- Hey guys, welcome back to NautiStyles. The last time Rico and I were cruising in the Bahamas, we met a couple our Subscribers from the Channel that never sailed before. We were one of the channels that they got inspired by and they bought one of these really cool looking catamarans that Rico and I have seen before, but have never been on board of one. So we had sun downers on their yacht, got to check it out and we're pretty impressed that we thought we absolutely must bring a tour of one of these to the channel.
(gentle upbeat music) - Imagine that you have an 80 kilowatt power battery bank and you can charge it in 30 minutes. - That already exists? - Yeah. - [Victoria] Wow.
- [Tamas] It's going into our new model. (upbeat music) We only did it because of hybrid technology. This one has 160 kilowatts power leading battery bank and charges in under an hour to fully charge.
- Under an hour? - Yes. You can be anchored for weeks on end without ever starting things like the generator. - [Victoria] Music to our ears we love it.
Oh, that's so cool. - Sounds like your dreams you're waking up from and then it's not reality anymore. (everyone laughing) (water splashing) (seagulls squawking) - So the yacht that we got to see in the Bahamas was Xquisite, X5.
Today we're on board of sort of an upgrade version of that an X5 plus. So, come on board and prepare to be amazed. - [Rico] Start with the sugar scoops which are super low. - We experienced this and this was so cool. We came up with the dinghy, right? It was very comfortable to get on board of.
- [Rico] Very easy. - It felt very safe. I liked that it had the rails on both sides. So when we pulled up with the dingy, it was just super easy. It can tie up to- - [Rico] totally agree. - And come out.
really nice. And it had really beautiful underwater lights. - [Rico] Very true. Very true - Really beautiful. All right. - [Rico] All right. Let's step up here.
So we have the fuel fill right here and the shore power inlet on that side. We have another one on the other side. So you can use either, or which is pretty cool and the engine room hatch, which we gonna get to later. - Yes. So we are in the cockpit before we go any further. - [Rico] Yeah. - We just got like a really cool sneak preview of the- - [Rico] It details- - X5 plus by the owner and founder And I'm gonna be super excited to show you some of the stuff until Rico take stuff away from me and steals it from me.
Like he likes to do. So, check this out. You can basically adjust and have a really cool layout. We have that on both sides. - [Rico] And this is awesome.
This is really cool - Great little nap space. If you got a little shade going. - [Rico] Yeah. - And then, so it's all about storage and really try to maximize the spaces. So, check this out.
Boom. And your compressor. - [Rico] So we get the dive bottles laying right in here, and there is a dive compressor, super easy to fill the bottles or the tanks, or what you wanna call it and also very easy access to grab them out and you're right there, here at the swim platform. I mean, it couldn't be any easier. Right. This is amazing - So cool. All right, then we take this up, put this down. - [Rico] Such a simple mechanism, but really easy to use.
- Definitely foolproof for sure. And then of course we have storage underneath here, and then on this side, same thing. More storage, you know, you can put water toys, inflatables - [Rico] Amazing. Amazing.
- Pretty great. - [Rico] So, then, like I mentioned, we have the main shore power inlet right here on the port side, then the fuel and there's a waste pump out as well. And then we have a freshwater deck wash unit right here, another transom shower right here. But if you don't want to use this retractable one, and you just want to come out and shower. There is a rain shower head mounted right here with the mixing valve right there. - Perfect.
Well- - [Rico] Pretty cool, right? - Before we explore the rest of the cockpit I think we should go forward. - [Rico] Sure? - Yeah. - [Rico] Okie dokie So, we're gonna go forward on the starboard. - [Rico] Sounds good. What do you think of this arch which comes down here? - So well, first of all, it's definitely a signature look because as soon as you see one of these, you know this is the Xquisite catamaran - [Rico] 100 percent.
That's how you, you recognize it by. - [Rico] Yeah. - But I think it's pretty cool. - [Rico] I like it. - Creates little extra shade. And I also think it's a bit stylish and of course it allows you to have some good solar panels up on top.
- [Rico] Well, yeah, all this extended roof here is all covered with solar panels. - [Victoria] Very cool. All right, let's go forward. So we have some hatches here, really wide walkways. - [Rico] And the decks feel very solid.
Oh, I like this feature here. So your side boarding ladder is not a ladder which is somewhere stored away. You know, you get to the dock and you gotta find it and you gotta hook it in and all this kind of stuff. No. It's permanently installed on the boat. You just unlock it here and there and just fold it down and there you go.
- It's pretty brilliant. Okay. Well, let's talk about this. - [Rico] The windows. - Yes, because we didn't, obviously come up with it on our own. We were questioning it when we saw it.
So let's explain this. - [Rico] So they're dual windows, of course they're safety glass windows, which are glued together. They're fairly large and fairly thick actually.
- Yeah. They're very thick. - [Rico] And they're just glued behind. So they don't have any silicone around or any kind of sealing around. They're just floating on top. - So, it wouldn't be that much job for Nikki and Jason from the Wynns to be siliconing out.
- [Rico] Shizziling around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - We thought of you guys when we saw this - [Rico] And with the UV protection these windows have on the outside, I don't know if you guys can actually see that in the camera if it shows or not, but it's similar to like a car. - Yeah. But also because the silicone and everything is behind, it is pretty much constantly protected from the sun. - [Rico] Correct. It's not exposed to the sun like you will have around.
- [Rico] because you have that strip in the glass around, which is tinted and completely blocked. - And of course, stylish wise, it creates this kind of floating look, which is pretty neat. - [Rico] So, walking forward. - We have a handrail here all the way. It's so wide.
- Super safe - [Rico] It is really wide - I would feel very safe on this. - [Rico] And mostly solid foredeck. - Very large foredeck here with smaller trampolines, which are perfect for one person.
You've got your princess chairs here. And then there are a lot of hatches. Who is gonna do that? - [Rico] You. (laughing) - Okay, how about half and half? - [Rico] Okay. So let's, before we- - But don't leave the big ones to me. (laughing)
- Before we talk about the hatches. So, we have two permanent, foresails. The further half one is a jib. Then we have a Genera both on electric furlers and we still have an electric furler for top down sail set up like a code zero or spinnaker. Pretty cool. And that's all standard. That's what we heard, right? Everything, the way it looks here it's a done thing, except for one thing.
- Pretty much everything, except for one option. - [Rico] The one thing which is an extra, which is an option is the carbon fiber in-boom furling system for sail craft. - Which would be the option you would tick off. - [Rico] There would be a no-brainer for me, like definitely have an in-boom furling. - [Victoria] Our anchor is completely flushed deck covered here. So, you can't stub your toe or anything.
This is open. - [Rico] Yeah. - [Victoria] Check it out - [Rico] Oh wow, this is awesome and it's so clean. Look at it all these nuts and bolts. Everything is safety marked. If there's anything becoming loose you would see it immediately.
And it's also a quality control measure. Where, you know, everything gets taut properly and then it just gets marked So, you know, it was taut and it was marked. So you could have a dual anchor set up. If you wanted to. You have an easy access for your bridal super easy, ultra anchor.
- [Victoria] Check it out right here. Here, you could really see it. So, when we saw it. Immediately, we started questioning this. When we looked with the owner that, you know, all these marks, the safety marks and you know, it's not really something you commonly see. - [Rico] In there everywhere.
- So we asked him about it and he basically explained to us that with every single new build that comes out, he steam flies out to South Africa where the boat is built for a month to shake the boat down. This is the one I always screw up. Out. Down. One of those, to basically go through the boat and the team, his team, not just the factory where they're building, but actually the team that's flying in to do this.
They go through every single bolt and they do this- - [Rico] double check, everything. - Double check everything through all the systems for a month to make sure that it's up to their standard. You know, when the boat is delivered to the client. - [Rico] So we have the oversized windlass here with a huge amount of stainless steel chain right there. Then of course the windlass remote control. So, you can drop it from the helm, which we gonna go to in a second.
But you know, when you want to attach your bridal or get the chain up to remove the bridal, you would obviously use the remote and then lift the anchor after that. - All right. Closing this up? - [Rico] Yeah. What are we gonna have next to it? I'm gonna open this already.
Oh, wow. Look at this. I mean, first of all, a massive amount of storage space there, but not just that. Here are your water tanks and as we learned earlier, the water tank are exactly the size. If you ever had to remove them, it would fit right through this hatch. - One of the things the founder told us is that he sailed around the world with his wife for 11 years.
They did charters, all sorts of things and because of it, he wanted to build a boat that had everything that every other boat he had, didn't have. All the issues he had, he wanted to fix. So part of the reason how this got created is him and his wife basically said, we have to build kind of like a perfect boat that we think would be a perfect boat. Obviously it keeps, you know, evolving. Of course it's any good thing.
There's so many features here, which he said, accessibility is the biggest thing. And he said, I wanted to have a super accessible boat. So that was the intent. - [Rico] Yep. So going further in that cabinet, here, there is a spectrum water maker, which is a 24-volt water maker.
Nevertheless. it still produces a little bit more than 40 gallons an hour. So that is pretty impressive. - [Victoria] And it's super easy to get to, to change the filters to service right there. You have all these space. I mean, you could just comfortably sit there and work on it.
So on this side, - [Rico] Close this back up. - [Victoria] Ta da - [Rico] More water tanks. - [Victoria] Unbelievable. - [Rico] Same situation and a huge amount of storage. And I also see at least one of the fresh water pumps there.
- So, normally on some of the production catamarans we've been on board of. that would be your storage, but not here. - [Rico] Wait, there's more.
- This just keeps going. I think we should open the other side, gives you a better idea of the depth. Let's go on this side, cause this one is empty. - [Rico] That is really deep actually. I mean you can use it for line storage, fenders, toy, storage, seats and more. That is a lot of storage.
- And two more Two more just like it matching on the other side. - [Rico] And not to stop there. There is another super deep storage right here.
And the cool thing is on most catamarans what, you know, I would say is definitely an issue like the forward storage compartments, like the bow peaks, right? A lot of times are not even finished properly. And then, you know, going in and out is usually a little difficult. Here has a proper ladder and here's the big kicker. If you ever put anything wet in there, it's not draining. It's gonna stay in there. It's gonna mold. It's gonna smell this one has a drain.
So if you want to put in your wetsuits or whatever it might be and it's dripping and so on, it can drain you leave the hatch open. It ventilates. - [Victoria] I mean, you can literally dump the wetsuits there, rinse them up with a deck wash and then just hang them up on the ladder. - [Rico] Absolutely. - [Victoria] They're gonna be dry. - [Rico] Very cool idea.
That is, you know, one of the advantages too, with a semi custom boat builder, right? That you have these freedoms of, you know, little tweaks and things which can be changed, which you don't have with production boats. - So one of the features I'm gonna show you guys, which is really cool for world cruising. They're completely set up to collect rain water here.
If you have any issues and you wanna collect rain water, or why wouldn't you wanna collect rain water in general? - [Rico] I mean, you know, your water maker stops working. You're on the long crossing. What are you gonna do? You know? - So you've got on both sides, the setup option right here. And then you just hold on, I just learned how to do this, put this up and then you just twist it off.
And here's your rainwater collector. - [Rico] And it goes directly into the water tank. - Really neat.
- [Rico] One thing we forgot to mention- - [Victoria] We did? - [Rico] Are all these solar panels up here on the roof. - [Victoria] (laughing) We did. I mentioned the solar panels all the way back on the arch, but we didn't mention the solar panels up here.
So another cool thing. I can actually stand here. I don't even need to go on top and you can lift them up, lock them into place for the afternoon sun or whatever. Like if you want to get more efficiency out of your panels, that is a really cool thing to do. - [Victoria] And you can clean underneath really easily. - Correct. As we just said, we have the rainwater, you know,
capturing function. You want to keep this area clean because you don't wanna have any mold underneath there or moss or whatever growing. So you can just clean it nicely.
- [Victoria] But look how nicely elevated the panels are to be able to breathe. I mean, there's so much room. It's like this big.
- But there's still flush. Just, you know, it's molded in. It's a great solution - [Victoria] and you guys can see over there. It's all solar panels. - [Rico] Let's go back around and check out the helm - All right, let's go back, and check out the helm.
How cool, like Dave and Shelly that we've met. They have bean bags out here. That's where they hang out and have drinks and stuff. So cool.
(upbeat music) The helm. Okay. I'll go up here as a volunteer. It's very nice. Room for two. we could both be up here actually. - [Rico] Yeah. It's a great helm set up really cool. And it's a lot going on here at this helm.
For starters, you can, enclose the entire helm, as you can see, there's the cross up here, which obviously is out and down right now you have a solid windshield. - [Victoria] Yes. They're unusual. - [Rico] And then one of the really cool things, you can unzip this here and you see these guys, this is a harken track, which is usually used on small dinghy sailboats for the mast.
And you can open this entire canopy up over this way. It just falls right there. I mean, how cool is that? - [Victoria] Yeah. It's like a Bimini.
- [Rico] Convertible Bimini, but easily done. Just a couple of zippers and the track. You just slide it over and done. - You see how he just stole that from me? - [Rico] Aw man, It's so cool. - [Victoria] Okay. At least leave me the cup holders.
- [Rico] All right. Where the cup holders? - Ssh! This boat is built to sail by one person. You really don't need to have two people. If you have two, it's almost like you could be in each other's way. It's really built for one person to very comfortably sail it.
- [Rico] So everything is properly labeled. As you see here, it's like etched into like a stainless steel plate. It's really nicely done. Get all your lines. Everything you need to maneuver everything you need to sail this boat. Single handed, no problem at all. Electric winches.
we have our electric furler remotes right here. Then we have the shift and throttle controls right here. Our Yanmar engine monitors, which are right there. This part is outfitted with Garmin electronics. So we have a pretty large chart plotter. I think it's a 12 inch, if I'm not mistaken, might be even 16, but at least the 12, redundant remote here.
For some reason, touchscreen function has issues, which I've had on other chart products before. You always have a backup. So you can have the buttons and your jog dial and so on. Then we have the fire suppression system remote right there, conventional compass.
Oh, that's cool. I've never seen that on a sailing catamaran actually. So that's the first time. You have your winch safe switch there. Engine parallel for the batteries and generate a parallel if you ever have an issue with one of the batteries, you can start either one of the main engines or the generator. you can parallel the batteries and get things started up.
So that's a cool function to have here. - [Victoria] I mean, look at how the lines, you can just, you've got this side. You've got that. It's all right here.
- [Rico] Yeah. And then properly all the fiberglass gel coat is protected with stainless steel shims here. pretty much, you know, so everything which could be shaving. - [Victoria] Yeah, no shavings happening.
- [Rico] You are protected. Again, here we have the code zero or genoa furler right here. We have a VHF radio mounted right there. And then our start, stop and emergency stop as well for the Yanmar main engines. What have we got here? Bilge pump controls.
Oh, that's part of the sea zone system. You know, the regular light switches here for the helm as well as the navigation lights. - And then we have cup holders and also charging stations right here. So, you can just- - [Rico] oh, wireless charging. Yeah.
- [Victoria] Just put your phone here. Let it charge, also some storage for, you know, maybe bigger water bottles and snacks and chips and stuff that flies away. - [Rico] And the center storage actually looks like you could easily put like an iPad in there or something, you know, like if you want to have a backup iPad or something - Definitely. So the helm is accessible from both sides.
all the lines are nicely tucked away here. it's all put away and covered. - [Rico] One really cool feature, which we have actually here on the chart plotter right now, Xquisite mounts, a camera all the way on top of the mast, which is incredible. Even to just keep an eye on your halyards, on your furlers, anchoring, it's like, you know, you're the person at the helm doing anchoring. You see everything, this is amazing. Docking, what a help, if you're not sure, like, you know, starboard side, since the helm is on the port side, how much space do I have? Well, you see it right there.
Phenomenal. - Okay. So as we come down into the actual- - [Rico] Cockpit? - cockpit here. I wanna point out that our life raft is right here. Very easy release system here. Sure!
So it just drops down and you can throw it into the water. And then we have this convertible table that's high, low. That you could have a nice, cute little table here for extra sitting area or a really cute layout napping spot. There are also, you know, handles everywhere to be able to come up. And everything is very solid.
This is a signature Xquisite table. They do for every boat. It also kind of makes it like a non skit, you know? So nothing's exciting. - [Rico] Oh. That's caulking. - [Victoria] Yep, exactly. - [Rico] That is so cool.
- [Victoria] So it's a world map, pretty cool. This is something we're gonna talk about, I think later, but definitely need to talk about, and then we have this whole sitting area here all the way around. - [Rico] With storage underneath. - With tons of storage.
You can definitely have easily dinner with, well, six for sure. cause we've been on board with six. And it was super, super easy. I think you can do eight people. Just add some extra chairs there.
- [Rico] Oh totally. - We also have, it's standard you guys, which on a lot of boats, it's not. So you have two different options for enclosure. Of course you have your mesh mosquito net slash sunshade or you have a complete enclosure to enclose this area in the colder climate. - [Rico] Very cool. - Okay. Then we also have a drink fridge here.
Electric grill. There's so much solar on board. Right. And it's allowing for a lot more extra things that they can do now electric. you've got a sink here and some, ooh, some nice glassware storage here. - [Rico] That's glass storage.
Or whatever you wanna store there - That's unusual in the cockpit, but yeah, whatever you wanna put here. And then of course we have this huge drain here. It's very large. - [Rico] I like that. It's aluminum actually.
Oh, another cool thing. I'm just seeing there's a high voltage outlet and a low voltage outlet. - [Victoria] You know, we don't really see this on the sailing yachts. - [Rico] No. And how many times, you know, we're looking for an outlet, you run an extension cord from the interior to the exterior. Even if you work on the boat- - and how nicely it's protected and everything. Very cool.
- [Rico] So speaking of aluminum, just that brings me up to the conversation we had earlier with the owner of the company. He mentioned that the Xquisite- - X5 plus. - [Rico] X5 plus.
- I'm good for something. - [Rico] He mentioned that the X5 plus became two tons lighter than the X5. And they increased the sails surface to get even more performance out of the boat.
- Yeah. So they did do some modifications to the- - [Rico] Modifications, yes. - older model, just trying to improve.
All right. Let's check out the interior. So have the sliding door here opens all the way and you open these windows as well. Of course it is really hot again at the boat show. I mean, why would we ever catch a break? It's not hot when we want it to be hot and it's hot when we don't want it to be hot. Welcome to the interior of Xquisite X5 plus. Where do we start, Rico? - [Rico] Start in the galley.
- Yeah. So- - [Rico] Which every galley comes with a model of a 60 foot sailing catamaran. No, I'm just kidding. (everyone laughing) - Unless you buy, 60 foot sailing Xquisite- - [Rico] Speaking about that, hopefully Tamas can explain to us a little bit later. - Let's pin Tamas much down afterwards. He's like super busy with, you know, obviously tons of clients trying to see the boat.
They're holding boat for us, but we'll try to pin him down and ask him some questions about both of these models. So you just hang on and stay till the end. If you want to hear him talk about it. All right. the galley. One of the features of the galley that I love is that it was designed by a woman. It was designed by Tamas' wife, of course, and partner.
So this person who designed it has been on sailing boats for years, did charts on it. So it was really important to her to lay it out. That it makes sense. So let's check it out.
Love this closing mechanisms - [Rico] Yeah. - Nice and quiet. Super cute. - [Rico] Convenient location for the trash. - Big thing and I gotta say the same. I love our charter guests, but you know, when the trash is in the middle of the galley and you're doing stuff it's just annoying, like it should be super easily accessible.
You there just wanna throw something away right here. NBB list. We to think of where the trash is gonna go. Then we also have storage here with your fire suppression here.
I'm noticing right away that all the outlets or whatever they called, world outlets. - [Rico] Yeah. Any plug can fit pretty much. - Any guest comes on board, you can use any plug as long as obviously your voltage is right. And then we move here where we have four burner, two separate induction, cook tops.
They're separate. - [Rico] Yeah. Separate. - You know, that's very interesting. I never thought about this way, but if one goes out, you still have the other one and that's something I've never considered. That's an interesting redundancy. And of course you have a proper ventilation here.
- [Rico] Extraction, yeah. - Very cool. And then we have a microwave oven with convection option and some storage here. - [Rico] Oh, it's sliders. So this is great for your, you know, spice rack, your oils, your sauces. Pretty fabulous. Then we have some drawers here. Check this out.
- [Rico] No way. What? - I mean And it just keeps going. There's a bread maker in there. Look how big this is. - [Rico] That is incredible.
- [Victoria] I don't even understand how that fits in there. - [Rico] it just goes all the way into the deck there. - (laughing) How is it possible? So cool. So you can open this up and also of course you have, you know, separate access to this drawer, more storage. I do like this mechanism. They're very interesting.
So you do need two hands to open, but it allows for such a huge, you know, drawers look how big this is two separate sinks. You've got filtered water here. Nice touch. Also something that I absolutely think is someone who's been on boats way too long. You have to have drainage here. You have to be able to put stuff and not worry about it. To dry stuff.
- [Rico] I mean, yeah. If you look at it, right, this whole level is all a bit sunken in. - Yes, absolutely. And you know, also great is you wash fruits and vegetables. You just put 'em right here.
It's always like, where do you put 'em? So it's pretty nice. Put 'em right here to dry. Then we have dishwasher.
Yes. A must have, for me, it really should be a must have for every boat because it saves water. So you need to make less water for washing dishes, storage and more storage on this side. So pretty great. Okay. - [Rico] Moving over to the starboard side - Moving over to just starboard. Moving over to starboard.
We have storage here. - [Rico] More like spare parts storage, right? - Maybe because every Xquisite going forward comes with. - [Rico] A tool cabinet. I love that. - An actual workshop tool cabinet. - [Rico] Where it's convenient because it's like, Hey, I need to get a screwdriver.
You don't want to climb in the engine room just to get a screwdriver. - But it also comes loaded. It doesn't just come empty.
- [Rico] Amazing, absolutely amazing. - It comes loaded with- - [Rico] Even with power tools. Are you kidding me? - This is part of your package, whatever that is. Oh, that's an extra nespresso capsules (laughing) - [Rico] Which is also very important, almost as important as the tools because you need the coffee first in order to bring out the screw gun.
- So this could be a good little workshop, TV pops out of here. And then we have our refrigerator and freezers, both freezers. - [Rico] Oh, and a big ice maker.
- Lots of ice. You guys, this is a 50 foot camera. This is a 60, does feel pretty large. So, then we keep going forward and we have this nice sitting area here with of course storage. And I like how they did this.
The actual cushion comes up and look, the hard part of the cushion is completely enclosed. - [Rico] That's how it should be. - That's how it should be. And that all comes with experience.
You know, if a sailor builds a boat, it's very different. And someone just comes from a car industry, let's say and builds a boat. Very different. - [Rico] So here you actually see a picture of this exact table folded up and next to it, it's all like, origami'd up and becomes like a dining table. We heard earlier, this is an option. You can also have a high, low table. Right?
And make it like a layout pad to watch TV. Because like Victoria mentioned a second ago- - [Victoria] Yeah. Like movie nights. - [Rico] There's the TV here, which pops up on the left. - And the Xquisite that we got to spend a little evening on after a few drinks, fun story.
The owner and I were racing against each other in putting both sides up. Of course he won, but not by much, - [Rico] not by much. - I was really close. And that was my first time.
So pretty proud of myself. Right. Let's keep going well. And as you guys can see, the founder is pretty humble. So didn't even say anything, but the X5 plus did win the cruising world best boat of the year award for 2022. - [Rico] For best cruising catamaran over 50 feet. - And I know the previous model, the X5, I believe won in 2017 as well, so good for them.
They keep winning it. All right. Big, cool feature. We have this escape hatch slash inspired by Tahitian Villa, you know, water, whatever that's called, feature. Really, really cool. - [Rico] I really like- - I mean, you could just open hatch and, you know, have waters, splashing. It's pretty. - [Rico] I really like that feature actually having the ability to just look straight down.
- So this the nav station, interior nav station, which is also a great home office. And I like how it's set up that you do have proper, you know, leg space there and everything. So you could work here, comfortably work from, you know- - [Rico] for sure. - Work from home or work from, you know, cruising, which a lot of people are now doing. What do we have here first, before I go further? - [Rico] So here is the iPad with a sea zone. Yacht Management System. We have everything on.
You can control your lines. You can check your tank levels, you can check air condition, you can switch everything on this. - So if you're fueling up, this is what I keep talking about. Our NBB list that I want. You can just take this with you while you're fueling up, - [Rico] check your level.
- You don't need to yell at me. "How much more do we need?" - [Rico] What's the percentage. - What's the percentage. So you can just have it with you and see. Okay. - [Rico] Yeah. So then here mounted forward on this panel,
there's another Garmin VHF radio. Then all the controls. For example, for the water maker, the Panda generator, another Garmin multifunction display, our air condition controls, master world energy monitor, a fusion stereo. Then we have USB outlets here and again, like the world cruising outlets for the AC power.
- And then we have two forward portholes that open up for ventilation and also have up above two hatches. So it's pretty great amount of cross breeze. You open up all of that.
I mean, having the forward portholes, I think is a must. That's definitely a big one. cause that's what most of the time when you're at anchor, your winds coming from.
- [Rico] Checking up the guest rooms. - Yes. Let's go. So, we gonna go port first. - [Rico] Yeah. So this boat is a three cabin set up.
- [Victoria] And we're gonna go down here. - [Rico] Even the stairs feel super solid. - Should we go forward first? Let's go forward. Okay. Everything is finished in the same boat.
It's so solid. You guys just heard us coming down. Nothing squeaking. - [Rico] No squeaking.
- Super solid. - [Rico] I mean you feel like you're on a power boat. - Yeah. Like a good quality luxury power boat. For sure.
So here we have, looks like a queen size bed, right? Tons of storage. Let's just open one up. Oh, it's way deeper than I thought it would be. - [Rico] Oh yeah. That's really deep actually.
Pretty great. And then this here looks like something we should, ooh. - [Rico] So yeah, like I said, this boat is offered with the sea zone system and then there are four of these boxes located on this boat. So two on each hull, you know your breakers right here underneath. And if for some reason the system's down and you can't operate anymore.
You have another slot above the breaker. You can just put the fuse in there and force it to be on whatever it is, the light, the fan, you know, whatever is controlled. Cables are labeled on both ends. Everything is labeled there. So it's fairly easy to troubleshoot. If you have an issue. - If your management system is working, like it tells you what the issue is. Right?
And you can just come and replace the fuse. - [Rico] Yeah. The fuse. For example, that tells you already, it's like, yeah, you know this and this box and it's position number 12 or something.
- So you don't need to be an electrician or any of that. you just literally just look and I mean, that's pretty cool. - [Rico] Exactly. I could do it. I could just come in and change a fuse. - [Rico] Yep. Absolutely.
- Nuts. Okay. We have big drawers, wow. Good size drawers here. And then let's switch places. We have some outward storage here as well.
I mean, of course, as cruising for a long time, they know what's important. Storage is really important. The word, storage, came out quite a bit out of his mouth. So I feel pretty good about myself.
As some of you guys think that I'm a storage obsess- - [Rico] It's also cool. Like I'm just filming and I'll pass you a little bit. Yeah. Like all the way back. There's so many windows on this entire hall. It's amazing how much natural light is coming in, here. - Yeah. and you have a pretty large hatch
up above you as well. This is something that I thought it was super cool. When I saw the first Xquisite, when I was on, I'm gonna call it convertible shower door. So obviously, you know, you have all this space in room. You come in, you have your head, tons of storage here.
You know, some medicine cabinets, everything is great sized. - [Rico] Oh, look at this. There's a window there. - It's so cute. Little fish vent window as they call it. And then you wanna go into your shower.
And when you close this door up, you can see all this space that you have for getting ready. So when you come out of the shower, you know, of course you can close the shower door, have a proper shower, make it all wet in here. But when you come out, this door just opens right here and you have all this, you know, drying off space, which sometimes you're missing. You can rinse everything off. I mean, how nice is this?
- [Rico] It's awesome. - Great. One person size shower. And this pole looks very solid.
Like you can hang onto. - [Rico] Really like this for, you know, when you have not a massive amount of space to actually use this is awesome. And using the glass keeps it all open. - All open. You have a lot of light in the shower, you know. - and the cabin feels a lot bigger.
- Pretty great. All right. Come on Aft - [Rico] Going Aft.. - Coming into here, very similar setup, same shower, same size. So we don't need to go send me in there, but all the same storage here, you guys can see I'm outta room. Love, love that they put the towel rack all the way up, which I just don't understand. Why would anybody always put it here? Because the towel is always way too low.
So this way towel has space to air out. And then we going all the way Aft here. Oh, there's another one. Look at this. - [Rico] Yep. That's what I mentioned.
It's in the four corners of the boat. You have the same sub distribution of the sea zone system. - Very cool. And then of course our deep storage all around and here as well.
- [Rico] But this one seems a lot taller. The center storage. - Yeah. This looks, well. There's a fire extinguisher in, here.
- [Rico] Oh, it's a hanging locker. - [Victoria] Oh. Yeah. It is. Wow. Pretty great. - [Rico] Yeah. - They've squeezed every like amount of space and storage, you know, out of the space they could. Again, it's a 50 foot catamaran.
Look at the windows here. - [Rico] Yeah. That's what I was just about to say, like you get the Xquisite signature windows on the- - I mean you don't have a full walk around bed, but the advantages that your bed is low. So you have normal, pretty much bed height and you have tons of room.
I'm 5'7" and- - [Rico] yeah, the head room is massive. - I'm wearing hat. So probably 5'9" here, something like that. All right.
So you got the master? - [Rico] Yeah. - Okay. Let's do it. Oh, wait, wait, wait, - [Rico] Wait, wait. - I wanted to show you this first. So obviously tons of storage here and another reason why is they wanted to have access to be able to, you know, check on- - Super, super easy. And then what I really like David and Shell's boat is all of these extra storage.
I mean, they had like canned goods and you know, just the long term shelf stuff that you definitely don't want in your galley, if you don't have to. Pretty cool. - [Rico] Yeah.
(light upbeat music) - Coming into the master. Really nice size, very bright. You have again, a proper desk.
You can sit here and work. Tons of storage, some open shelving as well. This is a semi custom shipyard. So of course you can change this up and make it the way you like.
Ice maker fresh water supply. Must be behind there. - [Rico] That's behind the panel. Yeah. - And it's labeled. - [Rico] It's labeled. - The labeling is out of control on this boat.
I've asked who is the poor person that had to label all of this. So check this out. Of course you have all the storage again. Not gonna open it up. We have drawers here again. With all the labels.
And then when you're here and you wanna watch TV, check this out. How cool is that? - [Rico] Yeah, that's pretty cool. - Yeah. And it just store away. - Got a little settee here.
- Yes. You have your settee. I'm sure there's storage underneath. Yes. - [Rico] Yeah. I'm pretty sure there is (laughing) - Yes. - [Rico] We got a hatch above the bed and then we have another hatch right, here. - [Victoria] Exactly.
- [Rico] Lots of options for cross breeze. - Privacy. - [Rico] Sliding door.
- Sliding door to give you more space. And this is almost like a walk-in closet. I mean just the way it feels, right? Yeah. So you have kind of like his and hers. - [Rico] Oh, it's deep in there too. It's not just the size of the door. - Yes. Check this one out.
- [Rico] It actually goes further in there. - Yeah. This is a really good size for sure. And of course, some extra shelving, storage drawers on both sides.
We coming into the master head. - [Rico] Oh. Which is beautiful. Oh, I love that sink. - Remember that sink? - [Rico] Oh, I love. Oh, this is like-
- Yeah. Pretty neat - [Rico] very cool. And of course you have your medicine cabinets here, head storage underneath even little bench here on the side. - [Rico] Beautiful. And then of course your proper shower.
I think it's a good size. One person shower, lots of room stuff to put your toiletries here. - [Rico] What's that? - This is. - [Rico] Ooh - A washer and dryer a combo slash laundry room. Cause you actually have space here to put all your stuff. And what I found very unique when we did this little walkthrough with the founder is that it's actually vented.
So they did put the extra work- - [Rico] It's actually, it's actually drying. - It's actually drying. Yeah. Because you know, you guys know how I feel about the combo units. It's because I feel like they never dry anything.
And when you are, you know, washing in a wet climate you wanna be able to dry stuff. - [Rico] Sure. - Especially towels, beach towels. So that's really cool. All right. Engine room? Okay. Let's do it. You keep rushing me, you guys.
We have a next tour really, really soon. (light upbeat music) All right. Let's check out the engine room. We're gonna take the one on the starboard.
- [Rico] Sure. - It's nice and hot for you. Go for it. It's a good hatch - The boat is convenient here. - [Victoria] Wow - This Step. - [Victoria] Very large. - [Rico] Yeah.
Someone thought about this when they built it - [Victoria] Did they? - And you know what? Look, you can even flip it up on its battery. (laughing) - [Victoria] Very cool. All right, here, you do that. - [Rico] All right.
So we are in the starboard engine room right now, They have a massive water boiler right here in the aft part of it. The hydraulic steering with easy access as well. Everything is run super clean. I mean, look at this. It's almost an art form I wanna say. We have the sea strainer here for the Yanmar engine.
Our coolant expansion tank right there, diesel filter, massive master bolt alternator, which both engines were changed to, to the big alternators. Fire suppression system right here, proper storage. And the emergency tiller is mounted right here.
So also easy access for that. Just a really clean engine room. I really do like it. So the main engine is an 80 horsepower Yanmar with a sail drive configuration. And of course we have our wet exhaust, which goes through a muffler system and then overboard. On the port side, we also have a Panda generator, I wanna say at the same spot, like the water heaters is here.
And that's the engine room. (light upbeat music) - All right. This completes our tour of this X5 plus, but I do wanna talk about this elephant in the room that we've been ignoring. This is the 60. And it has some really interesting stuff we have to talk about, but I feel like we might as well bring in the man himself to have this conversation.
So Tamas, who is the founder and CEO of Xquisite yachts, come on in. (everyone laughing) - Hey guys, how are you? - We wanted you to tell them kind of what you told us. Cause you're so great at explaining it. So, tell us about this new project that you're working on. Actually two new projects, but we start here. - [Rico] Two new projects. Yeah.
- Okay. So it starts a little bit with the X5 plus. So over the years, we always listen to our customers feedback. So what we do, we order as a rendezvous every year and then we take our notebooks out.
And what would you change? What would you add to your boat now that you own it for years and you sail it for years? I also go to the Trade Show every year to hunt for new technologies and what's available in the future and the least every year, what we can, we adapt it to the X5 to make it a better boat, year by year. Some stuff we had to change the molds to improve it. That became the X5 plus. Some items from the list. We just can't fit on a 50 foot boat. - Or people just had like the two foot Titus was one of the first things, I would like to have five more feet.
(everyone laughing) - Mainly, it's like, I want walk around king size beds. - Well. Yeah, Great. - You know. So you can't figure how to put-
- you can't do that - unless you go with very wide hulls and then you sacrifice performance. - Correct. - So that was kind of the main design brief for me to build Dixon yacht design, you know, multi work billionaire, Naval architect from the UK. And that's how we started to work on this.
It had to have the DNA with, you know, the tarn and all the solar panels because we call it the 60 solar sail. - Oh, okay. - And why we call it solar sail? Because it comes with six kilowatts solar panels with today's technologies. Cause that could be obviously evolved in the future. And the six kilowatt solar panels are very advanced, leads to varied technology allows for obviously want all your power loads without having to run generators, anything like that. But also we offering, this is a very advanced hybrid propulsion system.
- No way. - We work together close with e-motion hybrids from Italy. - Okay. - They, by the way, just won, I got the news today.
They just won the Miami virtual innovation award. - It's extra check mark for you. That's awesome. - Yeah. So they developed a very advanced hybrid system. They actually using the same battery cells as Tesla uses on some of their models. - Got it.
- Imagine that you have an 80 kilowatt power battery bank and you can charge it in 30 minutes. - That already exists? - Yeah. - Wow. - [Rico] That's amazing
- That's going into our new models. both this one and the power boat. - So by the time you're there, like the technology just keeps going. - oh yeah. It makes kind of this more, a little bit, future proof. We do use parallel hybrid system, which is different from the serial.
You have a big diesel engine with an electric motor onto the same drive train. So you can have the advantage. best of both worlds. You can go electric only, or you can go diesel, you can run one diesel a time and run electric the other side. So it opens up for lots of different options, reducing engine hours, as well as reducing fuel consumption and maintenance. Of course. So it's a pretty neat system.
Other things features of this boat besides obviously the electrical system and the hybrid propulsion system. I really hated that people have no time in their boats and they look like Christmas trees when they put all the paddle boards and dive tanks and all that on board. - That's missing in that market for sure. - [Rico] Especially on catamarans, - Yeah. For toys it's missing. - So on this boat, we built it in. It's designed.
- So, yeah, where is it? - Here, if you look at it in the back here. Okay. That long bench here, you can see this way or that way, but it opens up and houses three full size paddle boards. - [Victoria] Sweet. - [Tamas] And this is the outdoor kitchen with actual grills. Of course, Underneath, there's a scuba compressor.
Now here that flips up a little storage and six tanks standing there. - [Victoria] Nice. - [Rico] Oh, wow. - [Tamas] So you fill them in their storage, you go off diving right here.
- [Victoria] Right there. So you need to bring them up either in any further end that you wanted to. - [Tamas] Exactly. And it's hidden, it's organized. It's stored well. - [Rico] that's amazing - [Victoria] Really cool.
- And now for dinghy, what we do, this is a carbon fiber crane to lift your dinghy. But if somebody wants the platform, he can do this hydraulic- - [Victoria] Hydraulic platform. And the other elephant in the room is that you're starting to build power catamarans? - Yes. This is a new thing, you know, and actually who number one, be building it for ourselves. - Let's go look at it. (laughing) I mean, I'm sure you guys seen it when we did this tour and we just kind of chose to ignore it.
- [Rico] Because one thing just quickly, you know, people were thinking, oh, power catamarans and sailing cameraman. And I like sailing. I was like, if you want a schedule, you know, and you have only a limited amount of time, you're not super flexible when it comes to weather. I think the power catamaran is a great solution. - For us going from sailing to power boats. We only did it because of hybrid technology because new battery technology is the hybrid technology, because you can still go electric, you can go fully silent mode.
These is even more advanced in a way is also than with the e-motion hybrids from Italy. Besides the main big 440 horse power Yanmars and 100 kilowatt electric motors also has 180 kilowatt diesel generator. So this gives you redundancy of systems. You can go electric, you can go one diesel at a time. If all your diesels fail, you can still have the generator and you can still go on electric. If everything fails, you know, we still have nine kilowatt of solar panels on the boat and you can limp in the low speed.
So it's like five to six different ways how you can use the system. This one has 160 kilowatt power leading battery bank and charges in under an hour to fully charged. - Under an hour? - [Rico] Yes. So both boats will be fully converted power, right? - Yes.
- [Rico] For the house, for all the one 10, all the high voltage is all gonna be inverted, right? - Yes. This comes with 100 kilowatt in it. It's part of the system. So, it's so giant, you can run everything nonstop, all the air conditioners. You cannot... just the solar panels. And I can go with solar panels is sufficient, supply all the house requirements.
So you can be an anchor for weeks on end without ever starting to use the generator. And if you need to, you know, under one hour. - Music to our ears, we'll love it. Oh, that's so cool. So that's kind of makes sense. Coming from sailing to power.
- Well, he has a whole theory. He thinks with the way this technology is going, that sailing as a necessity will disappear. It will turn into any kind of- - [Rico] Electric. - you know, electric power that you can have. And then sailing as a passion will stay. So if someone is really for the passion of sailing and the tradition of it, but as a necessity, which most of the time, why people buying, you know, sailing boats right now is just because. It's easier.
- [Rico] Well, all financial reasons, you know, - Yeah that's what I'm saying, as a necessity. you wanna cruise the world and you don't want to have a massive fuel bill. - Yeah. - History repeats itself. - Yeah.
- The steam ships kill the sailing cargo. - It might be really on the right thought there. But yeah, this is so fascinating.
- Sailing will always be cool though. - Of course it will always be there. And it'll always be there. - [Rico] You know, that's what I always said. I enjoy sailing, but I enjoy sailing.
Like I can sail without a destination, to the point of sail, I wanna sail and have fun for a couple of hours or maybe for an afternoon or all day. - Or like a long passages that you could really have the right wind. - [Rico] If you have them. Yeah. Most of the time you don't. - It's another note on that. For example, I mean,
my wife and I sailed around the world for 11 years, 90 countries around the world, sailing all that. You're kind of ready for a power. But when you say that the wind is always from the wrong direction or it's not enough for whatever. With the hybrid system, you have a sail assist mode. So you're sailing and that say not enough wind, or you want it closer to the wind. You're just a little bit,
power it up with the electric motors. And it's a sail assist mode. And you either go closer to. The wind or past the wind. - Like the best of both worlds. Which is awesome. - Exactly. - [Rico] Create your own wind. So to speak a little bit.
And help out. - Exactly. - [Rico] Yeah. So that's motor sailing. - That's without the diesel, - [Rico] without the diesel. Still silent and with no smells.
- Exactly. - It's so brilliant. We're so excited for you. Are we allowed to talk about this whole Bahamas, where we're planning to visit you, place? You told us about. - Okay, look. (laughing) - He's like. (humming) - It's a new project and it's a big deal for us.
Cause Xquisite is really well known besides the quality is our after sales service pretty much unmatched in the industry. - That's how we've learned about it. You guys, as I told you, the couple we met, they were like obsessed with their service department and just how they pick up the phone. And that has nothing to do with any kind of salesperson telling us this, this were real customers. And that's part of the reason why we're like we have to tour this boat is because they were just such believers in your guys' customer service.
Like it's amazing. - [Rico] Yeah. Firsthand knowledge. - Yeah. Firsthand knowledge. Exactly. - I'm glad to hear that. - And they didn't have to do that. You know?
I mean, they're just your customers. They're not selling any boats. So they were honestly very impressed. - I'm really glad to hear that. - So what are you doing with this thing in a Bahamas? - We want take our after sales to the next level. So we want to have our own marina, a Xquisite marina and exquisite boatyard where people can come in with their boat.
We can haul out. We can do repairs of an a la cate menu. We can, (everyone laughing) I mean, we got store boats there for like hurricane season. You know, we have docks there that we could keep their boats, that we can dry dock the boats to keep them there for the owners. And meanwhile, we do the repairs.
We can put them off in a nice hotel in the same Xquisite resort and we have a restaurant there also. - It sounds like your dreams you're waking up from, and then it's not reality anymore. (laughing) - I just think this boating industry lacks of this, - I agree - The services with the boat. People just-
- I agree, - They just build the boat, sell the boat. And the owners are on their own. We try to be doing everything in house. We have our own grocery shop- - [Victoria] Do you wanna get them for life? They're like, you start with the 50, move up to the 60. And then eventually when you're ready for this, that's where you get to- - But okay. Look like my business, right? I have a dealership where I deal for break tenders, Yamaha outboards and Achilles and a couple of other- - We need to talk, by the way.
- [Victoria] Epropulsion electric. Which is- - Epropulsion, electric motors. We actually the largest dealer in the world.
- Okay. - But on the big boat side, we do yacht maintenance, yacht management. But that being said, like with the yacht maintenance yacht management, we have a lot of clients which have either new boats or newer boats and a lot of times still have the warranty. And this is like the most frustrating things for clients is to deal with a warranty or not being taken care of. It's just so frustrating for them because let's say spend $2 million for a brand new boat. And they think like, oh perfect.
Now it's great. Nothing's gonna happen. Everything is gonna be amazing. And it's not. - We create a system for this. - Yeah. - So every new boat that you launch a new boat doesn't reach manufacturers there are, so called, new boats nags.
Yeah. It's not a secret. It's how works. Cause it's very low volume production and handmade products. What we try to do is a multilayer of how to make the ownership easier for our owners, the first level is than a boat is launched in Cape Town.
We go there with our own team. We did a thousand item checklist. We go through the boat, quality control, everything. - [Victoria] That's what we saw when we did all the bolts and everything - that yeah- - [Victoria] Like all the marks.
- the marks from the talking. - [Victoria] Which I've not seen on many boats. - Yeah. I haven't seen that before. Actually
- Or the builder in the Cape Town is Phoenix Marine and they only build the boats exclusive for Xquisite that we have very good relationship to work on this kind of quality control. - Yeah. - It takes a month. So we launch the boat,
we keep the boat there for a month. - That's commitment. - Sea trial extensively, then anchor the boat, read, and then go through everything. We run all the appliances, check everything over and over again. So we have the nags, but we try to find those and figure those out before we deliver to the customer. - Yeah.
- Now the next step after that, when we deliver the boat to the customer, our training captain is there. Our crew is there. We recommission the boat. We clean it up for the owners when they come on board, it's nice and a good first impression.
And our training captain stays for two weeks on board with them to help to learn the boat. cause it's not just how to sail the boat, but all the systems, the proper maintenance of the systems and all that. We can always extend these training as well, longer if they wish to. But we include the first two weeks. - And that's another thing. If you have a new boat owner or like someone who's new to boating in general, but has the financial capabilities to purchase a boat like this. It's all new.
Like they, they haven't dealt with low voltage and high voltage and this and this, they know their apartment. So a lot of times the frustration is I think, in the new ownership, like you said, they don't know the system. So having actually someone showing them the systems probably takes most of the frustration, you know, operator error situations already out of the picture. - So is The Bahamas gonna be a training camp as well for US? - It's will be a multipurpose facility. Okay. So obviously the Xquisite service will be there, Xquisite marina will be there. Xquisite hotel, condo will be there, restaurant as well, but that's just on the, the bar for ourselves.
(everyone laughing) And then we planning our own charter operations. - Yeah. - The Xquisite charter fleet. So it's a lot of things we want to house there, but all focused to our own customers and be an exclusive place where we can all hang out and do our parties. - [Victoria] Great. Excuse to relocate to the Bahamas. - Yeah. I mean, it's like, we are obsessed with The Bahamas.
So like you definitely right. - [Victoria] Preaching to the, to the right choir here. Alrighty you guys, thank you so much for chatting with us. That was awesome. There's no way we could have explained it and in that much detail.
I hope you guys found it interesting. And if you have more question about Xquisite, definitely do put them in the Comments below, maybe somebody on your team can check out and help us with some of the techy comments. - Sure. - I know we have a lot of tech geeks there and also let us know what you thought in the Comments, Like, Subscribe, make sure you click the Notification Bell.
- [Ric
2022-06-09