If you’re in the market for your next vessel, these are the features you should look out for

While there are many factors that make a good yacht, often the fundamentals are the same: a good hull, sufficiently powerful engines, and comforts (both simple and luxurious) that improves the time out at sea. Many vessels today have these elementary ingredients that make a great yacht, which makes choosing the right one increasingly difficult. What’s the difference, then? Aside from design and price points, these are the features that set some of our favourite yachts apart from the competition, features that we think you should totally consider when deciding on your next boat.

Extendable beach clubs

The beach club was traditionally just an area at the transom that was used to increase access to the water. These spaces, while impressive and expansive, had to be designed as a static element of the yacht architecture, as it affects the overall design and silhouette of the vessel, which means that to increase the size of the beach club is to disrupt the clean lines of the yacht.

This is no longer the case, however, as more and more yachts are built with moveable gunwales and transoms that can both perform their usual duties and also be lowered to increase the area of the beach club. These can either be motorised or manually lowered/raised to open this area up for recreation. Sure, some designers and owners may prefer the simplicity of static elements here, but one can’t deny the drama of pressing a button, and watching motorised panels move up or down accompanied by mechanical sounds and increased leisure opportunities.

Hulls compatible with IB and OB

Inboard and outboard engines each have their strengths and weaknesses, as we detail here. Usually, when purchasing a yacht, the buyer has to decide between either one of these power options, and the design of the hull that goes with it. Even if you liked the looks of the boat, the power option may not be the desirable one and so the search for a vessel will then continue until one is found that checks all the right boxes.

However, we are beginning to see more and more yards designing boats that are compatible with both these power options. Sure, once the vessel is built there is little that can be done to swap between these configurations, but even so, the power option will no longer veto your choice. If you like the boat, then then all you need to do is simply to decide on the power option you want for it.

Smartphone connectivity

What? More connectivity? Sure, we understand that some boaters may just want to sail or boat and disconnect from the world, but there’s no denying that for most boaters, having more data is better. It wasn’t too long ago that yachts have to be retrofitted with sensors and the like to get the information and send the data to the smartphone application, but many boats today can have these sensors and applications outfitted from the factory either as standard or extra equipment.

The information that is transmitted to the phone is highly helpful too, with alarms, locations, battery levels, and even the location of the vessel available right at the fingertips of the boater.

Convertible roofs

Just like extendable beach clubs, convertible roofs can come as simple manually-operated devices, or high-tech and innovative mechanisms that are electrically-operated. Whether modest or complicated, convertible roofs allow boaters to have the best of both worlds: open boating, and sleek, desirable design.

Without a doubt, the best of these convertibles come from Riva’s yard. With a push of a button, metal arms lift up out of the sides of the hull and carry a carbon fibre section from the bow of a boat and set it on top of the windshield to transform the open yacht into a coupe. It is truly a sight to behold to watch this unfold (pun intended).

Modular Furnishing

The versatility of a yacht means that it is both a home out at sea as well as a tool that enables multiple activities. Thus, having spaces that excel at both necessitates the usage of furniture or furnishing that are equally flexible. That’s why we are seeing more and more yachts outfitted with modular seating with interchangeable fabrics that are comfortable and robust.

One such example is the new Jacques-Yves line of modular furniture, the brainchild of Zuccon International Project and Poltrona Frau Custom Interiors, and another example (a favourite one of ours) is the saloon seats in the Merry Fisher 1095, which can transform between 3 modes : fore-facing, aft-facing, or laid flat down as a berth.

Gyro Stabilisers

Boat stabilisers come in many forms, but our favourite are gyroscopic stabilisers. From sport fishers to leisure cruisers, every yacht (and we do mean every yacht) will benefit from having one on board. This quick video below will show why, and in fact, our very own chandlery carries Seakeeper gyro stabilisers as well.