I’m sorry, sir. we cannot service your boat, as its warranty has expired. Here’s a list of boatyards.”

So stated the terse reply my friend Larry received after he contacted his boat’s builder about a leak. “I didn’t ask ’em to pay for it. I just asked ’em to fix it,” Larry said in disbelief. “I get better support from the damn cable company.”

It wasn’t his first time being frustrated. A few years back, the rudder of Larry’s expedition yacht claimed asylum in Panama and fell to the bottom of the canal on the boat’s maiden voyage. He called the builder and was told to call back on Monday because the office was closing for the weekend.

“The incident could have crippled international trade, for God’s sake,” Larry complained. The rudder is still living in Panama, and Larry sold the boat, but he loves to share the story.

Larry is a serial boat buyer—the sort of guy smart builders would love to have as a repeat customer. He can afford the best, is willing to pay for it and has enough mileage left on his clock for more than a few boats. The builders in Larry’s stories often cater to folks like him, have high opinions of their products and aren’t shy about their top-shelf pricing.

“Is this one for sale yet?” I asked Larry.

I also shared his frustrations with a yachtbuilder pal who navigates these same waters and has a family of customers that is cultlike in its passion for his brand. “Coyle,” he said, “keeping customers in this market happy can be challenging if you don’t remember one simple rule: Warranty is an investment.” This bit of wisdom was passed down to my pal from a pioneer in the trade, after my pal asked him how he dealt with extended warranties.

Read More from Jay Coyle: Tell Tales

“Sounds like you have a specific claim in mind,” the old builder responded.

“Yes, a fresh paint job on a boat with a warranty well past its expiration date,” my pal said.

“Did you hear of this from the owner directly?” the builder asked.

“Yes, we were having dinner at the New York Yacht Club,” my pal explained.

“Perfect!” the builder said with a smile. He considered the expense of satisfying the warranty gracefully to be part of his advertising budget.

Both good and bad news travel down the dock quickly. Some disgruntled owners remain tight-lipped, cut their losses and move on to a ski chalet in Colorado. However, committed enthusiasts move on to new rides, seeking advice from others who suffer the same addiction. My builder pal insists there’s nothing to be saved by failing to maintain and properly fund a somewhat flexible warranty program.

Larry has penned a letter expressing his disappointment, while word of his service challenge is already spreading down the dock. Most builders with any sort of shelf life get it, but, in this case, I suspect the damage is already done. Larry may also be penning a for-sale sign and perhaps a want ad too: “Committed enthusiast seeking committed builder.”

The post Staying the Course appeared first on Yachting.

It’s one thing to experience computer-assisted docking, but it’s different to ride aboard a vessel that’s autonomously negotiating the nautical road. I learned this during an on-water demo of NeuBoat technology from Avikus at the recent Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. Our human pilot guided the demo boat out of its slip and into the Stranahan River. Minutes later, his hands left the helm, not to return. While it initially felt strange to place so much trust in silicone and sensors, trepidation morphed into amazement as we transited under the Southeast 17th Street bridge and into Lake Mabel. We passed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of gleaming fiberglass, aluminum and steel waterlines, but NeuBoat plotted a safe course through all of it and then back to, and into, the slip.

Like it or not, artificial intelligence is here, and it will only become a bigger, more integrated part of our world in the future. Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder and the parent company of Avikus, is already using autonomous capabilities to navigate ships across oceans, albeit with human oversight. While the NeuBoat isn’t the only autonomous-vessel technology afloat, it’s the only solution created by the commercial-marine sector with the parallel intention of innovating for the recreational-marine market. Avikus plans to offer two AI-assisted products, which can each be spec’d with two levels of operational capability.

The first is NeuBoat Navigation, which should be released in the second half of this year. It is designed to help human operators who are directly controlling their vessels make more situationally aware decisions. The basic option delivers navigational assistance through augmented reality to help skippers make smart choices, while the more advanced option provides navigation assistance along with camera- and sensor-collected informational assistance while docking.

The second product is NeuBoat Navigation and Docking Control, which Avikus plans to release in 2024. It’s a step up. Its basic option will include AI-controlled route planning, navigation and collision avoidance, with humans providing oversight. Its advanced option adds AI-controlled docking.

While  NeuBoat’s operating system and AI are scalable, the two systems (and their options) have different hardware requirements. NeuBoat Navigation installations have a black-box AI recognition processor and NeuBoat’s graphical user interface (GUI), which can be displayed on a compatible multifunction display or an Android-based tablet or smartphone. For a sensor, there is a forward-looking daylight camera and a forward-looking  light-detection-and-ranging (lidar) sensor. If applicable, NeuBoat can incorporate cameras for thermal imaging. Additional cameras and sensors can be added.

NeuBoat Navigation and Docking Control-equipped yachts will employ the same AI-recognition processor and GUI, but will also have an autonomous-control processor and an engine-interface module. Steering is via the vessel’s networked autopilot. The system will also use five to 10 daylight cameras and at least two lidar sensors for 360-degree situational awareness.

Both systems require either two networked global navigation satellite system receivers or a  networked satellite compass to  determine the  vessel’s position, heading and  rate-of-turn  information. The cameras collect imagery that’s sent to the system’s AI-recognition processor, where it’s compared, in near real time, with a growing image database that includes at least 2.5 million images. The system then uses a form of AI called computer vision to sort objects into one of eight buckets: motorboats, vessels, sailing yachts, rowboats, channel markers, buoys, structures or “other.”

“We determine obstacles in the image input from the front [camera] in real time with AI based on the pre-learned image data,” says Lim Dohyeong, CEO of Avikus.

The video stream is also sent to a helm display, where it can be seen by human operators. For navigation, the system can apply augmented-reality-style information tags above camera-captured targets, advising on their range and target type.

As mentioned, both systems employ a lidar sensor or sensors to determine precise distances. NeuBoat Navigation and Docking Control, however, also uses lidar to create distance maps between the sensor and objects in its surrounding environment (for example, docks and pilings) during autonomous docking.

“It scans the surrounding environment in real time whenever it enters or leaves the port,” Dohyeong says. The system basically creates a map from scratch each time—even if the dock is one that the yacht’s owners often frequent—to account for dynamic variables.

In addition to video feeds, part of NeuBoat’s GUI includes electronic cartography and a chartplotter like page view. The information serves as a database that the system uses for auto-routing and autonomous navigation. (For my demo ride, the system used an official electronic navigation chart; however, Avikus plans to integrate with third-party  vector-cartography  products, including C-Map and  Navionics.) This presentation also allows a human operator to understand the yacht’s position quickly, relative to landmasses, channels, navigational marks and other vessels.

As with other self-learning, AI-based systems, the more time NeuBoat spends navigating and capturing video imagery, the better it should perform. NeuBoat will be supported by biannual software updates.

While NeuBoat products have yet to be released, Avikus is working with several marine-electronics manufacturers on projects that will allow NeuBoat to incorporate third-party equipment, including AIS and radar, for collision-avoidance work. As an example, Avikus has signed a memorandum of understanding with Raymarine to collaborate on integrating NeuBoat technology with Raymarine’s product portfolio and to explore the  future of autonomous recreational  vessels  overall.

As of this writing, Avikus plans to let owners purchase NeuBoat Navigation as OEM equipment aboard a new build or in the aftermarket during a refit. Dohyeong says NeuBoat Navigation can even be added as a DIY project. Owners interested in NeuBoat Navigation and Docking Control systems will have to wait until they’re offered aboard new builds, but Dohyeong says aftermarket upgrades could become available for that system too, as its auto-calibration technology advances.

While adoption rates and boaters’ willingness to entrust potentially consequential operations to artificial intelligence remain an open-ended question, our test boat successfully navigated and self-docked. The gleaming nearby waterlines, I’m happy to report, remained unaffected by our autonomous passage.

Heavy Metal

In addition to NeuBoat,  Avikus builds HiNAS 2.0 (that’s  Hyundai intelligent Navigation Assistant System) for commercial mariners. In 2022, HiNAS 2.0 helped navigate a carrier full of liquefied natural gas across an ocean with human oversight. The ship’s fuel  efficiency increased by about 7 percent. Greenhouse-gas emissions dropped by about 5 percent.

The post Hands Free: Avikus’s Autonomous Navigation System appeared first on Yachting.

Two weeks before Christmas, when most Americans were ready to relax with friends and family, the U.S. Coast Guard command center sprang into urgent action. The 30-foot Catalina Atrevida II was not where it was supposed to be. Sixty-four-year-old Kevin Hyde, 76-year-old Joe DiTomasso and his dog Minnie had left Cape May, New Jersey, on November 27 for a cruise to Marathon, Florida. For a while, everything went fine. According to news reports, DiTomasso was known for losing his phone, so his family didn’t worry after the men left North Carolina on December 3 and then went silent.

But by December 11, that quiet was deafening. The US Coast Guard Fifth District Command Center in the mid-Atlantic was notified. Rescuers immediately issued urgent alerts and reached out to commercial vessels in the search area. Multiple aircraft and cutters were launched; vessels from the US Navy’s Second Fleet started searching.

By the time a tanker crew spotted the Atrevida II more than 200 miles off the Delaware coast, 10 days had passed. The boat was dismasted. The men were exhausted. They had no fuel or power. All their radios and navigation equipment were dead.

What likely saved their lives was the fact that they were waving a green flag—pretty much their only remaining option.

The Human Factor

Kevin Ferrie knows stories like this one all too well. He’s a retired US Coast Guard commander who now serves as a civilian with the US Coast Guard Office of Auxiliary Boating & Safety.

“The majority of accidents that are in our database—the root cause is human factors. Somebody did something or made a poor judgment call,” he says.

Ferrie knows what’s behind those statistics on a level that most boaters never will. He also provides shore-side support for the annual Salty Dawg regattas that guide groups of sailors down the East Coast to the Caribbean and back. And he’s a long-distance cruiser himself, having sailed from Maine to the Caribbean aboard a 45-foot Jeanneau with his wife, their four kids and a pair of Labrador retrievers. He once found himself in a situation where his autopilot broke, and he needed to use an Iridium Go! as well as a Garmin inReach to communicate with shore-side help. He didn’t need 10 days to start losing his mind; disorientation from trying to fix the autopilot hit him in a day and a half.

“It was in the lazarette. I had to pull out all this gear to get to it and contort my body in all kinds of ways,” he says. “Off and on, it took me like 36 hours to fix it, including communicating offshore and waiting for responses. I was exhausted.”

All his experiences have taught him one overarching lesson about offshore cruising: Preparation is key. “The minimum federal safety standards are important: You need your life jackets, your distress signals, your VHF radio,” he says. “But that’s really baseline. If you’re heading offshore, it’s not enough.” 

Communications

In terms of offshore preparation, communications technology that lets boaters summon help includes everything from cellphones and VHF radios to personal locator beacons and EPIRBs. Having as many types of communication as possible available is key, he says, because, in a lot of cases, simply being able to call for instructions or help can stop a bad situation from escalating into a dangerous one.

One recent example he encountered was with a vessel that lost its rudder this past fall off the East Coast. The husband and wife who were aboard set off their EPIRB and used their Garmin inReach to communicate with the Coast Guard and shore-side support.

What the couple initially feared was an emergency became a solvable problem because they were able to communicate, and because they knew other people were keeping track of them.

“At first, they were like, ‘Oh, my God,’ and we had to help them get through that mental problem,” Ferrie says. “Ultimately, they ended up with the Coast Guard arriving on scene and towing them in. But with help, they were able to make way toward the coast and rendezvous for help. They had the communication devices and the spares. They needed somebody to say, ‘It’s OK. You’re prepared for this.’” 

The Float Plan

Next on Ferrie’s list of important preparations for offshore cruising is filing a float plan. The US Coast Guard has a float-plan form online—for free—that boaters can download, fill out and leave with a responsible person ashore. It includes details such as the boat’s make and model, and the types of communication devices on board, and details about where the boaters expect to be, and when—all information that rescuers will need if the boat doesn’t show up where it should be.

In the case of the Atrevida II, family realizing the boat was overdue was a key component in the search efforts. That information is the essence of what makes filing a float plan such an important step in the offshore-cruising process. A float plan can sometimes be a boater’s only way to “signal” for help if an onboard emergency develops quickly.

“In a fast situation, the float plan is incredibly important because you may not even have time to make the mayday call,” Ferrie says. “Fire can happen really quickly on a boat. It can block access to everything except your way overboard.” 

Shore-Side Support

Having designated shore-side support people is different from filing a float plan. With shore-side support, a boater has volunteers or paid professionals helping to keep an eye on their course and anything happening around them, including developing weather systems.

“It’s more of an active person that’s watching out for your best interests,” Ferrie says. “With shore-side support, they’d be proactive and reach out to you. They’d say, ‘Hey, did you know this? Are you watching the weather? This is what I’m seeing heading your way in 12 hours.’”

Having shore-side support in place keeps everyone’s mind at ease both on the boat and ashore, he adds. During the Salty Dawg rallies, boaters are required to check in with the shore-side support teams at fixed intervals. Everybody involved knows that as the boats are making their way down the Atlantic coast, a failure to check in means something has gone wrong. For a boater having an emergency offshore with no other way to communicate, simply knowing that shore-side support people will take action can make all the difference between staying calm and panicking, which makes the onboard situation worse.

Safety Gear

Buying a bunch of top-notch safety gear and loading it onto the boat is not enough, Ferrie says. All the gear in the world won’t do a boater any good if he doesn’t know how to use it. “If you just buy a life raft, but you don’t know how to deploy it or what’s in it, that’s bad money spent,” he says.

Life jackets are a hugely important safety-gear requirement. According to the US Coast Guard’s most recent boating-accident data, 81 percent of fatal boating accidents involved people drowning, and some 83 percent of those victims were not wearing life jackets.

“Offshore, you should always wear a life jacket, and, with the inflatable designs, there’s no excuse about comfort anymore,” Ferrie says, adding that for sailors, “you also should always be attached to the boat. Run jacklines from the stern to the bow and clip your life jacket into them.”

He also thinks of communication devices as a form of safety gear, if boaters understand what each device on board can, and cannot, do.

“A personal locator beacon is basically an EPIRB for a person,” Ferrie says. “It will alert the authorities that there’s an emergency. But there’s also an AIS MOB beacon that alarms any boats in the area with AIS and gives them the position. So if you went overboard at night and the crew were sleeping, a personal locator beacon would not alert the crew, but an AIS MOB would wake them up.”

As for life rafts, they’re not required for offshore passages, but Ferrie highly recommends having one on board. He urges boaters to take advantage of the opportunities that come with every life raft’s required service intervals, which are a great time to learn how that particular piece of safety gear works.

“If your life raft is due for a service, talk to the service company, and be there when they open your raft,” he says. “Examine the raft. Visit the facility, and understand what rations come in the raft. Do you need more emergency rations? A ditch bag? You need to prepare that, and it depends on where you’re sailing. A coastal hop down the East Coast of the US is a lot different from a 30-day passage to the South Pacific. You have to think about how long it might take for people to find you.” 

Spare Parts

When Ferrie thinks about spares, his mind takes him to places well beyond parts and tools. Yes, those things are important, but he thinks about spare everything—including food, water and fuel—because in an extended emergency, a boater may need more than a 10 percent reserve of all three.

Carrying extra water is a must, he adds, because human beings can survive without food for a while, but not without water.

“Water tanks offshore can get contaminated in rough weather if you have saltwater intrusion,” he says. “Don’t count on being able to make water in a rough sea state. Have some water in five-gallon jugs.”

Many decisions about which spare parts and tools to stow boil down to the individual vessel and what its critical points of failure could be. “A lot of it’s in steering gear, the halyards if you’re sailing, fuel filters. If it’s rough, you may stir up sediment in your tank, and if you do that, you’ll have clogged filters,” Ferrie says. “You need to know how to fix that and have the critical spares on board.”  

Crew Endurance

Having enough crew so that everyone can be focused on-watch and resting off-watch is also “a huge one” that Ferrie thinks about in terms of preparations. If whoever is at the helm is exhausted when something goes wrong, the odds skyrocket of a solvable problem getting worse.

“There’s a saying: People typically break before the boats do,” he says. “At some point in a heightened-stress situation, it becomes a mental game.”

He adds that boaters should never, ever get themselves into a situation where they will feel forced to arrive at or depart from a certain location on a specific day or at a specific time, for any reason.

“You need to understand the weather,” he adds. “There’s a saying in cruising: If you have visitors coming, you can pick the location or the time, but you can’t pick both. When you’re forced into a schedule, you tend to make poor decisions. You feel like, ‘I have to get to this island because my mom’s going to arrive.’ Be patient, and wait for the weather window that suits your skills and ability and your boat.” 

Take Classes

Another key piece of advice is to  take boater-education courses. Many people wrongly assume that only beginners need classes; in fact, every page of this article includes a sidebar about advanced classes available for powerboaters and sailors alike. Classes can be taken nationwide, not only for offshore route-planning and passagemaking, but also for gaining a detailed understanding of how communication devices and mechanical systems work.

Everything a boat owner learns in those classes can be passed along to other crew members, including those who join a passage only for a short leg at a time.

“Think through possible worst-case scenarios and how you would respond to them,” Ferrie says. “Do that as an exercise with your crew. What would you do in a man-overboard situation? Do they know to stop and stare and point at the person?”

Yes, simply being able to keep eyes on a boater in trouble can sometimes make all the difference, as it did for the Atrevida II. After the tanker crew spotted the sailboat’s waving green flag, both the men and Minnie the dog were able to get aboard the tanker and hitch a ride back to New York. The men were exhausted and beaten up from the weather. They were taken to a hospital for observation to make sure they didn’t have hypothermia. One described his legs as feeling like rubber from trying to stay upright for so long.

But they both lived to tell their tale, just like the more than 75,000 people the Coast Guard Office of Auxiliary Boating & Safety has saved during the decades since its inception. And in a bad situation, that’s the statistic any offshore boater ultimately wants to be.

Learn the Basics

America’s Boating Club (previously known as the US Power Squadrons) offers an entry-level course for beginners who want to learn the basics of everything from navigation to safety equipment. This course also meets most states’ boater-safety education requirements.

Add New Skills

Boaters who complete the America’s Boating Club basic class can move on to higher-level courses. One course focuses on offshore navigation, with lessons in things like celestial navigation as a backup in case GPS equipment fails beyond the sight of land (and landmarks that can be used to navigate back home). This course also covers ways to set offshore navigational routines.

Cruise Planning

Another class that America’s Boating Club offers is focused on cruise planning. It covers how to plan a longer-term itinerary, as well as equipment the boater may need, key safety gear, crew training, communications, dealing with weather, handling emergencies and tips for cruising outside the United States.

Teaching the Tech

Yet another class that America’s Boating Club offers focuses exclusively on marine communication systems. It helps students understand the differences between VHF radio, the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, radiotelephones, long-range communication systems and other technology that can help keep offshore boaters in contact with civilization.

For Sailors

The American Sailing Association has more than 300 schools across the United States as well as locations in other countries. After passing the basic keelboat sailing class, boaters can advance to basic coastal cruising, which teaches lessons focused on operating a boat during the daytime with wind conditions up to 20 knots.

Advanced Sailing

Upper-level classes from the American Sailing Association include advanced coastal cruising and offshore passagemaking. The passagemaking class is designed for boaters who want to sail extended offshore itineraries that will require celestial navigation. Sail repair, offshore first aid, abandon-ship protocols and other skills are also part of this course.

It All Comes Down To Preparation

“The minimum federal safety standards are important: You need your life jackets, your distress signals, your VHF radio. But that’s really baseline. If you’re heading offshore, it’s not enough.”

Basic Problems To Avoid

According to US Coast Guard accident data, top problems include operator inattention, improper lookout and excessive speed.

Main Types Of Boating Accidents

The US Coast Guard’s top five are collisions with other boats, collisions with fixed objects, flooding/swamping, grounding and falls overboard.

Watch The Weather

The US Coast Guard’s top 10 factors contributing to accidents include weather, which killed 30 people in the most-recent-year statistics available.

Being Offshore Is Different

The US Coast Guard’s most recent data shows that more boating accidents happen offshore in the Atlantic Ocean than in any single state. 

The post Offshore-Cruising Safety Tips appeared first on Yachting.

About halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, the city of Anacortes, Washington, stands as a terrific jumping-off point for some of the best cruising in the Pacific Northwest. And it’s not just geography that makes Anacortes a great stopover; it’s also the region’s marine services, which offer just about everything.

More than two dozen boatyards and service centers are here or close by, focused on electrical systems, carpentry, re-powers and more. Gig Harbor Marina & Boatyard handles gelcoat repair, plumbing, mast rigging and other needs. Over at CSR Marine, boaters can find a pair of 70-ton Travelifts for haul-outs of boats as big as 80 feet length overall. Lighthouse Marine has outboard engines in stock for yachtsmen whose tenders need a boost. Others offer upholstery repair, paint jobs, prop work and additional specialty services.

One reason there’s so much dedicated marine knowledge here is that Anacortes has a busy marine terminal. Recreational boaters should be prepared to see—and steer clear of—shipping and ferry traffic in these waterways.

But just beyond the main routes, there are beautiful spots to explore, including the San Juan Islands. They’re about 20 miles away as the crow flies, making them accessible for day cruises as well as longer itineraries. Yachtsmen have long loved the San Juans for their scenic beauty, with occasional whale sightings, great hiking trails and memorable views of Mount Baker.

But don’t give Anacortes itself the short shrift; the historic downtown has buildings that date to the 19th century. One that sells marine supplies today used to house an eclectic mix of groceries, cigars and shooting galleries. Some of the restaurants are worth a stop too, for a sit-down meal or for takeout. The menu at Adrift includes burgers made with locally sourced cod, salmon or oysters, just in case you get skunked out on the boat trying to catch your own fish.

Check Out More: Yacht Towns

Cap Sante

This marina is within walking distance of historic downtown Anacortes. Amenities for boaters include free wi-fi, along with showers, laundry, pump-out and loaner bicycles. A dog park is across the street. The on-site restaurant is Anthony’s, which serves lunch, dinner and a Sunday brunch featuring smoked salmon scrambled eggs.

City History

Anacortes is named for Anne Curtis Bowman, whose husband, Amos, was a railroad surveyor who founded the town in 1879. Fishing was a mainstay of the economy from the start, with the town eventually growing into a city whose nickname was the Salmon Canning Capital of the World. Steamships and launches known as the Mosquito Fleet helped people get around Puget Sound in the days when water travel was preferable to traveling by road. Today, the most frequently visited destination for many visitors is the Washington State Ferries terminal, which provides access to several of the islands in the San Juans as well as to British Columbia.

The post Escape to Anacortes, Washington appeared first on Yachting.

Space is usually the reason that owners step up to a larger superyacht—say, a length overall of 197 feet or more. On those yachts, there are easily enough staterooms to accommodate up to 10 family members and friends; there are several lounging areas inside and out, spread across a few decks; and there is enough room for a party or for privacy. Getting all this in a yacht of less than 500 gross tons, which typically caps around 164 feet long, is just not possible.

Or is it?

Paolo Vitelli, president of the Azimut-Benetti Group, was convinced there’s a way. Not only that, but he believed yachtsmen would like a semicustom series with a steel hull, long range, volume rivaling much bigger boats, and four decks. He was thinking in ways yachtsmen hadn’t seen: Steel alone is a radical departure from the norm in this size range. Four decks are unheard of too.

He was right. The 121-foot Benetti B.Yond 37M landed about a dozen contracts before Hull No. 1, Goga, appeared at international yacht shows in 2022. As of January, the next available delivery date is in 2027.

Increasingly, yacht buyers are realizing that volume dictates how roomy a project will look and feel. To that end, the Benetti B.Yond 37M has a volume just shy of 400 gross tons. Strong-selling American- and European-built series yachts, even those that are 10 to 20 feet longer, are unable to rival that volume.

Of course, long-standing physical dimensions remain important. Each of the four decks aboard the new Benetti is a healthy length. This includes the partially sheltered sun deck, which is a full-fledged deck for up to 12 people. With a barbecue, a dining area, a seating area and pedestal observation chairs, Goga’s sun deck even has windows inset into the hardtop’s sides.

Benetti further sidesteps convention with the yacht’s 28-foot beam and an anything-but-cookie-cutter general arrangement. As much as series builders and designers say clients can arrange rooms as they see fit, inevitably, they suggest that the staterooms go belowdecks while the salon and dining area sit on the main deck. Even for yachts with main-deck master staterooms, conventional layouts still dominate. By contrast, the standard configuration for the Benetti B.Yond 37M places four guest staterooms and the master on the main deck. The lower deck is entirely for seven or eight crewmembers and all service areas.

More surprisingly, though, Goga follows an alternate arrangement, which Vitelli personally selected, since he intended to cruise aboard (and did for a month with his family). The master stateroom is on the bridge deck, with sliding-glass doors to an alfresco dining and sunning area. In the forward main-deck space where the master otherwise would have been are two guest staterooms. Just abaft them, there’s a playroom. In the not-too-distant past, a dedicated rumpus room would have been unthinkable, especially aboard a yacht of Goga’s dimensions. Perhaps in a sign of the times, nine of the contracts signed so far include the playroom. Owners can also fashion the space as a media room.

The B.Yond 37M also has an open-air toy “garage” four steps down from the main deck aft. The main deck has neither a traditional aft-deck leisure area nor sliding doors leading into a main salon; instead, the main lounge is one deck up, offering better views and freeing more deck space for toy stowage. If you’re wondering why the toys aren’t stowed below, in a garage, it’s because the yacht has a beach club with a sauna down there—once again providing owners and guests with leisure areas not found on comparable-length yachts. The toys launch to either side via fold-down bulkheads.

Finally, the bigger thinking extends to the propulsion package. Goga has a diesel-electric system with lithium-ion batteries created in collaboration with Siemens Energy, allowing four operational modes. Enhanced Comfort Mode is for low-speed coastal trips or nighttime cruising, with just the gensets and electric motors engaged. Extended Range Mode uses the main MANs powering the electric motors for full-speed, 14-knot trips. Eco Transfer Mode sees one MAN running solo, which Benetti says lets the yacht cruise up to 8,200 nautical miles at 9 knots. Eco Cruise Mode is a zero-emissions operation in which the battery pack’s capacity determines the potential range for short excursions.

Based on an average yearly 1,000 hours of use, with 400 hours spent cruising and the rest at anchor, Benetti says the system reduces carbon-dioxide emissions by up to 24 percent and nitrous-oxide emissions by up to 85 percent.

With the Benetti B.Yond 37M, Vitelli really did prove that it’s possible to get much more in a smaller length overall.

The Legacy of Stefano Righini

The Benetti B.Yond series is among the last projects designed by Stefano Righini, who died in October 2021. Righini’s pen strokes characterize the looks of nearly every Azimut and Benetti yacht currently afloat too. In total, approximately 6,000 of the brands’ yachts bear his signature.

Capable Compact Cruiser

With a reported range of 5,000 nautical miles at 10 knots, the B.Yond 37M encourages owners to cruise farther and stay independent of shore longer. The yacht has the capabilities of a larger, full-displacement build in a size that’s better for small coves and many more marinas. 

Crew Care

Because of the B.Yond 37M’s volume and deck arrangements, the crew gets more space for amenities and operations. They have a mess opposite the belowdecks galley, and a laundry area. They also have their own stairway, independent of the guests’ stairs, and a dumbwaiter connecting all decks.

Take the next step: Benettiyachts.it

The post Big Features, Smaller Package: the Benetti B.Yond 37M appeared first on Yachting.

The Pirelli 42 is the first model in a new line of walkaround RIBs. It’s equally suited to be a large-yacht tender, a beefy chase boat or a stand-alone day cruiser, thanks to its bold design, its high-level performance and its sizable number of amenities.

SACS TecnoRib produces the Pirelli 42 in design collaboration with the Swedish firm Mannerfelt Design Team. Mannerfelt also has a background in designing fast, luxurious automobiles, which is evident in the Pirelli 42’s style. It has a chic, aggressive exterior. The raked windshield integrates into the RIB’s hardtop, supported by twin sculpted pillars for a screaming-fast look.

Side plexiglass windscreens protect the helm’s occupants from the elements. The boat’s beefy, 13-foot-6-inch beam makes it feel larger than 42 feet length overall and allows for 14 passengers on board.

At the helm are triple-bolstered armchair seats, twin 16-inch Simrad multifunction displays with full system controls, Mercury throttles and a joystick for close-quarters boathandling, and a Simrad VHF radio. The single-pane windshield and minimal bow rise coming up on plane mean unobstructed visibility forward at all times.

Abaft the helm station is an entertainment center with a double-drawer fridge, a sink, a grill and a flip-top dining table.

The interior cabin has a dinette that converts to a 6-foot-8-inch berth. There is a separate head. Belowdecks, headroom is 6 feet, making the cabin viable for weekend cruising. Additional onboard features include an electric windlass and anchor, a bow thruster, tilt steering, an aft machine compartment, teak decking, LED lighting, a 10-gallon hot-water heater, a generator, cabin air conditioning, an ice maker and a bow awning for naps in the shade. These are not typical features on tenders, and they allow for a more comfortable style of RIB cruising.

Everywhere around the Pirelli 42, low-profile grab rails enhance the safety factor. Side fold-down steps make boarding easier.

You’ll want to be seated or holding on tight when the exhilarating 60-knot thrill ride begins. On plane, not only are the pontoons out of the water, reducing drag, but they also knock down the waves, resulting in an extremely dry ride throughout the vessel’s speed range. Handling is race-car accurate with no slippage. The new Pirelli 42 can be used in myriad settings, and all of them have fun included.

The Design

The boat’s rigid bottom allows the hull’s multi-strakes and steps to work efficiently with the sea, maximizing seakeeping ability. The four-chamber dual pontoons add stability and side protection. In hard-over turns, the 42 will lean only so far, making for a more enjoyable ride.

Chill Stations

The Pirelli 42 has a sun pad forward. At the peak is an aft-facing sofa. On the aft deck, there is a sun pad with a pivoting backrest.

Take the next step: tecnorib.it and pirellidesign.com

The post Introducing the SACS TecnoRib Pirelli 42 appeared first on Yachting.

The voyage was a ludicrous proposition from the outset, and, in retrospect, there was only one way it could’ve ended: tragically. In July 1991, a well-known and controversial cruising sailor named Peter Tangvald set sail from the Spanish Virgin Island of Culebra southbound for Bonaire, ostensibly to safely negotiate the onset of hurricane season. Joining Tangvald aboard his engineless 50-foot cutter was his 7-year-old daughter, Carmen, but the kooky part of the enterprise was the towline to the leaky 22-foot sailboat trailing astern, commanded by his 14-year-old son, Thomas. The elder Tangvald had decreed that the boy stay aboard the smaller vessel to bail it out along the way so it wouldn’t sink beneath him. Neither boat carried a VHF radio; there was no way to communicate beyond waving and hollering.

Four days into the trip, on a dark night off the windward reefs of Bonaire, Thomas came on deck just in time to watch in horror as his father’s boat careened into the shallows along the surf line. He was barely able to scramble onto his surfboard before his own craft crashed into splinters. Neither his dad nor his sister survived the wreck, but, after six hours, Thomas made it ashore.

All of this is the opening scene in marine journalist Charles J. Doane’s new book, The Boy Who Fell to Shore: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Thomas Thor Tangvald. The title is a nod to the 1976 sci-fi movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, which is about an alien who crash-lands in New Mexico and experiences incredible success and debilitating failure. David Bowie was the film’s fall guy, just as Thomas is the protagonist in Doane’s story. Each of them suffers a similar fate.

Tragedy was nothing new to the Tangvald clan. Twice, Peter Tangvald had sailed over the horizon with young wives who never made it back, and, in the cruising community, there were loud whispers that he had plenty to do with their disappearances. Thomas was born and raised at sea, and one of the women who went missing was his mother.

Read More: Silent Running

After falling ashore himself, Thomas was whisked away by old cruising mates of his father’s, who’d been recruited for the task in the event anything happened to the elder Tangvald. Thomas was taken to the mountains of Andorra. For Thomas, who’d lived his entire life in the tropics, it was as incredible and bizarre as anything Bowie’s alien encountered in the desert. Remarkably, at least at first, he thrived. Though he had no true education whatsoever, beyond the books about science and naval architecture aboard his father’s boats that he devoured, he possessed a genius-level IQ. After two years’ worth of studies crammed into one so he could attend college in Great Britain, he enrolled at the University of Leeds to study advanced mathematics and fluid dynamics. He seemed bound for a far-different path from that of his father.

Except that, like his old man, he was always drawn back to the ocean. In the same vein, at this juncture, Doane’s narrative also returns to the sea. Many boats are involved, as are copious helpings of drugs and alcohol. Women come and go; kids are sired. In many unfortunate ways, as far as family men go, Thomas was a chip off the old block.

And yet Thomas is not unsympathetic; he’s even a compassionate character. His core values, his love and respect for nature and the islands, and his hopes and strivings are all solid. He was a hell of a seaman, that’s for sure. Which makes the disappearance that concludes this tale a mystery indeed.  

The post Lost at Sea: Thomas Tangvald’s Story appeared first on Yachting.

Not too far from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, there’s Catalina Island—a cruising oasis that provides yachtsmen an escape from the mainland, immersing visitors in all things rest and relaxation, from trying out Lady Luck to exploring the island’s wildlife.

Catalina Casino

This landmark opened in 1929. It’s an iconic legacy of the millions invested by chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. and his family to make Catalina Island the tourism destination it is today. The casino was built not for gambling but for entertainment and dancing in the world’s largest circular ballroom. The 1,184-seat Avalon Theatre in the casino’s lower level was the first designed specifically for talking pictures. Its stunning art deco murals depicting Catalina’s cultural evolution were painted by John Gabriel Beckman, whose work also graces Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Today, visitors to Catalina Island can take a behind-the-scenes tour of the casino, watch movies in the Avalon Theatre on the weekends or time their visit to coincide with one of the galas held in the ballroom throughout the year.

Catalina Island Fox 

The Catalina Island fox, a cute 4- to 6-pound fur ball, is a tremendous conservation success story. In 1999, the canine distemper virus wiped out all but around 100 of an estimated 1,300 animals and later landed the fox on the federal endangered-species list. Thanks to an intensive campaign of vaccinations, captive breeding and population monitoring, the fox now thrives, numbering around 1,800 today. Scout out these survivors along the island’s 165 miles of hiking trails or on the naturalist-led Catalina Island Conservancy Eco Tours.

Garden to Sky Trail

The moderately challenging Garden to Sky Trail rewards hikers who tackle its steep incline with some of Catalina Island’s best views. The 2.8-mile, paved out-and-back trail starts at the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden, and peaks at Divide Road, where the breathtaking panoramic views take in the coast, the Pacific Ocean and the other Channel Islands. Be sure to pack water, snacks and sunscreen, and obtain the free (but required) day-hike permit from the Catalina Island Conservancy online or from its office in Avalon.

Buffalo Milk

While on Catalina, raise a glass of the island’s buffalo milk. This mixture of crème de banana, crème de cacao, Kahlúa, vodka and half-and-half is named after bison that have resided on the island since 1924. A dozen were ferried over for the filming of The Vanishing American, one of more than 500 productions shot on the island over the years. After the crew returned to Hollywood, the bison remained and multiplied, now numbering around 150.

Tip: Two Harbors on the island’s west end offers more than 700 moorings and anchorages in more than a dozen sites.

The post Cruise to Catalina Island appeared first on Yachting.

Speed is a relative thing. Streaking across the sky at 600 knots in an airliner seems like nothing, while running along the sea at 40 knots on a 113-ton, 108-foot yacht seems incredibly quick. When looking astern, one doesn’t see a wake; instead, massive fire-hose blasts exit the three water jets.

But that’s not the only surprising thing about the Sanlorenzo SP110 (SP for smart performance). With exterior lines from Studio Zuccon International Project, interior design by Piero Lissoni and a hull form from Marco Arnaboldi, this group literally turned everything around.

Many yachts have an atrium, using the slanted windshield to create an open forward entry to the lower staterooms. On the Sanlorenzo, the atrium is aft, with a double-height space that provides ocean vistas from the upper salon as well as a lower “den” with loft-like space. This den opens directly to the corridor leading to the four staterooms, so guests can mosey from their staterooms directly into this space overlooking the aft deck, perhaps to enjoy morning espresso and croissants. Then, they can ascend a floating stairway that underlines the airy feel of this yacht.

The staterooms all open off a central corridor from the den, with a choice of three or four. Two en suite double staterooms are aft on each side, with the master at the forward end of the companionway. A fourth stateroom, opposite the starboard-side master, can be an extension of the master. Sanlorenzo calls this fourth space a “jolly room.” It could provide owners with their own getaway with a couch or a desk. Placing the master head forward provides a natural sound barrier between crew and guest spaces.

Sanlorenzo calls the SP110 its first “open coupe.” The low, lean looks certainly support that description, so the two levels are a surprise. The main deck—or salon level—has an entertainment area aft with loose chairs and a 12-foot-long settee, while the formal dining area has a 6-by-6-foot aluminum table with room for eight guests. Sliding doors on each side combine with lowered bulwarks outside to create the essence of alfresco dining while remaining protected from the elements.

The galley serves as a subtle divider between guests and crew, spanning the beam just forward of the salon and effectively separating the pilothouse, where a single pedestal chair and a small settee add to a professional layout with a flat-black dash and twin monitors. This area also provides access to the three en suite crew cabins.

This yacht’s nearly invisible flybridge is pure sun pad, and it’s set well aft with a vestigial helm to allow for the cabin top to be covered in solar panels that feed lithium batteries to run the hotel functions without requiring use of the two (35 kW and 28 kW) gensets. In sunny areas, Sanlorenzo says, the 60 kW produced daily will run the hotel load for up to four hours.

Foredeck sun pads convert to an alfresco dining area, a break from the usual cockpit dining and a way to create privacy when Med-moored to a quay. The anchor is cleverly handled by an Arnaboldi-designed folding-bow section that opens upward like a walrus snout to hide, hold and manage the anchor and chain.

Aft, the considerable deck space (500-plus square feet) has more sun pads, and the entire transom folds down to create steps leading to a “beach.”

Power for the SP110 is a trio of 2,000 hp MAN V-12 diesels paired with three Marine Jet Power water jets, with the center jet used as a booster for top speed. This setup allows the captain to dial in one, two or all three engines, depending on the speed desired and the fuel usage tolerated.

During my time aboard, we had all three jets online, and the SP110 easily hit 36.3 knots while burning about 290 gallons per hour in the lumpy Gulf Stream. Range at this top hop is about 385 nautical miles. The builder reports seeing 40 knots in calmer conditions. Of particular note is that the salon had a sound level of just 62 decibels, similar to a quiet refrigerator or a normal conversation. We didn’t have a chance to run on fewer engines, but Sanlorenzo says that at 10 knots, with the two outboard engines at 800 to 900 rpm, the fuel consumption drops to just about 30 gph, and range jumps to 1,000-plus nm. At 2,000 rpm, cruise speed is 27 knots while the trio of diesels consume 189 gph, resulting in a range of 433 nm.

The day proved the efficiency of the double-chined hull with large flats, which both threw spray far away and added interior space in the 27-foot beam. With proprietary hybrid carbon-composite construction, the Sanlorenzo SP110 was free of any creaks or groans, and had a solid feel in all seas.

This is a yacht that truly challenges many preconceived notions about what a luxury performance yacht can be.

The Hidden Tender

A 15-foot Williams jet tender is concealed under three lifting hatches in the SP110’s cockpit with a folding crane that resembles a football goal post. An even larger tender can be deck-chocked, along with personal watercraft.

Hydro Power

Built for strength from a duplex stainless-steel structure, the Marine Jet Power CSU550 water jets on the SP110 are reportedly stronger and more corrosion-resistant for less maintenance. The Swedish company has a reputation for yacht, commercial and military uses, and the 550 enables speeds of more than 50 knots as well as sideways, spinning and reverse precision, plus GPS positioning.

Meet the Designer

Italian naval engineer Marco Arnaboldi is known as a speed merchant, having penned many of the fast AB Yachts, high-speed Azimuts like the 103SL and designs for Viareggio Super Yachts. The SP110 shows his penchant for long, slippery, higher-performance hulls.

Take the next step: americas.sanlorenzoyacht.com

The post Reviewed: Sanlorenzo SP110 appeared first on Yachting.

Whether driving from the portside, flybridge helm station or from the main-deck wheel with 360-degree visibility, views are aplenty aboard the Azimut 53 Fly. The flybridge has a retractable fabric roof, two sun lounges and a dinette to starboard. There are three staterooms, including a full-beam amidships master, a forepeak VIP and a twin-berth guest stateroom to starboard, for family weekends. Top speed with twin 735 hp MAN V8-1000 diesels is 32 knots. At press time, there were eight 53 Flys available, ranging from $684,097 to $2,399,000.  

From the Archive

“For all the natural light that bathes the interior, I’m one who prefers to run a boat in the open air, and if I owned the 53, I would work from the flying bridge helm station 99 percent of the time. Luckily, it’s well suited to bringing the party upstairs. The helm station sits to port behind a reverse-raked windshield, and from here it was, truthfully, much easier to monitor the small boats that dodged around us, blissfully unaware.”

— Yachting, March 2011

The post Azimut 53 Fly for Sale appeared first on Yachting.