The Prestige 590s, a midrange model in the builder’s s-line series, is sporty while maintaining a level of elegance. It has balanced exterior lines and comfortable interior spaces thanks to the builder’s engineers, Garroni Design Studio in Italy, and JP Concepts, a Slovenian company that handles Prestige’s hull design.

The salon has settees to port and starboard, sized for cocktails with guests or just lying back with a book on the hook. The settees have low-profile backrests that, combined with the side windows, create panoramic views and enhance ambient lighting. To port is a foldout, varnished-wood dining table. Across is a split seat that flanks a starboard side-deck door, handy for tending lines when shorthanded or accessing the foredeck when it’s time to grab a mooring ball. Skippers can open the door and the portside window for salty breezes.

Prestige blends ergonomic design and function at the helm to starboard, where the seat is sized for two with an angled backrest, a fore-aft adjustment and an integrated footrest. Operating the 590S from the lower station affords clear sightlines thanks to side and aft windows. Twin Raymarine Axiom multifunction displays fill the helm console, while Seakeeper and Cummins engine displays are to port of the wheel. The electronic throttles, joystick and ignition are to starboard and within arm’s reach.

Aft and to port is the galley with a Miele microwave, a Siemens three-burner induction cooktop, a Vitrifrigo fridge/freezer, a dishwasher and an ice maker. Countertops are Corian, and there’s enough stowage for a family’s summer-vacation cruise. One of the galley’s countertops, when not being used to prepare or plate meals, can become a walk-up bar when the aft bulkhead window is open. Open the salon’s sliding doors too, and the interior and aft deck become a single social area.

The standard aft-deck layout includes an L-shaped transom seat with a foldout teak dining table, a teak cockpit, a port staircase down to the swim platform, and another one up to the flybridge. An interesting option is the “relax bench” in place of the transom seat. It’s a sun pad (8 feet, 10 inches wide by 5 feet, 11 inches long) with an adjustable backrest and side cushions. It includes a second backrest for sitting at the table.

Coined the “Sportfly,” the flybridge deck is low and lean. The sleek centerline helm has dual 12-inch Raymarine multifunction displays as well as a joystick controller. A Venturi windscreen helps deflect wind and reduce noise when the skipper is seated. Taking up the acreage is a sun pad (6 feet, 6 inches by 6 feet, 11 inches) that has adjustable backrests. Extending the flybridge aft protects the cockpit below from weather. An electric sunshade extends from the overhang for additional sun coverage.

Belowdecks, down a dedicated staircase across from the galley, is the full-beam master stateroom. Hullside windows with opening ports enhance the stateroom’s openness, as does the 6-foot-6-inch headroom. A king-size berth on centerline is flanked by nightstands, wall sconces and reading lamps. Forward to port is a walk-in closet, and to starboard is an en suite head with a centerline shower stall and Corian countertops. This space also acts as a buffer from the forward guest staterooms. A vanity doubles as a work area or casual respite from the main deck; with opposing settees, this could be the owner’s favorite getaway spot.

The forepeak VIP stateroom has a double berth that converts to twins in a V-shaped layout. The VIP also has a walk-in closet and an adjoining en suite head with a shower stall and seat. To port is a guest stateroom with twin berths; it can have its own head if owners want to trade the space for the VIP’s walk-in closet.

In addition to the aft and flybridge lounge spaces, the 590S’s foredeck is a quiet oasis at the quay. An oversize sun pad measures 6 feet, 1 inch wide by 7 feet, 1 inch long—plenty of room for a couple. There’s an adjustable backrest and a removable center cushion to make room for bench seating around a high-low table. A four-pole sunshade covers the area.

Prestige gives owners choices for decor, including upholstery fabrics and colors, as well as soles and countertops. Some options include a lighter-gray oak, wenge with darker woodwork, and brushed soles. Owners can pepper in leather finishes, carpeting and exterior cushion styles to personalize the 590S.

Tropical-ready air conditioning delivers 87,000 Btu of cooling power, enough to deal with the warmest of environs. The yacht’s house electrical systems are managed via Prestige’s Ship Control system. Operated from the helm—on an iPad or with a smartphone—the system allows monitoring and actuating with a tap on a screen icon. Owners can control lighting, air conditioning, music and more.

Building on the Prestige Yachts DNA to make the owner feel at home on the water, the 590S is a residence ready to travel.

Take the next step: prestige-yachts.com

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Many westerners know little about Rhodes in the Greek isles, save for its Colossus, which once ranked among the seven wonders of the ancient world. (An earthquake toppled the 105-foot-tall statue about 2,240 years ago.) Archaeologist Portokalenia Vratsali is out to change that. “We have beautiful beaches, an amazing medieval city, very diverse nature, a long cultural heritage, great nightlife,” she says. “The list is too long to narrow down.”

Vratsali leads tours around this island that has been a magnet for the moneyed class of the Mediterranean for millennia. She knows its wonders well. Her father’s family is from Rhodes, where she gravitated when following her mother’s footsteps into archaeology. Two decades of fieldwork have attuned her to the fine details that bring Rhodes’ history and architecture to life, such as the pebbled mosaic paths at the popular Kallithea Springs.

She takes special pride in leading guests around the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes. It’s inside a 15th-century hospital built by the Crusader Knights of Rhodes in the medieval city, a UNESCO World Heritage site. She wrote many of the display descriptions and cataloged the collection for a digital database. “It was a great experience,” she says, “to hold discoveries from the past 50 years of excavations in my hands.”

Tell us the story behind your name. It means “orange essence.” I was named by my godfather, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseus Elytis, after one of his poems.

Why do you think Rhodes is overlooked compared to other Greek islands? We don’t know how to promote what we have.

Where is your favorite spot on the island? From the Acropolis at Lindos, on a cliff 380 feet high, you have 360-degree views that take in the medieval village and the sea, which has the most amazing colors I’ve ever seen.

Portokalenia’s Prime Stops On Rhodes

Auvergne Cafe (medieval city of Rhodes): Its atmospheric setting, next to the Street of the Knights, is ideal for relaxing all day long. They serve a huge variety of high-quality dishes.

4 Rodies (modern city of Rhodes): This family-owned tavern uses local ingredients in its dishes. Its beautiful neoclassical building is surrounded by a courtyard brimming with flowers and wild herbs.

Kallithea Springs (Kallithea): This beautifully restored complex has wonderful bay views and a cafeteria that’s a lounge at night.

The post Destination: Rhodes, Greece appeared first on Yachting.

Last fall, when the University of Maine announced that it had created the world’s largest 3D-printed boat, imaginations ran wild. The idea of pressing a touchscreen and having a boat spit out of a gigantic printer suddenly felt possible. The notion of having a boat designed in a newfangled shape became a realistic-sounding option. And because the team in Maine had printed the 25-foot boat in just 72 hours, dreams of having production boats fly off factory lines became the stuff of serious conversations.

Practically speaking, here in reality, things are moving a bit slower on the innovation timeline. Habib Joseph Dagher, who leads the project as director of the university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, says the most likely immediate outcome will be a new way to make boat molds in the 50-foot range. “We think some of the first products that will come out over the next year will be full-size or close-to-full-size molds for boats made of recyclable materials,” Dagher says. “We think what’s going to happen next is shipyards evaluating the molds and giving us feedback, so we can get the technology honed in and able to roll out on a commercial scale.”

It’s a baby step in what experts say will be leaps and bounds of creative uses for 3D-printing technology once it can be harnessed to its full potential. Additive manufacturing, as it’s also known, is now the stuff of tests and experiments in fields as wide-ranging as aerospace and dentistry. Researchers are figuring out all kinds of materials that can be 3D-printed, as well as all kinds of ways to build the 3D printers themselves. The US Army is testing ways to use the machines in fields of combat, to print replacement parts on demand. Carnegie Mellon University just got funding to create software that will identify components in a CAD file that can be optimized and built better, such as in a different shape to reduce weight. BMW recently opened an entire additive-manufacturing campus in Germany, looking to improve upon the 300,000 or so parts the company built this way in 2019.

“One day, we’ll all be printing boats without a mold,” Dagher says, “but we’re all going to have to wait a little bit for that.”

As far as boats go, advances are happening all around the world. At the IYRS School of Technology and Trades in Rhode Island, the Digital Modeling and Fabrication Program is heading into its fourth year. Jeff Elsbecker, who heads it up, says that to understand where 3D-printing technology is today, we have to think about printers from the 1980s.

“If you remember dot-matrix printers, I would say that 3D-printing technology is almost where dot-matrix printers were,” Elsbecker says. “We’ll follow that with lasers and jet printing and all kinds of things. I suppose the far end would be replicators like in Star Trek.”

IYRS is focusing on teaching students design fundamentals and the basics of the technology. By the time they start working in naval-architecture firms or shipyards a few years from now, everything will have changed many times over, but the fundamental skills will still be needed to use whatever form the technology takes.

“There’s so many people doing so many things, one of the issues is also getting the machines to communicate with each other,” he says. “It’s sort of like deciding whether to go with beta or VHF. It’s at that stage.”

Boatbuilders who are early adopters in the 3D-printing world are using the technology for things like components and molds, says Bill Kenyon, director of education at IYRS. One example, he says, is Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine. It’s mostly a traditional boatbuilding and repair facility.

“When I was up there in January, they showed us a bow chock that the guys had designed,” Kenyon says. “They worked it all up in CAD and sent it off to a company that 3D-printed a prototype. They got it back, tweaked their design, sent it a couple of times, and then the guy could print it for them in titanium.”

Similar experimentation is happening in Auckland, New Zealand, where Richard Booten, head of design at Yachting Developments, says the yard’s purchase of 3D printers led to all kinds of ideas.

“Once you’ve got the machines, you start thinking about what you can use them for,” Booten says. “A lot of what we use them for is printing hull components—anything that has a highly complex shape. We’ve done exhaust-tube fittings. We’ve done hull fittings. We’ve achieved all sorts of stuff. Anything we would traditionally have gone and built on a CNC at great expense, we have done that. It’s really saving us some money by doing that.”

Yachting Developments is also now using the technology to plan vessel refits, to help clients understand how a final component will look and feel.

“The boat in the shed at the moment that we’re doing a refit to, they’re putting a new screen on the helm console,” Booten says. “Before we committed to making something out of carbon or fiberglass, we are able to print that addition and melt the screen in it so the captain can see what he’s actually going to get in real life. I think we’ve printed two or three of them now, and he’s changed stuff along the way. It’s relatively inexpensive to do that. Before, you’d kind of do it on the computer screen, and everybody would peer at it. The real-life version can look a bit different, so this is a real advantage.”

What will come next for the technology in boatbuilding, he says, is anybody’s guess. Right now, 3D-printing materials don’t compare to

fiberglass or carbon in terms of strength for building hulls, but new materials are being developed all the time. Most boatbuilders can’t afford a mammoth-scale 3D printer of their own, so they’re limited by whatever additive-manufacturing company can do the printing off-site. Boatbuilders, like everyone else, are just trying to keep up with the technology and think toward the future.

“There’s people around the world playing with all sorts of stuff with regard to 3D printing,” Booten says. “There’s people printing houses. There’s people printing bridges with welders stuck on the end of robots. It’s only going to gain more traction as a process and in the industry over the coming years.”

Old and New

It’s an odd thing, hearing the name Nathanael Herreshoff mentioned in the same sentence as 3D printing.

Herreshoff, of course, is the yacht designer best known for his America’s Cup designs of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He died in 1938, a time when the V-8 engine and the metal-cutting contour band saw were bleeding-edge technology.

The 3D printer wasn’t invented until decades later, in the 1980s. But that’s not stopping the team at the IYRS School of Technology and Trades in Newport, Rhode Island, from using the modern tech to build a Herreshoff.

This past year, the team was creating a replica of a 100-year-old Herreshoff design. Some of the hardware that Herreshoff had specified on the plans was not to standard; it had to be custom-made. IYRS decided to make it with 3D printing, converting the original drawings into files the printer could read.

“They worked them up in CAD and printed a 3D pattern, and the pieces could be made out of bronze,” Bill Kenyon, director of education, says of the team that Jeff Elsbecker leads at the school.

Scaling Up

Superfici, a company based in the superyacht-building mecca of La Spezia, Italy, is using 3D printing in myriad ways, such as to create the sailboat rigging shown above. Paolo Licinio Nazzaro, at right in the photo below, is the company’s co-founder and managing director. His team worked with the owner of an Amer 94 to create what they say is the first 3D-printed helm console. It looked just like a traditional console, made from regular design plans.

Next, Superfici worked with Sacs to design and 3D-print the helm console shown on the opposite page. This console is a shape that can’t be created with a traditional mold, and the multifunction display is integrated in a way that lets it be upgraded later.

Today, the company is thinking about ways to make entirely new boat hulls, with features such as integrated lights and fenders.

The post 3D-Printing and Boatbuilding appeared first on Yachting.

Monte Carlo Yachts’ models are easy to spot in any harbor. They have signature overlapping circular hull windows, with profiles inspired by sport-fish yachts. With the MCY 70 Skylounge, the builder adds an all-weather helm that doubles as an entertaining space—all of which can be customized to suit the owner’s taste.

My tour of the MCY 70 Skylounge revealed a yacht designed for comfortable family cruising. I stepped aboard via the swim platform, which is sized for a 12-foot tender. Twin stairways flank the transom and lead up to the aft deck. There, a twin-pedestal wood dining table has a transom settee and casual chairs for alfresco meals. The flybridge overhang provides shade and protection from the elements.

Inside, the furnishings and cabinetry are all low-profile, allowing unobstructed visibility from stem to stern. Not only do the 43-inch-high-by-8-foot-long windows yield panoramic vistas, but the yacht’s bulwarks are cut down to enhance ocean views. The forward windshield has a center pane with side curved glass for clear sightlines. And because the helm station is up on the flybridge, there’s more interior living space on the main deck. Salon seating includes an L-shaped settee to port and twin armchairs.

The galley is forward and to port, with a four-burner induction cooktop, oven, dishwasher and fridge/freezer drawers. The adjacent six- to eight-seat expanding glass dining table keeps guests within earshot of the chef.

All throughout the main deck, the yacht’s volume seems substantial. There is 6-foot-8-inch headroom, light fabrics and leathers, recessed LED lighting, and windows in all directions. A starboard-side door lets crew move fore and aft without passing through the salon. An optional day-head can be installed aft, or the space can be used for stowage.

In the salon’s starboard aft corner are a staircase down to the master stateroom, as well as a steel staircase with floating glass steps up to the sky lounge, where the Italian design team of Nuvolari Lenard created a truly comfortable space. The center helm seat is flanked by guest bench seats, with sliding side windows for fresh air when desired. Open the electric sunroof and aft doors, and the enclosed bridge converts to a breezy oasis.

The flat helm console houses rocker switches, thruster joysticks, MAN low-profile electric throttles and other systems. Three Garmin multifunction displays are housed in individual pods, adding to the unrestricted visibility forward. The sofa and ottoman to port are ideal for stretching out after a long run.

Aft on this deck is an outdoor space with several chairs and cocktail tables, protected from the wind and secure within welded railings.

Belowdecks, the full-beam master stateroom has a king berth on centerline with a wraparound headboard, pearl-white lacquer walls and 6-foot-8-inch headroom. This stateroom is a hideaway place with a portside sofa, starboard vanity/desk and flush-mounted 43-inch TV. There’s an oversize marble shower stall with a seat and rain shower in the en suite head, a walk-in closet, and a washer/dryer in the staircase foyer to allow easy living on extended voyages.

The other three guest staterooms are forward, laid out as a forepeak VIP and a pair of twins. The VIP has a queen berth and an en suite head with a tiled shower stall. The twin-berth staterooms can convert to doubles, and an en suite head in the port room serves them both. MCY got creative with the lateral stowage under the center staircase, which is accessible from each guest stateroom. Crew have twin bunks just forward of the engine room.

Far forward on the MCY 70 Skylounge (just follow the teak-capped rails past the Portuguese bridge) is a bow lounge. With a center walk-through, this haven includes sun pads, electric high-low teak tables with dining for 10, pop-up accent lights and a sunshade. Forward is a raised deck that houses the windlass, anchor gear and cleats, keeping these toe-busting protrusions out of walking areas.

A high level of personalization is key for MCY. While the 70 Skylounge bears a strong family resemblance to the builder’s other models on the outside, it can be customized throughout the interior, making it worth a look inside and out.

Take the next step: montecarloyachts.com

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In 2003, I participated in the Marion to Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race, a 645-nautical-mile marathon stretching from Massachusetts to the Onion Patch. I remember coming on deck one day and seeing our depth sounder acting funny. Instead of generating metrics, it simply read “off soundings.” Being a self-professed Curious George, I spent some off-watch hours studying paper charts, trying to conceptualize how much saline was below our keel. While these metrics were irrelevant—we were racing sailboats, not trolling canyons—I remember wishing that our depth sounder could dig deeper than 600 feet.

Turns out, plenty of anglers also want extra performance from the fish finders that come bundled in contemporary multifunction displays. And for owners of Furuno TZtouch3 multifunction displays, that enhancement is now here.

Furuno unveiled its TZtouch3 MFDs at the 2020 Miami International Boat Show. In addition to new quad-core architecture, and other hardware and software upgrades, TZtouch3 MFDs have dual-channel 1-kilowatt chirp fish finders, as well as traditional continuous-wave 50- and 200-kilohertz fish finders that were standard with the company’s TZtouch2 MFDs.

While the new features represented a significant payload upgrade, Furuno realized that big-game anglers wanted the ability to put even more power into the water. The result is the Deep Impact DI-FFAMP power amplifier, which boosts the TZtouch3′s fish-finding capabilities by up to 300 percent, giving users the ability to probe depths surpassing 10,000 feet.

Furuno’s DI-FFAMP ($2,195) is a black-box power amplifier designed to be table- or bulkhead-mounted. Deep Impact amplifiers have seven ports: a ground-wire connector, a power port, two MFD connections, two transducer ports (a high-frequency and low-frequency connection for each continuous-wave transducer; a chirp transducer can be connected to the low-frequency port), and a keying pulse connection allowing the sounder modules to transmit simultaneously.

Once connected to a TZtouch3, the DI-FFAMP acts much like a power amplifier for a stereo, dramatically increasing the amount of acoustic power a networked transducer can transmit. Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior product manager, says each TZtouch3 has two fish-finder channels that feed into the amplifier.

“The TZtouch3 has two independent and agile channels that let you select what frequencies you want to use—it gives you a lot of combinations,” Kunz says, adding that any target deeper than 150 to 200 feet will look better on a TZtouch3 display if the system has a Deep Impact amplifier. “More power on the target will give you better detail.”

Recent years have seen a shift toward wider-beam transducers projecting acoustic energy across a wide swath of water column or ocean floor, delivering greater macro-level awareness of what’s below the keel. “The problem is that these transducers take the fish finder’s transmitted energy and spread it out with their wide beams,” Kunz says. “Users get weaker returns because the energy is spread out. The DI-FFAMP makes up for the wide beam by putting more power into the water.”

Additionally, certain fish species don’t have air bladders and, as a result, tend to look a lot like the water column itself when viewed with a standard fish finder. “You need a higher-powered fish finder to see them,” Kunz says.

This same power also helps anglers serious about deep-drop fishing, with swordfish and snowy grouper examples of species that are easier to target and identify with a TZtouch3 that’s amplified by a DI-FFAMP.

As noted, a TZtouch3 MFD can either transmit over fixed, continuous-wave frequencies (50/200 kHz), or it can chirp its transmissions (sending a sweep of frequencies over a longer time period than a fixed-frequency transducer, and thus putting more power into the water and yielding higher-resolution sonar imagery).

At a certain depth, somewhere around 2,000 feet below the transducer, a TZtouch3 will switch from chirping to a continuous-wave signal, Kunz says. “If you want to chirp in deep water, a DI-FFAMP will allow you to do that,” he adds.

Cooler still, Deep Impact amplifiers also are designed to be controlled and leveraged by any onboard and networked TZtouch3 or TZtouch2 that’s running version 7 (or higher) software. This means an owner can upgrade to a TZtouch3 and DI-FFAMP at the helm, and view and control the Deep Impact’s bolstered imagery from a flybridge- or cockpit-installed TZtouch3 or TZtouch2 display.

“This gives an owner certain advantages over a networked sounder,” Kunz says. “It’s a different way to skin a fish.”

Alternatively, owners can add a Furuno DFF3D multibeam sonar to a TZtouch3 and Deep Impact installation. “This lets [an owner] leverage both products as a package,” he says. “A DFF3D and TZtouch3 MFD, plus a Deep Impact amplifier is really the ticket for serious anglers.”

With a system that includes a TZtouch3 MFD, a Deep Impact amplifier and a DFF3D, owners can spec a single combination transducer that can simultaneously handle all transmissions and returns. “There’s no frequency crossover,” Kunz says. “So they all work without interference, and the transducer [can be installed on] the best location on the boat.”

Returning to the stereo analogy, it’s possible to blow out speakers by combining a powerful amplifier with overly liberal use of the volume knob, and the same holds true for transducers. To prevent this mishap, Airmar- and Furuno-branded transducers have a feature called Xducer ID that embeds a microcontroller in each transducer. This microcontroller contains factory specifications for the transducer, and it performs an electronic handshake with the MFD’s fish finder (or networked sounder) that prevents the system from smoking its transducer.

So, if you enjoy deep-dropping for dinner, or just want to understand what’s below your keel, Furuno’s DI-FFAMP could be a great addition to a TZtouch3-equipped yacht. And while city ordinances sometimes limit the decibels that a car or home stereo can pump out, anglers are free to crank the power on their fish finders.

The post Fishfinding: Furuno Deep Impact Amplifiers appeared first on Yachting.

The Pershing 80 is a vessel that scratches the itch for owners seeking a luxury yacht with performance at its core. Power for the 80 was either 2,030 hp or 2,345 hp MTU diesels paired to surface drives. Opening the windows and retractable roof, and dropping the salon doors under the deck, created a mega-size center-console feeling.

Belowdecks, three- or four-stateroom layouts were available. Both included a full-beam master stateroom amidships with a king-size berth.

At press time, there were eight Pershing 80s on the brokerage market, ranging from $1.9 to $2.5 million.

From the Archive

“Like all Pershings, the yacht is propelled by surface drives. I first learned to handle surface drives aboard a Pershing back in the days when that was no mean feat, but operation is a lot easier now, thanks to advances in drives, props and controls. With a 40 percent fuel load and full water tanks, and temperatures that had climbed into the 80s, we topped out just a touch above 46 knots. With a lighter load, the builder has seen 50 knots.” —Yachting, July 2011

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A few years back, I had the chance to photograph Land Rover’s off-road driving course called the Land Rover Experience in Quebec, Canada. While snapping images and swatting black flies, I had an epiphany. Forget the damn tail fins; this is something the marine industry could borrow that would benefit boaters, even old hands.

During my earlier years in boating, I went through a handful of lesser boats before graduating to a 37-foot Bertram convertible. As a yacht designer and licensed captain, I assumed I knew it all. But I didn’t. It took me 22 years to learn her ways, and the truth is that after 57 years on the water, I’m still learning from my mistakes.

Like most boaters of my vintage, I started out small. After graduating from plastic speedboats in a wading pool, I earned the helm of a newfangled “plastic” tender, a 13-foot Boston Whaler. For a 10-year-old, sheltered inshore waters were like an ocean. And those waters were a safe bet, with far fewer boats and boaters, and just 18 hp on my transom.

Pop was nearsighted when it came to boat handling, and I learned a lot from his mistakes. When Pop invested in a new 233 Formula, I was all in. The 23-footer was a product of Don Aronow’s passion for racing and of racers Jim Wynne’s and Walt Walters’ passion for design. Pop was passionate about chasing sailfish, and challenging inlets rarely tempered his enthusiasm. I often took the helm as a matter of self-preservation. The Formula saved us from ourselves and inspired my career in yacht design.

The pace was a lot slower back then, and for Pop and me, it was a luxury to learn from our mistakes. There were no thrill-seeking PWC enthusiasts or windsurfers flying about. Inlets—and the ocean beyond—were treated with greater respect. Kids today are likely to start out at the helm of a 50-knot center-console, and my fellow fogies need only a checkbook to qualify.

Read More from Jay Coyle: Tell Tales

A license and a checkbook are required to own a Land Rover, but to really drive one, you also need experience. Land Rover offers that experience at three schools in the United States and one in Quebec, where I found myself clicking pictures of a group of corporate types engaging in some team building. Learning to play well with others is a popular group activity for white-collar sorts; teamwork is an asset common among the best yacht crews.

The exercises involved skippering Land Rovers through a course designed to push drivers and vehicles safely to their limits. For many, it was their first time off the pavement. I’ve been an off-road enthusiast since 1975, and the experience still benefited me. The lessons focused on calculating an appropriate use of power and anticipating the vehicle’s response to the environment. These are the same skills a skipper depends on in nasty seas or rough inlets.

There are options for hands-on training in boat handling and seamanship, but they arre limited. It would be great if more manufacturers embraced the idea. Or, perhaps, if Land Rover built a boat. Just, please, no tail fins.

The post Boating Experience Matters appeared first on Yachting.

When it comes to setting standards of excellence, Benetti Yachts has decades’ worth of practice. The Italian shipyard, founded in 1873, got its start building sailing ships and eventually delivered more than 100 of them. The switch to motoryachts followed with the times, and by 1980, Benetti had produced Nabila—a 281-footer that launched as one of the largest yachts afloat. More recent launches have stretched well past 300 feet length overall.

Now comes the B.Yond 37M, the first model in Benetti’s line of steel-hull expedition yachts. At a time when yachtsmen are keenly interested in finding the quietest corners of the world, Benetti is expanding its range to help them get there.

The layout is unusual, with the bottom deck reserved entirely for crew, laundry, stowage and the like. The main deck is set aside for guest accommodations with broad ocean views (and the option of private terraces). Aft on this deck is stowage for 21- and 14-foot tenders, along with other toys, and folding gunwales to launch them all. The guest relaxation areas usually found on main decks, such as a salon and dining area, are moved to the upper deck on the B.Yond 37M. The bridge deck above that has a hot tub and seating aft, while the sun deck has dining with uninterrupted views all around.

Propulsion is hybrid diesel-electric to reduce environmental impact, with zero-emissions speeds as part of the package. And the B.Yond can be loaded to explore, with the capacity to carry nearly 1,600 gallons of water and about 18,500 gallons of fuel.

At 10 knots, her range is reportedly 5,000 nautical miles. Which is, of course, the whole point: to set a course for the great beyond.

The post Benetti’s B.Yond Expedition Yacht appeared first on Yachting.

The Azimut Atlantis 45 shares the same next-generation design cues as the line’s flagship, the 51. Both are snub-nosed open cruisers with hardtops, and both have that smart, new Azimut look. Check out the latest S Collection flagship, the Azimut Grande S10, and you’ll see much of the same sheer and stem, despite the fact that the S10 is twice the length and more than five times the displacement of the 45.

The only power option for the Atlantis 45 is a pair of Volvo Penta D6-440 diesels well-matched to IPS600 pod drives. Azimut quotes a full-load maximum speed of 33 knots and a fast cruise of 28 knots for this model.

We were registering a little better. According to the yacht’s Garmin instrumentation, the 45 topped out at just over 34 knots in Trim Assist mode, but with it switched off and a little tinkering, I coaxed the yacht north of 35 knots. Theoretically, the useful range at a moderate-to-fast cruise would be 200 to 240 nautical miles.

Thanks to a V-hull form with a 15-degree transom deadrise, the 45′s handling is precise throughout the engines’ rpm ranges. And Volvo Penta’s Electronic Vessel Control joystick aids in close-quarters handling.

Azimut’s ergonomics are usually pretty good, and to that end, two bolster seats to starboard address the console with the driver’s seat inboard. To port of the helm is a double bench seat that converts to a 4-foot square lounger. Personally, I’d keep it that way. Who needs the on-the-bus seating? Given the shade of the hardtop—providing you have the 92-by-75-inch retractable fabric sunroof closed—this is the place to curl up with a good book.

But then, perception of space aboard the 45 is slightly skewed because the companionway is off-center, so what you may suppose to be the middle of the yacht really isn’t. Abaft the helm seats, there’s booth dining for as many as eight guests, if you have a couple extra seats handy to complete the ring around the four-piece cockpit table. The table is mostly protected by the hardtop, and there’s an extendable awning, stretched taut by stainless-steel struts, delivering more shade to the aft seating and about half of the stern sun pad.

Belowdecks, the 45 has a two-stateroom, two-head layout with a galley/salon amidships, made all the better for hull windows and an opaque skylight above. The owner’s stateroom is in the bow with facilities en suite. The headroom where you need it is 6 feet, 3 inches. The aft stateroom is surprisingly good, especially for those with younger children. There are three single berths, with an option for a double-plus when the two athwartship beds are combined. The booth sofa in the main salon converts to a double berth too.

The Atlantis 45 takes the builder’s midsize offerings in a new design direction, one that has proved popular on larger models. For yachtsmen looking for big-boat styling in a family-size express cruiser, the 45 may be worth a look.

Take the next step: azimutyachts.com

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At 22 feet, 9 inches long, the Williams Evojet 70 is the largest model in the British builder’s range. It is designed for mega-yachts 130 feet and up, and can seat 13 people. The RIB has a 250 hp Yanmar 4LV diesel engine and a 53-gallon fuel tank, as well as an integrated water-ski pole—all features that should help the Evojet pull double duty as a dayboat. There’s also ambient lighting, in case the sun sets before guests return to the mothership.

Whom It’s For: The Evojet 70 is for yacht owners who want the sea-splitting ride afforded by a deep-V hull, as well as the solid construction and attention to detail for which Williams is known.

Picture This: Your 164-footer bobs placidly in the calm seas off Corsica. It’s a perfect day for water-skiing. And with your Evojet 70 ready, willing and able, it’s time to have some fun.

Take the next step: williamsjettenders.com

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