ESCAPE
HIGH SEAS
Grand DESIGN Beneteau’s new Grand Trawler 62 loves taking it easy but has the power to get up and go By Howard Walker You won’t find it listed in The New England Journal of Medicine or even on WebMD, but there’s a condition afflicting buyers of trawlerstyle motor yachts. It’s called SAS—short for speed anxiety syndrome—and it’s on the rise. These owners know they’ll spend 99 percent of their cruising days watching the world go by at a nice-and-easy 9 or 10 knots, ensuring no rum punch ever spills. And yet, should they need to open the taps and get home fast—say, at the first sign of a thunderhead or the impending arrival of happy hour at the yacht club—they want their vessel to deliver. With the SAS sufferer in mind, French trawler yacht builder Beneteau has introduced a gorgeous new flagship known as the Grand Trawler 62. While it was designed to cruise for days on end at whisper-quiet, single-digit 78
speeds, the 62 boasts a pair of 730hp MAN diesels ready to punch to 20 knots when the need arises. This new Grand Trawler 62 replaces the much-loved Swift Trawler 52 and is the result of numerous conversations with existing Swift Trawler owners. They asked for a softer-riding, wave-cleaving, displacement-style hull for 1,000-miles-on-one-tank passages, but one that could still get up and go. To achieve the desired result, oh-so-French Beneteau turned to Italy, enlisting Italian naval architects Micad to design the round bilge displacement hull and Nauta Design in Milan to create the interior layout. Beneteau even built the 62 at the Monfalcone, Italy, yard of Monte Carlo Yachts, now part of Groupe Beneteau.
The result is a yacht that offers the best of trawler-style comfort and design. That means a near 18-foot beam that’s carried almost all the way to the bow for massive interior volumes, as well as a reverse-angle windshield and side-deck overhangs. The towering bow and lofty hull sides yield plenty of real estate to accommodate huge rectangular windows that flood the lower cabins with light.
PALM BEACH ILLUSTRATED
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