops out at more than 25…

Enata Unveils 40-knot Foiling Vatoz

By Peter Janssen on October 10, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Enata Group just unveiled its sleek new 32-foot luxury foiling boat Vatoz that can hit a top speed of 40 knots when it flies almost 5 feet above the water. The Vatoz uses two 370-hp diesels and “torpedo” drives for hydrostatic propulsion. The Vatoz foils, or flies, at 18 knots. It has a range of 190 nm at 20 knots and 150 nm at 30 knots. Enata is an international manufacturing company with headquarters in Dubai, and it uses its proprietary Wingman management system to operate the foils and “wings” on the Vatoz’ hull sides. The side wings provide…

Front Street Launches New Harbor 28

By Peter Janssen on October 9, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Front Street Shipyard in Belfast, Maine, just launched the first New Harbor 28, a modern version of the legendary Wasque 26, but now with outboard power. The New Harbor 28 is a modern take on an iconic design, usually attributed to John Alden. The Wasque (pronounced WAY-SQUEE) 26 was originally built with inboard power to handle the choppy waters around Vineyard Sound, first by Vineyard Yachts and more recently by C. W. Hood. For more than a decade, when Ed Sutt was living in Jamestown, Rhode Island, he dreamed about owning a Downeast boat. A year ago, when he was…

Archipelago Sells New 40 Expedition Yacht

By Peter Janssen on October 9, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Archipelago, the relatively new British builder of expedition-class power catamarans, just announced that they’ve sold the first hull of their new 40 with hybrid diesel/electric/solar power. The new 40, based on the company’s first boat, a 47, will be launched in early 2025. Dr. Stephen Weatherley, an experienced sailor with a PhD in astrophysics who founded the company two years ago, says the new 40 has taken everything in the 47 and made it a bit smaller: “Smaller engines, lower emissions, easier to berth, with all the capability and force needed to get you home after a day, a week,…

New North Pacific 450 Pilothouse Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on October 2, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

North Pacific has launched its new 450 Pilothouse, a two-stateroom, two-head serious cruiser. With the standard single 335-hp Cummins, the new 450 Pilothouse cruises at about 9 knots and tops out at 14 knots. A single 480-hp Cummins is an upgrade, and it you want twins, then North Pacific will be happy to oblige you. North Pacific says the new 450, with a more modern interior and exterior, builds on the success of its 43, the company’s first, and most popular, model. The interior displays satin-finished teak, and the drawers are all dove-tailed. The hull is laid up with solid…

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