Thought I’d just quickly dash-off a short summary of our impressions of the BVI 2013 Charter yacht show held at Nanny Cay, Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. Yes, Nanny Cay is hot and a little more crowded than the old location at Village Cay Marina, nevertheless it is an excellent overall location and we enjoyed ourselves.
Saw a bunch of boats too, some superb, others good or average and some definitely in the “watch-out buddy” department. This year we decided to give you the benefit of our own observations since we have been official “inspectors” for best in show picks during past shows, and we thought we’d give you a quick and nasty preview of the nicest boats and best crews that WE saw (there were 4 of us at the show so it’s not totally subjective). Here are American Yacht’s top picks:
Overall best in show (1): The 10 guest sailing catamaran ALETHIA, A lovely brand new 2013 Fontaine Pajot 70′ foot cat with a great crew.
Overall best in show (2): The sailing Catamaran AVALON a nice big, light, bright 62′ Lagoon 2010 cat with a great crew.
Best new kid on the block (1): The 60′ power-catamaran LA MANGUITA a nice luxurious 6 guest Horizon also with a great crew.
Best new kid on the block (2): The classic 87′ Christiansen motor yacht SYRENE, For 8 guests, with very comfortable accommodation, she’s an older motor yacht with a new crew. We have yet to see how the crew of 4 behaves in practice since it will be the first time they are working together, but we loved the boat.
Best BIG luxury Sailing Catamaran: The super big 90’ Catana sailing catamaran ORION with a great crew and very luxurious interior with huge sleeping accommodations for 8 guests plus a few more kids, if needed.
Best medium sized luxury Sailing catamaran: In our opinion, would be the 50’ foot, 6 guest, sailing catamaran PEARL, one of 4 Dean boats built in S. Africa with a very nice Hungarian crew that has traveled all over the world.
Best traditional Motor Yacht: In our opinion would be WATERSHED II a very well maintained 90’ classic President motor yacht based in Puerto Rico and also the Virgin Islands.
There were not many classic mono-hull sailing boats in the show so we are not mentioning any in this category. Our best picks above are not meant to compete with the BVI 2013 Charter Yacht Show official best picks but they are the ones that impressed us the most, regardless.
Cheers, everyone, see you next week.
