Ocean Alexander 70' Motoryacht Opinions

I'd be interested in responses too. It was originally labeled as an OA 65 Flybridge. The drawings on their website still carry that designation. It seems to have a lot of space for a 65' or 70', nicely laid out. In the plants being purchased by those planning to build OA's (Merritt Island) the talk was their 60' and under. They really built a lot of fans when they had smaller boats. Then over time their smallest offering was 72'. Then on their 120', the Christensen disaster hurt them. I'm anxious to see if they're going to add some smaller boats back to their line and perhaps this is the first indication of that. My understanding is that this is their first boat planned to be built at Merritt Island.

It was also planned to have IPS drives. I would think it would require three drives for a boat that size and really question that approach for this boat.

I would like to see some smaller boats and to see the production from the Merritt Island plant.

Nice boat. Bad Video. Still I think a very well designed and thought out boat. My only real criticism is going with IPS. I'm surprised at the speeds they're claiming from just twins. I would, however, expect a less than stellar performance and economy curve between hull speed and cruise. 1200-1700 RPM is where I've seen it in similar boats with speeds from 11 to 18 knots or so.

Having recently purchased a boat in it's size range, I'd say the following from the video.

+++ The bow seating. For the use of this boat, so nice. Jealous of it.

+Nice bridge. Good seating areas in shade and in sun. Now, you lose some if you decide to carry tender on bridge.

-The lower helm is really crowded and lack of a second seat somewhat disappointing although plenty of adjacent seating.

+-Salon a bit small but very nice galley is the trade-off plus nice aft deck

+I noticed the swim platform on the boat in the video is very much redesigned vs the one on the original design. It was enlarged and made much more accommodating for carrying a tender on it. Now, would still like to see how it performs with a nice tender on the platform. As hard as it was for me to ever admit it, on a boat in this size range, it sure does add some valuable space on your bridge if you can carry your tender on the platform. That would have been problematic in their original design but should be quite easy on the boat with the larger platform. For us, one key attribute of the 65' boat we just purchased was that it could easily handle a Williams 385 tender and I believe this OA could do so as well.

-I don't know what equipment the boat in the video had in the ER but accommodating a second generator and a watermaker would seem to be a bit of a challenge.

+Very good headroom for ER and Master stateroom

---If IPS is the only engine option, I think that could be very limiting to them. I don't see the OA buyer as being excited about them. Many OA buyers might be coming from the trawler world. Others downsizing.

I hope this is just the start of them adding some smaller boats while others are running from that market. I would love to see them do a 60' as smartly as they did this boat.

I don't like it being labelled a 70. Just personal. Not a plus or minus. I just don't like labeling models based on inclusion of swim platform and anchor pulpit. It's almost as annoying as the Beneteau ST50 where the hull length is actually under 44'.

A lot of boat for it's size.

Too bad they didn't hire a professional videographer.

Something tells me it was last minute before the show.