Browsing: Grand Banks

On Watch
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Grand Banks Launches New Eastbay 60 in Newport

GB Marine Group just introduced its new Eastbay 60, an elegant, three-stateroom sedan with the company’s patented V-Warp hull and a top speed of 38 knots, at the Newport show. The new cruiser is the eighth model in the line since Eastbay launched its first boat, an Eastbay 38, in 1993. That boat had a C. Ray Hunt hull. Now all of the yachts in the GB Marine Group – Grand Banks, Palm Beach and Eastbay – have the V-Warp hull for comfort, range and speed. And they are all made at the rapidly expanding GB Marine Group yard in…

Cruising Life
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Bumfuzzle: After Covid, Cruising Again

When we last wrote about the Schulte family (Pat, Ali, and their daughter, Ouest, 11, and son, Lowe, 9) a year ago, they were heading for Aruba on their 1984 Grand Banks 42 Bumfuzzle. They had been cruising in the Caribbean ever since they bought the boat in Florida in 2017. After Aruba, they planned to head for Colombia, and then…who knows. But Covid intervened. As nation after nation shut down, or adopted protocols not exactly welcoming to foreign cruising families, they left the boat in Aruba and flew home to the U.S. Now, they’re back in Aruba, and they’ve…

Boat Reviews
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Grand Banks 85 To Debut at Palm Beach Show

Grand Banks will introduce its new 85 flagship at the Palm Beach show, starting March 24. The 85, with three times the volume of the popular Grand Banks 60, will be available for private viewing. Like the Grand Banks 60 and the 54, the new 85 has the company’s patented V-Warp, semi-displacement hull that results in a highly efficient performance that leaves only minimal wake behind. Powered by twin 1,000-hp Volvo IPS1350 pod drives and carrying 2,650 gallons of fuel, the 85 has a range of 1,000 nm at 21 knots. Hull number one of the 85 has three large…

On Watch
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Grand Banks Consolidates Its Three Brands

Grand Banks just announced that it’s consolidating its three brands – Grand Banks, of course, plus Eastbay and Palm Beach Motoryachts –  under the umbrella of the GB Marine Group. They will all be manufactured in Malaysia; Palm Beach moved there from Australia last year to join the other two brands. And they all will use Mark Richards’ V-Warp hull. Richards used it when it launched his first motoryacht, a Palm Beach 28, in 1998, and he’s been incorporating it on Grand Banks and Eastbays ever since Grand Banks bought out Palm Beach in 2014 and put him in charge…

Cruising Life
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The Williams, Veteran Cruisers, Buy a Grand Banks 60

Ken and Roberta Williams have a lot of blue-water miles under their hulls. Indeed, the Williams have crossed the Atlantic and the Pacific and cruised just about everywhere from Alaska to Turkey on their two Nordhavns, first a 62 and then a 68, both named Sans Souci. They sold the 68 a few years ago and spent last summer writing books. Ken’s was about Sierra On-Line, the computer-game company they started together and sold in 1996; Roberta’s was a historical novel about Ireland. But cruising beckoned. For their new boat, they downsized, to a Grand Banks 60 (pictured above), even…

On Watch
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Grand Banks Tests New 85 Long-Range Flagship

Now here’s a boat with a great attitude. Take a look at the running surface of the new Grand Banks 85 flagship on its maiden sea trial near Singapore (click on the link below for a short video). With its sharp bow and patented V-Warp hull, the boat is running almost flat, and leaving very little wake behind. All that’s due to the influence of Mark Richards, the world-class sailor (he’s won the grueling Sydney-Hobart race a record nine times) who’s the CEO of Grand Banks and its sister company, Palm Beach Motoryachts. Richards believes in high-tech solutions to boat-building,…

Charter
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Still Some Openings on NW Explorations Flotillas in Alaska

Northwest Explorations, the full-service adventure yacht company in Bellingham, Washington, just announced that they still have some openings left on their flotillas in Alaska this spring and summer. For many years, the company has organized flotillas up the Inside Passage to Alaska, but the border to Canada is still closed because of the Covid pandemic. If the border reopens, Northwest Explorations will hold a cruise to Princess Louisa starting June 18, and another to Desolation Sound on Sept. 24. But for now, it is organizing cruises that do not leave the state of Alaska. The first, from May 18 to…

On Watch
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Cruising Through Covid on “Our Own Little Island”

In a time of Covid, Patrick Schulte and his family seem to have found a good way to cope. They’ve been cruising, on their 1986 Grand Banks 42 named Bumfuzzle, around St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and they’re so content that they often don’t leave the boat – or the water – for long periods of time. “All we tend to do is on or in the water,” Schulte wrote on his blog, bumfuzzle.com. He and his wife, Ali, their daughter, Quest, 10, and son, Lowe, 9, have been living aboard Bumfuzzle since they bought it in Florida…

On Watch
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No Boat Shows? The Boats Will Come To You

No boat shows? No problem. Many of the traditional fall boat shows have been closed, or changed to virtual, on-line versions of their past lives, fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic. But boat companies are nothing if mobile, and if you can’t go to shows to see their new boats, they’ll bring their new boats to you. Or at least to a controlled space that’s relatively close to you. Here’s a look at what some of them are doing: Hinckley Yachts is hosting showcases in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Stamford, Connecticut, and Annapolis. These will be semi-private, limited-access events, using Hinckley…

Charter
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Spend a Night, or More, on a Grand Banks in Beaufort, NC

Jan and Lee Rychel finished the Great Loop in January, 2019, on their Grand Banks 46 Shangri-La, but they didn’t want to give up their lifestyle. In fact, they liked it so much they wanted to share it. So they opened an onboard B&B, called Bed & Breakfast On A Boat, in Beaufort, North Carolina, and they’ve now expanded it to include chartered overnight cruises and trawler training. The Rychels have been living on board since 2016, when Lee retired after more than 30 years in the home furnishing business. He had grown up on the Great Lakes and had…

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