Boat Reviews

The Favors Downsize: Next Boat, a Ranger Tugs 25

By Peter Janssen on February 6, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

A lot of us (including myself) were certainly surprised when we learned that Jim and Lisa Favors put their beloved, and well-traveled, Ranger Tugs 29 Kismet up for sale last summer, without any explanation of what they would do next. After all, the Favors have been cruising most of their adult lives, most recently on Ranger Tugs, and have written about them extensively on their website, trailertrawlerlife. Now we know what comes next: A new Ranger Tugs, but the Favors are downsizing. Their next Ranger will be a 25, with a single 250-hp Yamaha outboard to give them more performance…

Windy Entering U.S. Market with Upscale Cruisers

By Peter Janssen on February 2, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Windy, the high-quality Swedish builder, just announced that it will bring its boats into the United States, working with Nautical Ventures, based in Fort Lauderdale. Windy was founded in 1966, with the stated goal of delivering “the best built boats in the world.” Its fleet of performance cruisers now runs from 27 to 46 feet. The first boat to enter the U.S. market will be its R44SX Blackhawk (see rendering, below), displayed at this fall’s Lauderdale show. For his part, Roger Moore, the CEO of Nautical Ventures, praised the “European-built Windy Boat brand with its reputation for quality and unmatched…

Eastern Boats Coastal 30 Cruiser, A New Flagship

By Peter Janssen on February 1, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Eastern Boats Coastal 30, the new flagship of the New Hampshire builder’s fleet, is a two-cabin, no-nonsense, 36-knot outboard-powered cruiser that’s ready for the Great Loop or just messing around the harbors and fishing grounds of the Northeast coast. Eastern Boats, which has been making smaller Down-East style boats since 1981, specializes in lobster-boat hulls that provide a stable platform for fishing and cruising. The new Coastal 30, however, is the first with a deep-V hull and 22 degrees of deadrise at the transom, designed to give a boost to its twin 250-hp Honda outboard performance. It’s an efficient hull…

New Sunreef 40 Diamond Edition Cat Now in Miami

By Peter Janssen on January 27, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The head-turning, eye-catching 40 Open Sunreef Diamond Limited Edition is now in Miami, and it’s bound to get a lot of attention even before you consider its 60-knot performance. Sunreef, the Polish builder of both power and sail luxury cats, says the new 40 Open Sunreef Power “is an ultra-dynamic day cruiser taking speed and elegance to a whole new level,” and who’s to argue with that. For the 40 Open Diamond Limited Edition, Sunreef worked with Jean Boulle Luxury (currently named Sun King Diamonds) and AGL Marine to apply Sun King Diamond Coating on the hull. Sun King Diamond…

Crewsaver Building 3 New Inflatables

By Peter Janssen on January 27, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Crewsaver, the well-established British supplier of marine safety and survival equipment, is entering the inflatable boat market. Part of Survitec, with a 60-year history, Crewsaver just announced that it is making three sizes of small inflatables, suitable for the tender or stand-alone boat market. “Survitec is well recognized as a leading rescue boat supplier to the commercial marine and defense industries,” said Matt Bridge, commercial director of Survitec. “As such, we are well positioned to transfer these technologies into an inflatable boat range for the leisure industry, helping to ensure a design and build quality that our customers can trust…

New Aquila 54 Power Cat: An Instant Hit

By Peter Janssen on January 25, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

It would be a considerable understatement to say that the new Aquila 54 Yacht Power Catamaran is a hit right out of the box. Indeed, the big new Aquila has already been nominated as a finalist for the Multihull of the Year Award, and it hasn’t even officially been launched yet. But it’s easy to see why the judges choose the Aquila. Lex Raas, the president of Aquila product development, says that the 54 “breaks new boundaries, bow to stern, on a boat of this size.” He said it has “integrated hull bulbs, optional fully enclosed flybridge, Portuguese bridge, choice…

New Prestige 630 Sport Flybridge: Light-Filled and Elegant

By Peter Janssen on January 25, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Prestige 630 Sport Flybridge is a light-filled contemporary cruiser with an elegant French touch and a 30-knot top speed from twin Volvo IPS950 pod drives. Below, the yacht has three staterooms, all with en suite heads, and the mid-ship, full-beam master has a private entrance from the salon. On the main deck, there are social and entertaining centers from stem to stern, and up top, the low, set-back flybridge is home to another social area, complete with a grill, in addition to the upper helm. On its website, Prestige says the 630 has “a refined, luxurious interior and…

Wave Piercing 75-Foot Explorer Yacht For Sale

By Peter Janssen on January 24, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

If you think you might run into some heavy seas on your next cruise (or even on the cruise after that), you might want to take a look at Enmer, a 75-foot explorer yacht that’s built to handle them all. Enmer in a 2019 version of a 75-foot, 44-knot Safehaven Marine XSV20 that’s built to go anywhere in the world. The front windshield is supposed to be bulletproof: It’s made of inch-thick ballistic glass. The hull is designed to blast through waves offshore, not riding over the top. The hull is reinforced with carbon fiber and Kevlar, and it has…

New Electric 3400 Herley Power Cat with 2,500 nm Range

By Peter Janssen on January 20, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Herley Boats, the New Zealand builder, just launched a new electric, aluminum Herley 3400 power cat with a range of 2,500 nm at 8 knots. The new Herley is silent, and has minimal impact on the environment. It runs on solar/electric or diesel power. Its top performance comes from running on electric and diesel simultaneously. Running on its battery alone, the boat travels at 6 knots for six hours. But it has a “range extender” that includes a 120kW permanent-magnet diesel generator that provides the 2,500 nm maximum range. The electric drive comes from twin 100kW motors that can propel…

First Swan Powerboat: 55-Knot, 40-foot, Swan Shadow

By Peter Janssen on January 19, 2021 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Nautor Swan just announced the debut of its first powerboat, the 40-foot Swan Shadow, with the same elegant, minimalist design that the famed Finnish builder has been using in its sailboats for generations. The new Swan Shadow is a bit faster than previous Swans. Indeed, with optional triple 350-hp Mercury Verados outboards, it tops out at 55 knots. Leonard Ferragamo, the Nautor Swan president, says the company had been thinking about making a powerboat for years, “but we always resisted this temptation until we really felt we had something really special and unique to present.” “We wanted to create something…

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