The Americas Cup AC75 Problem

The 37th Americas Cup held off the waters of Barcelona has come and gone.  It was an interesting series of races ten days short of two months which started on 29 August with the Louis Vuitton challenger series, and ended on 19 October with the Kiwis keeping the cup for a third time in row.  With this win Team New Zealand is not only the defender with the most wins since the cup started changing hands after the Australia II win in 1983, but also the most successful defender of the cups second era.  The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron has since that first win in 1995 created a dominant pattern of being the Americas Cup guardian of this cup era.

The racing of the 37th Americas Cup was intensive, especially the Louis Vuitton Cup Final nail biting affair up till the fifth day between Britannia and Luna Rossa.  The problem though in all these races seems to have been in the AC75 series of yachts, which in this edition mark the second cup they were used following their debut in 2021.  

The AC75 are impressive fast sailing foiling machines but come with a problem for close and real match racing, the turbulence.  This turbulence gives a rather big advantage to the leading yacht, even if the following yacht is charging at higher speed and has a better angle to the wind.  Even in the very close affair of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, when Britannia charged in front it remained there, when Luna Rossa was first it was the same story.  The few over taking that we saw was a split affair.  The turbulence is real and affects both upwind and down wind legs.

In all races even when a yacht had a known advantage of speed, close overtaking seemed impossible when the following yacht was around and under the one hundred meter distance to the leader.  

Team New Zealand has announced that the AC75 will still be the racing class of yacht for the upcoming 38th edition, although this overtaking issue needs to be addressed in order for the races to be called real match racing, rather then just a speed race.  

Match racing is one of the most interesting aspects of sail racing a one versus one with two competitors going head to head, a type of challenge which debuted in the Third Americas Cup of 1871.  It will take over sixty years and up to 1937 for the sail racing community to take note when the Omega Gold Cup was held in the one design six meter class of yachts.  For many this is the real debut of match racing, as this is held in identical one design boats, unlike then the box design of the Americas Cup which gives advantage to the faster boat rather then the sailing choices and expertise of the crew.

That is why in the Americas Cup, 'There is no second'. Although fair to say this phrase was used in the first edition of the cup of 1851, a fleet race between sixteen schooner yachts when the Queen Victoria of England asked Marquis of Anglesey who sat at her right, ‘Who is it in first place, my lord?’ ‘The yacht America’ asked the Queen, ‘Then who is in second?’ The Marquis, in a restrained voice for his Queen, answered softly, ‘Madam, there is no second.’

PowerYacht Goes One Million Plus Views In A Month

On twentieth of October PowerYachtBlog made for the first time an impressive one million plus views in one month.  This is a new monthly record which will total to 1,482,320 by the end of October.  PowerYachtBlog previous monthly record came two months before in August, as it reached 864,200 visitors.  Impressive growth considering that our previous record of 473,000 came in July and before that we have to go to November 2019 and 463,435 views.  A lot of growth came in the past three months, obviously a big thanks goes to the viewers and hoping that the Blog is giving an interesting read and good service of information to boaters and those interested in the motor boating and yachting World.

PowerYachtBlog was started in March 2007, inspired by the Valencia Sailing blog, which was one of the best sources of information for the 32nd Americas Cup. Valencia Sailing was started in March 2005 as the 32nd Americas Cup to be held in Valencia was heating up, and closed in December 2010, as the blog became a normal sail racing information website.  My life changed when I touched the Create Blog button on the right top corner.

Obviously PowerYachtBlog increase in views has expanded from a non stopping commitment, with the basis of presenting new projects and models on a daily basis still being the back bone of the blog-site.  Over the years some posts have not appeared much, like the Boat Review section, while others have become stable like the Out-News which shows boating and yachting accidents from all over the World. 

For PowerYachtBlog the idea to website transfer has existed for a long time, probably since it started doing one thousand plus views a day or over thirty thousand per month.  The scare in doing this is to transfer the seven thousand of posts and seventeen years plus of work till today.  Will PowerYacht do this move, time will tell, but the idea to do exists, with the premise that the Google Blog platform is an instinctive and easy to work platform, with efficient tools to pass over the message of the passion of boating and yachting.

Thank you to all the viewers for your support!

Respect the Name

With the industry thriving in recent years, it will always come that some will give a try in resurrecting names of the past.  Yet sometimes when these brands return, it seems some of the buyers just bought a name without really understanding what it was all about.  A case in point would be Cantieri di Pisa, who actually just saved itself as they updated the Akhir line project. 

At the 2024 Cannes boat show Cantieri di Pisa presented an upcoming Akhir 44 project, as designed by Antonio Luxardo.  This new 44 meter project brings respect to the classic Akhir line as designed by Pier Luigi Spadolini from the seventies to the nineties.  Cantieri di Pisa was saved with this direction, as at first the current Enrico Gennasio ownership showed three Akhir projects from 33 to 42 meters in 2023, as designed by French born German residing Etienne Salome.  However innovative these super yachts looked, they had nothing what an Akhir or a Cantieri di Pisa is about, not in the present and in the future.

If you start looking at the evolution of the semi-custom produced yachts the Spadolini designed Cantieri di Pisa Akhir stand out as one of the most important in introducing a clean, lean, and sporty design into medium to large motor yachts and super yachts, with this coming full circle when the S versions arrived in 1986 first with the 22 S model.

Before designing an Akhir any designer should actually look at the series history from the Spadolini era to the recent Galeazzi designs, from the debut in 1972 with the 16.60 to the following 36 models which came till 2012 and the large 153.

In Italy, USA, and UK, the three pillars of motor boating history there is a few sleeping brands with potential to come back.  But if someone buys them without understanding the past to bring them to the present and into the future, then probably it is better to make a new brand entirely. 

Buying a classic important boat or yacht name is all about its roots, and if one would not follow this simple rule, it is like Ferrari waking up tomorrow and making off-road vehicles rather then high end sports cars.

Bayesian

I wanted to remember August 2024 for breaking new visitors record on PowerYachtBlog, which reached over 860,000 views in a month, nearly double to the previous 473,000 from July. But alas August 2024 will be remembered for sailing yacht Bayesian, a 2008 build 56 meter Perini navi super sloop which sank off Porticello to the East of Palermo on Monday nineteen at 04:06 early morning time taking down the life of seven people; the owner Mike Lync, five guests and the chef.  Super yachting never got so much news as the week following seventeen August! 

Bayesian is reported to might have sunk from a down burst, a sort of Tornado but with winds that descend and diverge beneath the storm and result in outward burst patterns of damage or wide areas mostly from the same direction.  Captain and crew mistakes are yet to be proved in a court room, but the yacht visible structure seems to be intact as is its much maligned record sized mast, which received the first guilt for the sinking from mainstream and social media alike. Bayesian sinking took a total of sixteen minutes, an increase from the first reported two minutes. Still not a lot, but sixteen minutes should give time to a professional crew to make the yacht from beach mode into a safer modus operandi.

The publicity from the sinking of Bayesian is huge, its not positive, but some would say as long as they talk about it, it is good.  I am sure that since the story broke Perini Navi has become the most recognizable super sailing yacht to the common folk.  Not that a Perini was not recognizable, they were for the yacht man, and now everyone knows them. 

What I see interesting following the investigation is what the classification societies will make of this.  Will we see more strict rules being enforced on super yachts from Classification Societies, or will all this be filed as crew mistakes.  If Class Societies will open a can of worms for yachts, which are probably the safer think you can have ten, twenty people on, imagine the resolve of this on the commercial sector, or even worse of the even expanding cruise industry.  I guess time will tell.

Bayesian was the fifth hull of ten build Perini's 56 meter semi custom series line which debuted in 2003 with the last one delivered in 2011, featuring an important difference that she is the only one sloop rigged, versus the other nine hulls who are all double mast ketch.  I still think the mast blaming is a bit over the top, also because the yacht is seventeen years old, and has done a lot of running around.  This size yachts are mostly all build to class; Bayesian is American Bureau of Shipping classed to A1 standards and is reported to have had its class survey in 2022, so nearly nothing is given to chance especially stability from a mast for a yacht which is made to circum-navigate the globe.   

The sinking and the deaths involved also give the story fire for conspiracy theories, although some of it does look odd, like Lync partner Stephen Chamberlain who died in Hospital on Tuesday twentieth August after being hit by a car in Cambridgeshire, England on Saturday seventeenth.  It is difficult to stop conspirers on this one, and as they say, one plus one equals two, the maths are in their favour.

Sadly the Bad Week Always Returns

Sadly the bad week of boating always comes to us at this time of the year, when many accidents seem to happen at one go.  This period always seems to be the last week of July and the first week of August, filling PowerYacht's Out-News label with sad news for us boat and yacht lovers.  

In this week the boating community is not even given chance to recover, as one accident is followed by another in a span of hours, with the most tragic taking the most hits and comments on socialmedia.  Obviously without the advent of social media the bad week will not exist, as this is a tool which has made the World a small place with news travelling faster then ever globally.

Boating groups social media feeds, mostly from Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are filled with these stories and everyone becomes an expert of why it happens with the unfortunate captain in these situations getting all sorts of nice compliments.  A problem with social media when many seem to be the Officer in charge and judge and jury of an accident.

British Renaissance

If you mention British pleasure boat and yacht builders the trio of Sunseeker, Princess, and Fairline would come to most people's mind.  But recently two other semi-production boat builders seem to be making in-roads, and these are Cockwells and its Duchy and Hardy brands, and Dale.  Interestingly both these offer something different from what the usual British triplet brings, conservative in looks, with innovation coming more on the technical side.

Founded in 1995 Cockwells should be getting a lot of attention for both its Duchy and Hardy names.  Duchy offers an interesting line of traditional down East inspired models from six to eighteen meters, with both the larger 45 and 60 models being projects.  Of interesting note was the ten meter Duchy Sport an interesting mix of modern sport cruiser and traditional lines which debuted in 2023.  Hardy was purchased by Cockwells in 2020, and in 2023 we are seeing the fruits of this acquisition as the new ownership debuted its first 50DS model. 

Dale on the other hand has been a slow grower, founded in 1961, the company made a good step in the nineties as it started a collaboration with TT Boat Designs, the firm which designs the famous Nelson type hull as used in a lot of small and medium sized pilot and patrol boats. The fruits of this collaboration start with the Dale Classic 45 in 2004, and since then Dale has been pushing forward, and in the last years its latest down East inspired products are innovative.  Look at the recently launched Classic 35 and Classic 37 as example.   

Are these three brands made to replace the usual British trio.  Definitely not, but they do offer something very British in looks and use, which the boats from the trio today and in the recent decades do not, and most importantly are firms managed by the passionate people who founded them.

Baia Is Back!

One of the iconic sport and performance cruisers and yachts builders Baia is back.  For those that know, Baia is one of the most iconic builders from Italy, which wrote history for its innovation onwards from the seventies, but also for competing and winning some important races in its glorious past, including the 1990 Venezia to Monte Carlo with a production B50.  

Baia wrote history many times, from being the first to build a traditional gozzo cruiser with a planning hull, offering surface drives propulsion on a production boat with the B33, to its innovative removable hard-top system as presented first on the 48 Flash in 1998, and being the first to offer an invisible patio door on the 78 Atlantica in 2003. 

This Baia return is a bit different to the original.  The first difference is that of moving construction away from Baia in Naples to which the previously named Mericraft gave its name in the late seventies, with the new yachts being build further up North the Tyrrhenian sea in Viareggio, Tuscany.  The second difference needs a bit more time to understand, with this new version of Baia so far seeming to focus into large sized super sport yachts upwards of 24 meters.  The first yacht currently under construction is actually an 84 Altantica, with a Magnifica 112 being presented as project.  It will be interesting if Baia will focus solely on this size or if its previous bread and butter thirteen to eighteen meter sport yacht size offer will return.

Baia was an important part of the classic open sport yacht and cruiser success in the Mediterranean and beyond in the eighties and nineties, part of the triumvirate of classic open yachts along with Itama and Magnum, shaping the genre to its iconic status which still has a lot of fans today.  The duel of the classics trio still exists today between a Baia B40, Itama 38, and Magnum 40.  

Up until the Great Recession of 2008, Baia was actually the top seller of the genre of traditional inspired sport cruisers and yachts, with models like the 48 Flash, 54 Aqua, and 63 Azzurra being huge hits for the Naples boat and yacht builder in the noughties.

Palm Beach Boat Show Challenge

In the last years the Palm Beach boat show has become the third boating exhibition not only of the Florida state but of all the USA, growing in size and offering an interesting offer of debuting new models.  Can the Palm Beach boat show challenge the Fort Lauderdale or Miami boat show in the near future?  Founded in 1985, and distancing fifty miles North to the Fort Lauderdale show and seventy to the Miami exhibition, the Palm Beach boat show has been on a growing spiral in the last decade.  

Palm Beach growing success is helped by the novelties coming from the boat builders.  The 2024 Palm Beach boat show for example was used to debut the new Ocean Alexander 35 Puro and the new Uniesse HTC5P outboard version.  While Aicon, Azimut, Grand Banks, Palm Beach Yachts, and Princess also used the show to present new upcoming projects set to arrive in the coming months and years.  The Palm Beach boat show looks to be mostly getting the attention of the imported yachts, rather then the USA makers, but with the importers becoming more important to the USA market in recent years especially in that fifteen to thirty meter size, it is a good spot light to have.

So let's return to the question, can the Palm Beach boat show challenge the Fort Lauderdale and or Miami boat show in the future?  Currently the Palm Beach show with over fifty thousand of attendees in four days does about half the numbers of the two other shows, so in the near future definitely not.  But due to the important dynamics and market size of the Florida State and USA for the boating and yachting market, the Palm Beach boat show will keep on growing in both its niche of medium to large sized yachts on show, as in visiting numbers, hopefully continuing to offer this in its successful personalized cozy boat show platform.

The Sport Cruiser is Back

When nearly everyone seemed to stop believing on the medium size sport cruiser here comes British builder Fairline and its new Targa 40 to show and remind us, why in all sizes, a two cabins sleek looking sport cruising boat is still one of the best way to go at sea.  This new Fairline Targa brings evolution to the species, and finally we see drop down bulk-heads integrated cleverly in a sport cruiser design.

The twelve meter medium-sized open sport cruiser has been hammered in the past decade, by center consoles and dual consoles, and arguably the most successful models in this size are over ten years old.  Like the Princess V40 presented in 2017 a soft evolution of the V39 which came out in 2012, while an other success is the Sessa C38 which is still doing very well despite its fall 2009 presentation.  Both these models have had a long standing success, and while arguably they offer everything for a typical family of a couple and two kids to go a week cruise, it's worth noting that they did bring nothing new to the table beside a hard-top to say similar sized models from the late nineties and early noughties, and some other soft evolutionary design touches.

Interestingly even Galeon which was the first major production builder to push folding down bulkheads in the aft deck with its 500 Fly model in 2015 to the masses never offered a sport cruiser of eleven to twelve meter in size with this system. Its 405 HTS is in fact an evolution of the Galeon 385 which debuted in 2010.

Where do we go from here, will be interesting.  Like in anything if Fairline's new Targa 40 will sell out the competition it will not be long, before the main competition starts offering similar featured, add drop down bulk-head models.  The good thing is the sport cruiser renewal has started.

What Tribute?

Main-stream boating media tribute to naval architect and previous racing hull specialist designer Don Shead, who left for the better World the past third February, was rather flat and sad.  Nearly everyone and all just copied and pasted, the Sunseeker press release.

While Don Shead was Sunseeker head designer for three decades, from the end seventies till his retirement in 2007, his tribute to boat and yachting goes beyond in helping the Poole boat builder find its feet and run, and become one of the most famous boating brands in the World.

Once you start to dig about Don Shead early career, from the early sixties where he started up as a racer, to his early designs at the end of that decade, it is a mind blowing journey.  Beyond Sunseeker Don Shead most important story, are his early racing days, with his career coming full circle when his designed CUV 38 hull, was the first to stop the fourteen year dominion of Class One by US made and designed hulls.  Not even Renato Sonny Levi's hulls, which were the biggest challengers to the American made and designed boats in that era ever managed to beat the Americans in the World Championship.

Another part of Don Shead story are his first Cowes race wins with his Avenger boats in the end sixties, and his believe in alloy build hulls, rather then fiberglass for racing.  But probably in all of this Don Shead most important career changing aspect is that unlike most and nearly all deep-Vee architects he started as a racer first, becoming a naval architect after, to be exact seven years later. 

Need for Speed Is Back

In the eighties a challenge started out between a few yacht builders to make big and ultra fast yachts in the market.  Italcraft launched it's challenge with the M78, a 21 meters flybridge motor yacht presented in 1985 which reached 58 knots.  Alfamarine responded some years later with the two meters smaller one-off made 65 flybridge model from 1991, which with triple 1000hp engines and surface drives reached a top speed of 64 knots during a light test run, four knots more over it's declared top speed of sixty knots.  

Interestingly while both these yachts received a lot off attention at the time, the success was not big, with Italcraft selling only two units of the M78, and then revising the platform for the slower and similar looking C70 and then reused for the 70 Drago in the noughties. While Alfamarine made only one unit of the 65, with the hull of that one coming from the 55 as designed by Franco Harrauer, and then used also for the 58 and 60 models.  For a time the speed in sport yachts settled and even the fast offerings from successful sport yacht builders like AB Yachts, Baia, Magnum, Otam, or Pershing stopped in around the fifty knots mark.    

Thirty years later the need for speed is back with new arrival Bolide Yachts and its first 80 model, setting new high unimaginable numbers for a 24 meter super sport yacht.  The Bolide 80 not only goes beyond sixty knots, but reaches a top speed of 73 knots, equivalent to 84 mph.  These are speeds a super fast thirteen meter centre console weighing in at about ten tons with six Mercury racing outboards reaches. Incredible speeds for this project by Brunello Acampora, and even more outstanding when you think that the closest production yacht above 24 meters, the AB Yachts 100 with the Superfast option is thirteen knots behind.  

Is the need for speed back?  Are we heading into a new super sport yacht speed race?  Just as much as I would like it, this is difficult to happen, and like those Italcraft and Alfamarine models from the eighties found out, the hyper fast is and will remain a niche. It is a small niche which has its crowd, and many admire it, but when it comes to signing the dotted line it remains something for the few.  For now, well done to Brunello Acampora, it will be interesting to see if Bolide Yachts will have a challenger worth of note in the future.

Production History

From Summer 2023 PowerYachtBlog added a new Production History label, to the popular names in motor boating.  Production History was started with a favourite brand, Itama, and eventually it was added to other popular motor boating names.  When doing this data, in some models more to others it is like a voyage back in time, in history, and present. 

Production History lists model designation and name, years of start and end production, and when available also how much units produced.  If this information is known, I also list the different project name, some models get in pre-production phase.

Accurate as possible is the aim in production history, although this is harder to achieve also because boat builders are not fully open on data.  The other problem is the past, as the further one goes in time the more difficult it is to get a fully correct information, especially when one tries to dig in the seventies and or before that.  Difficult but not impossible.  In some cases when Google and the Internet are not enough I am helped by brand fans or previous workers from that company.

Custom builders builds are not listed in Production History, because it would be over whelming to list all.  Imagine listing all the custom builds of Spencer which is now at one hundred plus all different deliveries, and Feadship or Benetti with a story which started in the fifties.  For custom builders who venture consistently into semi-custom-production builds, as is the case for example with Baglietto and Benetti, I do list the data for those. 

Some custom builders also have an incredible data, of there past, present and future on there website.  For example of the sportfish builders, the data Jarrett Bay provides on all its builds is superb, as does Feadship.  

Last but not least if you have knowledge that some information in Production History for brand X or Y is not accurate or correct, just private message on the Contact Form on the lower part of the left column, and I will get back to you.

Special is Optional

Fairline has launched its new Squadron 58 model, debuting at the 2023 Southampton boat show in September.  For Fairline the Squadron 58 name is a special one, with the 2002 to 08 first version selling 210 units in a production run lasting six years, making it the most sold model of the British builder flagship flybridge yacht range. On the contrary the second generation Squadron 58, which was an evolution of the 2008 launched 55 was not so successful, lasting in production less to two years and then evolving into the Squadron 60 with an over-sized bathing platform.

Looking sleek and stylish this new third generation Squadron 58 breaks new ground for Fairline, which for the first time is offering optional drop down balconies extending the size of the aft deck when opened, and an extendable in length to aft bathing platform.  The balconies are not a new feature for flybridge yachts of this size, with Galeon being the first to offer this on flybridge motor yachts with the 500 Fly in 2015, and today extended to most of the Polish builders range above thirteen meters.  

The thing though with the third generation Squadron 58 special features is that they are all an option, three expensive options to tick.  If Fairline really wanted the new Squadron 58 features to stand out some of it needed to be standard, like the port side drop down bulk-head which brings the galley area outside, and the extended bathing platform aft.  Fairline's argument for not making the stand-out features as option, is that in standard form the Squadron 58 is competitive and similar priced to the other yachts in the segment.  But when you are the new kid and the latest arrival, do you want to level compete with those who have dominated this size in recent years.  Think again about Galeon, who give one drop down bulkhead as standard, and with this made huge inroads in recognition and sales in the European and North American market.  

It is still early day to see the fortunes of the Squadron 58, but when it will come with the data with all the stand out features being optional, will Fairline really know if they are popular or not, cause of a cost rather then the customers not enjoying the feature.

Back to Genoa Boat Show

I have not been to any of the big International boat shows since many years, and now in 2023 I returned to Genova's Salone Nautico, after nineteen years.  My last attendance was in 2004, nineteen years ago, that time it was a boating renaissance of the noughties, with most if not all Italian builders enjoying a huge expansion bar none, fuelled by leasing and easy boating mortgage schemes of those times.

The Italian boat show is a special place for me.  It was the show I always wanted to visit when young, also to discover more about the less known Italian names, followed by the many American brands attending the show with high importance and numbers, with British and Scandinavian names also showing in good force.  I am sure I would love Cannes which I had to cancel a few times due to other commitments, the two US Fort Lauderdale and Miami boat shows, and to a lesser extent Dusseldorf.  This last mostly because it is a land show, and I believe boats, especially big ones upwards of fifteen meters should be seen in the water.

The 2023 Genoa boat show was packed, at least that was what I saw in the opening two days. The previous editions I attended used to have 300,000 plus of visitors in nine days.  The smaller six days format of the recent editions are doing over 100,000 plus of visits.  The Fiera Genova was also a bit work in progress mode, on entrance for the new waterfront island area, though this affected little to the show, with a small exception on the entrance part. They are working hard to make the boat show a bigger and better one.

Since some years the major Italian brands which used to make Genoa the show, are not supporting it as they used to, presenting there World premiers in Cannes.  Still some brands did premier at Genoa, the most important one coming from Spanish Astondoa new AX8 model, which just arrived an hour or so after the show opened.  Other Italian names debuting at Genoa are the Amer 950, CNT Domina RS, Italyure 35, Mig 45, Manda Yachts Senses 05, and Tornado Yachts 50 RS.  The fact that Astondoa debuted its AX8 in Genoa is a good sign, as this is the largest Spanish production boat building brand using the show for an important World preview.

Genoa is a victim of globalisation and the centralization this brings with it. If Genoa wants to be as attractive to Cannes it will need the help of other factors beside a bigger show, starting from a better connected Airport.  Nice Cote d'Azur Airport which serves Cannes and is thirty minutes away from the boat show is the third busiest airport in France with fourteen million a year plus passenger traffic.  Genoa Cristoforo Colombo sees less then two million, the 21st position as Italian airports go.  Cannes still has an edge in accommodation, though today it is better in Genoa with AirBnB and Booking.com platforms easier to what it used to be in the past.

The French Experiment

Beneteau Group has really grabbed its Prestige motor yacht brand, turned it upside down and starting experimenting with it in the last three to four years.  It all started with the X wide body range presented in 2020, and continued with the M for multi-hull introduced in 2022 with the M48 model.

The Prestige brand has been the most consistent and successful of the giant French Group motor boat portfolio. For example the Prestige 550 introduced in 2013 sold over 150 units in its first three year production run, with other previous smaller models as the 46 Fly and 34S from the noughties selling two hundred and five hundred plus respectively.  The other Prestige models in its traditional Flybridge and Sport lines have also been successful, a well deserved success to be fair, as I think Garroni has done an impressive job on the design of these, mixing modern lines, latest amenities with conservative looks and the competitive good quality-price point the French Group is known for.  

It would be interesting to know what made Prestige do this hard-turn in its strategy.  May be its previous innovative and nice Prestige 750 flagship launched in 2013 never sold as expected, but then in that fifteen to 25 meters, is not an easy size to enter and compete against long standing Italian and English names.  Reality is when you compete in that higher quality market it is difficult to enter, even if you offer a product with the same quality, and probably Beneteau Group knows this the most as it seems to be giving up on its Monte Carlo Yachts brand, which it debuted in 2010 with MCY76, and has seen no new models in over two years.  

The Beneteau Group has strong sales in 2023, an increase of a whooping 43% and today its motor boating lines leads at 57% its sailing yacht division, so on numbers alone they are right on what they are doing.  But the Prestige motor boat brand which was started in 2001 as part of a Jeanneau model line, and became an independent brand in 2009, changes in direction seem odd as an outsider, considering the legacy and sales Prestige generated in the last twenty years.

Venice to Monte Carlo Race is Back

As a test to the full race scheduled for 2024, the Venice to Monte Carlo organisation organized a Prologue race, in reduced format from Venice to Rodi Garcanico. This reduced format event of three hundred nautical miles, with departure from Venice Cervia to Pescara and then final leg at Rodi Garganico saw ten participants. 

In this ninth Venice Monte Carlo race it was interesting to see boat builders coming with production units at the races.  Tornado came with the 50S a production model released in 2010, while Grady White also participated with a full production 36 unit powered by triple Yamaha outboard motors.  Albatro and Outerlimits also competed with modified production units, while Vittoria Shipyard competed with its fast patrol Interceptor 43 unit. Ten teams participated in total, with the British team on the Outerlimits SV52 N25 winning the race, followed by NS95 an Albatro 32, and SeaRex Baltec number N66 in third.  

This Venice Monte Carlo race made me think, that it would be nice for the UIM to create a full production cruiser class with the likes of Tornado 50 at around 15 meters and possibly even a smaller one around twelve meters powered by twin diesel and three to five endurance long range races in Europe and possibly USA.  To be honest I never understood how it never happened but the potential for production sport cruisers to compete have always been there.  I think it can be a good marketing tool for some boat builders.  We have to remember that Ferrari never made adverts but used race as its advertising, today the horse badge is the most valued auto marker in the World.

The old Venice - Monte Carlo was always a test base for testing production boats in it, and its good to see the same story continuing.  Baia, Magnum, Mig, Itama, Ferretti, and Pershing are previous competitors with the first three being winners of a leg and or all the Venice-Monte Carlo in the respective class.  So is there a potential for some serious boat rally endurance races? I definitely think so, though a serious set or rules which go inline with the current production market needs to be drawn.  In the eighties and nineties automotive Rally racing was as much popular as Formula One racing for example.

Swedish Short Cut

I am nearly sure that with such a title many of you thought that I would go into the short cutting, one way or another boat builders do to turn a bigger profit from boat building.  But this one is not for them, this is for Volvo, and how it keeps sitting on a twelve litre engine platform and climbing the supply ladder chain for larger super yachts.

When the IPS pod appeared in 2005, Volvo said that the project for the propulsion set up, is to make all its light duty engine series available on the platform, henceforth, with the increase in size and its update up to 1000hp thanks to larger pod drives, we arrived to a size limit of about twenty meters for twin engines, and up to about thirty meters thanks to use of triple or quadruple propulsion systems.  

Volvo seeing that triple or quadruple units have not been entering the market they expected above 24 meters, comes with a new idea of fitting twin engines to a single pod drive unit.  Here comes Volvo new IPS40 to launch in 2025 and able to put two engines per drive, bringing maximum horsepower up to twin 1000hp i.e.2000hp per drive.  The drive will also be available with a combustion engine and electric motor set up.

It is an interesting system to be fair, but probably overly complicated, which in itself is not a problem once you are sitting in Volvo friendly waters.  But if you are not?  This has always been the problem with overly complicated systems at sea, an argument which does not stop with Volvo.  Although the Swedish engine and propulsion builder has been at the forefront for trying to change the wheel or the prop in the last couple decades. 

Marine to the Max

MarineMax, the World's largest boat and yacht dealer for value and volume expands its dynamics when in July 2021 they acquired sport cruiser and yacht builder Cruisers.  It will be interesting how MarineMax will develop Cruisers into the future.  MarineMax knows a few things about product and how to sell it.  The US brokerage and dealer house has been Azimut's largest dealership, representing the famous Italian name in North America for over a decade, and was also instrumental in putting Galeon at the top of the sphere in the US. 

Founded in 1956 Cruisers was one of the mass produced cabin and sport cruiser brands which had an important growth in the eighties and nighties in that twenty to forty feet plus size.  Other USA boat builders fuelling this express sport cruiser growth and change of boating life style in those times were Carver, Chris-Craft, Regal, Sea Ray, Trojan, and Wellcraft.  

So far MarineMax has not changed any dynamics of the Cruisers brand. But it will be interesting what the future will bring, being that in recent years it was the name resisting and competing with the Euro-imports in the sport cruiser and yacht segment from twelve to eighteen meters in size.

Designer Brand

In a press release received nineteen April, World famous from Venice Italy yacht designers Nuvolari Lenard have announced to enter super yacht building with there own brand.  Called the Nuvolari Lenard Yachts this new range is to be build in Turkey by Mengi-Yay and will feature four models from 47 to 65 meters. Two units of the smaller 47 meter S1 model are currently in build, with the second in size 52 meter 50 Plus model also starting construction.

Designer branding is not entirely new as in the past, in the late eighties to the nighties we have seen another Italian designer, Paolo Caliari do this, with his Caliari Yacht series launching an 80 model with a bigger thirty meter being in project which never materialized.  Caliari yacht was a company with Mochi as its main share holder, though all the four 80s made are reported to be made at Cantieri Navali Santa Margherita,

Both designers are among the most famous in the period they operated.  Paolo Caliari curriculum apart having a whose who list of yacht builders from the seventies and eighties, was a guaranteed success, and many of his designs for Mochi and Leopard are regarded timeless today and having shaped the yacht design of that present, and future.  The same can be said of Nuvolari Lenard, who burst in the scene in 1993 with the VZ 18, followed by the Sarnico 45 in 1995.  Nuvalari Lenard will then take design duties at Mochi the fall of 95, which will make them enter super yachting with the 25 Mega launched a year later and Palmer Johnson from 1998 onwards, which will make them design the 59 meter and the Sport series which debuted with the 105 in 2002.

But probably the most successful designer branding was Hunt Yachts, of credited deep Vee inventor Ray Hunt with the Bertram Moppie in 1960.  Founded in 1998 Hunt yachts was first a subsidiary of  C. Raymond Hunt design but in 2013 it was sold to Hinckley Group.  Another similar fate to Hunt was also made by Hargrave, another designer who is famous for his work for Bertram competitor Hatteras.  Hargrave was founded in 1997 but unlike Hunt has concentrated mostly in building super yachts above 24 meters in size.  

Mystery Rendering

These days most project renderings are so realistic that sometimes it is difficult to make the difference from real photos.  The opposite is also true that digital photography has so much tools, that an over polished real photo can look like a rendering of sorts, making it difficult to distinguish the one from the other.

In all this though some boat builders are returning back to the past where a couple lines and little details tell small tiny bits of the new model coming up.  A mystery rendering which leaves you it to ones imagination what the new model will be all about.   This system was used a lot in the nineties.  But we are seeing it return again from some brands.

Pershing for example used it a lot when it started teasing its TO project in 2020, which was then later announced as the GTX116 in 2022, launched in the earlier part of this 2023 year.  Rizzardi is another brand which has always used mystery rendering for its upcoming models, showing five distinct lines of the model building curious anticipation to the interested buyer.

Building curious anticipation is important in new product nearly as designing the boat or yacht.