More of this Feature • Part 1: Jarrett Bay 58 • Part 2: Jarrett Bay 58 continued • Jarrett Bay 58 Specs • Jarrett Bay 58 Deck Plan • Jarrett Bay 58 Acceleration Curve
Related Resources • Boat Test Index
From Other Guides • Saltwater Fishing
Elsewhere on the Web • Jarrett Bay Boatworks

The best thing about coming in from offshore standing on the bridge of the Jarrett Bay 58 was the celebrity-like attention we got. The Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale was jam-packed with battlewagons, motoryachts, and other smaller craft that afternoon, either headed for the jetties and the wild-blue Atlantic beyond or coming back. And almost every pair of eyes on every single vessel we passed bugged out with rapturous appreciation as Capt. Frank Davis, Sr. eased the blinding-white, custom-built Jarrett Bay along through the wintertime sunshine, her brightwork gleaming and her aluminum tuna tower sparkling like a diamond-studded tiara. You’d have thought sportfishing greats Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey were standing on the bridge waving to the fans, not just Davis and me.

The Jarrett Bay 58 is indeed a beautiful boat. For many years now, North Carolina builders have incorporated into many of their sportfishing vessels an element of design that is both distinctive and downright glamorous: Carolina flare. With the 58, Jarrett Bay takes the idea a little further than I’ve ever seen. Of course, the pronounced concavity or flare of a vessel’s bow and the even more dramatic outward turn just below the deck known as flam are highly regarded among aficionados because they’re said to engender additional buoyancy as the bow enters a trough, blasting aside green water, knocking down spray, and generally maintaining a more up-and-at-’em running attitude. Whether the 58’s flare and flam actually do these things I’m unable to say, since conditions in the coastal Atlantic where we sea-trialed the boat were pretty mild on test day. But the aesthetic appeal of the two elements is undeniable. Add them to the 58’s other stylistic delights, like the huge, sweetly crowned foredeck, the long, graceful, broken sheerline, and the stern sections fat with curvaceous tumblehome, and it’s no wonder jaws drop as the 58 sweeps by.

Next page > Jarrett Bay 58 continued > Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5