42 Grand Banks Motoryacht

Source: David Lockwood, Boatpoint Magazine

Gale force conditions failed to ruffle this serious cruising passage maker, and its semi-custom interior provides a haven for work and play, reports David Lockwood

The line between work and play is fuzzy these days. Retirees are putting in part-time hours, full-time employees are shifting to contracts, and there is a migration from the CBD to the home office (or HO).

Such things would be entirely to your advantage if you owned the Grand Banks 42 Motoryacht. The gorgeous cruiser is a platform for work and play.

Alongside the offset double berth in the tremendous full-width aft cabin is clever teak cabinetry including an HO to go. This detail certainly appealed to me, imagining myself penning salty yarns from a tax-free floating haven. Plug in the laptop and train the bow on the horizon. File the stories via email.

But for most owners, Grand Banks boating is about getting away from it all. And in a vessel like this the world is your oyster. The well-known marque is built on sound cruising principles dating back to the late 1940s. The boats are passagemakers: serious cruising craft with seaworthiness, comfort, range and amenities like twin generators. And the company is known for making personalised boats to suit everyone, from the roving writer to the retired executive.

BUILDING BLOCKS
Grand Banks craft are built between two yards in South East Asia. The new factory in Johor Bahru in Malaysia produces the 36-42ft craft, while 20 minutes’ boat ride across the straits is the big-boat factory in Singapore making the 42-64ft motoryachts.

Between the two factories, Grand Banks employs 14,000 people to produce about 150 boats in a year. In a good year production rises to 170 boats, but it drops to 120 in a slow year like the one just past in the USA. Some 80 per cent of production is sold into America, 15 per cent in Europe and the rest is spread between Australia and South America.

While the local market for Grand Banks is established, sales are geared entirely to the US dollar. Since our dollar strengthened earlier this year things have been looking up for Grand Banks. The dealer said he would import six boats into Australia this year after doing just a few in 2002. No two are the same, as Grand Banks is very much a semi-custom boatbuilder.

But Grand Banks is also a refiner. The 42MY seen here – regarded as a new boat, as its hull was changed a decade ago – was the 1525th model to roll off the factory floor. So by rights the bugs should have been well and truly ironed out. At least that’s the thinking of the many owners who jump aboard Grand Banks boats.

COUNTRY RECIPE
All Grand Banks are semi-displacement craft that cruise with austerity and dignity. The newer boats like the 42 MY have a super-fine entry but not much in the way of flared topsides. A deep vee amidships turns into a long flat run aft. There are hard chines for lift and stability, and a big deadwood keel that protects the running gear.

The hand-laid fiberglass is applied to female moulds in temperature and humidity-controlled rooms, and the hulls are backed by a five-year warranty. There’s no need for composite construction; on the contrary, the weight of solid fiberglass in these slippery hulls is what makes them so darned unflappable through the water.

Grand Banks offers three primary layouts with most of its craft. The standard boat is called a Classic, with fore and aft cabins and a flat aft deck. The Europa, on the other hand, has all its accommodation forward of a saloon that opens back to the cockpit. And then there’s the Motoryacht as seen here, which has fore and aft cabins but, unlike the Classic, they run the full width of the boat like an aft cabin.

The Classic, Europa and Motoryacht are certainly pretty boats that sell well in the trawler market. In America, where Grand Banks has an especially strong identity and club culture, regular rendezvous are staged that attract fleets of 50-60 craft.

Interestingly, half of all sales of Grand Banks are to previous owners, the importer says. This says a lot about brand loyalty in a market where there are as many as 30-40 players. Things like the mast, moulded clinker sides and olde world ambience aboard are among the attractions of Grand Banks.

TWICE AS NICE
This particular Grand Banks 42 was customized for 50-plus-year-old retirees keen to cruise with another couple or their grandchildren. This audience should increase in years to come, as more and more baby boomers face the prospect of retirement – and, as I said up front, as more retirees choose to work part-time from home or a boat.

Experienced boat owners and ex-yachties form a large part of Grand Banks’ customer base. Naturally, they appreciate the yacht-like design elements. Apparently 90 per cent of inquiries here are from owners of go-fast planing cruisers who no longer have a need for speed.

Some of the clever details include stainless steel hydraulic rams for incremental opening of the portholes; hatches with insect and sun screens; deck gear fashioned from high-grade Japanese stainless steel with polished welds, and drawers that automatically lock shut for passagemaking.

The engine room and engineering are something special, too, while the teak joinery is all dovetailed, grain and batch matched. In fact, Grand Banks says it actually owns its own teak plantation in Burma to ensure a reliable supply of timber for its boats.

DECKED OUT
While there was no bowthruster on this 42 MY, there is the option of fitting one. Having said that, the huge 24 x 25in pitch four-blade props and depth of the hull below the waterline makes for a boat that isn’t troubled by the wind.

Despite its volume, the 42 MY wasn’t a nightmare to manoeuvre or park in the 20-25kt of wind buffeting the marina. I assume the motors are quite a way apart as the boat responds quickly to the throttles. The howling wind also revealed the usefulness of the 42 MY’s walkaround decks, as it was all hands on deck during the boat’s departure from the skinny marina berth.

Topped with teak planking and surrounded by nice high stainless steel rails, the 42 MY is an easy boat to get around. The flat raised aft deck acts like a viewing platform or balcony and the extended flybridge up top has room to fit loose chairs.

Around the decks are courtesy lights, side lights, a concealed windlass, wide bowsprit, freshwater outlet forward, television and phone inlet at the bow, and fore and aft shorepower inlets. The boat has side gates for easy access and loading provisions at the marina, and a boarding platform, swim ladder and handheld deck shower back aft.

Up top is a hinged aluminium mast and boom that can be used to hoist the supplied 2.6m ducky with 6hp four-stroke Honda outboard. The two 4kg gas bottles are held in lockers in the bridge. Thankfully, a wide moulded staircase flanked by rails makes the climb easier than a vertical ladder.

The boat’s supplied seating on the bridge can cater for a couple behind the dash and another couple on a small moulded lounge. I would be inclined to order a large L-shaped lounge and fridge for the bridge to improve its entertaining value. It’s the pick of the outdoor spaces for fair weather and inshore cruising.

Though you can’t see the transom or swim platform when parking, the views to all other quarters are unfettered. And the high stainless steel rear rail gives the bridge a sense of security.

HIGH STANDARDS
One of the pitfalls of any boat with an aft cabin is engine room access. Day-to-day servicing involves clambering under the saloon floor. This is the case with the 42 MY.

However, the boat has a lot of beam that makes access around the twin 330B Cummins engines easy enough.

At the foot of the ladder leading into the engine room are items requiring at-a-glance inspection, namely two huge sea strainers, paired dipsticks, sight gauges on the fuel tanks and Racor fuel filters for motors and generator.

I noted dual Aqualift exhausts on the main motors, access to all sides of the upgraded 9.5kVa Onan generator and a Vernay silent exhaust system on the generator that discharges underwater. There are quick-activating gate valves on the seacocks, an auto battery charger and sufficient 12 and 240V lighting to work at night.

Built for the US market, the onboard wiring and plumbing is coded and the boat comes with an impressive manual that includes established procedures for everything – from detailed maintenance schedules, warranty requirements, fittings and their suppliers, and wiring and plumbing diagrams, right down to removing an engine.

Other engine room details that haven’t gone unnoticed include flexible dripless couplings to cut vibration, drip pans under the engines, an emergency tiller, stainless steel water tanks and tinned-copper wiring. The white gelcoat finish helps with spotting oil leaks.

High-density lead and foam sound insulation has been increased to 5cm thickness to help reduce running noise and vibration. Underway, this is a quiet boat with no need to shout to maintain a conversation at either the bridge or the internal helm station.

UNIQUE LAYOUT
This 42 Motoryacht is the first with two separate staterooms in the fore and aft extremities of the boat. Each has an island double berth and split head/shower. Access to the interior was changed from the aft side-opening door on the port side, which can let the weather in while travelling in high seas, to an aft companionway.

Step down into the saloon and you will find headroom, big picture windows and a salty atmosphere derived from a forest of satin teak. As the boat has walkaround decks, this isn’t the widest of saloons. Still, there is room for an L-shaped lounge to starboard and two loose teak armchairs with a touch of Shaker style.

I will level one criticism at the 42 MY, based on my experience living on an aft cabin boat for almost a year. When you are prostrate on the bone-coloured Ultrasuede lounge, as one is inclined to be on a Sunday afternoons, you can’t see over the high, fixed dinette to the television mounted opposite. A rethink of the television mounting is in order.

But there’s room for four to six around the dinette and essential items like a wet bar in a teak cabinet with optional icemaker and built-in lemon-cutting board for the G&Ts. Like all serious ocean-going boats, the Grand Banks 42 has handrails on the saloon roof leading to the L-shaped galley to port.

Although not big by 42-footer standards, the galley has been designed for use at sea and at anchor. It is handy to the portside internal helm and to a side-opening door, through which you can take provisions. Set the autopilot and make a cuppa while keeping an eye on the road ahead.

Full marks for the fiddle rails around the Corian counters, the three-burner gas stove with potholders and the top-and-side loading freezer to back-up the small 12V fridge.

Long-term cruising couples might boost fridge and storage space for provisions. The convection microwave could be less conspicuous in the big overhead teak box.

Among the thoughtful touches are curtains treated with fire retardant, a small garbage bin in a locker, an exhaust fan and range hood. The centre section of the windscreen can be propped open and, with the sliding door, there is loads of natural ventilation.

The lower helm station on the starboard side has an adjustable seat and timber wheel. Your eye scans across a big teak dashboard out the windows to the ocean beyond. There are wipers with intermittent action and the AC/DC control panel alongside. Long passages inshore and offshore, day or night, can be bowled over from the protection of this internal helm.

DOUBLE DUTCH
The boat comes standard with a vee-berth cabin in the bow and a double-berth cabin immediately aft to port, plus the aft cabin. This 42 MY had just two cabins either end of the saloon, but they were nothing short of enormous. Floor space is so generous they almost feel like bedrooms in a Dutch terrace.

Guests, I guess, will be sent forward down four steps to the cabin up front. Because the third cabin has been deleted, the entire bow area is one big suite.

You can close the area off from the saloon with a hatch and door for full privacy. The feeling inside is one of a timeless motoryacht.

The queen-sized guest bed has a jacquard bedspread with blue-and-gold scatter cushions and pillows, ship-like, teak-planked walls and buff-coloured privacy curtains on upper and lower tracks. Two cedar-lined hanging lockers and six drawers will swallow the clobber.

Full marks for the split WC and full-sized shower stall compartment in both cabins, allowing couples to prepare for the day ahead. The forward bathroom doubles as a dayhead. Fittings are from Grohe and the vanity tops are marble.

The full-width owners’ cabin took my fancy. The offset queen-sized bed allowed for the quasi-office atop the teak cabinetry with drawers.

There were his/her hanging lockers and another split WC/shower with exhaust fans, though for some reason the two toilets were manual models. Teak and holly flooring is used throughout.

GALE WARNING
Grand Banks claims a performance edge over its modern/traditional rivals. That’s impossible to substantiate without organising a full shootout of 42ft trawler-style boats. However, in the wild conditions sweeping across Broken Bay on the day of our outing, the 42 Motoryacht displayed a cool head and a great motion through the water.

Unfazed by beam-on, bow-on or following seas, the 16,000kg boat felt well paced. This was supported by the GPS, which said we were doing 16.2kt at full revs of 2800rpm with the trim tabs down. Fast cruise was 13.4kt at 2400rpm.

According to Cummins, the twin 6BTA 315hp motors consume about 30lt each at cruise speeds of about 10.4 to 12kt at 2000-2350rpm. Leaving 10 per cent in reserve, the boat’s 2270lt fuel capacity gives a range of about 375nm. Water capacity of 910lt should suffice between port visits.

White caps galloped to the horizon while a building ground swell with a long fetch pushed against the coast. Unruffled, the Grand Banks 42 MY felt like a real little ship in which you could decamp for weeks at a time. And, if you must, you can take your work with you.

Boat Specifications: 42 Grand Banks Motoryacht

Grand Banks 42 Motoryacht

OPTIONS FITTED Custom two-cabin layout, special rear saloon door, generator upgrade, icemaker, teak flooring, soft furnishings pack, 2.8m dinghy w/ 6hp outboard, provision for washing machine/dryer, Raymarine electronics kit, Bennett trim tabs and lots more

GENERAL

Material: Solid GRP

Type: Semi-displacement monohull

Length (overall): 13.17m

Beam: 4.29m

Draft: 1.27m

Weight: Around 16, 000kg dry (base motors)

CAPACITIES

Berths: Four + one

Fuel: 2,270lt

Water: 910lt

ENGINE

Make/model: Twin 6BTA5.9M3 Cummins

Type: Turbo-charged, fully electronic, straight sixes

Rated HP: 315

Displacement: 5.9lt

Weight: about 581kg plus gearbox

Gearboxes (make/ratio): ZF IRM 2.478:1

Props: Four-blade bronze 28in x 24.5in