It was opening day of the 2025 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, and Mother Nature didn’t get the memo. 

As I headed east in a rideshare with colleagues, I looked through a windshield pocked with raindrops. The sea and sky were indistinguishable hues of baleful gray. We scrolled on our phones and compared satellite imagery on a handful of weather apps, none of which presented a definitive or favorable forecast.

We got drenched while playing press-conference hopscotch between storm cells. Then the early afternoon sun and humidity descended. This foul weather was inconvenient, but it did little to dampen my enthusiasm at a show stacked with premieres and innovation.

I didn’t want to leave the Palm Beach 85, and not because of the rain. This flagship yacht shares the slippery V-Warp hull with the GB Marine Group’s Grand Banks 85, and has superyacht-level fit and finish from her engine room and crew quarters to her tastefully appointed salon and three en suite staterooms. CEO Mark Richards said his team intended “to build a boat with no compromises,” and that result was immediately apparent. 

A quartet of powercats also had debut parties at FLIBS. Like any jazz ensemble worth its salt, the big felines had a common drive but also expressed individual personalities to suit a range of audiences. 

The GranOcean W-72, built in Asia, is looking to make its mark stateside with a Vripack-designed interior and a wealth of options that include an open or closed flybridge, three- to five-stateroom layouts, and various engine packages. With her standard power package of 550-hp Cummins, the CE-A class hull reportedly returns more than a 2,900-nautical-mile range at 7.5 knots. 

Our November/December cover model, the Aspen C128, was at the show as well. The new flagship already has 2,000 nm under her belt, cruising extensively in the Pacific Northwest. She is slated to winter in the Bahamas. She’s built for both locales.

Want to know more about the W-72 or C128? Head over to @passagemakermag on YouTube for our video walk-throughs, and read the Aspen feature on our website. 

My time was limited on the new Oceanwalker S60, a big puma from Revolution Marine, but I was impressed with what I saw. Her flybridge, by volume, is said to be the largest in its class, while the 9.8-kW solar array is matched to a LiFePO4 battery bank in a setup that should ensure clean and quiet power. More to come on this builder. 

The innovative Aquila 46 Yacht, which is on the cover of this issue, rounds out the powercats. To match her bulbous bow sponsons, the 46 can also be ordered with a fixed foil, which reduces drag while improving stability, fuel economy and performance. The story on the Aquila, “Cat Tricks,” starts on page 48.

Two more things worth mentioning: At a Nordhavn press conference, we learned that 27 sister models and more than 700 hulls after the original version launched, the builder’s next-gen model, the 46 MK II, is coming to a marina near you. We tapped contributing editor Kim Kavin to follow up on this exciting version that’s currently in build. You’ll find Kavin’s story, “Time and Again,” on page 24.

As night fell on Fort Lauderdale, I attended a demo of FLIR’s AI-powered flagship multispectral maritime camera systems. These units have a built-in, long-range spotlight and imaging capabilities meant for first responders and the superyacht set, but the technology will trickle down. I expect to see a suite of units that will surely find their way onto the hardtops of trawlers and other intrepid cruisers. 

In closing, I’d like to thank you, our readers, as well as everyone who has had a hand in producing Passagemaker as we ring in 30 years of publishing the world’s foremost authority on long-range power cruising. Here’s to 30 more years! 

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2026 issue of Passagemaker magazine.