A Little Something for Your Riva

So you've got your new Riva. Yes, it's one of the most prestigious vessels in the world, but still, who wants just any old Riva? You need something to make yours stand out. But what? Well how about this solid hardwood chest (top) made to order for each boat and owner? Inside its elegant lacquer enclosure you'll find four bottles of Clicquot La Grande Dame 98 champagne, two magnums of Le Grande Dame 88 champagne, six Riedel champagne flutes, and six water tumblers. And it's all yours for a mere $80,000!

A tad too much for your budget? Then try the limited edition (only 300 pieces will be made) Cruiser Bag (above). It includes a bottle of La Grande Dame 98 and two champagne flutes and costs a considerably less stratospheric $425. Products of a joint venture between Veuve Clicquot and Riva, both are available through your local Riva dealer or direct from the Riva factory.

Look Out Above!

Everyone knows you need to check out the bottom before you drop the hook—everyone except for maybe the crew of this freighter. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the tug sustained only minor damage.

In the Middle of Nowhere

Tired of fighting crowds of boats at the local anchorage or waterfront pub? Want to really get away from it all? Then do what I did and head for The Sea of Cortez. The Moorings has a base in La Paz, at the southern end of the Sea from which you can charter--bareboat or captained—a very well-equipped 44-foot power catamaran. The scenery is unbelievably striking, like a lunar landscape surrounded by the bluest water you can imagine. And there's virtually no other boats there.

To give you some idea of just how untouched this area is, check out this video. I shot it from the top of a tiny islet called Isla Coyote (excuse the feet), on which 20 to 30 fishermen somehow live. How's that for an unspoiled vista? Right at the beginning you'll see a small, white building. That's the island's church. Right after that you'll get a quick look at our charter boat off in the distance, and then at the end you'll see a small outboard-powered panga. It belongs to the fishermen, who are headed out to get us a lobster. The cost? About $10 for a 12-pounder.

Look for a feature story with lots of photos in the July issue of PMY.

Happy (Slightly Belated) New Year

Even though the holiday season is quickly fading in the face of a presidential election and economic worries, I feel a parting shot is warranted, especially an optimistic one. I'm sure that many of you got holiday cards from business associates this year, as did I, some from people you can't remember ever meeting and other from people you'd frankly rather not hear from during the joyous season, like your tax attorney or oncologist. I naturally get them from boatbuilders, some of whom I recognize (the name of the company if not the person signing the card).

This year my all-time favorite came from Pershing, maker of those ultra-fast, super-sexy, Italian express boats. Like a lot of stuff that comes from Italy (especially catalogs), it's oversized. It's actually a hardbound book that I would guess measures 14" x 14". Open it up and it's a calendar, a not very practical calendar given its size. Each spread has the days of the month on one side in very small type and a quote from a famous person on the other. The quotes are frankly priceless, and I'd like to share them with you without comment. I hope they'll both inspire you and reinforce a notion—that might be somewhat comforting in these worrisome economic times: that predicting the future is a risky enterprise. Happy New Year.

January: "The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad." The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford's lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Company

February: "A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere." The New York Times, 1936

March: "Man will not fly for 50 years." Wilbur Wright in 1903, the same year as his and his brother's famous inaugural flight

April: "Television won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946

May: "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

June: "The Suez Canal? A useless attempt and impossible to build." Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister, 1858

July: "With regard to the electric light, I think I may say without contradiction that no more will be heard of it." Erasmus Wilson, President of the Stevens Institute of Technology, 1879

August: "The theory of relativity is just as unacceptable to me as, say, the existence of the atom or other such dogmas. Ernst Mach, German scientist, 1838-1916

September: "Photography will not last long as painting is so clearly superior." Le Journal des Savants, 1829

October: "Radio has no future." Lord Kelvin, mathematician and scinetist and president of the Royal Society, 1897

November: "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927

December: "Today it is practically impossible to find undiscovered lands." Queen Isabel of Spain's Advisory Council

No More Rock and Roll

You may remember the article that appeared in the November issue of PMY entitled, "The End of Rock and Roll." It was about a new, compact (about the size of a beach ball), relatively affordable, high-speed gyro called the Seakeeper (above), which during our tests all but eliminated rolling on a 43-foot Viking convertible. Having been on that boat—in the tuna tower and in a beam sea—I can tell you that the difference this device made was so remarkable, we opined that Seakeeper would change boating forever.

Well, that prediction may come true a lot sooner than we thought. I got a call the other day from Shep McKinney, president of Seakeeper, who informed me that as a direct result of that article, his company had just signed a multimillion-dollar deal to supply gyros to the Azimut-Benetti Group in exchange for an agreement not to sell the units to the Italian builder's direct competitors for the next few years. It's a great deal for Seakeeper because it gives the fledgling company a solid piece of business on which to build, and it's great for Azimut-Benetti because it gives it something none of its competitors will have, at least for now.

I found McKinney's news particularly interesting because immediately after my ride on the Seakeeper-equipped Viking, I called a few builders to tell them that I felt this product was a true game-changer and whatever builder came out with it on their boats first would have a huge advantage over its competitors. Amazingly, I couldn't seem to get anyone excited—except for one guy: Paolo Vitelli, president of Azimut-Benetti.

Vitelli founded Azimut back in 1969, then acquired Benetti in 1985, and has grown the company, which he still owns, into arguably the most successful and profitable boatbuilder in the world. Above all, Vitelli is an entrepreneur who can move more quickly and decisively than a lot of other builders. It was that nimbleness that allowed him to nail down Seakeeper while his competitors were still just thinking about it. I'm predicting that his quick decision will translate into huge profits for his company over the term of the agreement. Just wait and see how he exploits the advantage of selling boats that don't rock and roll. A lot of builders are going to be trying to figure a way to avoid Seakeeper's patents.

No Fix

My girlfriend has a 2002 Lexus RX 300, and being a Lexus, it's loaded, right down to its nifty GPS navigator. Like most modern vehicles, this car's GPS is part of a module that also includes the audio (AM, FM, CD player) and climate controls—very convenient ergonomically speaking. This is a high-mileage car—139,000 miles—but it's in great condition. Hey, it's basically a glorified Toyota, and what car has a better reputation for dependability and reliability than Toyota?

Indeed, mechanically this car is bulletproof—it doesn't use a drop of oil and never has had so much as a burp. But one night a week or so ago, the electronics started to act up. First, the radio on/off button wouldn't work. Then I couldn't go forward or back a track on the CD. The on/off button came back on line but the navigator started to lose its way, heading off cross-country even as we slogged up I-95. Ever since that night electronic features keep disappearing and reappearing in some perverse imitation of musical chairs; when we climb into the car we never know what's going to work and what won't, but we've started carry maps, just in case.

Of course, the ever-helpful Lexus dealer is more than able and willing to fix the problem, which means replacing the entire audio/climate/navigation control module for a price that I calculate is about twice what the car is worth.

Among the many lessons I've learned (and relearned) from this experience is that my psyche is forever trapped in the Mechanical Age when things could actually be fixed—screw this gizmo off, screw this new one on, and you're on your way. In the Electronic Age, I am coming to understand, life is not this way. Stuff is no longer designed to be repaired, only replaced. My epiphany regarding this actually occurred last spring when my boat's chartplotter abruptly went dark. I called the manufacturer's toll-free service number, and after a very brief Q and A ("Are you sure it's turned on? Is the power plug in tight? Have you dropped it recently?), I was told to box up its way-out-of-warranty self and ship it off to the service center where they basically replaced everything but the knobs that hold it to its bracket and returned it to me, fully operational. The cost, I am delighted to report, was zero, but only because the company took pity. They were in no way obligated to give me a pass, unless it was by some corporate conscience (an oxymoron if there ever was one).

Boating has finally taught me that this is now the way of the world: Most things are no longer designed to be fixed, just discarded and then replaced. Considering how much stuff on my boat falls into this category, I find myself seriously questioning what I may have really gained with all this new technology. I have a friend who actually knows how to navigate by sextant and has had the same instrument for three decades. Whenever it needs adjustment or repair, he ships it back to England, where they can replace any part. Gives new meaning to the word fix, doesn't it?

Fine Day For a Boat Test

Those of you who regularly read PMY boat tests are familiar with a caveat that appears all too often regarding test conditions. It goes something like this: "I was unable to evaluate the boat's rough-water handling because conditions on test day were flat calm." It's a shame that we have to say that but we only get these boats for a day or, at the most two, and so we can't choose our weather. But every once in a while the stars align and we get one of those honkin' days that really tests the boat and us. I had one on Friday, January 4, off St. Lucie, Florida. It had been blowing 30 for the last 24 hours, and although the wind had died a bit, the seas were still up—fours and sixes—and it was still squally. I was aboard a 70-foot Davis sportfish, and as we headed out the inlet, I could see the waves breaking and I knew we were in for it. I shot this picture through the enclosure just as we cleared the inlet. To find out how the Davis fared, look for the test in the March issue.

Have Cats Finally Arrived?

Is it finally happening? Are power catamarans finally becoming accepted in the United States, as they have in the rest of the world (especially in Australia and New Zealand)? It seems that nearly every day some new double-hull design comes across my desk. Some are just dreams looking for a buyer to fund their construction. But more and more of them are actually being built—or in many case actually have been built and launched. Just a week ago, my friend and PMY electronics columnist Ben Ellison announced to me that he'd plunked down a deposit on a Maine Cat P-45. Although I'm no fan of catamarans, as he laid out the brochure I did find this one pleasing to the eye (at least in profile) and intriguing because it has just two cabins. The master lays athwartships to avoid the tunnel-like feel of most catamaran cabins—or at least that's the way it looks on paper. (You can get more information and look at a video of the prototype at www.mecat.com.)

Then a few nights later I received an e-mail from Warren Mosler, who's building a 50-foot power cat at Goldcoast Yachts in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mosler's cat is a wave-piercer, which uses extended hulls to increase waterline and thereby efficiency. Like all cats, power and sail, his has an oversized (17'x 17') main-deck saloon, but unlike the Maine Cat, his master stateroom is aft (to starboard) along with two guest staterooms, all of which "utilize the hulls for hallways." I put this in quotes because even looking at the 3-D accommodations plan (top photo), I can't picture it.

Where in profile the Maine Cat looks fairly conventional, Mosler's boat looks other-worldly (bottom photo), at least to a non-cat guy. Both are, of course, wide: the P-45's beam is 18 feet. Mosler didn't provide that spec in his e-mail but judging from the pictures he sent, I'd guess it's all of that and more. Which leads to the perennial question regarding cats: Where are you gonna park that thing? The answer is, of course, at your own dock as few marinas can accommodate many boats of that breadth and those they can at a considerable premium. A lot of places won't even let you anchor one in the harbor.

So why are people buying these boats, which, by the way, tend to cost more than a monohull of the same length? Lots of reasons are offered up, like the livability of those giant saloons and the huge sun lounges. But at the bottom of it, I suspect, it's all about fuel efficiency. On its Web site, Maine Cat claims the P-45 gets 3 nautical miles per gallon (nmpg) at 10.8 knots and 2.2 nmpg at 18 knots. Mosler claims his boat burns 3 gph at 10 knots for 3.33 nmpg and 11.1 gph at 20 knots for 1.80 nmpg. While that may not seem like a lot compared to your Prius, those nmpg numbers are four to six times those of your typical twin-engine monohull of the same length.

That kind of data is undeniably impressive and is bound to attract a lot of buyers, especially as the price of fuel rises and with it concern over CO emissions. But for me, no thanks. It all comes down to aesthetics. I want my boat to look like a boat, and in my world that means one hull. If I need to save money I'll buy a used boat. If I want to save the planet, I'll resort to other measures, like lightweight construction, a single engine, and going slow. I've yet to see anyone oooh and aaah when a cat comes into a harbor, and until I do, I'll stick with a monohull.

Mystery Skiboat

PMY doesn't normally cover skiboats but this one caught my eye. I was on Lake Tellico in Tennessee to test the new Sea Ray 330 Sundancer (the test will be published in our September issue) when this obvious prototye rumbled out of the nearby MasterCraft plant. Now I don't know too much about skiboats but I don't think I've ever seen one powered by two big V-8s. I'd guess the boat was between 26 and 28 feet and that the engine enclosure/cover had been removed for testing. Pretty interesting, huh?

Azimut

Last time I blogged it was to tell you about some factory tours I was doing in Italy, specifically Sessa. Shortly thereafter I moved on to Azimut, which turned out to be not so much a factory tour as a sojourn. For Azimut is both huge and about much more than building boats.

I began my tour in Aviglana, where Azimut manufactures boats to from 39 to 70 feet. This is a relatively new plant; the oldest parts are about six years old and one building was completed last year. Another is scheduled to begin construction later this year, Not surprising given its age, the facility is very modern, clean, well-lit, and virtually devoid of styrene odor. It was running at pretty much full capacity when I was there. From there I drove to Varazze, on the coast where the company has a big stake in a new marina project, complete with 800 slips (400 for sail on one side and 400 for power on the other), parking for 900 vehicles, water view apartments for sale, and a variety of shops. Although much of the shops and apartments are still unoccupied, it's nevertheless impressive. To my knowledge, no other boat builder is engaged in such a project.

From here we drove south to Viareggio, when Azimut builds Azimut motoryachts from 75 to 116 feet, the larger one in the recently purchased Lusben Shipyard, and in a separate facility next door, its line of Benetti composite yachts. The ex-Lusben works is also home to Europe's largest TraveLift, a 600-ton monster. My last leg was about an hour south in Livorno, where Benetti builds its full-custom, steel-hull yachts. There's yet another facility on Italy's east coast where the company laminates the hulls and deck for its composite Benettis, which are then brought to Viareggio for fitting out. Obviously Azimut is huge—there's really nothing in America—or for that matter in the world—that matches the number, size, and modernity of its boatbuilding facilities. I was bowled over.

Former President Bush Trying to Dock His Boat

Italian Yards

I'm over in Italy touring a bunch of yards, and have come across two that are particularly interesting to us Americans. One belongs to Sessa, a builder that's relatively new to the United States but that is getting ready to celebrate its 50th Anniversary building boats here in Italy. The company has a lot of models, from a line of small center consoles that it builds in a factory in southern Italy and which it will not export to the U.S., to a 42 that's built in the factory I visited. (It also has a new 53 on the way that will soon be coming to the States.) The factory is squeeky clean and extremely well organized—plus I discovered first-hand that it has a great cafeteria! It seemed that about half of the workforce is women, and I was impressed to see that everyone wears protective clothing (including respirators) and that there is virtually no Styrene odor thanks to a powerful air-handling system. And they must be selling boats because they work two shifts. Overall, pretty impressive.

I'll tell you about Azimut in my next post.