Flying the FlagThe new 4300 Open has earned its place as the linchpin of Tiara’s open fleet.The wind blew steady from the east and pushed some hefty rollers toward the coast. Meanwhile, the outgoing tide ripped through the narrow confines of the Fort Pierce inlet, meeting those swells head-on. The resulting mess could be described as a confused headsea or as a
There are no second acts in American lives.” This famous quote from author F. Scott Fitzgerald buzzed in my head as I arrived at Old Port Marina in North Palm Beach, Florida, ready to board Friendship, a new Hinckley Picnic Boat MKIII. The 37-footer, a redesign, represented a second act of sorts for Hinckley, which defined the category when it launched its original 36-foot picnic boat in 1994.
Bad Weather WarriorThis 83-footer out-Punches Poseidon on a foul test day.The sky was as gray as a battleship, and raindrops the size of marbles fell so hard onto the wooden-plank dock beneath my feet that the water hit me coming down and bouncing back up. Winds were out of the northeast at 25-mph-plus, and waves were forming eight-foot vertical walls just outside
The evening’s peripherals were perfect. A few lights had begun twinkling along Plymouth’s quaint English shoreline. Great drafts of bracing salt air whooshed across our open Skyhatch, a mechanically actuated moonroof of sorts, through which a faint moon shone, at least on some of my longer beeline runs. And the rain had quit, leaving a sunset sky washed with amber and red.The
The sea off the coast of Genoa, Italy, glistened in the sun-bathed but crisp mid-October morning. I walked down the dock with the ancient city off to my starboard. At the quay to my port sat 60 feet of modern engineering: a flagship flying-bridge motoryacht from the French builder Prestige. While this builder’s parent company Jeanneau has a history in Europe almost as rich as Genoa’s
Oftentimes when a boatbuilder updates a line, it does so with just a few tweaks and alterations to previous models.Indeed, Benetti did just this with the Classic 121 (previously called the Classic 120) and Vision 145, when it debuted plans for its new semi-custom megayacht line at Cannes this year.However, the other five boats in the range, which is now called the Benetti Class, are brand
Performance. After spending two days onboard the Grady-White 366 Canyon in some wicked 20-knot-plus winds, I concluded that this word pretty much sums up this mammoth center console.The first and most obvious reason for this opinion came from the fact that my test vessel was outfitted with three, monster-size, 804-pound, 350-hp V8 Yamaha four-stroke outboards. Twin 350s are standard with
A lot of new boats will have debuted at this year’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show by the time this issue hits newsstands. Among the plethora of vessels, Horizon Yachts’ first Vision 74 CMY to arrive stateside stands out, due primarily to the sheer amount of integrated gear aboard. The boat is part of Horizon’s Green Initiative, and as such contains a number of eco-friendly features.
The Gulf of Maine was for a long time a haven for smugglers. As a result of its sparsely populated islands, lax border enforcement, and heavy fog, running goods across the Canadian border became a tradition that went back centuries. Barrels of flour numbering in the tens of thousands were shipped to New Brunswick during the 1808Jefferson’s embargo. Beginning around 1812 and continuing well past
There’s no replacement for skilledlabor. Anyone who’s ever held a jobdoesn’t need a lecture on the meritsof consistent leadership and the costsassociated with retraining andrehiring a work force. Few boatbuildersunderstand this as well asRegal, which currently employsmore than 100 workers who havebeen with the company for morethan 20 years. There’s a philosophy of continuity at Regal
Waiting for the bridge to Hillsboro Inlet off Pompano Beach, Florida, required about ten minutes of jockeying in a determined cross current. There was little wind, but the approach to this bridge is short, and it doesn’t leave a lot of room for error—a situation that could’ve quickly become “interesting.” I felt the current catch my sleek, low-profile, Euro-style test boat, the Newport 71 SS4,
What’s old is new again.How many times have you heard that phrase when news-channel talking heads are referring to music, art, and clothes? (Like when bell bottoms made a comeback? Ugh.) But unlike with fashion, it sometimes makes sense to revisit the past with boats. At least Hatteras Yachts thought so shortly after it launched its 77 Enclosed Bridge Convertible a few years
Fine dining tables are airily spaced throughout The Boatyard Bar and Grill, which is coated in the endemic red-and-white dcor of a Maryland crab house. Manila lines and painted pastel models of local vessels sit on long shelves, displayed as gentle beacons of Annapolis’ maritime heritage. “This is where we drew the first boat,” explains Eastport Yachts cofounder and sales manager Tom Weaver in
It wasn’t until I piloted the Altima 45 Euro Sedan up Fort Lauderdale’s New River that I began to appreciate this vessel’s close-quarter-handling characteristics.For those not familiar with the New River, it’s a heavily trafficked waterway—both by commercial and recreational vessels—about the width of my thumb and as deep as a pothole, with several blind turns, bridges, and other nautical
It’s up to the Army Corps of Engineers,” explained Kurt Dilworth, vice president of engineering at Tomco Marine in La Conner, Washington, which is about an hour north of Seattle. “They need to dredge this channel. The silt just eddies in.”We were returning against an outbound tide after my sea trial of the 49-foot American Tug, a coastal cruiser and Tomco Marine’s largest vessel to date.
Flying the FlagThe new 4300 Open has earned its place as the linchpin of Tiara’s open fleet.The wind blew steady from the east and pushed some hefty rollers toward the coast. Meanwhile, the outgoing tide ripped through the narrow confines of the Fort Pierce inlet, meeting those swells head-on. The resulting mess could be described as a confused headsea or as a
There are no second acts in American lives.” This famous quote from author F. Scott Fitzgerald buzzed in my head as I arrived at Old Port Marina in North Palm Beach, Florida, ready to board Friendship, a new Hinckley Picnic Boat MKIII. The 37-footer, a redesign, represented a second act of sorts for Hinckley, which defined the category when it launched its original 36-foot picnic boat in 1994.
Bad Weather WarriorThis 83-footer out-Punches Poseidon on a foul test day.The sky was as gray as a battleship, and raindrops the size of marbles fell so hard onto the wooden-plank dock beneath my feet that the water hit me coming down and bouncing back up. Winds were out of the northeast at 25-mph-plus, and waves were forming eight-foot vertical walls just outside
The evening’s peripherals were perfect. A few lights had begun twinkling along Plymouth’s quaint English shoreline. Great drafts of bracing salt air whooshed across our open Skyhatch, a mechanically actuated moonroof of sorts, through which a faint moon shone, at least on some of my longer beeline runs. And the rain had quit, leaving a sunset sky washed with amber and red.The
The sea off the coast of Genoa, Italy, glistened in the sun-bathed but crisp mid-October morning. I walked down the dock with the ancient city off to my starboard. At the quay to my port sat 60 feet of modern engineering: a flagship flying-bridge motoryacht from the French builder Prestige. While this builder’s parent company Jeanneau has a history in Europe almost as rich as Genoa’s
Oftentimes when a boatbuilder updates a line, it does so with just a few tweaks and alterations to previous models.Indeed, Benetti did just this with the Classic 121 (previously called the Classic 120) and Vision 145, when it debuted plans for its new semi-custom megayacht line at Cannes this year.However, the other five boats in the range, which is now called the Benetti Class, are brand
Performance. After spending two days onboard the Grady-White 366 Canyon in some wicked 20-knot-plus winds, I concluded that this word pretty much sums up this mammoth center console.The first and most obvious reason for this opinion came from the fact that my test vessel was outfitted with three, monster-size, 804-pound, 350-hp V8 Yamaha four-stroke outboards. Twin 350s are standard with
A lot of new boats will have debuted at this year’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show by the time this issue hits newsstands. Among the plethora of vessels, Horizon Yachts’ first Vision 74 CMY to arrive stateside stands out, due primarily to the sheer amount of integrated gear aboard. The boat is part of Horizon’s Green Initiative, and as such contains a number of eco-friendly features.
The Gulf of Maine was for a long time a haven for smugglers. As a result of its sparsely populated islands, lax border enforcement, and heavy fog, running goods across the Canadian border became a tradition that went back centuries. Barrels of flour numbering in the tens of thousands were shipped to New Brunswick during the 1808Jefferson’s embargo. Beginning around 1812 and continuing well past
There’s no replacement for skilledlabor. Anyone who’s ever held a jobdoesn’t need a lecture on the meritsof consistent leadership and the costsassociated with retraining andrehiring a work force. Few boatbuildersunderstand this as well asRegal, which currently employsmore than 100 workers who havebeen with the company for morethan 20 years. There’s a philosophy of continuity at Regal
Waiting for the bridge to Hillsboro Inlet off Pompano Beach, Florida, required about ten minutes of jockeying in a determined cross current. There was little wind, but the approach to this bridge is short, and it doesn’t leave a lot of room for error—a situation that could’ve quickly become “interesting.” I felt the current catch my sleek, low-profile, Euro-style test boat, the Newport 71 SS4,
What’s old is new again.How many times have you heard that phrase when news-channel talking heads are referring to music, art, and clothes? (Like when bell bottoms made a comeback? Ugh.) But unlike with fashion, it sometimes makes sense to revisit the past with boats. At least Hatteras Yachts thought so shortly after it launched its 77 Enclosed Bridge Convertible a few years
Fine dining tables are airily spaced throughout The Boatyard Bar and Grill, which is coated in the endemic red-and-white dcor of a Maryland crab house. Manila lines and painted pastel models of local vessels sit on long shelves, displayed as gentle beacons of Annapolis’ maritime heritage. “This is where we drew the first boat,” explains Eastport Yachts cofounder and sales manager Tom Weaver in
It wasn’t until I piloted the Altima 45 Euro Sedan up Fort Lauderdale’s New River that I began to appreciate this vessel’s close-quarter-handling characteristics.For those not familiar with the New River, it’s a heavily trafficked waterway—both by commercial and recreational vessels—about the width of my thumb and as deep as a pothole, with several blind turns, bridges, and other nautical
It’s up to the Army Corps of Engineers,” explained Kurt Dilworth, vice president of engineering at Tomco Marine in La Conner, Washington, which is about an hour north of Seattle. “They need to dredge this channel. The silt just eddies in.”We were returning against an outbound tide after my sea trial of the 49-foot American Tug, a coastal cruiser and Tomco Marine’s largest vessel to date.
