|
If you plan on building an 80-foot sportfisherman that's capable of more than 40 mph, you'd better build her strong. Donzi Yachts believes it's done just that. Bob Roscioli founded the company 22 years ago, purchasing the rights to the Donzi name from the legendary Dick Genth. Although Donzi Yachts by Roscioli remains a separate company from Donzi Marine—its boats are all over 50 feet, while Donzi Marine's are considerably smaller—and its strength is its traditional way of building. According to Roscioli, the construction process for the R-80 is similar to the boats he originally built. Although some of the methods may seem like overkill nowadays, Roscioli's simple declaration can't be argued with: "It's tough," he says.
The boats are laid up on the west coast of Florida in Bradenton—next door to Sarasota where Donzi Marine is located, just to add to the confusion. From the beginning, Roscioli's boats are designed to take a beating. The hand-laid fiberglass hull is more than an inch thick. Four foam-cored stringers, which run the length of the vessel, are then lowered in and reinforced with uncut lengths of fiberglass and resin, a process the builder believes makes a stronger end product, since there are no seams or overlapping fabric. Transversals, bulkheads, and soles are then added, and tabbed in. Soles are cored with a foam that's more than two inches thick, providing acoustical insulation. More soundproofing comes courtesy of Soundown isolation mounts between the saloon sole and engine-room overhead. But unlike many boats, these soles are structural to increase the rigidity of the hull. Finally the superstructure is lowered into place and attached to the hull via a shoebox joint that's fixed with 3M 5200 adhesive, 'glassed on the inside, and then mechanically fastened. In other words, it's no meek boat.
And the components aren't wimpy, either. A pair of 2,400-hp MTU 16V 2000 M93 diesels allow the 80 to almost top 45 mph. Sea Torque shaft couplings are another oversize element, constructed of brass and lubricated with oil instead of sea water. Two of the four fuel tanks are outboard, but the Separ fuel-water separators are on centerline and aft of the engines for easy access. If any contaminant were to get through the filters, Airquip stripping hoses allow the operator to remove all the fuel from a tank, clean it in an inline centrifuge, and then send it to another tank, all while the engines continue to run. It's ship-scale technology shrunken for the 80.
There's other big-boy stuff onboard as well. Instead of a typical cockpit mezzanine, the 80 has a lanai—basically a sheltered porch. Its additional lounging space allows a veritable crowd to watch anyone fighting a fish without intruding on the 144-square-foot cockpit. An Eskimo ice maker, under the lanai's port tier, spews out a steady stream of slush for the prep table and cooler boxes. It seems almost intemperate, given the twin 18"x14"x20" freezers beneath the prep table (the same area to starboard is designated for tackle stowage), but the 80 is all about indulgences. An extra livewell is in the transom bulwark, beneath a teak caprail that has no gate above the tuna door; this prevents line snags.
If the captain wants to get closer to the fray, he can use a control station here just to starboard of the steps. It has MTU electronic controls with clearly marked detents, engine shut-offs, and steering control using both the Anschütz autopilot and the bow thruster. It's a setup similar to that in the tuna-tower helm except there the autopilot is supplanted with an Edson wheel and there's a VHF and 15-inch Furuno display.
On the bridge the main helm is, as you'd expect on this boat, also oversize and tricked out. There are three NavNet-3D-capable, 17-inch Furuno monitors, MTU engine readouts, oil-pressure indicators, a Palm Beach-style helm, and a panoply of other instruments. However, two features that I would have liked to have seen were missing: a rudder-position indicator and trim-tab indicators. The position of the rudders and the tabs can be intuited, but indicators are handy for quick reference. Donzi says they're aftermarket options (the rudder-position indicator should be on my test boat when she debuts at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show).
|
PAGES:
|
1
|
|
 |
|
/>
