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Especially aboard a
large, powerful boat like the Fairline Phantom 50, PMY sea trials can
seem like clips from an action movie. The location for the 50’s performance
was a stretch of the Atlantic off Deerfield Beach, Florida, at midmorning
in late January under blue sky and billowing clouds. Above southeasterly
seas averaging three feet, two principals sat on the flying bridge: Marina
One sales executive Mike Hansen at the centerline helm and sales rep Mark
Davies in the navigator’s seat to port. Braced against the forward
end of the wetbar behind them, your faithful correspondent played director,
armed with a Stalker ATS radar gun and an electronic diagnostic tool monitoring
fuel flow on the port-side 675-hp Volvo Penta D12 675 diesel below.
Written in outline form,
the script read: 1000 rpm, 1250 rpm, and so on, up to WOT. There was little
room for improvisation, but Hansen and Davies made an unusually high-spirited
duo. When I announced our speed at 2000 rpm–more than 32 mph–Davies
pumped a fist in the air and whooped. And before I had finished recording
the fuel flow–49.4 gph, for a cruising range of 339 miles–Hansen
turned with an eager grin and asked, "Twenty-two-fifty?" By
the time we reached WOT (2300 rpm), the high-rise hotel I’d been
training the Stalker on was growing taller fast. After scrawling down
our top speed of 38.1 mph (which might have been faster on untroubled
waters), I called out to Hansen, "That’s it!"
Normally at this signal
the skipper throttles back to a near idle, and the transformation from
hurtling speed to bobbing calm is like the return to reality on a movie
set after someone yells, "Cut!" But instead, without backing
a millimeter off the Volvo Penta electronic controls, Hansen sliced 30
degrees to port, head-on into the weather, as if to declare, "This
is reality, and let’s enjoy it."
The 50 raced over the
water with force and grace. When the occasional four-footer met the bow,
we carved into its top, lifted only moderately, and came down in an even,
cushioned motion–a dry, truly hydraulic landing controlled by hull
designer Bernard Olesinski’s deep-V forward, full-length spray strakes,
and 18 degrees of deadrise aft. "Isn’t this great?" asked
a gleeful Hansen. I had to agree.
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3, 4, 5,
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