Sebastjan Sitar had been thinking a lot about electric bicycles by the time his wife and daughters ran into trouble on the water. They were in a calm lagoon aboard stand-up paddleboards, having a great time, but they got tired and struggled to get back to shore. “If you are going uphill with a bike, you can say, ‘Enough! I don’t want to do this anymore,’ and you can get back,” Sitar says. “I thought there should be the same thing for the water, a safety motor assist.”

He created the company SipaBoards, which he launched with a Kickstarter campaign in 2015. Since then, more than 5,000 SipaBoards have been sold in 26 countries. A few months ago, the SipaBoards Drive Collection was unveiled with three updated board-and-power combos: the Neo ($3,255), Tourer ($3,900) and Allrounder ($3,900). Each has a new modular power-pack system that allows for quicker charging, in addition to a self-inflate system to ease the task of getting the boards ready to use.

“It’s so difficult to inflate the board if you are not super strong,” he says. “With this, you press two or three buttons, and the board is ready. It assists you.”

The whole system is controlled through a smartphone app or a Bluetooth-enabled remote. The newest boards, Sitar says, are 48 percent lighter than the original ones. And, he adds, the newest motor is a lot quieter.

“We work a lot on being as quiet as possible,” he says. “If you want to go on an early-morning paddle, you don’t want to hear the noise of starting up an engine.”

The most common question he receives from yacht owners is whether the battery technology is safe. SipaBoards locate the battery in a fire-resistant housing to prevent problems, he says, adding that other safety considerations have also been top of mind during the product development: “We did a lot to be as harmless as possible for water life, nature,” Sitar says. “We have a small jet that cannot hurt you, that doesn’t damage the environment.”

It all gives yacht owners and guests the option of adding a power-assist to their daily paddle. “You can still do a good workout if you want to,” he says, “but you also have this.”

The post SipaBoards Easy-to-Use Paddleboards appeared first on Yachting.

Nick leason is psyched to see that the sport of e-foiling is having a moment among boaters.

For more than a decade, the company he founded, Lift Foils, has been building and selling the toys that can be used pretty much wherever there is water. Mega-yacht owners and crew discovered e-foiling pretty quickly and have been adding the toys to their lazarettes for a number of years in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. But it’s only in the past year or so that Leason has seen a surge of interest from owners of yachts as small as 40 feet length overall.

“People are realizing that these don’t take up any space,” Leason says. If you have a tender or a personal watercraft, “you need a crane or a platform; you need infrastructure for that. These e-foils, I can fit it in a Mini Cooper. You can put it on any size boat, even if you’re buying a yacht in the 40- or 45-foot range.”

The increased interest is coming from outside the boating community too, including from beginners who want a more entry-level product. The New Lift3 F is Leason’s solution to that increased demand. It reduces the use of carbon fiber in the toy’s construction and instead adds materials, such as fiberglass, that still perform well but can take more of a beating from beginners at a lower price point overall.

“What’s also neat about the New Lift3 F is that it’s all modular,” he says, explaining that the toy can evolve along with the rider’s skills. “They can build off of that platform and spruce it up however they want.”

Related: Sailing World Expeditions is the go-to place for sailing adventures that fit your on-water lifestyle.

The cost savings for people who buy the toy is substantial. A fully kitted-out assembly from Lift Foils can run about $15,000, compared with the New Lift3 F’s starting price of $8,995, he says. It’s a price point that yacht owners are more comfortable with as they watch beginners get the hang of using the toy. “The fiberglass is really robust,” Leason says. “The aluminum mast is bomber. If you’re banging into things, these are more abuse tolerant.”

The modular design is also a feature that yacht owners and crew are gravitating toward. This is a toy that can be broken down for smaller stowage spots on board and then be put back together for use pretty quickly.

“The assembly is literally six screws,” Leason says. “It takes about five minutes to assemble or disassemble. It has carrying cases and bags. The board itself is no larger than 5½ feet by 30 inches wide, and the propulsion case sits right next to that with the battery.” By comparison, he adds, “a kayak’s huge. This is more like an inflatable kayak that packs down into a bag.”

Riders, he says, span the gamut in terms of age. The company is seeing everyone from teenagers to people in their 70s giving it a try, with most people being able to do a basic ride within about 30 minutes of starting a lesson. “We’ve gotten older people going on their first ride,” he says. “And my favorite thing about the e-foil is that it’s a family toy. It brings families together. Rarely does a family have one toy that the whole family enjoys. I think that’s pretty cool. Especially when people are going out on their yacht, they bought it because they want to get out there, and they hope the family will all make time in the schedule, so having the right toys is a big part of that.”

How It Works

This water toy is battery-powered. Riders manage the experience with a Bluetooth hand controller that displays the remaining battery life, and that lets riders switch between speed and performance settings. There are two choices of battery: a “light battery” that provides about 60  minutes of ride time and a “full-range battery” for about 100 minutes of ride time. The trade-off for adding that extra time is also adding weight, with the full-range battery packing an extra 7 pounds.

New Colors

Ice Blue and Sunset Peach are two newly available colors. Both boards are made of a fiberglass blend that’s crafted into an aerodynamic shape. The mast is built of 28-inch precision-milled aluminum. At the bottom of the mast are front and back wings. All the components are modular, for easier stowage and transport.

The post Lift Foils Makes E-Foiling Accessible with New Lift3 F appeared first on Yachting.

Make room in the lazarette next to the kayaks, dinghies and sea scooters. Wing-foiling gear is starting to show up aboard some superyachts as interest in the sport grows.

All kinds of combinations of boards and sails are available. For beginners, experts recommend starting with a product along the lines of the Starboard Wingboard 4-in-1, which is designed to help keep riders upwind—and can be used as a traditional paddleboard too. Pair it with the FreeWing GO wing, also for learning the basics, with easy-grip handles and construction meant to work in light wind.

The next level up in gear is the Starboard Wingboard Foil, which can be used by all skill levels, paired with the FreeWing Air, which has a modular system that can customize the ride as owners and guests get more comfortable with the sport.

The post Superyachts Adding Wing-Foiling Fun appeared first on Yachting.

About 20 years ago, Yachting ran an article with the title “Game Theory.” It explained that the way yachts were being outfitted for charter was changing. Prior to that time, most yachts available for charter carried water skis and snorkeling gear, and had a RIB as a tender for zipping around. Some yacht owners and captains back then were just starting to think bigger. “The trend is piling up as many toys as you can,” a charter broker said at the time. “They just want to have a full repertoire, a variety, something for everyone.”

Today, of course, that trend is now considered standard operating procedure for charter yachts worldwide, with guests expecting to find an arsenal of water toys ready for use at a moment’s notice. In the current environment of “the charter yacht with the most toys wins,” it takes a heck of a lot to stand out—which is why the 164-foot Heesen Arkadia is so noteworthy.

The yacht is a 2021 delivery from the Dutch yard that’s about to begin its first charter season in the Bahamas and Caribbean, after joining the Y.CO fleet this past August. And Arkadia is coming into the islands positively packed with water toys that, in some cases, are rare-gem finds.

“Our owner, he’s very active,” Capt. Jamie Farnborough says. “He’s up at 7 a.m. and normally running pretty hard until the sun goes down, and even then, he still wants to go night scuba diving. It’s an action-packed day. We wanted watersports equipment to cover [all the bases], every weather condition, and I think we’ve done that quite successfully.”

First and foremost on Arkadia’s list of standout tenders and toys is a 20-foot MasterCraft—a brand name that is uncommon among tenders in the superyacht realm. MasterCraft is a Tennessee company known for performance boats in the world of wakesurfing, waterskiing and wakeboarding. In the case of Arkadia, the MasterCraft tender makes all kinds of watersports possible.

“If it’s a super-flat, calm day, we have the MasterCraft to take people skiing or wakeboarding,” Farnborough says. “As soon as you get a little wind, we have kitesurfing gear for everything from 5 knots to 30 knots of breeze. We have the scuba-diving equipment, the wing foils—you name it, we’ve got it. If there’s a watersport to be done, we can accommodate it.”

He’s not exaggerating. Other toys on board include a Manta hydrofoil bike, for bicycling atop the water, and gear for taking charter guests wingfoiling. “It’s the new thing between windsurfing and kitesurfing,” Farnborough says. “It’s like an inflatable windsurfing sail, but you’re on a hydrofoil board. You’re out of the water, holding on to an inflatable wing, like an airplane.”

And yes, there are multiple instructors on board to teach charter guests how to do all this and more. “We’ve got kiteboarding instructors, diving instructors, professional kitesurfers on the boat,” he says. “We’re starting now to look at freediving. You come here, and we’ll guarantee that you’re going to leave this boat with some kind of new skill if you want to with watersports.”

All that activity, of course, also requires some serious relaxation and a good night’s sleep. The crew are prepared to offer just about any level of service that guests prefer: “They can dial the service up to be very high-end, or they can dial it down to a more country-club type of service,” Farnborough says. “It’s important because every charter guest is different. We gauge that pretty quickly.”

The chef too is trained to provide whatever standard of meals meet guest expectations. “We have a very talented chef who worked in pretty significant restaurants in South Africa, so he can dial in on what you’re looking for,” Farnborough says. “If you want to indulge in rich foods, we can do that. If you want to be super-healthy, we can do that too.”

Arkadia has overnight accommodations for 10 charter guests in five staterooms, including a full-beam master forward on the main deck. Each of the four guest staterooms belowdecks is en suite, and there are additional quarters for nine crew.

The interior decor is largely by Reymond Langton, which Heesen tasked with creating a contemporary, comfortable space that would appeal to a wide range of potential buyers for the spec-built yacht. Appealing to a wide range of people is, of course, also an excellent quality in a charter yacht, and Bannenberg & Rowell later contributed some touches to the decor at the owners’ request, to add some of their personal tastes. The result is guest spaces largely focused around calming tones with rounded shapes, punctuated by occasional pops of color in pillows, vases and bespoke works of art. Much of the lighting that was installed during the build is indirect, softly adding to the natural light that comes through the windows (some of them sole to ceiling in size).

Heesen also built Arkadia to cruise long distances, so all those water toys can get a workout in exhilarating diving and boarding destinations around the world. Arkadia’s steel hull is a full-displacement, round-bilge design that has what the builder calls a drag-cheating bulbous bow. Top speed is reportedly 15 knots, with a transoceanic range of 3,800 nautical miles at an economical 12 knots.

Farnborough says the crew makes the most of the boat’s cruising capabilities with an enhanced navigation package at the helm. “We’ve set the boat up specifically for off-the-beaten-path cruising,” he says. “We have a lot of different chart options and tools for cross-referencing. I can get this boat to pretty remote places on the planet where they might not see another human being for a week. That’s a really special thing to be able to do.”

And at anchor, even in choppy locations, Naiad zero-speed stabilizers should help keep everyone comfortable on board.

Arkadia’s owner is American, so the yacht is expected to spend summers in the Bahamas, and winters in the Bahamas and Caribbean. Given that the owner’s family is quite active, Y.CO is marketing the boat as ideal for families or groups of friends who want to have “maximum fun on the water.” The lowest weekly base rate is $275,000, with a holiday weekly rate this winter of $295,000.

Across the pond, meanwhile, Heesen continues to turn out new builds at a fast clip. Toward the end of August, the 164-foot Project Jade had its hull and superstructure joined, and its engines installed. Project Jade is an aluminum build capable of achieving 23 knots, with construction proceeding at a pace that should lead to delivery in April 2024.

Heesen also launched Project Gemini this past summer. Newly christened Reliance, that yacht is a 180-footer that also started life as a spec build, with the owner joining the project some 15 months into construction. Reliance also marks the Dutch yard’s first collaboration with the Italian firm Luca Dini Design, which helped adapt the yacht to the owner’s tastes.

Also in July, Heesen delivered the 164-foot Book Ends, which was known as Project Sapphire during its build process. Like Project Jade, Book Ends is an aluminum, fast-cruising design that the owner—who tapped Heesen for new builds two times in less than four years—calls “a race car” on the water.

And as if all that is not enough, earlier this year Heesen also delivered Lusine, a 196-foot fully custom commission that was known as Project Falcon in the shipyard. Sinot Yacht Design and Architecture was hired for that yacht’s interior decor, which the yard calls “one of the most complex interiors ever crafted by the artisans of Heesen Yachts Interiors, who enjoyed the challenge of working with rare woods, precious fabrics and exquisite leathers.”

All of which is to say that while Arkadia may be new to the charter fleet, the yacht is also part of a strong, diverse and continually growing Heesen fleet that comes with a pedigree built on solid construction, proven seaworthiness, and customized design that can match all kinds of ideas about how to achieve the ideal cruising lifestyle. Arkadia’s extensive watersports program is yet more proof that Heesen’s platforms, while often starting out as spec builds designed to appeal to a broad range of tastes, can be adapted to suit just about anything specific that yacht owners and charter clients might imagine themselves doing.

And yes, that includes anyone reading these pages who fancies himself or herself the world’s next great wakesurfing or kiting champion. The armada of toys and eager-to-teach crew aboard Arkadia really do inspire charter clients to go ahead and dream big. Imagine the adventure. Do some game-theory calculations to determine the best possible combination of activities to maximize a personalized vision of fun, and then book a week or two on board in the islands with Arkadia’s crew as the guide.

As the charter experts at Y.CO say, “her talented team on board, led by Capt. Jamie Farnborough, are ready to delight guests with their amazing ability to create holiday experiences that guests will remember forever.” Or, at least until the next season, when there will be a chance to make new memories all over again.

Boarding Heaven

Many charter yachts carry inflatable or standard paddleboards for guests to enjoy in quiet harbors and coves. Arkadia carries paddleboards too, but also adds to the fun with surfboards, a water toy that is far less common to find in the charter fleet—and that takes the excitement of board sports to a whole other level.

Water Toys Galore

The sheer quantity of water toys aboard the Heesen Arkadia could never fit on a traditional swim platform, even one with modest-size extenders included. Hence the extendible platform shown above, which is ready to help launch everything from standup paddleboards to personal watercraft for guests.

From Spec to Star

Arkadia is Hull No. 2 of Heesen’s 50-meter Steel series, with exterior lines by Clifford Denn, making the yacht a descendant of Ann G (2015) and a sistership to Omaha (2018). The yacht’s attributes include a gross tonnage of 499 and bluewater capabilities, with a reported range of 3,800 nautical miles at 12 knots. Heesen says the yacht’s top speed is 15 knots, powered by twin MTU 8V 4000 M63 engines. Arkadia—as with many Heesens—began life as a spec build. It was completed in late 2019, just before the pandemic. The owner bought Arkadia in autumn 2020 and used it privately until this past August, when it became available for charter as part of the Y.CO fleet.

Up Top

Arkadia’s hot tub is far forward on the sun deck, allowing for expansive views all around the yacht—perhaps while watching a favorite film on the deck’s 42- and 65-inch TVs. Sun pads flank the hot tub, and there’s a bar just abaft there for grabbing a cocktail or snack.

Ready to Explore

Arkadia’s first full charter season in the Caribbean and Bahamas will give guests options for how they want to explore ashore. In addition to the yacht’s multiple tenders and paddleboards, guests have the choice of cruising around on their own aboard personal watercraft that can get close to shallow shores.

Next-Level Fun

A 20-foot MasterCraft is an uncommon find when it comes to tenders in the charter fleet, even for yachts that charter with shadow boats carrying everything from catamarans to submersibles. The MasterCraft is specifically designed to make the most of wakeboarding and other types of tow-sport sessions.

Take the next step: y.co

The post Play All Day on Heesen’s ‘Arkadia’ appeared first on Yachting.

SipaBoards Easy-to-Use Paddleboards

SipaBoards combine the fun and exercise of paddling with the convenience of an electric motor.

Lift Foils Makes E-Foiling Accessible with New Lift3 F

The New Lift3 F from Puerto Rico-based Lift Foils is an updated model that’s built to reach a wider audience of riders.

Superyachts Adding Wing-Foiling Fun

Superyachts are starting to carry gear for guests to try wing foiling, also known as wingboarding.

Play All Day on Heesen’s ‘Arkadia’

The 164-foot Heesen Arkadia is proof that the charter client with the most toys wins.

10 New Watertoys

Whether it’s a SeaDoo PWC, a yachts slide or golf at sea, there’s a bevy of new watertoys for fun on the salt.

Watertoys: Jet-Powered Boards

The new class of electric jet-powered boards come in sizes and shapes for all experience levels.

The Electric Jetboard

The Radinn G G2X is an electrically powered watertoy that runs silently at 27 knots.

Hobie Launches New Kayak

The Hobie Mirage Passport 10.5 is an all-purpose kayak built for newcomers to the sport.

E-Scooter Onboard

The Elettrica is Vespa’s first electric-powered scooter.

Yamaha’s WakeBooster Turns You into a Pro

If you want to become a better wakesurfer Yamaha’s WakeBooster is the answer.

The Manta5 Hydrofoiling Bicycle is Available for $7,490

Back in August, we told you to be on the lookout for U.S. sales to begin soon for the Manta5 Hydrofoiler XE-1 bicycle. And now,

Toy Story

Being a captain today is like running Disney World at sea.

See More Water Toys

The post Water Toys appeared first on Yachting.

Sea scooters are just plain fun. Diving and zipping through the water like a dolphin is the stuff of pure swimming, scuba-diving and snorkeling joy. On the flip side, though, some of the most popular scooters aboard superyachts can be almost 4 feet long and weigh around 70 pounds. Stowing them becomes a space-crunching chore, especially if there are already personal watercraft, tenders, kayaks, fishing gear, inflatable toys and paddleboards vying for room in the lazarette.

For boaters who want their underwater fun to come in a smaller, more manageable package, China-based Geneinno makes the S2 sea scooter ($399). It’s a follow-up model to the Trident—now called the S1—model that Geneinno introduced in 2018. The S2 model is designed to be lighter, smaller and completely portable, weighing 5.9 pounds with a width of 19 inches. It not only should fit in the yacht’s lazarette, but it also can be loaded onto the tender for beach days and other excursions. Kids can even grab it and go if they’re hanging with friends for the day aboard another boat.

According to Geneinno, the scooter can take riders to a maximum depth of 98 feet, and it has a top speed just shy of 2.4 knots. That’s of course slower than bigger competing models, which have more power and can top 8 knots, but it’s still fast enough to have a good time in exchange for gaining portability.

The scooter takes about an hour and a half to fully charge, and then it reportedly runs for a maximum of 45 minutes; an extra power bank is optional for fast switch-outs at the yacht’s swim platform. The scooter is rated to work in water temperatures from 50 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and the company says the lithium-polymer battery is safe to take on airplanes, so the toy can be brought along in a carry-on bag, in accordance with federal rules.

For underwater photographers and videographers, the S2 has a mount that is sized to hold a GoPro camera. That same mount can be used to attach an external light to the scooter, for anyone snorkeling in caves or other spaces where illumination might enhance the experience.

Kid-Safe App

The compatible app for the Geneinno S2 sea scooter monitors depth, speed, distance and battery life, with all the information in a shareable format. The app also has a feature that lets adults control the scooter from a smartphone while kids, say, learn to swim in shallow water.

The post Geneinno S2 Sea Scooter appeared first on Yachting.

Lee Kline was aboard a friend’s hacker-craft, trying to imagine what its classic wooden styling might look like flattened into a paddleboard shape. Paul ­Lavoie was staring at a lake full of pedal boats, wondering why they were such ugly, plastic eyesores.

Together, the men founded Beau Lake, with the goal of bringing elegance to the world of water toys. They created the company in November 2016 and put their paddleboards online in 2017. Their pedal boat was new this past summer, with an electric boat in the works for 2019.

“The whole Mediterranean yachting vibe is inspiring what we’re doing,” Kline says. “There’s a masculinity — the deep, rich coloring. And we have the modern materials and the wood.”

Those materials include fiberglass, epoxy, carbon fiber and wood veneers being used in ways that both men recognize from their own time on the water. Kline grew up sailing 30-footers with his family and today cites everything from Beneteau to Wally to Swan as influences. Lavoie has a 42-foot 1958 Matthews. He uses his advertising background to direct the Beau Lake brand, while Kline puts his functional and industrial fabrication skills into product design.

“It was a childhood dream of mine to design nautical craft,” Kline says, “and now it’s coming to fruition.”

While a professional kiteboarder helped Kline create the Rapid paddleboard for speed, his goal with other Beau Lake products has been to make them ideal for novices. That’s why the pedal boat, which can hit 5 knots, has a tunnel hull.

“It’s practically a catamaran, even though it looks like a monohull,” Kline says. “When you stand in this thing, it doesn’t rock at all.”

The idea is to allow water lovers of all ages to mix fun with exquisite beauty.

“We have clients who are 80 years old,” Kline says. “Another is a woman who is 91. And kids too. Even though these are fairly big boards, they’re stable and easy to use.”

The post Beau Lake Builds Yacht Toys with Heritage in Mind appeared first on Yachting.

Lampuga wants to make its electric jet surfboards as popular as WaveRunners or Seabobs on yachts. While the boards have been around for a few years, the recently restructured German company has tweaked them to go faster and be used longer.

The Boost model is carbon fiber and can reportedly top 31 knots, while the Air model is inflatable (to stow in smaller spaces) and hits 27 knots. Riders control the speed through a handle grip and steer just as with a regular surfboard, by shifting body weight.

Charge time takes two hours, and ride time lasts 45 minutes, according to Lampuga. The power box can be swapped out, to recharge one unit while using another.

The post Check Out Lampuga’s Electric-Powered Surfboard appeared first on Yachting.

Five years ago, New Zealand-based designers Andy Jacobs and Jamie McLellan brought their idea for an upscale kayak to the Monaco Yacht Show. They showed a select group of people their $25,000 standard model — with gold-plated brass fittings, teak woodwork and custom options — and explained how the ­kayak’s craftsmen were borrowed from a team doing carbon-fiber work on America’s Cup boats.

“We realized there was this gaping hole in making a beautiful craft that complements a superyacht, instead of a fluorescent orange one,” Jacobs says.

McLellan Jacobs soon landed buyers among the superyacht set and added bespoke options. “We’ve done matte carbon with matte stainless [steel] componentry to match a superyacht, wooden inlays in the teak to match a logo on a yacht,” Jacobs says.

The goal at McLellan Jacobs has always been to expand their concept into a line of water toys. Both designers are boaters, and everywhere they look, they see styling improvements that could be made.

Hence their new stand-up paddleboard, which will become available this year. “We’re taking the styling of the kayak and simplifying it to make it more accessible for a lot more people,” Jacobs says.

McLellan also does work for NeilPryde, a top board-surfing company, and is bringing that experience to the McLellan Jacobs paddleboard. “There’s going to be a screw fitting that lets you mount a mast on it and sail on it if you want to do that,” Jacobs says.

They’re thinking matte titanium and matte black with bleached teak for the paddleboard, whose price point is being determined. It will include a leash plug with a metal detail and the McLellan Jacobs logo.

“We’d love to use these products as a springboard to get into styling some tenders,” Jacobs says, “or maybe even collaborating on a bigger vessel.”

The post Tempting Toys appeared first on Yachting.

Superyacht Tenders and Toys has announced its top five yacht toys for 2016. Here’s a look at what clients are buying and renting for use aboard:

High-Powered Electric Bicycles

HPC bikes include the flagship Revolution X model, which is the bestseller among superyachts buying from Superyacht Tenders and Toys.

Submarines

The Super Yacht Sub 3, a three-person submersible, is available with customized depth capabilities from 328 to 984 feet.

Lampuga Electric Surfboard

These are quieter than previous-model power surfboards, built of carbon fiber and powered by lithium-ion batteries. (No fuel needed.)

Humdinga

This high-speed amphibious vehicle can achieve highway speeds on land and top 30 mph on the water. She is 23 feet length overall with seating configurations for as many as six guests.

Humdinga

This high-speed amphibious vehicle can achieve highway speeds on land and top 30 mph on the water. She is 23 feet length overall with seating configurations for as many as six guests.

Eco-Friendly Golf Balls

Ecobioballs biodegrade and have fish food at their core, making them a favorite among superyacht owners who want to set up a tee on the top deck.

The post Top 5 Yacht Toys for 2016 appeared first on Yachting.