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.

New Sabre 40 Sedan Video

Some of my favorite boating moments are my early mornings on the water. For me this is the best time of day. Getting out there while the sun is coming up and the world for the most part is still asleep. This is especially true during the Miami Boat Show when we get underway before the revelers on South Beach are just going to bed. The morning's first cup of coffee tastes especially good on a boat. 

The morning light is South Florida is a photographer's dream and this year we had a chance to shoot some great new video footage on the Sabre 40 Sedan running on Biscayne Bay. If you are a follower of my Back Cove blog you'll know the story of how we get going before dawn and rendezvous with the helicopter that has taken off from Tamiami airport.

Photographer Billy Black dangles from the door of the helo while talking to both the pilot and the captain as the run gets underway. It's frightening the first time you see the skids of the machine just feet above the bow rail while running at 30 knots. But the pilot is a real pro and he gets Billy in the right place every time.

Here is the result of the video shoot. Can you smell the coffee?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haTIRr3R3cA

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.
 

The Winter Solstice. A time to celebrate.

Today is the winter solstice and the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It's all due to Earth's tilt, which ensures that the shortest day of every year falls around December 21. For me that means that spring launch is only 16 weeks away. Since ancient times people have marked the winter solstice with countless cultural and religious traditions—it's no coincidence the modern holiday season surrounds the first day of winter. I am going to have drinks with friends after work to celebrate the holidays but I'll be thinking "warmer days ahead".

During the winter solstice the sun hugs closer to the horizon than at any other time during the year, yielding the least amount of daylight annually. On the bright side, the day after the winter solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days leading up to the summer solstice.

That's because—after months of growing shorter and lower since the summer solstice—the sun's arc through the sky appears to stabilize, with the sun seeming to rise and set in the same two places for several days. Then the arc begins growing longer and higher in the sky, reaching its peak at the summer solstice.

The solstices occur twice a year (around December 21 and June 21), because Earth is tilted by an average of 23.5 degrees as it orbits the sun—the same phenomenon that drives the seasons. During the warmer half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted toward the sun. The northern winter solstice occurs when the "top" half of Earth is tilted away from the sun at its most extreme angle of the year. Being the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice is essentially the year's darkest day, but it's not the coldest.

Because the oceans are slow to heat and cool, in December they still retain some warmth from summer, delaying the coldest of winter days for another month and a half. Similarly, summer doesn't hit its heat peak until August, a month or two after the summer solstice.

Of course if you do your boating in Florida as many of our owners do, you really don't care much about all this science because your length of day and your water temperatures don't vary as much as ours do here in Maine. Today's air temperature on the ocean is 31 degrees and our water temperature is down to 46 (and going lower by the day).

Maybe I should go to the ice bar for my drink after work today.

Save me please !!!

Elin has moved out, Tiger is in hiding so not even the paparazzi's cameras can find him The Gosselins are divorced (thank God). So what is the media going to talk about now? I am amazed with our desire to watch other peoples lives go up in flames; our fascination with other peoples misery. They say it helps us feel better about our own lives and I suppose it does in some crazy way.

I for one am focused on one thing: Next summer. Just today I marked "launch day" on my calendar and for you southern folk, April 15th is very early to launch a boat in Maine. Then as if connected through the ether in some way a friend sends me an image of one of last summer's raft ups and before you know it the emails are bouncing back and forth talking about days getting longer and how it's only 16 weeks before we go boating again. As silly as that sounds to you year round boaters we do really look forward to the next season and to launch day.

So this is the way I see it. Boaters get to see things that others do not. We are very lucky people in that regard and we need to remember that. Every time we get a little down we have images like this to get us back on track. I can't wait get back out there and see these sunsets again.

Sabre 42 Express to Bermuda? That will be ten cents please

If I had a dime for each time someone has asked me if you could take an extended offshore voyage on one of our motoryachts, my economic recession would never have started. There are a lot of would be Marco Polos in this world and I count myself amongst them. Today I learned of a Sabre 42 Express that made the trip on it's bottom from the US mainland to Bermuda. I hope that my divulging this does not mean the loss of all those dimes I spoke of.

Alan Williams of Bermuda bought the boat used in the spring of 2009.  He and three friends left Marion, MA., in June, set the auto pilot, and headed home to Bermuda.  He temporarily installed two, two hundred gallon bladder fuel tanks.  One was on the bow and the other in the cockpit.  They were plumbed up to a transfer pump and pumped fuel from those tanks into the ship’s fuel tank.  They averaged about 14 knots for the trip and did it in 51 hours.  As they could see the island in the distance the generator shut down due to low fuel and by the time they made into Hamilton they were running on fumes. There must have been some nervous moments on board. 

 

Sistership shown here
Their weather window was clear with hardly a whisper of a breeze the entire way which made the trip quite easy. So on behalf of all of those people who have in the past and will in the future ask me if they can take their boat to Bermuda, thank you and the answer is "yes"

Sabre Yachts 40th Anniversary Rendezvous

What an exciting time ! We look forward to next summer and the celebration of 40 fabulous years of Sabre Yachts, and we want to pass the word to as many owners as possible. This celebration will include our sister company Back Cove Yachts and their many owners.

Plans are taking shape and more details will be published as we get closer to the event. The plan is to gather at Wotton's Wharf in Boothbay on the afternoon of July 9th. From there we have a series of events and meals planned for attendees. With 40 years of history there will plenty of old images to show, great stories to tell and memories to recall.

Keep an eye to the blog for details as they firm up and most importantly plan to be in Boothbay Harbor, Maine in July 2010 !
 

Oh What a Night

Russ Waters sent me an image to go with his comment about the full moon rising over the Chesapeake Bay. This wonderful image was taken from the deck of their Sabre 40 Sedan.

 

Thanks Russ. What a magnificent night to be on the water. It's what boating is all about isn't it?

Sabre 34 to Hong Kong

Last spring we shipped a magnificent (if I do say so myself) Sabre 34 hard top express to a buyer in Hong Kong. The client worked with Peter Lau of Hong Kong Marine, our dealer in the region. Of course from the moment we knew where the boat was to be kept we had asked Peter for some images of the boat with the local skyline. I would never have guessed that he would have managed to get such as beautiful image as this.

 

The show is taken at sunset once the harbor traffic had started to slow down for the day. A beautiful vessel in an equally beautiful location.