Boat Reviews

All-New, High-Style, Electric Runabout from Italy

By Peter Janssen on November 29, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Persico Marine and Zagato, the Italian automotive design house, just announced that they’re building a Persico Zagato 100.2 all-electric, limited-edition runabout with a state-of-the-art pod drive. The new boat will be 26 feet long and weigh just 5,511 pounds, since it’s built with advanced composites. It could fit on a trailer, although you probably won’t see many at your local launch ramp. It was unveiled at a video presentation at Zagato’s Milan headquarters, where Andrea Zagato, the company’s CEO, said, “The project started from a shared concept: the idea that the boat should be a collector’s item,” and it would…

SILENT Launches New All-Electric Tender

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

SILENT-YACHTS, the innovative Austrian company, just launched its first all-electric, 13-foot Tender 400, the start of a new series to serve the company’s solar-powered catamarans and anyone who wants a tender that’s totally quiet and leaves no carbon footprint behind. The Tender 400 is designed to the same standard as the company’s 60- and 80-foot catamarans, and is meant to be light, fast, and silent, just like the motherships. It can be connected directly to the larger yachts for recharging. The tender comes with either electric outboard or electric waterjet drive propulsion with up to 30kW of power and a…

New Ocean Sport 30 with Outboard Power

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new outboard-powered Ocean Sport 30, from the makers of Nordic Tugs, is a no-frills, ocean-going boat with a turn of speed and long legs with some hard-to-categorize appeal. The Ocean Sport 30 was originally launched with sterndrives until Nordic beefed up the transom and introduced it with twin 350-hp Mercury Verado outboards. It also was meant as an offshore fishing machine. To my mind, at least, it now could serve just as well as an adventure boat or even a couple’s cruising boat. It has a standard V-berth forward to sleep two adults, a convertible dinette opposite the helm…

VisionF Building Wide-Beamed 60-Foot Cat

By Peter Janssen on November 28, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

VisionF Yachts, the relatively new Turkish builder, just announced that they’re working on a new VisionF60 catamaran, designed in house and built of fiberglass. VisionF was started in 2019 and launched its first boat, the VisionF 80 cat, in November, 2020 with an aluminum hull. The new 60 has the same clean, sporty lines as the original, and carries its 33-foot beam all the way from the bow to the stern, creating supersized living and entertaining spaces on the main deck and even up on the flybridge. The company says the 60 has a draft of just 2’ 1”, fully…

Nimbus Launches 26-foot Commuter

By Peter Janssen on November 16, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Nimbus, the fast-growing Swedish builder, has launched its new Commuter 8, a 26-foot, single-outboard boat that’s made for year-round cruising. The new C8 is the third, and smallest, entry in Nimbus’ Commuter fleet, after the C9 (30 feet) and C11 (40 feet). Jonas Göthberg, the Nimbus commercial director, said “With the C8, we reach a broader audience, partly because it has a lower price tag, but also because of its smaller size.” The C8, he said, can fit into snug harbors where larger boats might not fit, and it also can be trailered. The C8 is powered by a single…

Cruisers Intros 50 GLS with 3 600-hp Verados

By Peter Janssen on November 16, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Cruisers Yachts just introduced its new 50 GLS luxury sport cruiser at the recent Fort Lauderdale show, powered by three 600-hp Mercury Verado outboards. The new cruiser is the largest in the company’s GLS sport line that starts at 34 feet. It’s a two-cabin, one- head boat, with large, open spaces fore and aft. The aft deck, which can be covered by an extendable awning overhead, has an unusually large amount of open space, particularly when the two balconies are deployed from the bulwarks on each side. Even with the outboards, the swim platform is large enough that there’s room…

EXTRA’s New X99Fast Heading for Miami

By Peter Janssen on November 16, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

EXTRA Yachts just launched its first X99Fast yacht in Ancona, Italy. EXTRA says it has Americanized the new 43-knot yacht, and it will be heading for Miami. The new EXTRA was designed by Guida, and the naval architecture was by Palumbo Superyachts. The X99 Fast can hold up to ten guests in four cabins, plus four crew in two cabins. The galley is aft in the salon, concealed behind a glass partition that can be raised or lowered for privacy. It leads to a large aft deck that slopes down to the water. Twin balconies can be lowered from the…

Outer Reef Updates Its Popular 650 Classic

By Peter Janssen on November 10, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Outer Reef is re-engineering its 650 Classic Motoryacht, a size range that’s popular with cruising owner-operators. The updates include many trends that American owners have desired on their yachts in recent years. Outer Reef has been making the 650 for more than a decade, and Jeff Druek, the builder’s president and CEO, said they considered feedback from existing and potential owners before re-engineering the 650. Many of the changes have already been incorporated in the Outer Reef 700 Classic, one of the company’s most popular models. But some owners prefer a slightly smaller yacht than the 700 for a variety…

Bluegame Unveils New Power Cat Lineup

By Peter Janssen on November 9, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Bluegame just announced that it’s building a new line of luxury multihull yachts, called BGM, that will start with a highly creative 75 and include Volvo’s hybrid diesel-electric powertrain. Bluegame, part of Italy’s Sanlorenzo Group, unveiled plans for the new BGM75 at the Cannes Yachting Festival; the boat is scheduled to be ready for the same event next September. It was designed by Philippe Briand, the London-based, performance-oriented naval architect. The idea was to create the space and efficiency of a multihull with the style of a monohull. The BGM75 has a relatively narrow beam for a 75-foot power cat,…

Longreach 44 Power Cat “Ticks All the Boxes”

By Peter Janssen on November 9, 2022 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Looking for a long-range, comfortable power catamaran, an experienced cruising couple from Las Vegas have just bought a Longreach 44 in Australia. They plan to take delivery next spring and keep the boat in Seattle in the summer and San Diego in the winter. The couple, Chad and Maren Schwartz, filmed a video with Longreach at the Sydney boat show. (A new company, Longreach is based just outside Sydney.) They said they originally wanted to cruise around the world, but had trouble finding the right boat. They decided they wanted a catamaran platform for its comfortable ride. About four years…

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