The drive for a sustainable boating future is broadly divided into two camps – the passionate advocates of wholesale greenness and those who would welcome a workable market-ready improvement. As we sit at Volvo Penta’s Krossholmen test facility a few miles north of Gothenburg, Sweden, the implication is that the world’s most prolific marine engine builder belongs to the more ambitious camp. There’s a very clear understanding here that the hybrid diesel electric prototype we’ve come to see is just one element of a multi-tiered approach that needs to include fuel cell development, fossil fuel alternatives, bio-sourced materials, efficient hull designs and end-of-life recyclability.
But if that all sounds a touch speculative, Volvo Penta’s new parallel hybrid system has already been operating successfully for several thousand hours on a wind farm personnel transfer vessel and on a support boat used by arctic surfers. The fact that it’s performed so well means it’s now been integrated onto a leisure boat for the first time, and the test platform they’ve chosen to use it on is right here, waiting for us to take a look…
SYSTEM BASICS
Jeanneau’s NC37 is a longstanding and well respected family sportscruiser. But when you lift up the engine hatch and peer inside, full of gleeful expectation, it all looks oddly commonplace.
Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de Motor Boat & Yachting UK.
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Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de Motor Boat & Yachting UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Lofoten or Bust- Part 4- Grandezza owner Per Harrtoft heads back to Sweden after an epic 3500nm adventure deep into the Arctic Circle to visit the mythical Lofoten islands
After ten memorable days in the Lofoten Islands in the far north of Norway, we are on our way back south towards Sweden. We have already made it as far as Trondheim, a charming place even if it was raining so hard we had to cycle round the city centre clutching umbrellas. But now we are back on board Deamare, our Grandezza 40 Fly, eating up the miles at a steady 31 knots.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YACHT TRANSPORT
As the name suggests it's a means of having your boat moved professionally from one location to another. It might be as simple as hiring someone to tow your RIB a few miles down the road or as complex as shipping a superyacht halfway around the world.
HANDLE A SINGLE SHAFTDRIVE BOAT PART 1
Single shaftdrive boats are relatively rare these days but the reduced costs of buying, servicing and fuelling such a simple but reliable drivetrain does mean they are making a bit of a comeback.
COCKWELLS MOTOR LAUNCH
There can be very few boats that have appeared three times at the Southampton Boat Show and been sold off the stand each time.
INSTALLING AN AUTOPILOT
Rick Channon makes solo boating simple with a Raymarine Evolution Autopilot
GOOD AS NEW
Why fit a brand new engine when Volvo Penta's remanufacturing service can rebuild you an old one to the same standard for a fraction of the price?
BENETEAU SWIFT TRAWLER 54
Alex Smith heads to France's Beneteau HQ for a UK exclusive on what might just be the best Swift Trawler yet
ΧΟ EXPLR 44
Can XO's all-new aluminium flagship really make it big in the Med?
BUYING OUR FIRST CLASSIC
Instead of whiling away their retirement playing bowls, Rob and Shona Adams decided to invest their time and money in a classic Silver gentleman's yacht. Would the gamble pay off?
PRINCESS S65
Torn between the V and F Class flagships? The new S65 might be the boat you've been waiting for...
