Nordhavn 96
Austin Parker is working on a beauty with a heart of gold, metaphorically speaking. The boat will have a carbon-fiber hardtop to help with weight considerations, as well as a sliding sunroof, and a pale-gray hull—a classy touch. But the 36 will not just be a pretty boat designed for carefree cruising. She’ll also be environmentally friendly. The boat will have electric motors that can either power the boat by themselves with zero emissions or combine with the boat’s diesel engines for extremely efficient cruising. (The diesels, of course, can also propel the boat on their own.) The aim is to be able to use the 36 on the rivers and lakes of northern Europe, where emissions standards are very strict. But it never hurts to have a vessel with a small carbon footprint anywhere in the world. Nordhavn keeps on rolling. The Dana Point, California, company that specializes in long-range dream makers is currently working on a new 96. She’ll essentially be the same boat as the popular 86, but with 10 more feet of LOA—as well as a saloon lengthened by 5 feet and an upper deck lengthened by 4. Trever Smith, Nordhavn’s project manager for the boat, eats, breathes, and sleeps the 96. He told me he expects the boat to have good proportions given that she’s retaining the 24-foot beam of the 86. He also expects that owners will use the extended deck space on the pilothouse level to create large master suites. Those suites will give this expedition vessel a bit of a megayacht feel. Hey, if you’re gonna travel the world, you may as well travel in comfort. Princess is working on the M30, a boat that at 98 feet teeters on the brink between very big yacht, and true megayacht. The M30 will replace the Princess 98, a boat that was styled more or less after some of Princess’s smaller builds, most notably the 82. But the M30 will have some true big-boat features. Says Princess’s vice president and marketing director James Nobel, “The cockpit will have a seating area with a bar, and the foredeck will have seating. We concentrated on giving her true megayacht-like entertainment spaces—not something you always see on a 100-footer. She’ll have a raised pilothouse and a flybridge with lots of flexibility. The bridge will have a big dining area, a big bar area, and a huge seating area centered around a hot tub, plus of course the helm. And there’s a lot we can do with the layout, for example, if you don’t want that hot tub and want more seating instead? We can do that. It’s a real open book up there.”