“The King of The Gran Turismo Range”
Credits: Nick Burnham
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Beneteau Gran Turismo 45 today, guys. This is the new model, and she’s the king of the Gran Turismo range, starting at 32, which we’ve already tested on this channel. So if you’re stepping up from something with a 32 size, how daunting is it? And how does this boat perform in the calm water, in the choppy water, and manoeuvring in close quarters?
So pricing, it’s in the description below. You’re watching Dan’s Boat Life. Dan’s my name. G’day! We are on the other side of Bradley’s head. No coffee shops here, but there’s a lovely one which would be perfect for this boat just around the corner, just here on the western Channel. And depending on the wind, you might also want to pop over to Watson’s Bay, pick up some fish and chips, and then anchor it at Camp Cove. Perfect destinations for this boat.
SEA TRIAL
So IPS 440s on this one, we’ve got 80% in the tanks. I’m clear all around. I’m just going to get this boat moving because it’s Sunday, and all the punters are out. Got the zipwakes on auto accelerating. Okay, so I’ve just got the GPS speed running. I won’t talk about the revs, unless I can bring that up on the other side. I’ve got fuel flow and speed, which I’m going to be able to easily communicate to you. And unless I can get revs on this gauge, no, we’ll just stick it to fuel flow.
So I’ve got 48 a side right now at 20 knots, but 20 knots feels slow on this boat. So I’ll bump it up to 23. I’m doing this from the seated position. I really have no need to stand up from this seat. It’s a really good boat for visibility. Okay, 22, and now 23 knots at a 60 litre a side consumption. It’s what I would refer to as a slow cruise for this boat, going through some boat wash, taking that from the side. Comfortable!
Okay, I did just see a sea turtle, by the way, just back there. He dived. We did make sure we were clear of him, but it’s just so nice to see some of that wildlife enjoying these winter days. And oh my God, can anyone else notice summer is really poking around the corner? The weather has just been fantastic lately.
“I’m taking her up to 23 knots while seated. I really don’t feel the need to stand up from this seat. It’s a boat that offers excellent visibility.”
So 24 knots, still 60 litres a side consumption. Multiple boats ahead, so I’m just going to break right and speed up. Okay, showing my intentions. Okay, got a little boat here, boat here, boat there, boat there. So this is what summer can feel like. And all clear. That’s good! Now we’re going to be just banking into some boat wash, short sharp. The boat is at the harbour, I should say, is a lot choppier than what it was not even an hour ago.
So now I’m going to try and increase that speed. Sailing yacht, rib, small boat. I’m just going to go past these two boats, maintaining 25 knots. Okay, that rib’s going to pass me to port. My fuel consumption’s now popping at 73 a side. And I’m going to pop it around here so you can have some nice photos. And let’s increase that speed.
You really have no inclination to need or want to stand up on this setup on the helm. It’s very comfortable as it is. So now I’m breaking 26, 27 knots. 67 litres consumption. And this feels like the boat’s happy place. She’s really just gliding along, nice level attitude. Zipwakes are doing their thing. She’s got a comfortable bank on the turns. This is what a sports cruiser should be like, it’s fun, it’s sporty, and having a 27 knot cruising speed at 68 litres a side, just moving this much. About two and potentially three cabins’ worth of boat, your own tender garage, all of that set up, it’s really, really good as a replacement to a beach house, which is the way I see these boats.
Okay, just looking up ahead, I got about 10 or 11 boats in front of me. So I’m just going to start calculating and picking my line. So if I go quiet, that’s what I’m doing because I can’t multitask. Typical bloke thing!
So we’ve got some swell coming in through the harbour. This could be a yacht race happening as well, multiple power boats, and the ferry. I’m coming in at 27 knots, and when I go into a new wave zone, I won’t increase my speed. So I might even, if anything, back my speed off. So just coming back to 26 and then maybe 25 knots, and I’ll do that deliberately to feel out the sea state. Because now I’m going from inshore to exposed water, and I don’t need to come belting in. The boat will be fine. It’s more about your guests. If you go launching the boat off a wave and she has a nice little fun landing, that’s cool for you. But if your kids or your partner or your guests are visiting from overseas, who’ve maybe never done this before, you might freak them out.
So here we go, rolling through some waves. So I would just suggest coming into a sensible speed, which on this boat is 23-25 knots, take the waves from the right angle. We’ll just bounce through it through here. And then once you’re used to the sea state or the new sea state as we have now, speed up.
Okay, I feel comfortable now. So now I’m going to just take those swells to the side, and I’m going to increase my speed to 29 knots. This pillar here, through a port turn, reduces your visibility a little bit, so just pay attention to lean down if you’re going to do a tight turn to port or if you’re a tall bloke. Actually, big Mike, once again, I’m going to turn this camera on. I’m 5’7″, Big Mike, 6’7″. That’s what you’re seeing, Big Mike. Thank you for the comments. I’m listening, and I’ll stand up. That’s what you see, you big blokes. What, how’s the weather up there? [Dan laughs]
” The way I see these boats, they are a really, really good replacement for a beach house.”
Okay, let’s go down swell. All clear. I’m still holding 27 and a half knots. Fuel flow at 63, cutting in now. Speeding up, this feels great.
So with this IPS, it really is just… you can play with the zipwakes in manual if you like. I actually wouldn’t do that on a hull design like this. Zipwakes are ideally suited to a hull of this type, and it’s just going to reduce your workload. So you really just have to think about throttle and steering wheel, and that’s the idea. Because you probably also got kids, wife, music, blah blah blah, other things going on. So I think with a designer boat like this, they’re trying to reduce your workload. Yes, you can get more techie and higher performance on other boats, but this is a nice middle ground. But 27 knots is not the only speed, so just keep watching because we’ll get around this corner, and depending on the traffic, I am going to open it right up and show you what is possible.
Just take a couple more turns there. Yeah, you could do this really comfortably for good periods of time, going down the harbour, broadwater, wherever you are. It’s just a fantastic day boat because you’ll have three people across here [saloon/cockpit], you can have another 10 people back there.
Don’t accelerate in front of me, buddy. Some people just don’t look where they’re going, do they? Okay, I’ll stay out of his way. I’m just going to hook right, not sure what he’s doing. Give it some speed. Okay, speed’s coming up through 29 knots.
Kayakers, yacht, powerboat, tinny. I’m going to the middle route, and I’m probably going to have to hook this turn early. Fast boat not accelerated. I’m clear, clear, clear. 32 knots, 32 and a half knots, consumption is 87 litres a side.
I think we’ve got a 33 knot top speed, is my assumption on this boat. And I won’t be able to push this much longer because it’s feeling like it’s almost a summer’s day out here today. So let’s book it around here a little bit early so we don’t interrupt any of those kids sailing or people enjoying their Sunday. 33 knots, 87 litres a side. Beautiful! Just a beautiful day boat hull this is. It’s fun, it’s responsive, and it’s fast, which is what you want in a sports cruiser.
“She has a top speed of 33 knots. It’s fun, responsive, and fast, which is exactly what you’d want in a sports cruiser.”
Okay, so that’s really cool. Great! You’ll get a lot of fun out of that. And I just love this new design with the closing back doors. Let’s come off the pace here, check our wash, slow down, and we’re going to go into a more protected area, right now. I’m going to switch over from throttles to the joystick because this is an IPS boat. We do have the bow thruster as well, and we’ll do some demonstrations on this low-speed manoeuvrability and anchor the boat as well because I think many of you are going to operate this boat by yourself because that’s the style of boating I suspect you are electing to do. You’re probably coming up from maybe even the 32 GT which we’ve already tested on this channel, and that would be a real logical step up from that boat to this, so I imagine some of you are going to have those questions: Is it too much of a step? Can you handle it? Keep watching, and I’ll show you.
LOW-SPEED MANOEUVRABILITY
So guys, what I like about a style of boat like this is if you’re coming from a smaller Sports Cruiser, it’s going to be quite familiar to you. So if you’ve come from, say, the 32 Gran Turismo, all we’re doing is going from Stern drives to IPS’s. So you may have already had the joystick, or you may not. If you haven’t, essentially all you do is pop it into neutral, come down here, and press docking on the joystick, which is the bottom left. And then basically, if you want to move the boat sideways, you just push the boat in the direction that you want to slip it.
So now all I’m doing is moving the joystick to starboard, and the boat’s going to starboard. But just make sure your joystick inputs are really slow and controlled. Don’t use it like a computer joystick because remember there are mechanical devices or mechanical instruments that need to go in and out of gear.
So once again, if I want to go left—I can actually now move to the left. Obviously, always look where you’re going before you drive the boat there. And then now I can slew the boat to the left. Not only can you do manoeuvres like this, you can spin the whole thing on a dime, and you can also hold it in position using the joystick with really little effort.
“They’ve simplified this boat with a bow thruster and convenient features for navigation, anchoring, berthing, and rafting up with other boats.”
The other final benefit, which may not be immediately evident to all of you, is by clearing your space, you can turn your body around and use the joystick with the other hand, which doing with throttles is not going to make immediate sense if you haven’t had a lot of experience operating throttles because you have to reverse the direction of travel because your body is facing 180 degrees the other direction. But with a joystick, you just push the thing where you want to go, and it goes. So it’s a lot easier, it’s what I’m trying to say.
With a designer boat, they simplified it, add the bow thruster, everything around us for going from A to B, dropping the anchor, berthing or rafting up with other boats, it’s pretty simple.
SUMMARY
I hope that was useful, guys. I hope you enjoyed it. So where do I see this 45 Gran Turismo sitting in the market? Well, you’ve got the Azimut Atlantis 45, you’ve got the Riviera 4600 Sport Yacht, and you’ve got the Sealine C430. I see this one being the epic awesome day boat for families. It’s the replacement to a beach house. Think of the convenience. You’re still in the city. You can enjoy this and change your view every weekend.
For going fast, for easy to operate short-handed, for using it as your floating beach house with the platform, with the garage, with the joystick, dropping the anchor from the helm. If you see that as your boat life, then this is the boat for you.
On the other hand, if you see your boat life is cruising up to Queensland every winter and doing lots more offshore stuff, perhaps traveling at slower speeds in the ocean, this is probably not the best pick. I would be focusing on something more like the 4600 sport yacht in that case. So I’ll leave a couple of links to some of the competition up on the screen right now. I hope that was useful to you. Don’t forget to subscribe. Please support the Patreon. Thanks very much, guys. I’ll see you on the next one.
