Re: Moonen 100' Expedition Review

I just wrote this in a private message, but it's worth repeating...

Judy put forward a Herculean effort to make this review happen. A flight across the Atlantic and back inside of 4 days, missing out on Thanksgiving with her family, then spending the Christmas holidays writing one of the most in-depth reviews we've published. So many people take these reviews for granted, not realizing the enormous amount of research and work that goes into fact checking, composing, writing, etc. Most of our reviews take 60-75 hours to write, which doesn't include image processing, color correcting, labeling, uploading, editing, front page lead-ins or the dozens of emails between yards, agencies, photographers, etc.

As a bunch of "me too" yachting websites popped up over the past few years and yards began sending out images to anyone that would publish them, I began to back-off on reviews. I'm surprised these yards would allow kids with absolutely NO knowledge of yacht engineering, maintenance or ownership to have access to images and information that took hundreds of craftsmen upwards of 400,000 man hours to complete. Many of today's yachts are technical triumphs and I believe that work is diluted when a website puts up pretty pictures with a few fluffy words.

It's nice when folks from YF appreciate our work. We appreciate that you read our ramblings.

Carl

WOW!

Kudos to the quality of the review. The photos are dreamy!

That is one perfect yacht, the biggest 100' I have ever seen. I love the thought put into every corner. It has beautiful lines, every backup you can imagine, and what a dream it would be to wander around in that thing.

I have a couple comments.

First, note there is a typo on Page 3, it notes 220 gallons of water on board not the 2200 she carries. I was confused on that until I revisited the specs.

Second, why would they choose external stabilizers as opposed to something like seakeepers? Are there issues with seakeepers? I would think you could reduce drag, increase efficiency, remove two big holes from the bottom, and not have to big steel plates trolling for sea trash.

Third, she mentioned Italian electrical without the spaghetti. I understand the spaghetti, I have only been on a few Italian builds years back but they looked like the pasta factory blew up. That said, I thought this boat was built in Netherlands? Was it finished in Italy?

Fourth, how much is a setup like this? I would have to think about $12-15M.

Thank you again for these thorough reviews. I have never seen better!

I reread it, Italy is where the boat is, not the wiring done. Whew!!!

Carl....as I was thanking Judy privately, I also tried to find a way to put into words what that review accomplished that most don't. Here it is I think. If I was looking for a similar yacht, I believe from that review I would know if that was the one for me. It was that thorough that by the time I finished reading it, I knew that boat inside and out. It was the difference between reading a book and just reading a synopsis that many reviews are. Now it was a very unique yacht built for a special purpose and it hit that purpose as perfectly as one could. I also had confirmed the things I felt before about Moonen and their capabilities.

This was what all reviews should aspire to be. It was detailed where most are just overviews.

I, too, would like to say that I appreciate all the work that went into another great YF yacht review. (A YF yacht review brought me to YF many years ago.) I liked the thoroughness, and got a real kick out of the word play throughout. And thank you, Nilo, for allowing YF to share your spectacular yacht with us.

A detailed review about a yacht that obviously had a lot of detailed thought put in to its creation, what's not to like? Just one thing -- the review had an ending.

Bingo at $12M!!

I second all the comments about the review being fantastic!

Thank You Judy and YF for all that you do and put forth making this a special place and for always keeping things safe here.
I enjoy the articles and reviews and find them very thorough and well written and Thank you so much for the great pictures which you can actually see things clearly and great shot choices.
Have a great and banner year
Jim

This a great review of an amazing boat. I am amazed of all the functionality and ease of controls, not to mention the stylish look and all the attention that went into design of it. What impressed me the most, for it be such a smaller yacht, it has an enormous amount of headroom at 7' -- how awesome is that!
Great job Judy, thanks Carl for providing the review, and for all who enjoy sailing as I do, I know this will be a treat to enjoy.

Gyro based stabilizers are not as effective as the ones installed for crossing, especially in high seas. Yes, yr figures are rights...

İt was a pleasure, we have a saying in Turkish, when you share, sadness goes away and happiness multiplies...

Just got word that Judy Waldman was awarded a 2nd place finish from BWI (Boating Writers International) for her review of the Moonen 100' Explorer.

Over 32o articles were submitted to BWI for this year. Needless to say, she had some competition!

http://www.yachtforums.com/review/moonen-yachts-100-explorer.24188/

Congrats Judy!

Congrats

Kudos Judy!

Congratulations to you Judy.

I am just getting caught up on my reading and was so happy to see your proud smiling face holding your well deserved award for fine writing! I am looking forward to more of your wonderful work! What I want to know is how did you get that cool YF logo on your shirt?