Boat Reviews

BMW Planning Electric-Powered Boat

By Peter Janssen on April 25, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

BMW and Tyde, a high-tech German startup, just announced that they’ll unveil a new luxury electric-powered boat at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17. The two companies said they have developed the new boat under “strict secrecy” and would not divulge any details, except to say that its name is Icon and that it would have zero emissions. Icon, it turns out, was developed by BMW’s Designworks studio, and it will have a futuristic look. It also will take some cues from BMWs i car line, using BMW’s green technologies. The new boat will be designed to the highest…

Mochi 44: New England Lines, Italian Style

By Peter Janssen on April 25, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Mochi-Craft 44, the Italian version of a New England lobster boat, was first launched almost two decades ago. But the new version, with its Coral Red hull and twin 600-hp Cummins diesels, is still turning heads on both sides of the Atlantic. Mochi dates its origins to the early 1960s and the port of Pesaro on the Adriatic. For a while it made flybridge yachts, but in 2001 the Ferretti Group bought it, moved it to nearby Forli, and launched a new line called the Dolphin. Today, the Mochi-Craft line runs from the 44 up to a 74. The 44…

Archipelago Launching Methanol-Powered Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on April 23, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Archipelago zero.63, built by Chartwell Marine on the Isle of Wight, aims to become the first expedition-class, recreational boat using methanol power. A relatively new British company, Archipelago launched its first boat, an aluminum-hulled 47 power cat with twin 420-hp Iveco diesels, a 30-knot top speed and a 3,000-nm range, just last summer. Now it wants to bring the methanol-powered version to market, estimating it will have a 20-knot top speed and a 4,000-nm range. The new cat will be powered by a combination of a methanol-reforming system and a methanol combustion engine. It will have a dedicated…

A New Look at U-Boat Worx’s 123-foot Sub

By Peter Janssen on April 19, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

We usually deal with boats that go on top of the water, and cruising boats that are owner-operated, to boot. But U-Boat Worx, the Dutch submarine builder, just released some renderings of its 123-foot Nautilus, and they’re just too good not to share. U-Boat Worx says that Nautilus is “the ultimate adventure vessel” because it’s both a luxurious superyacht on the surface and a submarine that can dive down to 650 feet below the surface, carrying up to 10 passengers and seven crew. Power comes from a series of diesel/electric motors ad a 1,200kWh battery pack. Nautilus was designed in…

Silent Launches New All-Electric Tender

By Peter Janssen on April 19, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Silent Yachts, the creative Austrian builder of solar-powered catamarans, just launched its first all-electric tender, a 13’ 1” Silent Tender 400 that holds six people and can hit a top speed of 20 knots. With a carbon fiber hull, the Silent Tender weighs just 199 pounds, so it can fit on the swim platform of a Silent 60, the company’s smallest cat. The tender also replicates some of the 60’s styling, with angular lines, a lowered bulwark, and a black-and-white finish. The hull is surrounded by a stripe of rubber coating; the company says it resembles the signature window stripe…

Lazzara Building Luxury 70 Power Cat

By Peter Janssen on April 18, 2023 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Lazzara Yachts of Tampa is building its first 70 LPC luxury power cat for an owner who wants to cruise the Med. The new Lazzara has some nice luxury touches, including the pool on the upper deck, a full-beam (29 feet) master stateroom with a balcony that folds out of the hull on the starboard side, and glazing all around the main deck to provide spectacular views in every direction. The 70 will be powered by twin 1,000-hp Volvo IPS1350 pod drives, producing a top speed of 28 knots, a cruising speed of 18 knots, and a range of 1,000…

Italy’s Fiart 43 Seawalker: Now in the U.S.

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

The Italian-made Fiart 43 Seawalker was something of an eye-catching standout at the recent Palm Beach show, with its plumb stem, low lines and post-modern European design. Although it’s relatively new to the U.S., Fiart is a well-known name in Europe. The company was founded on the Gulf of Naples in 1960. Since then, it’s designed 150 different models and built thousands of boats that were sold across the continent. Fiart now has offices in Spain, France, Croatia, Turkey and Israel. It is represented here by YachtCreators in Fort Lauderdale. The 43 is the flagship of Fiart’s Seawalker line. It’s…

Maritimo To Launch Two New 75s

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

Maritimo will hold the global launches of its new M75 and S75 luxury motor yachts at the Sanctuary Cove boat show in Australia on May 25. The M75, pictured here, is the flybridge version, while the S75 is the sport version of the latest in Maritimo’s highly regarded lineup of made-in-Australia, blue-water cruising yachts. Both have supersized beach clubs aft for lounging, entertaining and enjoying water sports. Made to be the leader of Maritimo’s fleet, the M75 has the space, style, comfort and seakeeping ability to accommodate a family for an offshore cruising vacation. It has four cabins, including a…

New ALVA 90: No Fossil Fuel At All

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

ALVA Yachts keeps pushing the envelope, building bigger and more high-tech solar/electric yachts. Its latest is a 90-foot luxurious solar/electric catamaran superyacht that gets additional clean power from hydrogen and wing sails. ALVA, a German company founded just three years ago, says its new OCEAN ECO 90 H2, currently in production, will be the first superyacht to run without any fossil fuel at all, with silent, sustainable power and zero emissions. The new 90 H2 will be launched late next year and it should have virtually unlimited range. Standard power for the new yacht comes from two 250-kW electric motors,…

Candela Building Foiling Electric Center Console

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

Candela just announced that it’s building a new 29-foot foiling boat that it says will be the first all-electric center console in the world. The new C-8 CC uses the same high-tech platform as the Candela Daycruiser that was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January. Candela says the Daycruiser is now the best-selling electric boat in the world, with more than 150 orders. An innovative Swedish builder, Candela now wants to enter the center-console market, the largest segment in the U.S., with more than 50,000 boats sold last year. The C-8 CC has two seats…

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