Hatteras 80 Gone, 90 In

90' is just a strange size. It doesn't offer much over the 80' yet needs the crew of the 100'. So now they have nothing from 60'-90'. Yeah they've had a 70' MY plans for well over a year, yet haven't produced one.

The 90 is the new 80 in Europe nowadays, if the waterline length does not exceed 23.99 meters it can be helmed without captain or 300 GT licence.
Hence major builders Ferretti, Azimut, and Sunseeker all have what is called a pocket 90 feet plus.

No, the 90' is supposed to be at FLIBS supposedly. So they've built one, which makes no sense since they're stacked with back orders on the 100'.

Having an owner (98% of them) run a 90' without a Captain is just plain scary.

Depends who it is. If he is coming from a 60/70 footer he might be knowledgeable and good as a captain is. If this is his first or second boat after his runabout speed boat yes scary it is.
But I have seen owner helmed 80 footers who can be with the best of captains.

Yes, but that's a very small group. There are a lot of professional Captains that aren't skilled and experienced enough to safely run a 90'. Then you've got the factor that if the owner is running the yacht himself, he doesn't have any crew on the boat. At 90' you need people that are well experienced to get the lines, etc. You also need someone with some good engineering skills. There are a lot of things that go along with safely running a 90'. At that size, I want a mate on board that can safely run the vessel enough to get it docked or do a MOB, in case I was incapacitated.

No it's the 70 that was/is to be shown at FLIBS; they have been building it for awhile now and sending out photo updates. However I haven't seen it on the water here on the Neuse yet, but then again I'm not looking out the window all day. Seen a few new sport fish being sea trialed though. I'm pretty sure there isn't a 90 in production yet. Certainly have to agree the seeming lack of a lower helm option on the 70 is no bueno, a lot of boats that size are run by couples in a variety of climates.

The new 70' MY is indeed at the show and was already ordered/sold. From the exterior the boat is a very nice and very large 70'. I didn't want to wait to see the inside.

Sure most will have a couple mates, no owner of that $$$$ usually washes the boats himself. They usually just like to drive, and helm a boat.

I'm sure they'll build one if you really want a lower helm and order one. It's been an option on the 60' MY that not one person has ordered. They've sold 4 70' MY's so far, so people must like the boat.

Yeah, but you have several boats with a lower helm and no upper helm