Browsing: Sabre Yachts

Boat Reviews
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Sabre Starting Work on New 31-Knot 58 Salon Express. Stay Tuned

Sabre Yachts is working on a new three-stateroom 58 Salon Express that it plans to launch early next fall. The new Down East cruiser will be powered by Volvo IPS950 pod drives and is expected to top out at 31 knots and cruise at 27 knots. The tooling is now underway. The hull mold will be delivered to the Sabre factory in Raymond, Maine, from the tooling shop in Rhode Island soon, with the deck tooling not far behind. When it’s completed, the Sabre 58 will be delivered in the water in Portland. The new 58 is designed to replace…

On Watch
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On Watch

We Test the New, Prize-Winning Back Cove 34O: A Fast, Fun and Game-Changing Couple’s Cruiser By Peter A. Janssen I nailed it. As I jammed the throttles all the way forward, I realized this isn’t your father’s Back Cove. Actually, it isn’t like any other Back Cove ever, and I’ve driven every new model since Back Cove introduced its first one, a 29, in 2003. Back then, Sabre Yachts created Back Cove as a single-diesel, low-maintenance, user-friendly Down East cruising boat. But now, on this brand-new Back Cove 34O, all that was ancient history. Powered by twin 300-hp Yamaha outboards,…

Boat Reviews
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We Test the New, Prize-Winning Back Cove 34O: A Fast, Fun and Game-Changing Couple’s Cruiser

I nailed it. As I jammed the throttles all the way forward, I realized this isn’t your father’s Back Cove. Actually, it isn’t like any other Back Cove ever, and I’ve driven every new model since Back Cove introduced its first one, a 29, in 2003. Back then, Sabre Yachts created Back Cove as a single-diesel, low-maintenance, user-friendly Down East cruising boat. But now, on this brand-new Back Cove 34O, all that was ancient history. Powered by twin 300-hp Yamaha outboards, the Back Cove simply took off. As the props dug in, there was a bit of bow rise and…

On Watch
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On Watch

Newport Show Opens with More Great Looking – and More Powerful – Boats than Ever Before By Peter A. Janssen The Newport show, the first of the fall boat show season, just opened, with more boats than ever before and, to my mind, more great-looking and great-performing boats than ever before. The brand-new Palm Beach 50GT, for example, just launched for the show, is boating eye-candy writ large, with a head-turning sapphire blue hull, low profile, drop-dead gorgeous tumblehome and curves everywhere. The fact that it tops out a 42 knots, driven by twin 600-hp Volvo IPS800s, is just icing…

Cruising Life
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Sabre 45 Salon Express and Carver C34 Coupe Win Awards for Top New Products of 2018

The Sabre 45 Salon Express (above), already voted winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Newport International Boat Show in September, has just scored another honor. It’s been named a Top Product in Boating Industry magazine’s list of top 50 new products for 2018. The Carver C34 Coupe was the only other cruising boat on the list, which includes everything from new boats and electronics to apps. The magazine said all the winners were chosen for their innovation and impact on the industry. Here’s what the magazine had to say about the Sabre and the Carver: Sabre 45 Salon Express…

On Watch
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On Watch

Maine Builder Back Cove Planning Its First Outboard-Powered Boat, a 34O, with Twin 300-hp Yamahas By Peter A. Janssen There’s big news this week from Back Cove, the Maine company that’s been building single-engine, diesel-powered cruising boats since 2003: It is now working on the Back Cove 34O, and the O stands for outboard power, as in two 300-hp Yamahas. The boat will be ready for sea trials in August and will make an appearance at the fall shows. This is a big change for Back Cove, which is part of Sabre, and an acknowledgement that the market, even for…

On Watch
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On Watch

Report from Newport: “Best Show Ever,” “Outstanding” and “Fantastic” By Peter A. Janssen The first show of the fall season, the Newport International Boat Show can serve as a bellwether for the coming year. And this year all the signs were good.  Many new boats were introduced at the show – the Grand Banks 60, Sabre 45 Salon Express, Hinckley Dasher all-electric boat, MJM 35Z, Nordhavn 59 Coastal Pilot, Outer Reef 610, Beneteau Swift Trawler 35, and Hampton Endurance 658, among them. Nancy Piffard, the show director, said attendance was up 10 percent over the previous year. The show “was…

Boat Reviews
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New Sabre 45 Salon Express Is Voted the People’s Choice in Newport. Here’s Why

The all-new Sabre 45 Salon Express just won The People’s Choice Award at the Newport International Boat Show, meaning that more people who paid to go to the show liked this classic Down East two-stateroom, two-head, user-friendly cruiser than any other boat there. And it’s easy to see why. From start to finish, this new built-in-Maine beauty is made for the way people cruise today. At 45 feet, with IPS joystick controls, it’s easy for a relatively new cruising couple, or a pair of old salts, to handle. They can live on it for a long time, cruising by themselves,…

Cruising Life
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The Prestons: Cruising Up the Bay of Fundy, Not Giving in to Parkinson’s

Bob and Becky Preston are now cruising off Roque Island, all the way up the coast of Maine, just short of Campobello Island and the Canadian border. So far, they’ve cruised 542 nm this summer on their Sabre 48, Family Ties 3, and they’re still going strong. The Prestons are certainly dedicated cruisers. But what makes their cruising remarkable is that Bob has had Parkinson’s Disease for the past ten years; he just had serious surgery this spring. And he’s still cruising. Actually, Preston has been boating since he was six months old and his father took him out on…

On Watch
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On Watch

Claret Red? Awlcraft Shark? Owners Make Individual Statements Even on Traditional Down East Boats By Peter A. Janssen Most Sabre Yachts, of course, come with blue hulls, in keeping with their classic, Down East heritage. But times may be changing. We couldn’t resist a second, or third, look at this new Sabre 45, photographed by our friend Billy Black, off Nahant, Mass., on the North Shore above Boston. The hull is Claret Red. The picture reminded me of the color of hull number one of Dirigo, the 66-foot Sabre flagship, which was an eye-opening combination of blue and gray with…