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In a way, Long Beach,
on the salty fringe of Los Angeles, is a paradoxical place. Home to hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of thoroughly modern military, commercial, and recreational
watercraft, it also shelters a veritable icon of seafaring tradition,
the Queen Mary. Indeed, as the majestic old Cunarder faded into my rear-view
mirror, lost in the mad scramble of California’s morning rush-hour
traffic, it struck me that Long Beach was probably the most appropriate
venue imaginable to wring out Grand Banks’ new flagship, the 64 Aleutian
Class yacht. A thoroughly modern amalgam of American design, Far Eastern
boatbuilding, and top-shelf equipage, the Aleutian yet retains an august
air of teaky seafaring tradition, undoubtedly in deference to Grand Banks’
long, proud heritage.
I got my first look
at the Aleutian behind the offices of Stan Miller Yachts, the Grand Banks
dealership in Long Beach. She was lying alongside a face dock with her
dramatically flared bow–the first such bow I’d ever seen on
a Grand Banks–pointed toward the Pacific. I studied her profile:
While the faux carvel planking below her shadow rail was reminiscent of
earlier models, almost every other element seemed either new or faintly
different. Most notable was the raised pilothouse format–a first
for Grand Banks, excepting the old Alaskan series woodies–with a
seaworthy Portuguese bridge and seriously elevated foredeck. But there
were other first-ever features, like the radar arch, big superstructure
windows, squarish ports in the hull sides, and the visor-like brow over
the windshield, a signature touch from the boat’s designer, Tom Fexas
Yacht Design.
"Not your ordinary
Grand Banks, eh?" noted sales rep Bob Phillips as we climbed the
gangway. This observation, I soon discovered, was as true of the way the
boat was put together as it was of her appearance. Teak decks, for example,
were laid via a nifty new technique popularized by Florida’s Teak
Decking Systems–bungless planks are secured with "fitting epoxy,"
rather than screws that pierce and violate the integrity of laminates.
Also, the windows were a far cry from what Grand Banks has been doing
for years–larger, more stylish, and instead of framed with mahogany
or teak, bedded in Sikaflex glazing compound in fiberglass recesses. The
latter is another popular technique these days and one that nixes leak
problems and offers designers a freer hand with window shapes.
Getting underway handed
me yet another surprise: the near-panoramic visibility astern while maneuvering
from the lower helm station. Having sea-trialed a few motoryachts in the
50-plus size range over the past year, most with limited visibility from
this area, I was gratified to discover that while Phillips kicked the
stern away from the face dock, he could easily eyeball the starboard quarter
by simply turning to the right and looking back through the galley (with
its long see-through openings beneath two athwartship banks of suspended
cupboards) and the saloon. While his view of the port quarter was obstructed,
primarily because of a tall TV cabinet in the aft, port-side corner of
the saloon, he said future versions will offer a shorter cabinet, with
a retractable TV.
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