65 Grand Banks Aleutian

Source: David Lockwood, Boatpoint Magazine

The new Grand Banks 65 Aleutian has the highest quality of build and accommodation for those with the wherewithal to circumnavigate the globe, writes David Lockwood

High Seas in High style

There’s more than one way to fly. With the cattle in economy, up front in business and recumbent in first class so it is with coastal cruising. Avoid the salt spray, kick back in a leather lounge or adjustable high-back helm chair, engage the engines and whirring propellers, relay your destination to the (auto)pilot, order a G&T from the crew, and cruise for views at the front of the ship.

The new Grand Banks 65 Aleutian is a first-class passage maker designed to wing it to far-flung corners of the globe. Aboard this baby, you get to keep company with cruising buffs who travel first class, in high style on the high seas. So long as you have a cool $4 million in your kick, why subject yourself to anything less?

But since 1964, soon after American Marine launched the first timber Grand Banks 36 trawler, these craft have been coveted by wayfarers who love nothing better than to reel in sea miles to discover new places before they push up the daisies. However, it took more than 30 years for the Malaysian and Singaporean yards to answer the call for a bigger class of boat.

Enter the Aleutian series, named after a faraway archipelago of 300 islands in southwest Alaska kissed by the far North Pacific Ocean, with the Bering Sea nearby and the Russian Komandorski Islands just a Vodka bottle throw away. There are snow-capped mountains, 57 active volcanos, whales and seals, great kelp forests, and salmon that spawn in the sapphire gin-clear streams. Chickens are raised in covered barns here and the only crop is potato.

Such are the destinations on the horizon for those aboard the new Aleutian 65. The boat enjoyed a world release at this year’s Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in May. She replaces the inaugural Aleutian 64 launched to great fanfare Up Over in 2001, a boat that introduced the pilothouse genre for GB and soon won adoring fans.

Like the 64, the 65 is certified by Lloyds to CE Category A for ocean travel in weather and waves to four metres and above. Like the 64, she’s a blend of old and new. Only the new bits are now even newer.

The 65 flaunts a forest of warm honey-coloured and homely Burmese teak joinery, but she takes the relative brave step of introducing freestanding furniture to the family. The Tom Fexas-designed hull remains, but it’s been stretched by an extra 30cm to provide a bigger cockpit for doing what we cruising types love best – eating King Neptune’s offerings in the great outdoors.

There are now twin wing doors blocking off the deep bulwarks from the cockpit, thereby providing extra weather protection for your lunch setting – doubly so with the clear curtains scrolled down – and improved engineroom access through a dedicated side door in the cockpit that leads down into accommodating crew quarters.

A watertight door opens into the engineroom, with alternate access from the amidships stateroom, while the boat comes standard with all manner of essential cruising gear such a separate crew cabin, washer and dryer, and popup vertical range hood in the galley counter. The optional pushbutton drop-down overhead cupboards was another first, designed to maximise the gourmand’s views when cooking up a storm.

If you can’t catch it yourself, raid the fish co-op and make seafood chowder en route to your next port of call. Naiad stabilisers with fins, each measuring nine square feet, will help keep the 65 on an even keel and the soup in the pot.

BUILT FROM THE KEEL UP
The 65 has a pack of wild horses by way of twin 1015hp Caterpillar C18 engines for a 23-knot top speed and an 18 to 20kts cruise in case you really want to, well, fly. The standard engines are detuned C18Ds that produce 875hp. Either way, you get Twin Disc gearboxes with electronic shifts, a matching remote Power Commander so you can dock from the cockpit or aft bridge, and hydraulic bow and (optional) sternthrusters to shunt the 50-tonne ship off the fuel wharf.

The engineroom is an accommodating place, with a Delta T fan-forced ventilation system with internal intakes to keep the Cats healthy. Onboard power is courtesy of a 22.5kW Onan, with scope to fit a second gennie if that’s your preference, plus heavy-duty 4000W Mastervolt inverter big enough to actually cook with.

I also noted nice big sea strainers with inspection and collection bowls, a trick fuel manifold system so you can draw and return to any one or all of the four tanks that collectively carry more than 8000 litres of diesel, a whopping great 1666lt water supply, and 568lt blackwater tank so you can stay in port for a while or carry a full house for a week without having to make a tank run offshore.

The boat had an emergency engine-driven bilge pump, twin Racor fuel filters for each engine, Reverso oil-change system, labelled Groco seacocks, Tides Marina shaft seals, ZF Faster props and low-maintenance batteries. There was a special shorepower system with equaliser for spike-free AC from the dock, plus provision to fit a watermaker locally, and a bank of Crusair air-con units for interior climate control.

The hull is a honey, a modified-vee design with a sharp entry tapering to a flat run aft for lift and stability. Fast or slow, the boat doesn’t push a lot of water off her bow. Prop pockets or tunnels lower the shaft angles and there’s a full-length protective keel that also enhances tracking and stability. The boat has underwater exhausts to help reduce noise levels. But trim tabs aren’t needed since, when you advance the throttles, the boat lifts horizontally and bodily with just four-degrees of trim angle – impressive.

Above the hard chines, you get a genuine motoryacht look derived from clinker moulded top sides and the shiplike pilothouse with Portuguese bridge. Internal and external moulded stairwells make the command bridge easy to access for veteran sailors, as well as family and friends looking for a perch to really enjoy the views.

COMMAND BRIDGE
It’s on the bridge, in perfect Gold Coast cruising weather, that we kicked backed and enjoyed the ride. The views from the twin Stidd helm chairs are indeed commanding looking forward at the road ahead, over the dash equipped with twin Caterpillar engine panels and twin Raymarine E120s (among the other good gear) linked to three separate closed-circuit cameras.

The hardtop is a must-have option and with clears you get full weather protection. There’s also air-con up top for four-season’s cruising in comfort and a big timber ship’s wheel to remind you that you’re driving a GB. The twin high-gloss lattice teak tables were a nice touch, although on the small side if you want to lunch with the pack. There’s scope for 10 or more on the twin L-shaped lounges.

A companionway runs between the lounges to an aft amenities centre with icemaker and double griddle. But a boat like this could do with a serious barbie, a stainless steel freestanding number fixed to padeyes in the deck.

An upgraded Opacmare 600kg telescopic davit hoisted the 3.9m Zodiac RIB with side console and four-stroke 40hp Yammie onto the aft deck. Tender dispatched, you gain a big entertaining space surrounded by usefully high rails. The views come gratis.

DECKED OUT
But the primary al fresco setting is on the accommodating cockpit. There’s a huge teak table on hi-lo pedestals and an integral lounge that can seat eight, plus six more on folding chairs for dinner. Enjoy the shade from the hardtop, as the water laps nearby and the bream await your chicken bones.

Double doors lead down to the swim platform with safety rails for fishing. A ladder helps retrieval of swimmers and divers, and there is a handheld shower nearby. The box called teak decks was ticked, too.

Deep bulwarks range forward and they’re crew, child and dog friendly. Three steps lead up to a Portuguese bridge that remained high and dry thanks to plenty of flare in the hull topsides. The twin lounges will warrant closer inspection with a cocktail at sunset, while the anchoring gear is all heavy-duty stuff headed by a Maxwell 3500 windlass with double capstans and 120-pound Manson anchor linked to 120m of chain. The horn cleats and hawsepipes remind one of a real little ship and there are deep fender and rope lockers.

Provisioning is done, presumably, back through the cockpit, where a portside door leads to the crew quarters. More than a dog box, you’ll find a luxury cabin with plenty of room and two oversized single bunks. The head lacks headroom but has a shower, and there’s plenty of room back aft for mounting more refrigeration, a workbench, storage or whatever.

PILOTHOUSE LIVING
The beauty of a floating house like this is that you can drive from the pilothouse while living aboard. The central helm seat was set before an impressive dash with two more Raymarine E120s, autopilot, VHF radio, twin ST290 multifunction displays, twin Maxwell chain counters, Naiad hydraulic thruster controls, twin Cat displays, Quickshift throttles and remote Smart Controller with extra-long lead.

I noted a rudder indicator, searchlight, wipers with freshwater washers, chart drawer and additional drawers for cruising manuals. The fuel transfer pumps are at hand, along with a Computank for at-a-glance fuel and water levels, and grey and blackwater tank monitors. The dinette/breakfast table for six is alongside, allowing you to eat on the run. A remote for the autopilot might come in handy.

Behind the helm, the galley stirs the imagination and some pots. The Corian counters will come in handy for making pasta or pizza, while the four-burner induction cooktop, combination convection microwave oven, and dishwasher are from Miele. There are twin Vitrifrigo fridge drawers and separate freezer drawer, trash compactor and InSinkErator, and twin deep sinks. And let’s not forget pushbutton vertical range hood and retractable overhead storage cabinets – cupboards aplenty, too.

The main living area or saloon opens via wide doors to the cockpit. Surrounded by picture windows, and with practical teak and holly flooring the lounge room teams tradition with edgy freestanding or modular furniture. The three-seater leather lounge has recliners at either end, faces two occasional leather chairs and an owner’s chair, and, all told, you can seat eight before the flatscreen television linked to a Bose Lifestyle 48 AV system.

The teak table is a hi-lo coffee or dinette number, the library is nearby, there’s a handy handrail on the ceiling, and beautiful Burmese teak joinery. Last but not least, I called the generator into action and could barely discern a murmur.

ACCOMMODATION PLAN
As with all pilothouse boats, the accommodation is forward, down six steps that aren’t too steep, and through three cabins each with an en suite. Layout options include moving beds about or, a preference for some, creating an office below decks. Personally, I’d rather work from the dinette before the stirring views.

The owners’ stateroom is decadent, as it should be, with a king-sized bed lying expectantly, but to starboard and athwartships which is a little different. Twin opening portlights can be covered at night by sliding Shoji screens. There are cedar-lined hanging lockers, drawers galore, and a television at the foot of the bed.

Headroom is a highpoint and the styling classic but sharp, with textures and natural tones used to good effect with the bedding. The en suite is back aft, where it assists in providing insulation from the engineroom, with his and her sinks and a decent two-person shower. Underfloor, the boat has storage including room to stash suitcases or at least soft bags.

The VIP guest’s cabin is forward with an island double bed on the centreline, twin opening portlights, American-sized escape hatch and storage for clobber. The en suite doubles as the boat’s dayhead, but the third cabin with twin single beds has a private en suite. Both have shower stalls, there are separate Miele washer and dryer in a locker nearby, and ducted vacuum system throughout.

CRUISING BEAUTY
While you can immediately sense the stately nature of a boat like this, it’s difficult to fully appreciate it in a day. You really need a week, a month, probably a whole winter of content in the tropics to form a real relationship. And with 8328l in her belly, you can most certainly go places in the 65 Aleutian. As fast or slow as the depth of your pockets and time permits.

Top speed was 23kts for almost 400lt/h, while maximum continuous revs of 2150rpm returned 22.2kts. But with consumption of 340lt/h, it’s doubtful you will be running your ship for long at that speed. For the sake of the exercise, 2000rpm returned 20.4kts for 280lt/h, while 1857rpm gave a smooth cruise of 17.4kts – give or take a knot due to the tide – for 242lt/h.

No, the speed that matters most on a boat like this is hull speed, calculated by multiplying the square root of the waterline length by 1.35. According to my calculations, that returned a maximum displacement speed of 10.5kts. At 1270rpm and 9.5kts into the tide I noted a 90lt/h fuel burn. Leaving 10 per cent of the fuel supply in reserve, your safe passage-making range is more than 800nm uphill.

Like a Rolls Royce on sea, the new Aleutian 65 continues the GB tradition of building first-class cruising boats. The motion with the stabilisers deployed is to die for or, rather, liveaboard. And with the docking remote, dab hands will be able to berth this baby on their own.

The fitout is extensive, the finish stunning, and the package in keeping with the yard’s enviable reputation for building long-range sea (and body) kindly yachts that can go places, like the remote Aleutian Islands.

HIGHS

• Great motion through the water
• Long cruising range
• The capacities for true liveaboard boating
• Wonderful attention to detail
• Big outdoor living spaces
• Deep bulwarks make for a safe boat at sea
• Open-plan saloon and pilothouse enhances sense of space
• Galley with all the modcons
• Full-beam stateroom with king-sized bed
• Famous badge with good resale value
• R Marine local backing

LOWS

• Caterpillar engines with Onan generator requires two separate servicing calls
• Plexiglass side doors seem a tad naff
• Small tables for entertaining a crowd on the bridge
• Needs a desal unit and more fridge/freezer space
• Even with a docking remote, it’s big hunk of a boat for a husband/wife to handle
• You pay a premium for the Grand Banks name

Boat Specifications: 65 Grand Banks Aleutian

GRAND BANKS ALEUTIAN 65

GENERAL

Materials: GRP hull, and foam-cored decks and grid stringer system

Type: Modified deep-vee monohull with keel Length overall: 19.91m

Length overall: 19.91m

Waterline length: 18.42m

Beam: 6.05m

Draft: 1.63m

Weight: 48,308kg (dry w/ std engines)

CAPACITIES

Berths: 8

Fuel: 8328lt

Water: 1666lt

Blackwater: 568lt

ENGINE

Make/model: Twin Cat C18s

Type: Fully electronic inline six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine with common rail fuel injection, turbocharging and aftercooling

Rated HP: 1015 at 2300rpm

Displacement: 18lt

Weight: 1718kg (each)

Gearboxes (Make): Twin Disc

Props: Four-blade ZF Faster