72SC Grand Banks Aleutian

Source: Michael Verdon, Sea Magazine

An All-Season Coastal Cruising Boat with A Long-Distance Hull

Mariners cruising up and down the Pacific coast know they can encounter almost any type of sea condition as they venture from port to port. Several displacement-hull vessels are guaranteed to get you from Veracruz to Vancouver in one piece but can produce a few loose fillings. Only a handful of builders know how to make a boat with an extended range that is also comfortable and safe.

Grand Banks is one of those builders. The company created the trawler category 50 years ago and since then has come to master impeccably built, seaworthy boats. The Aleutian 72SC, just launched in the U.S. market, is the new flagship of Grand Banks Aleutian line, sharing many design features with the 72RP that was launched in 2004. Both boats are based on the same Tom Fexas hull, but the 72SC has an extended deck on the flybridge, which not only gives extra space for the tender and a private sunning area, but creates an extra measure of weather protection over the cockpit.

That extra cover, as we found out on a rainy afternoon in Newport, R.I., lets you enjoy the great outdoors without getting drenched. The shade is also convenient on a hot day at a Mexico marina.

From the dock, the Aleutian 72SC looks more like a ship than a yacht, with the imposing hull and straight edges of the superstructure. Even the rectangular windows look oceangoing. It`s not a stretch to say the 72SC harkens back to a classic 1930`s yacht, one belonging to a Rockefeller or a Vanderbilt, docked in front of the ornate grounds of New York Yacht Club in Newport Harbor – without being old fashioned.

Fexas designed the modern semi-displacement hull for speed and seaworthiness. The standard twin 1,015 hp Caterpillar C18 ACERTs, according to Grand Banks, give it a maximum speed of 23.8 knots and a cruise speed of 18.5 knots. At 10 knots, its range is about 1,000 miles. Our GPS showed a top end of 23.3 knots, about a half-knot slower than the reported top end.

We realized only later that the 9-square-foot Naiad stabilizers were deployed. They kept the hull steady but added enough drag to lose the half knot. But the beauty of this boat is that if you drop down to 10 knots, about 1200 rpm, it drops into fuel-sipping mode – 18.6 gph, 9.3 per engine. The 1,000-mile range lets you take extended trips up the coast or make offshore passages. At 1500 rpm, the boat goes 13.1 knots and burns 37 gph. The 72-footer burns 60 gph at 1800 rpm, while making 20.3 knots. At top speed, 23.3 knots, you`ll be turning 2320 rpm and burning through just more than 100 gph, which knocks the range down to around 460 miles.

It`s actually a fun, relatively easy boat to drive, as we discovered on a jaunt to the ocean from Newport Harbor. We started in the pilothouse, behind a large teak-covered stainless steering wheel, looking at two 15-inch touch-screen Garmin 5215 displays and sitting in the cushy Stidd Admiral`s chair. The 180-degree visibility, thanks to the sizable rectangular windows, is excellent. You can even manage a decent peek of the aft cockpit via the galley, which adjoins the helm area. And because the dinette`s right there to starboard, the helmsman can chat with guests and run the boat at the same time.

TECHNOLOGY & SIMPLE DESIGN

The first thing you notice about the helm area is its simplicity. There are no banks of monitors and gauges, just the two Garmin monitors and a few other controls. The Garmin suite allows for multiple functions (chartplotter, radar, sonar, even closed-circuit TV views of the engine room) on the two screens. You don`t have to constantly scan for information. The electronics manufacturer even has proprietary 3-D views on the charts, above and below the surface, that add a new level of information. We changed functions in seconds with the remote – like playing a video game – and plotted a course to the Atlantic in less than a minute using the touch screen.

Up on the flybridge – accessed via a teak stairway right near the helm station – visibility is even better. The boat is faster than I expected and surprisingly nimble given its size and 120,000-pound displacement. Part of that is the power steering, which let me carve cleanly around the lobster pots and trawling vessels, but the other part is the Fexas hull. It pushes aside 3-foot waves without the slightest shudder or vibration on the upper deck.

The 72SC just feels solid. But the designers were careful not to mistake strength for heft and built a solid hull below the waterline with a cored section above it. They saved weight wherever they could, via the honeycomb cabinetry and joinery (even some of the furniture has a honeycomb interior to keep weight down). The boat`s weight is kept evenly distributed between five fuel tanks along the length of the hull to keep its running angles true.

Beyond the technology behind the walls, there`s a simple beauty to the 72SC.

Grand Banks is known for its woodwork, specifically its teak. It really stands out in this boat, basically because it`s everywhere: from the upper salon around the galley and helm console to the staterooms below. Even teak items like the salon bar and cockpit table were built by Grand Banks` master cabinetmakers.

The woodwork is flawless, without creating the kind of dark, stuffy feel you sometimes experience in all-wood interiors on other boats. Grand Banks is able to keep a light, airy feel to the interior by combining a light-colored headliner, speckled Giallo Topazio granite counter tops, teak/holly floors and off-white modular furniture throughout the boat. Plus, the spaces are large.

The salon, for instance, measures 11 feet by 13 feet (its width ends at the couch), making it a great place to either entertain or just hang out. The cockpit is even larger, measuring 12 feet by 18 feet, with an ornate table for eight in the center, and several lounges at the transom. Grand Banks made a smart decision to put in two ways to access the bridgedeck, either via an aft outer stairwell or through the inner stairway in the galley. That lets the captain and first mate, with their crew cabin at the transom, freely move around the exterior and reach the galley without going through the salon or lower stateroom deck.

The upper deck is, like the rest of the boat, defined by open space. When there`s no tender on deck, the space is 19 feet by 14 feet, with a large lounge and a matching helm and companion seat up front. The hardtop is substantial, with 6 feet, 9 inches of headroom.

BELOW DECKS

Headroom is also excellent in the three-stateroom-plus-office layout below. It ranges from 9 feet, 6 inches in the hallway to 6 feet, 9 inches in the staterooms. The 72SC has the optional four-stateroom layout (includes crew quarters) plus an office. The combination works well, especially the office, which feels like a true working space with desk and lounge, rather than a cubbyhole.

The full-beam master suite is located aft. It has a king-sized bed to starboard, with a vanity and large locker to port. The en suite head, with a large separate shower stall and double sinks with cabinets, is also larger than you`d expect on a boat this size. But features like this are what put the “grand” in Grand Banks.

Designers also did a nice job of mixing a traditional American nautical feel with subtle Asian elements such as Doji screens, which not only filter the light and give privacy, but keep the odd angles of the windows behind wraps. They used the Doji screens and flat-screen TVs in the other staterooms as well. The VIP in the bow has the same influences, with a connecting head and large hanging locker. The third stateroom, comprised of two single berths, is small but functional for a couple or a few kids.

There`s a door through the owner`s suite into the engine room (likewise through the captain`s quarters). Everything is well-laid-out so that all fluids, checks and gauges are easily accessible. Brand names such as Onan, MarineAir, Mastervolt, Glendinning, Groco and Twin Disc prove that the builder is serious about reliability at sea. The boat has two 21.5 kw Onan generators (one optional) as well as six house batteries, two engine-starting batteries and another bank for the batteries.

The only problem I have with the boat is the size of its swim platform. At 31 inches wide, it isn`t in keeping with the grand scale of the rest of the 72SC. It hardly lets one use it as a watersports platform, and even getting on the boat can feel a bit constricting. Perhaps the designers wanted to keep with the boat`s lines, but a wider platform would appeal to divers and other watersports enthusiasts.

Otherwise, the 72SC is a boat that is made to roam the Pacific coast, giving the owners a beautiful, unpretentious interior with a hull that can either sip fuel and travel 1,000 miles or blast along at 23 knots.