Minted Yachts

The Minted Yachts Blog

Model deep-dives, honest reviews, and buyer guidance — written for the owner you're about to become.

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241 articles

A catamaran under sail off a low barrier island under towering clouds

Photo by Will Forrester on Unsplash

September 4, 2026

The Southeast Coast Has Two Falls. Plan for the Second.

The Atlantic's most dangerous six weeks and the Southeast's best cruising weather sit about a month apart. Hurricane activity peaks on September 10, with most of the season's action falling between mid-August and mid-October, and the frontal weather that makes this coast a pleasure to run arrives behind it. Plan the fall around that handoff and the rest of the trip mostly plans itself.

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Center-console boats moored along a dock under a pink and orange dusk sky

Photo by Scott Greer on Unsplash

September 3, 2026

What 26 Inches of Draft Buys You on the Gulf Coast

Draft picks your boat on Florida's Gulf side, and it picks it before length, brand or layout get a vote. The federal waterway behind the barrier islands is held to nine feet. The beaches worth crossing the state for sit in a fraction of that. The structure you fish sits in ten to forty-five. Those three numbers settle more than any brochure will.

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aerial view of city buildings near body of water during daytime

Photo by Emanuel Haas on Unsplash

September 2, 2026

Sign Up for the Water: A Mediterranean Week Aboard

The best swim of a Mediterranean week happens before nine in the morning, and almost everything that makes the rest of it possible gets sorted weeks earlier. The dive sites inside the national parks want you registered. Fishing off the transom wants a permit, and in Italian water it now wants an app as well. The markets that feed the boat shut at lunchtime. None of it is hard. It just has to happen before you cast off.

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Scout 435 LXF Li-Ion

Center Console & SportfishScout40–60 ftAugust 21, 2026

Scout 435 LXF Li-Ion - The 425's Twin, With the Generator Deleted

The Scout 435 LXF Li-Ion is a 43'4" carbon-epoxy center console with no generator aboard - a Fathom 48V e-Power lithium-ion system carries the house load, charged by the Mercury engines as well as from shore power. Triple Mercury 600 V12s top 70.2 mph, reach 30 mph in 6.97 seconds and hold 0.73 mpg across a six-mph cruise band, with Scout estimating 441 miles from 605 gallons.

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Pursuit S388

Center Console & SportfishPursuit40–60 ftAugust 21, 2026

The Pursuit S 388 and the Case for a Galley Below the Waterline

The Pursuit S 388 is a 41-foot 1-inch sport center console on standard triple Yamaha 450 XTOs — 1,350 hp, 59.0 mph top, 29.7 mph best cruise at 0.80 mpg for 352 miles from 500 gallons — with a below-deck galley carrying two drawer-style refrigerator/freezers and standard 6,000 BTU air conditioning.

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Scout 530 LXF

Center Console & SportfishScout40–60 ftAugust 21, 2026

Scout 530 LXF - Two Cabins, Eighteen Degrees, and Four Engines or Five

Scout's 530 LXF is a 53'5" carbon-epoxy center console with two cabins, a queen master stateroom, separately enclosed head and shower rooms and 32,000 BTU of air conditioning off a 15 kW generator. Quad Mercury 600 V12s top 70.1 mph and reach 30 mph in 7.8 seconds; quint Yamaha 425 XTOs top 66.2 mph. Both carry the same published 446-mile estimated range from 875 gallons.

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Scout 425 LXF

Center Console & SportfishScout40–60 ftAugust 21, 2026

Scout 425 LXF - Triple 600s Win the Top End, Quad 400s Win the Launch

Scout's 425 LXF is a 42'2" S-Class center console on an epoxy-infused carbon hull with 545 gallons of fuel, 22 degrees of transom deadrise, 92-gallon floor fish boxes and an 8 kW generator as standard. The engine choice is the interesting part: triple Mercury 600 V12s top 72.5 mph, while quad Mercury 400 V10s top 69.6 mph but reach 30 mph in 7.16 seconds against 7.88.

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Scout 330 LXF

Center Console & SportfishScoutUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

What the Scout 330 LXF's Epoxy-Infused Stepped Hull Actually Buys You

The Scout 330 LXF is a 32'9" S-Class center console with a 10'6" beam, 24-degree deadrise and 265 gallons of fuel, built on an epoxy-infused, dual-stepped hull that weighs 9,545 lbs dry without engines. Scout's own twin Mercury Verado 300 bulletin records 55.2 mph at 6,000 rpm and best fuel efficiency at 39.4 mph, against a 900 hp maximum rating.

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Sea Ray SLX 310 Outboard

Sport Yacht & CoupeSea RayUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Sea Ray SLX 310 Outboard: Same Number, Different Boat

Sea Ray builds two boats called SLX 310, and the outboard is the longer, lighter, faster one: 33'10" against 31'6", 10,335 lb dry against 11,252, 158 gallons against 130. Twin 300 Verado power with Joystick Piloting is standard, and Sea Ray publishes a 33-39 mph cruise and a 187-mile range that the sterndrive page does not.

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Sea Ray Sundancer 370 Outboard

Sport Yacht & CoupeSea RayUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Sea Ray Sundancer 370 Outboard: Same Name, Different Boat

The Sundancer 370 Outboard is 39'9" to the sterndrive Sundancer 370's 37'8", carries 21,008 lb dry, and hangs triple Mercury 300 Verados — or twin 600 V12s — off the transom. It shares the 12'0" beam, the 250-gallon tank and the 20° deadrise with its sterndrive sister, and publishes not one speed figure where she publishes three.

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Scout 400 LXF

Center Console & SportfishScoutUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Scout 400 LXF — A Center Console You Can Stand Up Inside

The Scout 400 LXF is a 39'7" carbon-epoxy center console with 6'4" of standing headroom in the cabin, an enclosed shower and head, an 8 kW generator and a 12,000 BTU air conditioner. Fuel runs 395 gallons standard or 509 with optional saddle tanks, and the two published engine packages are genuinely far apart: quad Mercury 400 V10s at 71.5 mph against twin 600 V12s at 62.6 mph.

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Scout 377 LXF

Center Console & SportfishScoutUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Scout 377 LXF — The Center Console That Left the Generator Ashore

The Scout 377 LXF is a 37'7" S-Class center console built on carbon fiber and E-glass in an epoxy infusion, with 363 gallons of fuel, 61 gallons of fresh water and 19.5 degrees of transom deadrise. A 5,500-watt, 400-amp-hour lithium-ion bank runs 120V air conditioning and heat with no generator aboard, and both published engine packages — triple Mercury 400 V10s and twin 600 V12s — top out within a tenth of a mile per hour of each other.

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Sea Ray SLX 400

Sport Yacht & CoupeSea RayUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Sea Ray SLX 400: The One That Publishes a Speed

Sea Ray publishes a 47–50 mph wide-open-throttle band for the sterndrive SLX 400 and no speed at all for its outboard sister. At 39'9" and 20,794 lb dry on twin 430 hp MerCruiser 8.2L V8s through Bravo Three X SeaCore drives, it is the shorter, lighter and better-documented of the two.

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Sea Ray SLX 280 Outboard

Sport Yacht & CoupeSea RayUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Sea Ray SLX 280 Outboard: The 31-Footer That Shows You Its Numbers

The SLX 280 Outboard is 31'5" on a 9'0" beam, runs twin Mercury 250 Verado outboards with Joystick Piloting as standard, and carries 135 gallons of fuel. Sea Ray publishes a 29-31 mph cruise, a 50-52 mph wide-open throttle and a 180-mile cruising range for it — which is more than most builders will tell you in this class.

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Sea Ray SDX 290 Outboard

Sport Yacht & CoupeSea RayUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Sea Ray SDX 290 Outboard: What the SDX Line Is Actually For

The SDX 290 Outboard is 31'2" on a 9'0" beam, runs twin Mercury 200 FourStroke outboards as standard, and carries 131 gallons behind a standard wet bar and a head compartment with a vanity and sink. Sea Ray publishes 28-29 mph cruise, 54-55 mph wide open and a 271-mile cruising range for it.

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Scout 357 LXF

Center Console & SportfishScoutUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Scout 357 LXF — Twin 450s or Triple 400s on the Same Stepped Hull

Scout's 357 LXF is a 35'3" S-Class center console on an epoxy-infused, dual-stepped hull with 319 gallons of fuel, 22 degrees of transom deadrise and a 47-gallon cockpit baitwell. The decision that matters is propulsion: twin Yamaha 450s run 62.1 mph and 1.21 mpg at a 35 mph cruise, triple Mercury 400 V10s run 72.2 mph and reach 30 mph in 7.37 seconds.

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Scout 305 LXF

Center Console & SportfishScoutUnder 40 ftAugust 20, 2026

Why the Scout 305 LXF Puts a Berth Where Other 30-Footers Put Storage

The Scout 305 LXF is a 30'1" center console with a 9'10" beam, 20-degree deadrise and 212 gallons of fuel, built around a cushioned console berth and an electric marine head that most boats this size do not offer. Scout's own twin Yamaha 300 bulletin records 60.5 mph at 5,800 rpm and best fuel economy at 28.8 mph, against an 800 hp maximum rating.

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A small boat crossing a wide tidal river seen over golden marsh grass

Photo by Brooke Balentine on Unsplash

August 19, 2026

Anchor for the Current, Not the Wind

The Southeast run is not decided by the wind. From the Carolinas to north Florida the tide moves more water, faster, than anything the breeze is doing, and it picks your anchorage, sets your scope and ends your day. Get that one thing right and the rest of the passage largely arranges itself.

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Motor yacht and palm-lined marina silhouetted at dusk

Photo by Annie Tray-Gavin on Unsplash

August 19, 2026

On the Gulf Coast, Wait for the Back of the Front

Florida's Gulf Coast has a published date for when its weather changes, and on the southwest coast it is October 15. The National Weather Service ends the rainy season on October 15 for Southwest Florida and October 10 for the rest of West Central Florida. What happens after that is the part worth planning around: the afternoon storm engine shuts down, and the coast starts taking its weather from passing fronts instead. Good days stop arriving daily and start arriving in blocks.

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Boat near rocky coastline with clear turquoise water

Photo by Jan Suchánek on Unsplash

August 19, 2026

In the Med, Length Is a Permission Slip

Twenty-five metres decides whether your Mykonos night ends on the Chora quay or at the New Port north of town. Twenty metres — and three metres of draft — decides whether Santorini's only sheltered basin has room for you at all. Twenty-four metres decides which anchoring rules you cruise under in French waters. In the Mediterranean the numbers on a spec sheet are not shopping criteria. They are access, and somebody checks them at the entrance.

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Wooden dock between covered slips and moored boats at sunset

Photo by Craig Cameron on Unsplash

August 17, 2026

The Front Is the Schedule: A Gulf Coast Week

A cold front on Florida's Gulf Coast is not a lost day — it is the frame the rest of your week hangs on. From October into spring those fronts come through on a rhythm you can plan a cruise around, the fish pull inside the barrier islands where a ten-year-old can reach them, and the beaches that were shoulder to shoulder in July belong to whoever anchors off them by mid-morning.

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A small powerboat heading out an inlet past a palm-lined seawall at sunset

Photo by Richard Sagredo on Unsplash

August 17, 2026

Between Bridge and Bottom: Boats for the ICW

Two numbers decide what a boat can do on the Southeast ICW, and neither one is length. The federal project provides for a least depth of 12 feet from Norfolk, Virginia (Mile 0.0) down to Fort Pierce, Florida (Mile 965.6), and the fixed bridges over that stretch are charted at 65 feet. How deep a hull sits and how tall it stands settle most of the argument before anyone gets to the cockpit.

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A crowded bay with clear turquoise water and rocky cliffs.

Photo by Alessandro Santoro on Unsplash

August 17, 2026

Where the Med Fleet Goes, September 6 to October 4

Book a Riviera berth for September and you are bidding against a calendar, not just against other owners. Between 6 September and 4 October 2026, seven championships and shows run almost end to end across the harbours from Porto Cervo to Saint-Tropez — and two of them fill the docks with the boats on display. The dates below are the difference between the month you planned and the month that was left over.

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Azimut Fly 78

Flybridge MotoryachtAzimut60–80 ftAugust 17, 2026

The Azimut Fly 78: When 78 Feet Feels Like 90

Azimut's Fly 78 delivers 78 feet of true yacht living - carbon fiber superstructure, triple IPS and a forward galley with separated crew quarters - giving owner-operators 420 nm range, spacious flow and superyacht comfort without mandatory crew.

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white boat on sea during daytime

Photo by Luiz Cent on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

Time the ICW Run South Around These Fall Dates

Leave the Chesapeake in mid-October and this coast hands you a reason to stop roughly every other weekend until Christmas. The lighted-parade season moves south at about the pace of an unhurried delivery — a wooden boat show in October, three parades in three states on one Saturday in November, the Space Coast in December. Time the run to it and the trip half plans itself.

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Boats floating on turquoise water near rocky cliffs

Photo by Saba on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

Anchoring in the Mediterranean: How the Run Breaks Up

The night's anchorage in the Mediterranean gets decided before you leave the dock, not when you arrive. Across France, Spain, Italy and Croatia, the coves worth stopping in have become buoy fields you reserve, park water you hold a permit for, or seagrass the anchor may not touch. A summer run now breaks up around fixed points ashore rather than around mileage. Put those fixed points on the calendar first and the passages arrange themselves around them.

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White houses nestled on a green, hilly coastline.

Photo by Julia Fiander on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

Stern-To at Seven, Dinner at Nine in the Med

In the Mediterranean you almost never tie up outside the restaurant. You go stern-to on a town quay, drop the passerelle and walk, and the walk is short, because these harbours were built where the towns already were. Three things decide how that evening goes, and none of them is the menu: your length overall, the window the port will let you arrive in, and a dinner hour that starts later than most American crews plan for.

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A center-console boat running down a marsh channel with coastal houses behind

Photo by Roger Starnes Sr on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

Shrimp, Oysters and a Week in the Marsh

Plan a fall week on the Southeast coast around the tide and the calendar rather than the mileage. From late September through the end of the year the creeks behind the barrier islands are at their most productive — shrimp still in the marsh, oysters back in season on October 1, crabs available all year — and the boat stops being transport and becomes the way you get at it.

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aerial view of boats on sea shore during daytime

Photo by Tamara Malaniy on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

The Gulf Coast Run: Day-Hops from Clearwater to Marco

Point the bow south from Clearwater Pass and you can be anchored off a beach no road reaches before lunch, on a mooring ball by dinner, and still have four days of coast in front of you. Florida's Gulf side breaks into four natural legs, each an easy daylight run, and a protected waterway carries you through nearly all of it — until the last one, which does not.

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A group of boats floating on top of a body of water

Photo by Thomas Chizzali on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

The Mediterranean in September: What Actually Changes

Plan a Mediterranean season around two dates rather than one month. The Ports of Monaco run their high season from 1 May to 1 October, and the Balearic government keeps Posidonia patrol boats on the water from mid-May until the first ten days of October. Both calendars close in the same week, and the seam they leave — the back half of September into the first days of October — is the stretch most owners cruise straight past.

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yacht parked near island

Photo by Don Shetterly on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

Dinner by Boat on the ICW: Norfolk to Canaveral

Plan an evening ashore between Norfolk and Cape Canaveral and the first question is not which table to book — it is whether the restaurant has a dock at all. On the northern half of this run it usually does not: you take a berth at a marina and walk in. Cross into Florida and the rule flips, and by the Indian River the rooms advertise their own floating docks on the front page.

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calm body of water during golden hour

Photo by Don Agnello on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

Stone Crab Opens October 15. The Gulf Winter Follows.

If you want the boat before the season rather than during it, the Gulf Coast hands you a run of fixed dates to work backward from. Stone crab claws come out of the traps on October 15. Four boat shows land between mid-November and the end of February. A lit-up parade and a pirate ship own two more Saturdays in between. Here is the winter, in the order it arrives.

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white boats on sea under blue sky during daytime

Photo by Shelby Cohron on Unsplash

August 16, 2026

The Last Hundred Feet: Eating Ashore on Florida's Gulf Coast

The best dinner on Florida's Gulf Coast is the one you reach on your own bottom, and that decision gets made at the chart table, not when somebody gets hungry. Going ashore on this coast takes three forms — a city dock you walk from, a marina with its own dining rooms, and an island with no road to it at all — and two things settle which one you get: how much water you draw, and how late you plan to arrive.

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Aerial view of a river winding through Fort Lauderdale, boats moored along both banks beneath the downtown skyline

Photo by MARTLEY U on Unsplash

August 14, 2026

Fort Lauderdale Before Show Season: Timing Your Fall

If you're buying, hauling out or moving a boat in Fort Lauderdale this fall, work backward from Wednesday, October 28. That is when the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show opens, and it runs through Sunday, November 1 across six venues: the Broward County Convention Center, Bahia Mar Yachting Center, Hall of Fame Marina, Las Olas Marina, Pier Sixty-Six Marina and the SuperYacht Village at Pier Sixty-Six South.

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Two people in the cockpit of a sailing yacht under way, one at the wheel

Photo by Margo Evardson on Unsplash

August 14, 2026

Who Do You Actually Need to Run Your Yacht?

Length is nearly the last thing that decides your crew list. What decides it is how far you go, how often, and how much of the work you want to keep. Federal credentialing turns on service, not size — a yacht run privately for the owner and guests sits outside the licensing rule at any length.

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Wind-roughened open sea with distant islands under a bright sky

Photo by Giandomenico Pozzi on Unsplash

August 14, 2026

Mykonos & the Cyclades When the Meltemi Blows

The wind sets your week in the Cyclades; the harbors set what it costs you. Mykonos accepts yacht arrivals only between noon and sunset. Parikia's bay on Paros is closed to northerly winds and gives trouble only in strong westerlies. Santorini has one basin where the port fund says you can ride out a storm — Vlychada, on the south coast.

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A sailing yacht suspended in a boatyard travelift above the water

Photo by stephan hinni on Unsplash

August 14, 2026

The 90 Days Before You List Your Yacht

The boat that moves first is rarely the newest one on the dock. It is the one a buyer can verify. Ninety days is enough time to assemble that proof — the service file, the deferred-maintenance punch list, the title paperwork, and photographs of a finished boat — and the order you do it in matters more than anything else.

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Catamarans and sailboats moored in a still marina at dusk

Photo by Arlind Photography on Unsplash

August 14, 2026

What actually drives a yacht's value?

Two boats of the same model and year, lying a mile apart, can be worth very different money — and the gap is rarely something you can see from the dock. Value tracks the record behind the boat: hours read in context, a maintenance file a surveyor can follow, systems genuinely replaced rather than dressed up, and a clean title. Here is that anatomy, in the order a buyer's broker works through it.

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Azimut S Series

Sport Yacht & CoupeAzimut80–100 ftAugust 8, 2026

Azimut S Series Guide: Why the Sport Deck Changes the Math

You can feel the difference before you leave the dock. Step aboard an Azimut S and there is no tower of boat above you — just a low carbon profile, a saloon that opens wide to the cockpit, and three throttles at the helm. The S series is Azimut's line for the owner who would rather drive than host, and once you understand the Sport Deck, the whole lineup makes sense.

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Ferretti 720

Flybridge MotoryachtFerretti60–80 ftApril 22, 2026

The Ferretti 720: When 74 Feet Feels Like 80

Ferretti 720: a 74-foot flybridge that feels like an 80-footer, four full cabins, separate crew quarters, smarter glazing and a sliding galley door for true liveaboard practicality, plus twin MAN V12s delivering 32-knot thrills.

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Pursuit S288

Center Console & SportfishPursuitUnder 40 ftMarch 31, 2026

The Pursuit S 288: When 30 Feet Feels Like 40

Pursuit S 288: a 30-foot center console that feels like a 40-footer, with twin Yamaha F300s or twin Mercury 300s, and a purpose-built layout merging tournament-grade fishability with family-ready comfort for long offshore days effortlessly.

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Pursuit S358

Center Console & SportfishPursuitUnder 40 ftMarch 21, 2026

The Pursuit S358 Review: When 35 Feet Means More

Versatile and well-built, the Pursuit S358 packs twin Yamaha 450s, a convertible cockpit and an enclosed cabin with head—delivering 51.2 mph flat out and a 271-mile range at best cruise so owners can fish hard by dawn and host family weekends by noon.

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Pursuit S328

Center Console & SportfishPursuitUnder 40 ftMarch 11, 2026

The Pursuit S328 Sport: Where Fishing Meets Freedom

The Pursuit S328 Sport is a true dual-purpose 32-foot: fishing-ready offshore performance (twin Yamaha F350s to 51.2 mph, 348 miles of range at best cruise) paired with a yacht-grade cabin and a cockpit that converts from fishing machine to social zone.

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Azimut Fly 53

Flybridge MotoryachtAzimut40–60 ftMarch 3, 2026

The Azimut Fly 53: When 55 Feet Feels Like 65

The Azimut Fly 53 packs 60-foot comfort into 55 feet: an owner-operator flybridge with a full-beam master, three cabins, Volvo IPS joystick control and a galley-aft layout so you can run it solo without sacrificing space or performance.

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Princess F45

Flybridge MotoryachtPrincess40–60 ft

The Princess F45: When 47 Feet Feels Like 55

The Princess F45 makes 47 feet feel like a 55-footer: a genuine full-beam master with walk-around en-suite, a flybridge that rivals larger yachts, twin Volvo D6-480s on IPS 650 pods for a 31-knot top end, with joystick docking confidence and true owner-operator ease.

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