I. “Q is for quality!”

As I mentioned last year (in my most widely read blog post ever, “Really now, what is a dayboat?” ) a cool thing about the European yachting scene is that you’ll find an ancient harbor just about every 20 miles along all coastlines. I’m told this was due to the unstoppable ambitions of the the Roman Empire. Well, as your European luxury dayboats specialist, I do my best to poke into as many of the smaller, out of the way harbors as I can, always searching for unknown builders I think American yachtsmen and women would appreciate.

Last summer I found myself prospecting around in just such a hole-in-the-wall harbor on the North Sea, and was thrilled to discover two pieces of buried treasure that have been on my mind ever since:  They would be The Qnautic 52:

 

and her smaller sister, the Qnautic 39:

I tracked down their builder, a commercial workboat outfit, to ask about their unusual name. They said, with clear and seemingly well-earned Dutch pride, that…

“Q stands for quality!”

Well, they got me there!  Long time readers of The Fog Warning Blog know that our whole raison d’être is to discover, understand and promote quality yachts – especially ones that most American yachtsmen and women are unfamiliar with.  I am humbled, still, by the joys of first bringing Vicem, J Craft and Long Island Yachts to greater American consciousness. It is without question the favorite part of my favorite job.

So, you may ask, Qnautic’s comes from a commercial builder? Yes, and more to the point, a North Sea commercial builder by the name of Windcat. Their boats are designed and built to deliver maintenance crews to offshore oil and wind platforms every day, in any weather. As I have come to understand ….

“When a crew absolutely, positively has to get to work 50 miles out in the North Sea, they choose a Windcat.”

To my eye, so far, that’s the DNA that has flowed down directly to their Qnautic 39 high performance RIB:

 

And, with some tweaking by Vripack (Wajer’s designer!) to their Qnautic 52:

 

I will say that these Qnautics, in my brief look last summer, impressed me. The 52 design, to my eye, answer in the affirmative a tough question in our industry:

Can a luxury dayboat be both sexy and … muscular? 

I think so, but without high-impact sea trials there is no way to tell.  So this week, on my way to the Dusseldorf Boat Show I am stopping in Loosdrecht, Holland to run these beauties hard. A full report will follow, but meanwhile feel free to weigh in with your thoughts and observations. Because the other thing I love about my job is how much I learn from my clients. That happens every single day.

II. The Düsseldorf Boat Show

If you haven’t had the pleasure, the Düsseldorf show is the largest indoor boat show in the world:

 

It’s five massive halls are big enough to display (indoors!) yachts up to 33 meters. How do they move yachts this big up the Rhine, and then indoors? Glad you asked:

I will be at the show with my friends from Long Island Yachts. We are meeting there to work on this year’s production and delivery schedules. Like every builder on the planet, a certain normalcy is returning to shop floors, after the COVID sales-boom and its attendant supply chain challenges. But executing on that requires a lot of rational thinking, and I look forward to being part of the process. What can I say but that I love this stuff!

Much of that planning relates to what very well may prove to be the best-selling Long Island Yacht in their history, their 29 Runabout:

In a few weeks I will have photos of the first 29 Runabout Hard Top, so please stand by. Meanwhile, if you are in Europe next week, by all means come see me at the show.

III. Big Boats?

Now, a few closing words (and images) about “quality” before I take off….

I ran into a longtime Fog Warning Blog reader at the Mexico City airport last week (of all places). I was wearing my well-worn Vicem hat, and was thrilled to be recognized.  I was speechless when she immediatley quoted my two eternal questions of yachting to me:

“What makes a boat great, and why? Who makes a great boat, and how?”

Well, exploring the answers to these questions – my mission statement if you will –  was born way back in 2003 when I first discovered Vicem Yachts. Back then, honestly, I did not not what quality was. But I knew if I were to succeed in this biz, I’d have to figure that out. Now, twenty years later, it is so rewarding to see how they have grown, and how much I am still learning. Vicem currently has an incredible eighteen yachts under construction, with another one set to lay her keel in a few weeks. And as one begins, another one ends! Just today I received this amazing set of photographs of their latest splash, a Vicem 65 Flybridge. I don’t normally post a photo array this broad, but in honor of my twenty year anniversary with Vicem, here ya go:

 

The Exterior:

 

The Decks:

 

The Salon and Helm:

 

The Galley:

 

The Master Cabin (aft of the galley):

 

The VIP Cabin:

 

And, most strikingly, their way-cool convertible cabin:

 

If you would like to see this latest example of Vicem’s custom work, she will be in America in a month or so. Just launch a flare to book your private tour. But meanwhile, come see me in Düsseldorf!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Wave Dave (back in the day).