Lee Mandel doesn’t talk much about his 52-foot Sea Ray, which he skippers with friends and family up and down the US East Coast. Instead, the boat he’s eager to discuss—all day, every day—is the 116-foot Azimut Tail Lights, which he bought in 2019.

And the first thing he’ll tell you, if you’re thinking about chartering Tail Lights? You should think of it as your yacht, right down to the advance provisioning allowance.

“I want the guests to feel like it’s their vessel,” Mandel says. “If they’re repeat clients, we’ll pay some of the taxes. We’ll offset their APA costs. We’ll give them some extra days. Our goal is to get every customer to want to come back.”

That approach to the charter business has Tail Lights already booking guests for the Bahamas and Caribbean into 2025, with an average notice of three to five months, and with a rotating crew to avoid burnout. Mandel says regular maintenance is also a key component of the Tail Lights charter program, along with investments that help guests have memorable experiences aboard the 2011 build.

“One of the things I saw a lot of the yachts doing was theme nights. I wanted to give the crew technology to create incredible themes,” Mandel says. “Now we have disco night, pirate night, ’70s night, and we tie it into the electronics and AV on the boat. There’s a smoke machine. There’s disco lighting throughout the boat. We have a DJ system.” In the Bahamas, he partners with Furze Entertainment to bring various entertainers on board. “We have a singer who sings as well as Whitney Houston,” Mandel says. “We have a saxophonist who’s on the bow performing. We have steel-drum bands that come on the boat. We’ve had magicians. We’ve even had fire dancers on land. We’ve created a whole entertainment portfolio of partners we work with.”    

Charter Details

• HMY Yachts manages Tail Lights for charter.  
• Accommodations are for as many as 12 guests in five staterooms, including a full-beam master amidships with a private entrance, separate from the guest staterooms. 
• Bahamas bookings are typically available from May or June through the summer season.
• Caribbean itineraries generally start around November and go through the winter.
• Flash drives of photos and videos from the charter are given to guests as a keepsake.

The post Yacht Charter Your Way appeared first on Yachting.

On the blacktop of a boatyard adjacent to the bustling harbor of Anacortes, Washington, a warhorse of a 1970s-era racing yacht is stripped down and propped up, and is clearly in the throes of a keel-to-masthead reincarnation. The boat’s name is Improbable, which is fitting, because that also described the chances I’d run into an old sailing friend named Bruce Schwab when I arrived in the Pacific Northwest last summer to hop on a cruising boat headed north. Improbable is Schwab’s boat and the object of his current labor of love, and the entire story borders on the unlikely and implausible—which is why it’s pretty cool.

Schwab, a self-confessed “certified boat bum and sailing nut,” is also an accomplished sailor who has twice raced alone around the world and was the first American to successfully compete in the nonstop Vendée Globe in 2004-05. These days, he runs a business fitting out systems for onboard energy management and charging. It’s called OceanPlanet Energy, and it’s in Maine—which is why it was, well, improbable when I ran into him at a taco joint in Anacortes. After he invited me to come look at his latest project, the tale got stranger still; Improbable was a big reason he fell hard for the sport.

Designed by Gary Mull, the lean 42-footer was built of cold-molded kauri, a New Zealand wood renowned for its lightweight and superior strength. Schwab’s dad bought the boat in 1976, when Schwab was 16 years old, and he spent his teenage years campaigning the boat with his family and friends. Mull was a highly respected naval architect based out of California’s Bay Area, where he had almost a cult following among the local sailors. And Improbable, created and built to excel in long, downwind races like the ones to Hawaii, did extremely well in the old IOR measurement rule, which was the premier rating system of the day. It all laid the groundwork for Schwab’s long and successful career as a professional rigger and sailor.

Read More from Herb McCormick: Cruising Haida Gwaii

Improbable remained in the family all that time, but, when Schwab inherited the boat several years ago, it had largely fallen into a state of disrepair. As he sailed the boat from Northern California to Anacortes, where he had some local connections, the idea was to find it a new home. “I’ve done six races to Hawaii, four trans-Atlantic races, the ’round-the-world stuff, and I was thinking I’ve done enough sailing,” he said. “I thought I was over it. But on that trip north, it all flashed back. I remembered how much I liked the boat. And I wanted to know how it would feel if it was modernized. I have a vision for what it could be. And I just can’t let it go.”

So, he’s bringing Improbable back to fighting trim. He found an excellent carbon-fiber mast from a Farr 40, and he reckons there are some good used sails from that class that will also work well on this project. He’s completely reconfiguring the boat’s rudder, which, he says with a laugh, is a project he started when he was a teenager. The entire deck layout will be transformed with the latest and best go-fast hardware. Lithium batteries and solar panels will completely transform the systems technology. He’s doing it all slowly but surely, making regular commutes from the East Coast to the West Coast, as time allows.

Today, almost five decades after first stepping aboard the boat, Schwab is preparing, once again, to hoist sail, set the kite and haul the mail. Hawaii beckons. Perhaps a new generation will feel the thrill, pass the torch. Improbable? With this boat, it’s safe to say, probably not.  

The post The Family Sailboat appeared first on Yachting.

Aromas from sizzling steak, local lobster and freshly caught mahi mahi wafted through the air as an inflatable Santa ballooned on the flybridge of Mark and Janeen Traylor’s Horizon Power Catamarans 52. The Georgia-based couple was in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, preparing for one of their most memorable family Christmas dinners.

Coker and Cathy Price of South Carolina also had what they described as their “best family vacation ever” aboard a catamaran—an Aquila 48 they chartered in the British Virgin Islands.

These are just two examples of boaters who have joined the shift toward catamarans in the past decade or so. While a catamaran or two used to be an anomaly at a marina, an increasing number of boaters are embracing the volume and efficiencies that catamarans offer. Marinas along the US East Coast are now building docks with transient catamaran cruisers in mind, and some charter companies now focus on cats because an increasing number of customers prefer them.

The Traylors made the transition from 35- and 60-foot monohulls to a 53-foot Horizon power cat. The Prices owned several catamarans smaller than 30 feet long before buying an Aquila 36, christened Nauti Cat after Cathy.

“If you’re at anchorage, it’s much more stable. If you’re on a monohull, it just doesn’t take much at all to tip it from side to side,” Mark says. “It’s very family-friendly. As far as the amount of space that you get on it and having people be able to move around the boat and not feel like you’re right on top of each other, comparing it to a monohull, there’s just not much of a comparison at all.”

Coker also says there’s no comparison: “I don’t know why they even make monohulls anymore.”

Catamaran builders are seeing substantial increases in customer demand. Darren Henn, VisionF Yachts and Silent-Yachts sales broker for the United States, says that before the pandemic, Silent-Yachts sold four or five vessels a year. Since 2020, the builder has sold 15 or 16 hulls a year at an average price of $3.8 million to $7.6 million, he says.

Prestige Yachts, which launched its M-Line of catamarans with the debut of the M48 at the 2022 Cannes Yachting Festival, has sold more than 20 of the hulls and recently launched a new flagship for the line, the 65-foot M8.

The Silent VisionF 82, which made its global debut at the 2023 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, has a 32-foot-6-inch beam with an open-layout flybridge that, alone, could comfortably host upward of 20 guests. The 581-square-foot salon is dedicated entirely to socializing.

“I think it comes back down to usable space on the boats,” Henn says. “People want to be able to host parties. They want to be able to have friends. If you’re on any other vessel of similar size, you’re going to be able to put a fraction [of the] amount of those people. Once you see the bow of this vessel, you’re going to be like, ‘Man, you can put 100 people up in the front.’”

Other boatbuilders are designing catamarans to appeal to even more styles of boating. Aquila’s 47 Molokai, for instance, is a center-console sport-fisherman that can reportedly top out at around 62 knots and cruise at about 42 knots. It also has a cabin belowdecks for a couple to use on a long weekend. The wide-open, performance-centric design is much different from the first cats that came onto the market years ago.

“Traditionally, catamarans are boxes on the water, rectangles on the water,” says Alain Raas, Aquila brand manager for MarineMax. “You’re starting to see the more sporty look, the swept lines. And then you’re also getting up in speed now. All of our models, we’re really focused on semiplaning or planing hulls. We’re not just focused on going slow. We want to have the option to go fast for our clients.”

Another factor driving catamaran popularity is charter bookings. The Moorings now offers close to a dozen power and sail catamarans as part of its charter fleet. MarineMax Vacations specializes in power cats, and Regency Yacht Charters says it’s seeing broad demand for even bigger cats, such as the Sunreef 80.

Some of those charter clients, like the Price family, go on to buy power catamarans. They took delivery of Nauti Cat in January 2023. Its stability makes for an easy cruise from South Carolina to the Bahamas, they say, and its 2-foot draft allows for shallow-water approaches with family and friends aboard near Edisto Beach, South Carolina.

The Traylors say they’re not going back to monohulls. As of this writing, they were preparing for their first Abacos season aboard a new Horizon PC60.

“The catamaran charter market is just exploding,” says Bob Denison, president of Denison Yachting. “We’re going to continue to see the growth in the catamaran segment of the market take off, and it’s never going to be a trend. This thing is here to stay. I think in 50 years, catamarans are going to be just as common as monohulls.”

The post Power Catamaran Popularity Rising appeared first on Yachting.

In June 2022, I helped some friends deliver a high-performance sailboat from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Seattle. Our crew was experienced, so we opted to sail west of Vancouver Island. Those waters are frigid, and the shorelines are desolate, so I carried two personal locator beacons.

The first PLB, an Ocean Signal MOB1, was rigged inside my Spinlock Deckvest 6D life jacket, ready to self-activate and transmit my position via the automatic identification system if the jacket inflated. The second PLB, a McMurdo FastFind 220, resided in a case on my jacket. If manually activated, it would transmit 406-megahertz satellite signals to the international Cospas-Sarsat program, for routing to search-and-rescue authorities.

Back then, this two-PLB setup was the gold standard, but it used only GPS (not the entire global navigation satellite system) to determine position information, and it provided zero reassurance that the signals had been received.

Now there’s a better option. ACR’s ResQLink AIS PLB-450 and Ocean Signal’s PLB3 are multifrequency beacons that operate on AIS and 406 MHz frequencies. The two brands have the same parent company, and the PLBs are identical, aside from their styling. They both can leverage the full GNSS to fix their location, which they broadcast. They can be paired with life jackets, and they come with built-in Return Link Service, which illuminates an LED once Cospas-Sarsat has received the signals. Also, both beacons employ near-field communication, which lets them share a wealth of battery and test-result information via ACR’s companion app.

The PLB-450 and PLB3 are, as of this writing, the world’s most sophisticated PLBs, but the technology to build multifrequency beacons has existed for years. Two things changed that allowed these devices to go live.

First, Return Link Service came online in January 2020. It’s provided by the European Union’s Galileo satellite network, and it lets mariners receive a simple LED-based confirmation that their distress signals have been received. The importance of this technology cannot be overstated; documented cases exist of lives lost to information voids.

Second, in February 2023, the US Federal Communications Commission authorized a single PLB that can transmit both AIS and 406 MHz frequencies. This is one of the most important marine-specific changes that the FCC has made in decades. It created a regulatory opportunity for manufacturers to build multisignal PLBs.

Prototypes had existed for at least a year before that FCC change, so ACR and Ocean Signal soon began shipping the new beacons. I was excited to receive a PLB-450 to review.

My first move was to register the beacon with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This simple process involves inputting information, such as the PLB’s identification and serial numbers. Next, I downloaded ACR’s app, and I placed my iPhone next to the beacon. The devices connected, an iOS pop-up appeared, and I tapped it to launch the ACR app. I was presented with a wealth of PLB-specific data, including battery condition (high) and “total time on” (10 minutes).

ACR’s instructions make clear that it’s important to self-test the PLB, which also broadcasts on the 121.5 MHz frequency. Rescuing authorities sometimes use this frequency for final-mile recovery work. The catch is that commercial aircraft carry 121.5 MHz receivers, so it’s important to self-test any 121.5 MHz-enabled PLB only during the first five minutes of each hour.

I waited my turn, and then headed to the driveway, where I have a semiclear south-facing sky view. The first self-test, called a function test, involved pressing and holding a slider-protected key. The LED flashed blue once, indicating that the beacon had passed its exam. I confirmed this with the app.

Next came the GNSS Test. Here, I ran into some trouble, as the PLB flashes its results in red or green, and I suffer from red-green colorblindness. So, I reran the test with my wife standing next to me. She saw a single long red flash, followed by a number of shorter green flashes. Again, the beacon passed, and the app confirmed the results. It also showed me how many satellites were in view (three), how long it took to acquire its first fix (35 seconds), its fix type (2D fix) and its position accuracy (greater than 215 feet).

Like the MOB1, the PLB-450 (and PLB3) can be paired with a life jacket so that if the jacket inflates, the PLB activates. ACR and Ocean Signal achieve this via an activation slider, a safety cover and some ribbon that loops around the jacket’s air bladder. Should the jacket inflate, the ribbon pulls tight, the activation slider and safety cover pop off, and the beacon lights up. This autoinflation system is clever, but it must be carefully rigged (imagine packing a parachute). A seven-minute video on ACR’s website explains it.

I donned my life jacket in the driveway to see how it felt to wear the devices. There’s no escaping the fact that a PLB-450 is larger than a MOB1; however, I found this bulk was offset because I no longer had to carry the FastFind 220. Overall, a PLB-450 (or PLB3) is cost-competitive with a two-beacon setup, it weighs less, and it offers the same operational life of 24-plus hours.

There’s no question that I would have preferred to carry a PLB-450 or PLB3 on my delivery from Ketchikan to Seattle. The downsides are nonexistent, and it’s spectacular to be able to broadcast your emergency and position with great accuracy to both local traffic and rescuing authorities, and to receive Return Link Service confirmation.

The post Saving Yourself With ACR’s PLB appeared first on Yachting.

When Yachting decided to present its first-ever Innovation Award, the question was not which boat deserved to win. Most builders, after all, can turn out at least one good boat model every couple of years. What’s much harder is consistently producing new models with features that are smart and stylish, fun and functional, and unlike anything else on the water. What’s really hard is doing all of that at a production-boat pace to please dozens upon dozens of new-boat buyers each year.

After much deliberation, the choice was clear: The inaugural Yachting Innovation Award goes to the Galeon 560 Fly. It’s a boat that epitomizes the Polish builder’s drive not only to think differently, but also to build differently, in a way that ensures originality on the docks.

Or, as Galeon Yachts brand manager Bob Burke aptly puts it, “The 560 Fly is really the evolution of the last eight years of what Galeon’s been doing.”

An Exciting Start

Many American boaters first heard of Galeon Yachts in February 2016, when the powerhouse dealer MarineMax introduced the brand at the Miami International Boat Show. It’s not that Galeon was a new builder; it had been in business since 1982, building boats primarily for the German market, a culture whose automobiles alone say a thing or two about demand for precision engineering. MarineMax wanted to gain market share in the 40-to-65-foot market, so its team asked people they knew at engine maker Volvo Penta which brands to consider. “They gave us a few brands, and we didn’t know a whole lot about Galeon. They didn’t have a story in the United States,” Burke says. “We flew to the factory, and they showed us around. We were looking at the quality of the boats—everything they were showing us was what you want to see in a partner.”

That’s how Galeon ended up having such a notable presence at the 2016 Miami show, where MarineMax sold 17 of the boats—the whole first year’s production—in just five days. Fast-forward to today, and there have been 430 deliveries overall, with MarineMax now selling about 80 to 100 of the Galeons each year. There are Hardtop, Flybridge and Skydeck models, and the choices for yachtsmen of all tastes only continue to broaden. “In 2020, we launched our first outboard-powered Galeons,” Burke says. “We started with a 325 GTO, and then a 375 GTO, and we have two more coming in the 40s over the next two years.”

The 560 Fly made its debut about a year ago at the 2023 Miami show, bringing together many of the notable features that Galeon has been working on across the board—including Beach Mode, which is the fold-out decks that lots of builders are trying to do now but that Galeon was first to popularize in production boats.

“Galeon does it in a unique way where they fold the side down, but they also open up the aft-galley area,” Burke says. “On the 560, the beam of the boat goes from 15 feet, 10 inches to an opened-up space of about 21 feet wide. When you think about a boat that’s 21 feet wide, it’s usually 90 feet long. You open this up, and the beauty of it is that the side opens as well, so you have this indoor-outdoor galley and dinette space that feels like you’re on a 90-foot boat.”

Thinking about that wide of a beam aft also led Galeon’s team to reconsider interior spaces. “We’ve taken the beam of the boat and carried it way forward, which started with the 325,” Burke says. “We managed to get such a great volume of space that we could have a head and sleep four in a 32-foot boat. Well, when you stretch a bigger boat out and carry that beam forward, you think the guest cabin is the master, it’s so big. This is an evolution of innovation.”

Vertical Innovation

Galeon refers to its design and construction process as vertical innovation. The idea is that if the company controls everything from how the teak decks are built right up to the way the stainless-steel rails are polished, it can innovate in ways that stymie other builders, which rely on third-party vendors to help them construct various parts of their boats.

“They do everything in-house,” Burke says of Galeon. “They’re building their own furniture, doing their own upholstery, stainless-steel work, lamination, tooling. They’re building their own teak decks. That’s very rare for builders. Most of them have some component they’re not so great at, and they subcontract it out.”

Keeping everything in-house means Galeon is not governed by the products that are on the broader market. “I think that’s why people are so excited about the brand,” Burke says. “They haven’t seen it done in these ways anywhere else. Most production boats, they have the same cleats, the same cupholders, the same stuff that every boatbuilder uses. Galeon makes everything.” 

Flexible Onboard Spaces

One of the innovative features that the Galeon 560 Fly showcases is a shape-shifting dinette that converts into more of a social space opposite the galley. It’s an example of how the Galeon team constantly thinks about the way boaters use their vessels, and about how one area can be used in multiple ways during a day or week on board.

“When you have the side up and the window shut, it looks like a normal boat with a little dinette—a great place to have coffee or read a book, looking out the window,” Burke says. “But when you open the window, the backrest folds out and you can seat more people there. The table folds out too.”

There’s a similar transforming space at the 560 Fly’s bow, where the seating converts to suit multiple uses. On other models, Galeon continues to innovate in additional ways. On the 640 and 650, an opening center section of the windshield gives boaters a way to get to the bow without going out to the side decks, which in turn can be narrower, allowing for more volume in a wider salon. On the 800 Fly, the entire hardtop is built of carbon with no forward supports, giving it a stylish, modern look. “That’s a pretty amazing achievement in composite engineering,” Burke says. “There are zero stainless-steel supports on the front. That’s an innovative aspect.”

Yet another creative idea can be seen on the 470 Skydeck, which looks like a coupe but has a miniature flybridge that changes the boating experience with the push of a button. “It has a flybridge where you wouldn’t think it does,” Burke says.

Owners of Galeon boats, in addition to using onboard spaces however they best suit the style of cruising, also can customize the interiors with optional woods and fabrics to satisfy their personal tastes. “Depending on the model, you can have optional layouts in the staterooms,” Burke says.  

Impressive in Motion

Galeon models that are Americas-bound come from ideas that the builder has, along with concepts from longtime design partner Tony Castro, and with MarineMax contributing its thoughts about what consumers want. While each model may have a different combination of features, they all share a quality of performance that Burke says is key to the brand’s reputation.

“We built most of the boats with a target of a 29- or 30-knot maximum speed or a 25-knot cruise,” he says. “We want to achieve that in most conditions, so the boats are built solid. It’s not about having the fastest boat on the water. It’s about having the most comfortable boat in 3-to-5-foot seas. Some boats are built light to be fast, and they don’t handle that type of condition well at 20-plus knots.”

Galeon and MarineMax strongly encourage boaters to take a ride out on the water, especially if they’re shopping at a boat show and comparing the Galeons to models from other builders. “You can walk through five boats and love them all, but then you take them out, and they might be creaking and squeaking and you don’t enjoy them,” Burke says. “We want people to be comfortable.”

Achieving that goal includes smart positioning of equipment, along with the use of sound-deadening materials in each boat’s construction.

“Boats with the side-opening windows, like the 560, have a chilled-water air-conditioning system. That means the noisy part of the system is in the engine room, and all you have in the cabin is fans. It’s a very quiet boat,” Burke says. “You close the door in the master cabin, and if somebody’s having a conversation outside the door, you won’t hear it. They build a really tight boat.”

For all these reasons and then some, the Galeon 560 Fly is an ideal boat to earn the distinction of receiving the first Yachting Innovation Award. This yacht epitomizes the builder’s ability to conceive new ideas and then execute them well—and makes us all eager to get out and go boating.

17 in One Week

MarineMax launched the Galeon brand for American yachtsmen at the 2016 Miami International Boat Show. It was an instant hit. They sold 17 of the Galeon boats—the entire first year’s production—inside of five days.

430 in Eight Years

Since it introduced the Galeon line in 2016, MarineMax has sold 430 of the boats. The current pace of customer demand is about 80 to 100 boats per year, across the entire model range.

The post Galeon Yachts 560 Fly Wins The Day appeared first on Yachting.

Eberhard Vieg, the CEO of Prebit lighting near Bonn, Germany, is blunt when describing himself and the company’s founder, Michael Woita. “We are really nerds about light,” Vieg says. “Everything on the boat can be high-end materials, but if the lighting is off, it will not appear to be nice. If you change the lighting, it makes a difference.”

Woita learned this lesson after working in the lighting industry and then buying a sailboat, Vieg says: “He found out that lighting was awful on the boat, and he decided to do something.” Woita founded Prebit about 20 years ago. “He created reading lights, and then the company developed and developed and grew.”

Its newest product is the Thoa lamp, which is a portable, rechargeable light that can be positioned anywhere on board. It’s rated IP54, which means it can handle some light spray. Prebit makes the lamp with LED, but in a way that allows it to dim like an incandescent bulb. “If you dim with an incandescent light, it gets red; it gets warmer and warmer, like candlelight,” Vieg says. “Physically, you cannot do this with a single LED. That’s the trick.”

A series of LED colors are used inside the Thoa lamp to mimic the warm fade, with an algorithm making the change seem natural. The Thoa lamp doesn’t just get lighter or darker; it creates mood lighting, including dancing, diamond-type shadows on surfaces when it’s in dimmed mode.

The team at Prebit got the idea for the Thoa lamp about three years ago, Vieg says, after a yacht owner told them what kind of mood he wanted on board. “We thought it was too important to keep it just for that, so we made a series with a complete range,” Vieg says.

Each charge lasts about eight hours, and the light recharges on an inductive pad (like a wireless charger for a smartphone). The lights can be dimmed by touching them, similar to a kitchen faucet with a sensor in it, and they can be controlled via an app. A stowable case that holds and simultaneously charges four lights is also available.

“We’re seeing the owners of big yachts coming in for this,” Vieg says, “and then they’re also buying it for their homes, to use on the terrace.”

Take the next step: Prebit Lighting

The post Onboard Ambience with Prebit’s Thoa Lamp appeared first on Yachting.

Cheetah Marine’s R630 is a RIB that’s built for today and tomorrow, thanks to its design for the electrified future. The R630 comes standard with a single 50 hp gasoline or diesel outboard, and owners can upgrade the boat to create an all-electric ride. The company achieved this versatility with an efficient cathedral hull that helps to hop the RIB onto plane faster—while plowing less water—than a boat with a traditionally shaped undercarriage. Additionally, the R630 has a flush, self-draining deck; sizable on-deck stowage; and belowdecks tankage. Bespoke designs are available.   

Whom It’s For: Owners who want to go electric, but aren’t ready to commit. Anyone seeking a RIB that can hit 25 knots with a single 50 hp outboard.   

Picture This: It’s a lovely January day off St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, and the kids want to use the e-foils. So, you load up your Cheetah Marine R630 and quietly cruise over to Caneel Bay Beach, on nearby St. John, for a fun day of foiling.

Take the next step: cheetahmarine.co.uk

The post Cheetah Marine’s Power Play RIB appeared first on Yachting.

As the jumping-off point from the Florida mainland to the Keys, Key Largo is a fabulous introduction to what lies farther down the Overseas Highway. Its clear blue waters, abundant marine life and great dining options make the island a welcoming port of call for all.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

The country’s first undersea park, covering a sprawling 70 nautical square miles within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is a prime destination for all sorts of water fun. Paddle through the mangroves on a rented kayak, canoe or paddleboard. Chill out at Far Beach or Cannon Beach. Cast a line for mutton snapper and grouper. The park’s reef—part of the third-largest reef system in the world—is its top draw, with more than 80 species of coral and more than 260 species of tropical fish, including barracuda, parrotfish and damselfish. There are nearly 20 PADI dive facilities on Key Largo that offer trips to some of the park’s most popular sites, such as Molasses and North Dry Rocks. Non-divers can try a glass-bottom boat ride.

Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center

Since 1991, this nonprofit has been dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured native and migratory birds. Its Mission Wild Bird Hospital has a small shop and visitor-education center. The Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary serves as a home for more than 60 non-releasable birds representing almost 30 species, from raptors to songbirds to shorebirds. Try to time your visit for the daily brown-pelican feedings.

Harriette’s

At this restaurant, always start with dessert. Opened in 1982, this favorite local breakfast and lunch spot is famous for its enormous muffins. Key lime is the top seller among the 26 flavors, which range from bacon maple to German chocolate to guava cream cheese. The restaurant’s biscuits, omelets and eggs Benedict also earn frequent praise.

Check out more Island Icons: Saint-Martin and St. Maarten and Curaçao

Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill

Pick your vibe at this waterfront sports and tiki bar from legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson. Hang out inside to catch the big games of the day on the multitude of TVs. Or grab a table on the deck for Florida Bay and sunset views, and nightly live music. Menu selections include New York-style pizza, pub grub and seafood.

The Fish House Restaurant & Seafood Market

A fantastic seafood meal is a must while in the Keys. Since the 1980s, The Fish House has been a landmark dining destination in the Upper Keys for its fresh and delicious seafood, generous portions and swift service. Daily catches are offered in five preparations, including the Matecumbe style spotlighted by Food Network stars Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri. If you can’t make up your mind on an entree, opt for one of the combination platters.

The post Cruising to Key Largo appeared first on Yachting.

At just over 52 feet length overall, the Riviera 46 Sports Motor Yacht is the Australian builder’s new entry-level model in the series, and it’s set up to host good-size parties and to cruise with friends and family.

For starters, consider the after section of this yacht’s main deck. Between the cockpit and the shaded alfresco deck, there is 115 square feet of socializing real estate. The swim platform has two transom doors leading to the cockpit with a barbecue, a fridge/freezer, a wet bar and an ice maker. Forward, there is a settee on either side, with a folding teak table to port and the option to place a TV in the forward portside corner.

The 46’s interior space is set up to serve guests easily too. The galley is aft and to starboard, accessed through a sliding-glass door from the alfresco deck. The galley has a two-burner cooktop, a microwave and a fridge/freezer, along with a C-shaped countertop with plenty of space for meal prep. Plates and beverages can be sent to guests relaxing on the alfresco deck via a starboard-side window that lifts upward or can be brought up to guests on the flybridge by way of portside stairs.

Forward, there is a U-shaped settee to port with a dining table and an L-shaped settee to starboard. This is a good place for lunch with a protected view on days when the weather makes being outdoors uncomfortable.

Up top, the 46’s flybridge has virtually uninterrupted, 360-degree views and more gathering spaces. The forward section has a two-seat settee to port and a C-shaped settee with a dinette to starboard. A wet bar in the after portside corner helps serve guests without having to go downstairs.

Belowdecks, there are three staterooms and two heads. The forepeak master has an en suite head to starboard and a portside closet. Then, there are two twin-berth guest staterooms amidships and a day head to port that doubles as the portside accommodation’s en suite head. Riviera also gives owners the option to place a double berth in the portside stateroom.

Standard power is twin 600 hp Volvo Penta D8 IPS800s, with an option to upgrade to twin 725 hp Volvo Penta D11 IPS950s. With the latter power package, Riviera says the 46 Sports Motor Yacht can hit 34.5 knots at 2,560 rpm. At 24.5 knots and 2,100 rpm, range is reportedly 286 nautical miles.  

Take the next step: rivieraaustralia.com

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Any yacht that’s built with a “solar skin” is bound to attract owners who have at least a few thoughts about the environment. Such is the case with Sunreef’s Power Eco series of catamarans. Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso recently took delivery of a 60 Power Eco, saying that sustainability considerations were fundamental to his vessel choice. The owner of the first 80 Power Eco, christened Sól, built the yacht entirely cruelty-free, including far more than avoiding animal-derived fabrics such as leather.

As just one example, there’s a composting machine on board Sól. It lets the chefs reduce trash by turning scraps into fertilizer for island farmers, who, in exchange, provide the yacht with locally grown microgreens. “This is definitely different,” says chef Sara Nelson. “I don’t know any other boat doing these things to the level that we’re doing them.”

The captain of Sól thinks about sustainability right down to the crew’s polishing tools for the hull. “You need woolies, but I had to go to the manufacturer to see if it was real wool or not,” Capt. Jack Gorman says. “These are synthetic wool. That’s what we’re going for. Everything down to the bottom paint is cruelty-free. Ablative bottom paints, if you put 20 gallons of that on your yacht, it sloughs off into the environment, and it’s bad for the reefs. We’re using a silicon base without biocides.”

The 80’s two rotating chefs trained in plant-based cooking with celebrity chef Matthew Kenney. Aboard Sól, they will prepare any type of food that guests prefer, but they are ready for charter clients who want all-vegan menus.

“Most people are reducers,” the 80’s owner says. “A small percentage of the world is vegan, but the majority of people have been looking for plant-based options—not necessarily three meals a day, but they will choose a plant-based dinner some percentage of their evenings.” Aboard Sól, he adds, “it’s delicious, exquisite, high-quality plant-based options.”

As their name implies, the Sunreef Power Eco yachts also have electric power. Sunreef has been adding energy-saving air-conditioning systems, along with custom battery banks that are lighter—and, therefore, can be bigger—than the types of batteries some other builders are testing.

The result is the kind of cruising and charter experience that appeals to people who are eager to make an eco-friendly turn. As Alonso puts it, “long, fume-free and quiet cruises let you enjoy the seas on a whole new level. This yacht has some amazing technology that cannot be found anywhere else.”

Take the next step: sunreef-yachts.com

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