MIAMI BEACH — Sea Ray was entertaining its VIP clients on the docks of Yachts Miami Beach Friday night, in part to show off its new L550 — the new addition making its world premiere to the popular L class series — but also to demonstrate the digital switching system that comes with a custom-designed user interface in both the L550 Express and Fly models.
“We wanted to do what Apple did with its first tagline,” Sea Ray product portfolio vice president Ron Berman said. “‘You already know how to use it.’ That was the idea here. You can control everything from any of the four Raymarine screens. That was the idea behind this, to make it as intuitive and easy as possible.”
The four touch screens throughout the boat — two at the cockpit, one below deck and one on the flybridge — can operate pretty much every feature on the boat by owners touching the screen, including lights, windows and air conditioning.
Operators can touch the yacht based on zones to isolate which lights, for example, they’d like to turn off, or even just dim. It comes with some lighting presets to allow owners to choose a party mode (lots of lights), for example, or a romantic dinner. The boats come equipped with an iPad mini to allow owners more control.
“It’s the GUI [graphical user interface] that makes it unique to Sea Ray, and it’s extremely user-friendly,” said Scott Ward, president and general manager of sport yachts and yachts at Sea Ray.
Also during the show, Scott Ward was named president and general manager of Sea Ray sport yachts and yachts, and Brad Anderson was named president and general manager of senior vice president and general manager of Sea Ray.
Read more about the show, which opened Thursday and runs through Monday, in the April issue of Soundings Trade Only.
