My Best Sea Trial…

I. My best sea trial ever…

I have just returned from a wild ride – Two back-to-back trips to Europe in twenty days, with sea trials and factory tours in Holland, Denmark and Sweden. You’ll hear more about this in the following weeks, but for today I’d like to focus on a [provably] remarkable sea trial of our New York-bound Long Island Yacht 33 Runabout:

She will ship from Rotterdam on or about May 20th, so by early June she will be available to you to inspect and run. Her home port will be at the impressive  Centerport Yacht Club, on Long Island (coincidently!) about halfway between NYC and Montauk:

I’d be happy to pick you up at Laguardia or JFK, and you are more than welcome to stay with me in Westhampton during your visit. My pool house is quite comfortable, people say.

Meanwhile, let me present you with my video impressions of her, seen here on Episode # 1 of The Fog Warning’s new Youtube channel:

Trust me, you are going to watch this more than once. So let me add here my thoughts for your re-watch:

Long-time clients of mine tell me they appreciate that I am not a “hammerhead” – one of those hard-selling yacht brokers. That style works for lots of really successful brokers, but I just never had it in me. I pretty much just let my yachts speak for themselves. Which works well for me because I’ve learned through my hungrier years that I really suck at selling yachts I don’t believe in.

But during this video, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear that that I just lose it. I was so stunned by this 33 Runabout’s performance – with her big 8 Cylinder 370 HP Yanmar – that you’ll hear me doing the vocal equivalent of jumping up and down. What got me? Well, watch it again,  in slow speed or frame-by-frame if you have the time, and I expect you will see what I felt first-hand:

• I’ve never seen or run a boat that pours herself through a high-speed turn while remaining almost completely flat. She just digs in and resists tilting over.  It is almost spooky how she remains comfortably upright. You and your guests will not be scrambling around looking for handrails. She just rotates around her center of effort, right behind the helm. It was disorienting for me at first at first – My body (or was it my stomach?) expected to lean inwards. Instead I easily stood upright, my weight securely balanced on both feet.   It was a remarkably exciting (and comfortable) feeling at 30+ knots.

• Halfway through these upright turns I kept looking back, expecting to see and feel her stern slide, skid or kick out. I figured the physics of the matter would require that. Nope,  dead-solid tracking right through the turn, like on rails. Or, like a Lotus at the track. And how do I know that? Because that’s what the owner of this particular 33R said, and he races this Lotus regularly:

• At the end of the video you’ll see the club where we stopped for lunch. I grilled the build and design team about this turn behavior. They say it’s because of her full keel running from her forefoot almost all the way back to her prop (which is why the prop is protected from shallow water grounding – another feature that makes me jump up and down).

Well, if you want to jump up and down yourself, come see us in NY this June to see and run this remarkable luxury dayboat yourself. Because while my Youtube video is pretty damn good ….

Oh, wait, I almost forgot! The larger Long Island in that video is Hull #1 of their 40 Runabout. She is an IPS yacht, with a great use of both outdoor and indoor space. Regrettably, her trim tabs weren’t functioning that day, so she ran a bit bow high. Here’s an older video of her running in proper trim, down about two additional degrees:

Hull #2 of the 40R is currently under construction, and I’d certainly be delighted to build you #3. But if you can’t wait, #1 is for sale in Holland for 398,500 Euros. That’s $422,900, with a replacement value north of $900,00. The full listing can be found here.

II. Istanbul’s Latest News

Last month I brought you news of Vicem’s latest splash, their 82 Classic Flybridge:

She lives in Turkey (it’s her owner’s third Vicem) and he has decided to put her on the market. She is available immediately, saving her next owner a 16 month build time (and  cost savings). The whole deal is on the hush-hush side of the track, so call me for her full story (and asking price).

Before I leave Vicem-land, today I tripped over an old and memorable post on my Facebook feed. Memorable enough that I am compelled to briefly talk about it here today.

In 2010 some good friends and I were building a school in the mountains of eastern Haiti for 485 wonderful children. Many of my clients (you know who you are) generously contributed to this effort. More than a few times at a boat show someone would tap me on my back, and I’d turn around to see a smiling client holding out a check!  Well, the new building opened in 2017, and is still running. The original school can be seen here:

Why the old news? Because Facebook has reminded us that on this day twelve years ago my friends at Vicem made the single largest contribution to our kids in Haiti:

They were a remarkable company twelve years ago, putting their cash where their hearts were. And they still are. I am ever-grateful, and am delighted to say it remains an honor to be working with them again.

Ciao for now!

Big Wave Dave