VIDEO: Monte Carlo Yachts 86 Test by BoatTest.com

Join us on a sea trial of the 2014 86′ Monte Carlo motoryacht:

The following opinions are solely those of BoatTest.com and its test captain.

Hi, Capt. Steve for BoatTest.com, and today I am on Monte Carlo Yachts beautiful new 86. And this is clearly made to be an owner-operator’s boat, so I’m going to approach it as the owner-operator and how would I get the systems activated and get her underway.

Aside from the usual navigation touch screens, I like how Monte Carlo makes a custom design touch screen for all of the ship’s systems. So for the startup I pulled the generator page, touch start, confirm and each one starts up individually. Then I direct power to the ignitions, activate them and hit start. Then just repeat for the starboard engine.

The lower helm features a fully functional glass cockpit. The controls for the displays are right in between the two seats, and notice both of these seats have flipped on bolsters and footrests. The dash itself, soft touch, non-glare. Visibility is outstanding with a large single piece center windshield, two smaller windscreens to the side and look at this, always happy to see an opening side window to give you natural ventilation.

Now let’s take a look at the upper helm. The helm panel itself is gleaming white and that’s going to present a little bit of a glare problem. However, most of that’s going to get knocked down by the way that this hardtop extents so far forward. The console itself is protected from the elements and in the raised position, you can see that we have a full array of electronics that are also available to us from the more protected lower helm.

Now let’s take her out to see what she can do. With full fuel and water onboard, the test weight was 159,602 lbs. Powered by twin MAN V12 1800 diesel engines, driving through V drives and turning 48 x 40 4-bladed props, she had a top speed of 28.1 knots. Remember, she was fully laden.

Most captains will probably choose to run her 80% of wide open throttle, which is 2250 RPM, where she’ll go 24.8 knots and burn 136 gallons per hour. Some captains might choose 1750 RPM, where she goes 19.1 knots and burns 88 gallons per hour for a 366 nautical mile range.

On motoryachts of this size, we always like to point out that at displacement speeds, they’re very fuel efficient; and the MCY 86 is no exception. Going 9.7 knots at 600 RPM, she burns just 12 gallons per hour for a range of 1373 nautical miles – all with a 10% fuel reserve.

Now it’s from this elevated helm position that I chose to test the close-quarters handling capabilities of the 86, and they were in a word “exemplary.” Because the engines are idling at 600 RPM, it does not take much to get the boat moving. Because she’s a massive boat, she’ll maintain that momentum when you take her out of gear. Then by simply putting alternate engines in gear with quick in and out pulses just for a second, she can easily be steered.

Once established, I back down with a pulse or two on the starboard engine to move her bow to starboard and align her with the dock. And then I used the bow and stern thrusters to gently lay her against the key. It took very little skill and my opinion, any captain or owner would be happy handling this boat.

Let’s look at another example. We needed to med more, so we used the bow thruster to swing her 90 degrees, line the stern up and then slowly backed up with short pulses of reverse gear to get her into position. Then it was just a matter of letting the crew handle the lines. Now I did this all from the flying bridge, but there’s an alternative. As a professional captain I always appreciate having a second set of controls in the aft cockpit for backing into the slip or coming into a med more.

So clearly we have a luxurious yacht that any owner can operate, and that concludes our sea trial of the Monte Carlo Yachts 86. For BoatTest.com, I’m Capt. Steve. We’ll see you on the water.