It's been another hectic year here on mby.com - we round up the biggest stories that got our motor running during the past 12 months...
2022 seemed to flash by in the blink of an eye, with the return of (most) boat shows and the relaxation of travel restrictions meaning that the boating world could get back to something approaching normality.
As always, we’ve covered it all here on mby.com – and if you’re reading this, thank you for following it all with us. Here are our top stories of the year, on a month-by-month basis:
January
The cancellation of Boot Dusseldorf for the second year in a row got 2022 off on a bum note, but we still had plenty of new boats to marvel at online, not least the spectacular Mulder Healey.
Commissioned by David Healey as a seafaring tribute to his grandfather Donald’s legendary sportscars, this 60ft custom cruiser was built in the Netherlands by Mulder Yachts.
Read more about the Mulder Healey
Article continues below…
Mulder Healey review: Stunning motoryacht with the coolest helm seats ever
Grand Banks 85 review: New hull design brings GB into the 21st century
February
Boot may have had another year off, but there was a brand new boat show in the UK for us to get all excited about. BoatLife threw open its doors for the first time in February, with an impressive exhibit of more than 100 boats at the Birmingham NEC.
The show is already shaping up nicely for February 2023, so it’s well worth checking out their sophomore line-up.
March
Palm Beach is fast becoming the connoisseur’s choice among Floridian boat shows and this year’s event saw Grand Banks debut its impressive new flagship yacht, the Grand Banks GB85, which went on to wow the European audience at Cannes 2022.
It’s an impressive yacht on many levels, but what really made a big impression on us was the self-playing piano in the owner’s cabin.
Watch our full yacht tour of the Grand Banks GB85
Photo: Olivier Blanchet
April
French yard Neel has been building sailing trimarans for many years, but our attention was well and truly captured by their latest launch, the Leen 72 power trimaran, which splashed down in April.
A real rarity, even in the niche world of multihull powerboats, this distinctive triple-hulled design boasts a truly globe-trotting cruising range, as we found out when we tested the Leen 72 later on in the year.
Read our full test-drive review of the Leen 72
MV Astra‘s skipper and owner Iain Macneil
May
From a potential globetrotter to a boat that literally cruised all the way around the world – MV Astra set a new world record in May 2022 by becoming the first motorboat under 24m to circumnavigate the globe under her own power.
Would-be circumnavigators take note: the time to beat is 166 days.
Read Part One of Iain Macneil’s six-part round-the-world feature
June
Long-term MBY stalwart Jack Haines left our team in 2022, but not before signing off with a boat test that points to a very exciting future for fossil fuel-free boating.
The Delphia 11 Electric is the first all-electric boat from the world’s biggest boatbuilder, Beneteau Group. Proof if it were needed, that electric boats have well and truly arrived.
Watch Jack’s test drive review of the Delphia 11 Electric
Tough but efficient aluminium displacement hull enables a range of 3,000nm at 8 knots
July
Arksen Yachts is a new name in the British boatbuilding world with big ambitions. This year we’ve toured their Arksen 30 Adventure boat and previewed their Arksen 85 Explorer yacht, but it was the Arksen 65 that really turned heads in July.
Due to be built from at least 40% recycled aluminium, this oceangoing design has a claimed cruising range of 3,000nm at eight knots.
August
Seakeeper is a brand that’s almost synonymous with gyro stabilisers, but this summer they released details of the new Seakeeper Ride, its first foray into active control trim systems.
Seakeeper estimates that it can eliminate up to 70% of pitch and roll, describing it as “the next big thing in boating”, so MBY editor Hugo Andreae took a closer look at these claims…
Read more about the Seakeeper Ride system
The integration of fly deck and bow lounge is deeply impressive
September
Cannes Yachting Festival is the natural home for big boat launches, and they don’t come much bigger than the Sunseeker 100 Yacht, which the yard claims ushers in a new era of flybridge design.
We jumped on board during her Cannes debut and were impressed by the clever use of space, including a foredeck lounge that can be directly accessed from that vast flybridge.
Watch out full tour of the Sunseeker 100 Yacht
Rotax says its new Stealth outboard is the cleanest engine in its class
October
When is an outboard not at outboard? When it’s the new Rotax Stealth, of course!
This clever design sits flush underneath the bathing platform, freeing up more space for watersports and lowering the centre of gravity, all while retaining the typical outboard benefits of high performance, low price, ease of maintenance and built-in trim.
Read more about the Rotax Stealth range
It looks, feels and goes like a well-matched petrol outboard engine
November
Another outboard unit to turn heads in 2022 was the 300hp Evoy Storm, which currently lays claim to the title of the world’s most powerful electric outboard motor.
Hugo took a test drive of an Axopar 25 fitted with a prototype version of the Evoy Storm and was impressed by its performance, even if the range still leaves something to be desired.
Watch our test drive of an Axopar 25 fitted with the 300hp Evoy Storm electric outboard
December
2022 came full circle in December as we returned to Princess Yachts’ Royal William Yard. We started the year there with a tour of the Princess X95 and finished it there to attend the launch event of its open-topped sibling, the Princess Y95.
The yard has been so busy churning out X95s (18 built with a further eight on order) that the Princess Y95 got temporarily shifted onto the back burner. Now it has finally arrived, we can’t see the workers on the Y95 production line getting much downtime either!
Watch our full yacht tour of the Princess Y95
Stick with us in 2023, as we have plenty more exciting test drives and yacht tours coming up, plus full coverage of all the world’s biggest yacht shows and the return of the Motor Boat Awards. Happy New Year from all of us here at MBY!
