Boat Reviews

Archipelago Unveils New Explorer with Helipad

By Peter Janssen on May 15, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Archipelago just announced that it’s building a new 80-foot explorer yacht that’s designed to go anywhere in the world. The diesel-electric hybrid catamaran has an optional helipad on the roof and room for a 20-foot submarine in the garage. The new 80 will be the British company’s flagship when it’s completed at the Chartwell yard. The hull is based on Chartwell’s line of ships built for the commercial offshore wind industry. Dr. Stephen Weatherley, Archipelago’s founder, said the first hull is being built for “a visionary owner” who shares the company’s “passion for pursuing the boundaries of boating.” The new…

New Sport Utility Yacht from Antonini Navi

By Peter Janssen on May 13, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

If you don’t want to leave anything behind while you’re exploring the oceans of the world, take a look at the new expedition yacht now being built by Antonini Navi. The large Italian yard says its new 143-foot yacht is meant to serve as a yachting version of an automotive Sport Utility Vehicle, so Antonini Navi calls it simply SUY (for Sport Utility Yacht) 135. Powered by twin 1,029-hp MANs, SUY 135 has a range of 4,000 nm at 10 knots; top speed: 16 knots. The SUY 135 is the first in a new line of expedition yachts from Antonini…

Galeon Launches Creative 560 Fly

By Peter Janssen on May 13, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Galeon has just launched its new 560 Fly, an innovative flybridge cruiser with extensive side glazing and terraces that drop down from the salon sides so you can have a breakfast coffee or an evening cocktail overlooking the water. Designed by Britain’s Tony Castro, the Galeon 560 Fly is a 32-knot cruiser with a lot of creative touches inside and out. Most notable: a port side terrace that drops down to extend the beam from 15’ 10” to 22’ 4”; it comes with two plug-in stools and a window opening to the aft galley. It’s also made of reinforced glass…

Saxdor Unveils New 460 GTC Flagship

By Peter Janssen on May 12, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Saxdor, the creative Finnish builder, just announced that it’s planning a new 460 GTC flagship, with the company’s usual twin-stepped hull but with three Mercury Verado outboards for power. Like the previous flagship, the 400 that Saxdor launched at the Cannes Yachting Festival last September, the new 46-footer will have a full-width wheelhouse with sliding doors on each side that open to drop-down balconies that extend to about a third of the hull length. The balconies have large glass inserts, providing a view of the water even when they’re upright. In the down position, the balconies are the same level…

Apreamare Launches Classic Gozzo 38 Cabin

By Peter Janssen on May 9, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

If you think a lot of new boats tend to look the same, consider the new Italian-built Gozzo 38 Cabin that carries the lines of Italian fishing boats plying the waters off Sorrento in 1849. Just launched at the Apreamare factory in Naples, the new all-weather Gozzo 38 Cabin will be cruising in northern Europe until its public unveiling at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September. The Apreamare Gozzo 38 Cabin is a larger and more protected version of the company’s Gozzo 35, with more room inside and a deckhouse, surrounded by windows for visibility all around, that will ensure…

New Delphia 11 Hybrid Family Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on May 8, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The new Delphia 11 Sedan from the Beneteau Group is a no-nonsense, practical family cruiser with electric or diesel power that’s designed for inland lakes and waterways. The Sedan has a fully enclosed wheelhouse and two cabins and one head below. Power comes from a single 110-hp Volvo diesel with shaft drive or a 55kW Torqeedo electric motor with 38kWh battery capacity. The full displacement hull carries a squared-off bow so there’s lots of space and headroom in the master cabin below. Top speed is about nine knots under diesel power and about 6.5 knots under electric. The Sedan has…

New Evo R4 WA: Just Keeps Growing

By Peter Janssen on May 7, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

If you missed the Italian-made 43-foot Evo R4 WA at the recent Palm Beach show, you can still catch it as the Venice show that starts at the city’s historic Arsenal on May 29. But wherever you find it, the uber-modern Evo, devoid of things like stand-up cleats and railings that might interrupt its clean lines, is bound to turn a lot of heads. And that’s before you push a button and deploy the bulwarks from both sides aft, or push another one and the transformer-type stern opens up and unfolds a terrace down to water level. The concept of…

Selene 72: Big Blue-Water Cruiser

By Peter Janssen on May 7, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The Selene 72 Ocean Explorer ticks a lot of the boxes for safe and comfortable blue-water cruising. Designed by Guido de Groot in the Netherlands and Howard Chen and his Selene Design Studio in Taiwan, the big Selene has a modern-styled raised pilothouse, Portuguese bridge and high bulwarks for safety, wide side decks, large side windows to provide lots of interior light, and an upper flybridge. The aft deck and side decks are covered for weather protection. Doors on both sides of the pilothouse open to the side decks and the Portuguese bridge, which has a large settee set across…

Coming: New Light-Filled Prestige F5

By Peter Janssen on May 6, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

Prestige, the upscale French builder, just announced that it’s making a new 57-foot F5 flybridge motoryacht, a larger version of the 50-foot F4 that it launched at the Cannes Yachting Festival last September. The new F5 has the same styling as the F4, but with even more glazing in the salon and in the hull sides for the lower accommodations deck. Indeed, the salon sides have almost full-height glass side windows, forward and aft; on the starboard side, they’re separated by a sliding glass door in the middle, designed to give the captain immediate access to the side deck. The…

Photo by Will Ricketson

Iconic Shelter Island Runabout: Now with Outboards

By Peter Janssen on May 2, 2024 Boat Reviews, Cruising Life

The iconic Shelter Island 38 Runabout, which got a lot of attention when Billy Joel launched hull number one in 1996, is now being built with outboards. The original boat had twin 415-hp MerCruisers with Bravo 3 drives and counter-rotating props, delivering the “Newport by lunch” speed that Joel wanted. More recent versions have been powered by 370-hp Yanmar diesel sterndrives, topping out at 45 knots. Now, with twin 300-hp Mercury Verados, the top speed is about the same, but the outboards are quiet, and they can be lifted up for running in shallow water. Almost 30 years ago, the…

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