Whole New World

GRAND BANKS REDEFINES GOLD-PLATED BOATBUILDING WITH AN INNOVATIVE 60-FOOT BEAUTY THAT’S AS SINGULARLY FAST AND FASHIONABLE AS SHE IS EFFICIENT AT DISPLACEMENT SPEEDS.

- Capt. Bill Pike

Let’s talk numbers for just a few—big-time numbers. During a recent trip to Australia to sea trial the new Grand Banks 60, the first GB to launch since the company’s reorganization under the leadership of Aussie maxi-yacht racer and Palm Beach Motor Yachts founder Mark Richards, I gathered some test data that was flat-out, head-snatchingly amazing. And although the owner of the boat, David Berkman, was on board during the trial, along with several other Australians, all of them garrulously ganged up in the wheelhouse, I’m confident that, despite the uproarious laughter that sometimes obtruded, the speed, fuel-burn, sound, and other values accompanying this test report are spot-on.

The data? To begin with, consider the fact that when doing 9.5 knots, while turning just 750 revs (and factoring in a fuel reserve of 10 percent), the 60 offers a range of 2,973 nautical miles. That whopping number is certainly worthy of a full-displacement trawler making her hull speed but for a vessel capable of achieving a lusty top end of 30.5 knots, it’s full-bore radical and, based on my perusal of several test reports on comparable vessels in Power & Motoryacht, also full-bore singular.

Think of it. On the one hand, the new GB 60 offers her owner a set of sporty speeds that are realistically useful and expedient under most offshore conditions. But on the other, with a little cooperation from the weather, she also offers the lucky soul enough range to travel from, say, Halifax, Nova Scotia to Plymouth, England in a little over 10 days—in luxurious comfort!