Youtube Video Picks of the Week - 26 June 2020
This week we have a Finnish boat, a massive boat named superyacht Dilbar, a silent boat, and the story of a boat with a massive claw.
Motor Boat & Yachting reviews the little-known Grandezza 37CA
Motor Boat & Yachting took the super fun Grandezza 37CA out for a spin. They liked it, I liked it, and you probably will too.
I’d never heard of this boat so I did some research.
Grandezza boats are manufactured in Finland. Finland is the home to some of boating’s best-loved brands, including Axopar and Targa. And there’s a good reason for it, too. Finland’s people are more connected with the water than most of us. They use boats not only for pleasure but critically, for commuting as well. That means that the boats coming out of Finland are workhorses. They’re built to take a beating and keep going, no matter the conditions.
Axopar is a great example of what Finnish boatbuilding is all about. Sturdy, practical boats that will tackle any sea and get you home safely. Axopar boats have been exceptionally well received by reviewers for their sea keeping and general handling.
Grandezza offers seven boats ranging in size from a nimble 25 foot sports cruiser, to a 40 foot flybridge motoryacht. I couldn’t find pricing info on Grandezza’s website, but there are currently a handful of examples for sale on Boats.com (very few in comparison to other manufacturers). These range in price from $139 000 to $533 000. This pricing puts them squarely in competition with Axopar’s boats, which sell for a similar price range but for newer year models.
What do you do when your megayacht goes in for a service? If you answered "Be patient", then apparently you're wrong.
If you don’t already know this, superyacht Dilbar is the biggest megayacht in the world by gross tonnage (‘Azzam’ is the longest). It’s owned by a Russian tycoon named Alisher Usmanov.
Now let’s just say that you’re Alisher Usmanov, one of the richest men on earth, and your megayacht/superyacht Dilbar needs to go in for a refit. The word ‘needs’ is being used extremely loosely here as the yacht is only five years old. But more on that in another article.
Your yacht is going to be out of service for some time. What do you do?
Well, if you’re Alisher, you go out and buy another megayacht, obviously.
And not just any megayacht, either. You buy the 365 foot long ‘Tis’, one of the most expensive yachts currently for sale.
Because why only own one megayacht when you can have two? Exactly.
Yachts for Sale goes behind the scenes at Silent Yachts to check out the new Silent 80
Yachts for Sale takes us behind the scenes on the build of the exciting new Silent Yachts 80.
The Silent 80 is a fully electric-powered catamaran. Surprisingly, all of the boat’s power needs are supplied by large banks of solar panels on the boat.
This isn’t an unproven concept on an unknown boat, either. Silent Yachts has already established itself some time ago as a niche manufacturer of solar powered electric yachts. As you’ll see in the video, their order book is full, too. We already know that the market for large catamarans is growing, but clearly there is a global demand for more eco friendly boats, and Silent Yachts is no doubt happy to continue meeting that demand with this new, large model.
The CIA once stole a Soviet nuclear sub. Here's how.
Well, not quite a WHOLE submarine. Just part of it. But that doesn’t sound nearly as appealing as a title.
Project Azorian was a top secret (still classified) cold war CIA mission to recover a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine.
The whole mission was so successfully shrouded in secrecy that still today we know very little about what actually went down and what came back up.
What we do know is that at some point during the Cold War, a Soviet submarine sank in the Pacific near Hawaii. The US wanted whatever was still left on board, so the CIA set about figuring out how to go and fetch the sunken sub. Thus, Project Azorian was born.
Dark Docs knocks it out the park with another fascinating documentary about little-known historical wartime events.
Conclusion
That’s it for this week. Check back in next week for my weekly round up of my favourite maritime Youtube videos.
