Exclusive: ACY 72 — By Jeffrey Moser — October 2005

Bauhaus & Ballyhoo

Ready for the World

More of this Feature • Part 1: ACY 72 • Part 2: ACY 72 • Ready for the World • ACY 72 Specs • ACY 72 Deck Plan • ACY 72 Acceleration Curve • ACY 72 Photo Gallery
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Elsewhere on the Web • American Custom Yachts

Carlos and Rosa De la Cruz enjoy fishing and cruising off South Florida and the nearby Keys and Bahamas. But with Yellowbird that’s just a warm-up gig. After a shakedown cruise earlier this year to Turks and Caicos, they’re planning an extensive, nine-month trip that’ll take them to the pelagic-rich waters off Venezuela and into the Pacific off Costa Rica. “The boat has long legs,” Carlos said, “She’s designed to cruise long distances and then go fishing.”

That should be no problem for a solid boat like Yellowbird, with an electronics package like the one designed and installed by IMS American ( (800) 960-8476, www.imsamerican.com. It begins with a pod-style helm that looks like a NASA command center. A Furuno Black Box radar, Northstar 6000i chartplotter, and Simrad color sounder are displayed on 19-inch Seabrook LCD monitors—whose high-def displays are some of the brightest I’ve seen—and controlled with Nobeltec software. “I wanted her to be a self-con­tained unit and make these cruises in greater safety,” explains Carlos. “And I didn’t want to be slowed down by supply boats.”

Some of the other equipment includes a Furuno FR1932MKII SC-60 satellite compass and RD-30 depthsounder; Icom M602 and M502 VHFs; Simrad AP22 and AP25 autopilots; and night-vision-enabled navigation. —J.M.

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