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For those of you who don’t know it, Shep McKenney is responsible for Hinckley’s latest jet boat, the 40-foot Talaria.

"I grew up around beautiful boats–Rybovich, Matthews, Huckins," the former (1982 to 1997) co-owner of the Southwest Harbor, Maine-based Hinckley Company tells me. "We lived in Virginia, and my grandfather had a 14-foot cypress skiff he’d take me out on." But it was the Lyman lapstrake runabout–with her batten-style ribs and varnished mahogany interior and transom contrasting with the sparkling white topsides and graceful, upswept bow–his father gave him that most probably planted the seed for the design.

During his tenure at Hinckley, McKenney and Haywood May, president of Bass Harbor Marine, the Hinckley-owned service yard, came up with the idea for a lobster-style runabout built on the lines of many of the Downeast workboats plying their trade in Southwest Harbor during the summer. "In particular we liked the low, sleek profile and even-running attitude of the boats," McKinney recalls. The two figured that if they applied the latest techniques in design and materials, the boat they built would be far superior to anything in her class, so they called in the well-known naval architect Bruce King to draw the 36-foot Picnic Boat. That boat, introduced in 1994, created a design phenomenon not seen since the hollowed-out log got its pointy end.

The Talaria 40–so-named for the winged sandals worn on the ankles of the mythical figure of Mercury, a.k.a. Hermes–is the latest evolution of McKenney’s vision and joins the progenitor 36 and big sister 44. And while the beauty of her lines, fine joinerwork, and excellent fit and finish are evident, to me it is her construction techniques that make the 40 special, just like her siblings.

Construction of the 40 begins with Hinckley’s patented DualGuard composite construction. The skin coat is chopped E-glass mat and low-shrink, vinylester resin, while the outer skin beneath the skin coat (hence the term DualGuard), where no mat is used, is DuPont Kevlar and E-glass. The core utilizes aircraft-grade balsa and high-density foam, and the inner skin is 100 percent T-700 carbon fiber.

As with her sisterships, the resin is infused into this sandwich by SCRIMP. This proprietary vacuum-bagging system fully saturates the resin, virtually eliminates noxious emissions, creates a void-free structure, and according to Hinckley, results in a vessel 14 percent lighter than similar-size boats built with traditional FRP construction techniques.

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