Great Lakes Boating

April 2017

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I It may be cliché to say it, but the Aquila 48 Power Catamaran is a boat that's defined by its "wow" factor. When it first launched, Power and Motoryacht magazine lauded it as one of the top 90 boat designs ever produced. With that kind of reputation preceding it, you'd hope it would live up to the hype. Trust me, it does all that and more. We spoke with Raul Bermudez, the vice president of the charter division for MarineMax Vacations, and we couldn't have been more impressed with what he had to tell us about the Aquila 48. The Aquila brand got started when Bill McGill, MarineMax's CEO, wanted to expand into the chartering space. Bermudez headed up the venture starting in 2011 and with the addition of Lex Raas, the experienced visionary behind the catamaran build and design, by February 2012, Aquila was born. This newly formed team partnered with J&J Design Group (along with Seaway, its development house) and with that much creative firepower at the ready, they came up with the boat you see before you today, the Aquila 48. The boat was designed from the get-go to be a power boat, which makes it quite different from a lot of other power catamarans—or "cats," as Bermudez called them—because a lot of them are sailboats that were converted to be power boats. He says, "When people convert sailboats to power boats they have to compromise a lot. On sailboats, the hulls have to be very narrow so you can try to sail. The way this boat is designed, the buoyancy and the size of the hulls are more spacious and rounder, so it can carry more weight and it doesn't affect the performance as much." Catamarans have a twin hull design, almost like a pontoon, so the boat has a wide platform to sit on, lending it great stability and space which really is the highlight of power catamarans. Solid Footing Also lending to the boat's strength, stability, and durability is its vinyl ester resin construction. From a quality of life perspective, a big advantage the 48 has over other boats is that everything mechanical is located on the exterior of the boat. That means no lifting up a bunk to check the oil or the status of the generator. You can even walk literal circles around the engine, which aids greatly in servicing it and accessing any trouble you may have with it. "You have less noise and fewer fumes inside the boat, and it's very easy to maintain," adds Bermudez. One of the most impressive things about the 48 is how much room it has. There are four staterooms onboard, each with it own private head. How does it accommodate so much space? By having a beam of 23 feet, 6 inches. That is Other 15 GLB | A p r i l 2 0 17 greatlakesboating.com

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