Companies are trying to change yacht perception

Ahoy.

Is a boat built with another name still the same boat? That’s the

question these days as boat manufacturers are setting a new trend by

building yachts under a different brand name. Yacht designers are

racing to keep pace with the consumers’ appeal to well-appointed

larger boats; however, their marketing departments have discovered

that buyers do not want redesigned or stretched models of existing

boats as their bragging rights at the yacht club.

Following marketing suggestion, Robert VanGrunsven, president of

Carver Yachts, has announced that new yachts more than 60 feet in

length will not be called Carvers, but Nuvari Motor Yachts. Carver

Yachts currently have the 570 as their largest size, and dealers such

as Newport Beach’s Bayport Yachts are seeing the demand for breaking

the 60-foot sizes with the same high quality.

The first model is a 63-foot Nuvari Motor Yacht in production at

Fano, Italy, and it will be shown at the International Yacht Expo in

Dusseldorff, Germany, in January 2003. Back in the United States,

Carver Yachts is expanding its manufacturing facility in Wisconsin to

build a new 65-foot Nuvari that I hear will debut in fall of 2003.

Another yacht manufacturer has released the new Meridian models of

the 341, 381 408, 411, 540 and 580. Brunswick Boat Group has renamed

the larger sizes of the Bayliner and Maxum motor yachts to the

Meridian, and I wonder if the Bayliner name, with its reputation, is

being phased out. I am very interested in seeing the difference

between the new Meridians and the existing Bayliners. In my view,

this is clearly a move by the marketing department to try and change

consumer’s perception.

While we are on the discussion of new yacht designs, after I give

a boating talk, many people question me when I say new boats get a

better fuel efficiency at a higher speed than holding back on the

throttles. Let me start to clarify that statement by saying the

credit goes to the designers who are using innovative planing hulls

and incorporating the new electronic-controlled turbo after cooled

diesel engines. The long-established straight line graph for the fuel

calculations of displacement hulls like trawlers do not hold true for

the planing hulls. The norm for years is that the faster you go, the

more fuel you burn, with no savings but time due to not much

separation between the low-end and wide-open throttle speeds.

Granted, most boats cruising at harbor speed will get the best

mile per gallon fuel rate, and most people think that cruising in the

low teens balances fuel usage with traveling time. Constantly, I

remind skippers to get the boat up on plane and throttle up for the

turbos to kick in for best cruising. To analyze my theory. let’s look

at the Bertram 670 in the October issue of Boating Magazine using

those calculations.

Cruising at 8.6 knots, this yacht averages .5 miles per gallon

with a 915-nautical mile range, but it will take you 35 hours (1 1/2

days) to go 300 nautical miles. Let’s set up to the low teens at 11.6

knots and now you get about .3 miles per gallon with a 480-mile range

and cruising 300 miles will take you 27 hours -- little time savings

and almost double the fuel.

Now, let’s kick it up to an impressive 22.8 knots and it is still

about .3 miles per gallon, burning 76.5 gallons per hour. Yet the

range has increased to 538 miles, and now the 300-mile cruise will

take you only 13 hours. Why stop there, push the throttles to 29.1

knots and you still get about .3 miles per gallon with a range of 478

miles, which is 2 miles shy of the 11.8-knot range. Cruising at 29.1

knots, you will cover 300 miles in only 10 hours even though the fuel

use is 110 gallons per hour, compared to 43.5 gallons per hour at

11.8 knots. This boat tops out at 38 knots with a .2 miles per gallon

for a 359-mile range, burning 191 gallons per hour and only 7.9 hours

to go 300 miles. The numbers show that faster is better if you want

to break 10 knots in speed, and I know that speed was a big factor

why you decided to buy this $3.1-million yacht.

Safe voyages.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist.

Send him your harbor and marine-related thoughts and story

suggestions via e-mail to [email protected] or BoathouseTV.com.