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It’s the practice
of some sculptors to render their figures on a natural scale enlarged
by about 15 percent, a shrewd exaggeration that aggrandizes the subject
with uncanny subtlety. The statue exists in human terms a viewer can relate
to, while it also possesses the force of a thing larger than life. It
may seem odd that a day on the Pershing 52 could bring to mind the French
sculptor Rodin and the Greek Phidias, but here is a fast cruiser that
seems unusually grand. In every direction there is just a bit more than
you expect.
Pershings are based
on a concept that once demanded limited proportions. Think of some express
cruisers and you picture runabouts stuffed with crypt-like interiors and
dinettes above deck designed for anorexics. Pershing blew that notion
out of the water with its 88-footer, a true Colossus of Memnon. But other
boats in the builder’s fleet solve the problem of scale more subtly.
The 52 is among them.
Take the accommodations.
The 52 sleeps six—not with the help of a curtained midcabin and converted
settee but in a master with en suite head with shower forward and a pair
of twin-berth cabins aft sharing a full guest head. Hanging lockers, compartments
under berths, and hull-side cabinets abound, providing plenty of room
for personal gear. The dinette opposite the galley can comfortably seat
eight when you unfold its polished cherry table and put to use a pair
of stowable stools. To port the well-outfitted galley is designed to become
nearly invisible behind the highly varnished cherry found throughout below
deck. Its stainless steel sink and two-burner Euro-style Ceran stovetop
disappear under hinged sections of cabinetry whose undersides are sheathed
in brushed stainless steel. With the Frigo Nautica upright refrigerator/freezer
also behind cherry doors and a microwave oven hidden in an overhead cabinet,
the galley looks more like a richly paneled bar complementing the seating
area. This is an elegant and pragmatic feature on an express cruiser where
commonly not a great deal of cooking goes on. For example, the owner of
our test boat often likes to run from his slip on Turnberry Isle, north
of Miami, over to Bimini to grab lunch.
Most likely that hour
would be enjoyed above deck. From the cockpit, the 52’s outsized
proportions are most dramatic, and the sense of flowing acreage here has
as much to do with design as dimensions. Opposite a wetbar fit with a
cold-plate ‘fridge, icemaker, sink, and grill, the port-side dinette
forms slightly more than a semicircle around a table that folds to half-size
to give the seating a more lounge-like character. Aft of the settee, the
52 really opens up. A sunpad to port of the teak-covered egress to the
swim platform is big enough for three, and the teak-soled swim platform,
too, is expansive–at four and a half feet long, large enough to carry
a RIB.
Next page >
Part 2: The thrill of driving > Page 1,
2, 3, 4,
5, 6
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