The Sabre 456 is coming to life

I like color renderings. As a student I was a pencil and paper drawing guy with aspirations in the field of architecture and so I truly appreciate the skills required to create a rendering such as this one. I also like renderings because they take an inanimate object and bring it to life.

 
  
  
The updated interior drawing shown here depicts a new owner's stateroom in the bow of the boat with a full qqueen sized island berth. To port is a full head and shower and to starboard a large hanging locker space. The main cabin bulkhead has been shifted aft as has the starboard side settee. This shift has reduced the physical size of the chart table but with today's electronics, the chart table no longer needs to be the large space that it once was.

In her galley a passageway has been created to provide direct access to the sail/mechanical locker where a top loading freezer and the optional gen set will reside. There will be space here as well for bulk storage of galley supplies. And in her galley there will be no more diving into the ice box as the fridges installed on the 456 are stainless steel drawer style units.

Hull #1 is starting soon and her first show will be the Annapolis Sailboat Show in October.

Lower helm Justified.

Not many power boat designs in the under 50 foot category offer both upper and lower helms. In the 1960's the first "convertible" was introduced to the market. These boats eliminated the lower helm and blacked out the lower windshield. As the story goes the heavy duty battle wagons that were running offshore at high speeds could not keep the glass in their windshields from breaking so the solution was to simply drop the lower helm and get rid of the glass. Today most boats of this style don't have a lower helm although Ocean Yachts has introduced the "Billfish" series where the lower helm has returned. I like it for a lot of reasons.

In reality most boaters don't want to be outside in cold weather and not as many care to take as much sun as we all once did. A good example of that is the image below. Here, our first 40 Sedan with fly Bridge is running from Bellingham Washington, down to Seattle for the January show. If a brave sole wanted to be on the bridge on that day they would not only be facing 50 degree temperatures but they would also be doing that into a 30 knot breeze. Not much fun.

But for Dean Ouilette, one of the principals of Bellingham Yacht Sales, this day was a breeze. Running at 24 knots into the head seas and wind he was comfortably perched in his Stidd Helm chair in the main salon making phone calls and enjoying the day.

I find that boats with lower helms go out more often and their crews ignore the weather and simply get on with enjoying their boats. I'll have a new Virtual tour of the fly bridge model on our web site later this week.
  

Yawn or Scream with delight ?

In the days when the America's Cup was played out in Newport, Rhode Island we all knew it was happening and we read the details of every race in our daily sports pages. Sadly, in most major cities today, the sports columnists don't cover boating and the main stream media focuses more on the price of the boats and the wealth of the owners than they do on the sport itself. And, so much has been written and spoken about the law suits surrounding the upcoming America's Cup that most of us have trouble staying aware of the realities of what is actually going on.

And what is going on is nothing short of amazing.  Whether you are a sailboat owner thinking that 8 knots is really cool or a powerboat owner who thinks that sailboats take forever to get where they are going, the new AC boats are a revolution in sailing.

Imagine a sailboat that can sail at 30 knots in 10 knots of wind. Yes I am serious. Then close your eyes and imagine a rigid, winged shaped spar that is 190 feet tall and replaces traditional sails. Yes these are the boats that will meet in Valencia, Spain from February 8th to 12th to vie for the "Aulde Mug".

The boats are BMW Oracle, a 90 for trimaran, versus Alinghi 5 a 90 foot catamaran. The tri does have some incredible technology on board her and right now has the technical edge in the contest. Folks used to say that watching the Cup on TV was like watching paint dry. Well, at these speeds you may not have time to go back to the fridge for another cold one in case you miss the action
 

The (Boat) Show Must Go On

In the deep, dark days of winter it's both hard and easy to think about the boating season and all of the pleasures it has to offer.

It's hard because you know there are 16 more weeks before the season starts again but it's easy because when you are passionate about boating (as I and my family are) all one has to do is summon a memory of time on the water and the darkest, snowiest day can suddenly become warm and bright.

One sure way to rev up your boating enthusiasm is to attend a boat show. Not only are there boats to see, there are new electronics to check out, items to purchase for your boat's stores and at many shows these days there are seminars to attend that will make you a better boater. January through March are the best months of the year with shows in London, Toronto, Seattle, Cleveland, New York, Miami, Boston, Maine and Palm Beach (to name but a few)

The 2010 versions of these shows are well worth attending for us as boat builders. There is no better opportunity for us to put our best foot forward and show the boating world what we do so well. We can meet prospects, talk with existing owners and do some professional development by checking out what our competitors are bringing to market.

For our customers there has rarely been and will rarely be as good an opportunity to check out what is new and see what manufacturers are offering to entice you to make the step to a new yacht. There are excellent buys to be found on 2009 inventories and there are exciting new developments to see in design and technology that may also encourage you to think about something new at your dock for the start of the 2010 boating season.

So if the dark days of winter are getting you down and boats are what truly make you happy, check out our show calendar and come on down. We would love to see you.
 

Sabre 40 Big Success at Fall Shows

I know. I have been noticeably absent from the blog lately and I apologize for that. You see this is the time of year when our sales and marketing team are out working at boatshows and we rarely get a break to do important stuff like blogging. I have very much enjoyed spending time with our clients and potential clients.

Our time has been well spent. The run of success started in Newport and has continued through Seattle, Genoa, Norwalk and Annapolis. next week we're off to Ft Lauderdale for the grand daddy of shows down there at the Bahia Mar Marina. Every size boat we offer has been popular from the Sabre 34 right through to the Sabre 52 Salon Express. The new Sabre 40 is really on a roll with lots of admirers and a good number of buyers too. Take a look at the new brochure we now have on the main site as well as the Yachting Magazine review just posted there.

Speaking of the Sabre 40 we took these images of the Claret Red Annapolis Boat Show boat right after the show. It had rained for four days at the show but the morning after, wouldn't you know? Bright sunshine for a perfect photo opportunity.

 

Fresh air and sunshine on the Sabre 40 Fly Bridge

We are working on the new tool for the fly bridge version of the Sabre 40. Now before I start, I admit that I am a dyed in the wool hard top express boater. I love the fact that rain or shine I can go boating in interior the comfort of my helm deck. I also have enough time in the skin doctor's office to tell me that an interior helm deck is the best place for me.

 

The tooling drawing of the Sabre 40 Fly bridge

But (and there always seems to be a but) I still love the fly bridge experience. There really is nothing quite like the open air and the sun on your face that a bridge boat offers. It gets you away from the noise of the exhaust too and that is a very good thing for me. And when the boating is done for the day the coolness of the bridge and the birdseye view of your surroundings is very sweet. I even know one boater who buys bridge boats because the cigar smoking is permitted up there and not down below.

So this begs the question, to bridge or not to bridge?"In my family the answer is clear but in so many, it is not. Do you have an opinion or a story to share that might shed light on the conundrum?

Sabre 40 Sedan Performance figures

	RPM	KNOTS	GPH	NM/G	RANGE	Helm
					(nm)	dBA
Idle	600	5.0	1.5	3.3	1200	65
	800	6.0	2.5	2.4	864	65
	1000	7.6	3.6	2.1	760	62
	1200	8.7	4.8	1.8	653	72
	1400	9.5	7.5	1.3	456	71
	1600	10.1	12.0	0.8	303	71
	1800	13.0	16.9	0.8	277	75
	2000	16.7	20.3	0.8	296	76
	2200	19.8	24.0	0.8	297	74
	2400	22.8	26.3	0.9	312	75
	2600	25.5	29.6	0.9	310	75
	2700	27.0	32.4	0.8	300	75
	2800	28.3	33.5	0.8	304	76
WOT	3015	31.8	40.3	0.8	284	77
Notes:	Based on performance measured 05/14/2009 with 6 crew (~900 lbs.), full fuel (400 gal.), full water (140 gal.),
	no owner's gear, safety gear, no electronics, Onan 9.0kW generator, & full A/C.
	Sea Trial Location: Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  Conditions:  light chop, light wind, air temp. 62 deg.F, water temp. 46 deg.F
	Speed measured by GPS.
	Engines: Cummins Zeus 3500 with QSB5.9M-380mHp engines
	Propellers: Mercruiser Z15 forward and Z14 aft .
	Range based on 90% of 400 gal. fuel capacity.
	Recommended continuous cruise speed is @ 2700 RPM.
	Performance data is subject to change depending on tankage, temperature and other factors. Bob had asked if he could see the complete test results for the Sabre 40 Sedan and here they are. From my time on board the boat listening to the reactions from the press and watching the faces of people who have sea trialed the design, the boat has met it's design criteria perfectly. I have heard comparisons between our boat and another (to remain nameless) 40 footer made here in New England. Both boats are terrific designs but their purposes are so different that comparing them is like comparing apples and oranges. Speak with any naval architect and they will tell you that every boat has it's Crouch factor (drag) and it's loaded displacement weight. Narrower lighter boats can run faster with the same amount of fuel where as slightly heavier wider boats are far more comfortable underway. We are very pleased that we hit our speed and consumption numbers on the nose.

Too much fun on the Sabre 40 sedan

Billy Black shoots most of our still images and these days he also brings along a video camera mounted on a gyro so as to stabilize the movement of the camera. Cool stuff.

On a recent foray into Casco Bay, Billy brought along his video equipment so you can get a glimpse of the 40 running at speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deomcXnK7j0&feature=email

Now keep in mind that the camera has flattened out the water in this video. It was blowing about 15 to 20 knots and there was a substantial chop inside the bay. Out in the open ocean the swells and waves were building and as you can see the boat performs impeccably in every situation.

The "fun" I refer to above is doing tight turns with Zeus. The first time I experienced this on a Zeus boat the captain said, "hold on.". Then he said, "no, I mean really, hold on." As soon as he threw the wheel hard over I knew why he had restated his order. To see and feel and 31,000lb boat going 31 knots do a turn in a full circle in just three boat lengths is a thrill. The "G" forces make you think you are in a jet fighter. Now, I don;t think too many owners are going to be doing this stuff but it is certainly nice to know you can dodge anything in your path with such agility. (and it it a heck of a lot of fun too I have to admit)

Dinette versus standard layout

 

 

Bob asked for some images of the dinette version and everywhere I looked this morning there were people working, no cushions in place and, well, you know,......I could not get anything meaningful for him. So I decided for now to upload the rendering of that space along with the view of the cabin as taken in hull #1. I hope that helps.

To date about half of the boats are being built with the dinette.

Bob also asked about the location of the optional washer/dryer in the engine room and the answer to that one is forward of the port engine. Standard location of the gen set is now forward of the starboard engine leaving a space that is almost seven feet long forward of the port engine for the washer/dryer.

More Sea Trials and New Images of the Sabre 40

This week several dealers came to sea trial the Sabre 40. Now, these are all very opinionated, professional boat people who have handled hundreds if not thousands of vessels. Each and every one of themwere very impressed with the fit and finish, the operation and performance and of course, with the quietness of the boat. As word of the boats first launch has spread many new inquiries and earlier prospects have stepped forward to express new interest.

As we work on the color brochure and video here are some additional images of the interior and of the boat underway, for you to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in sea trialing the 40 please contact our office or post your interest here in the Comments section of the blog