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Forget Butch Cassidy.
He was all talk, and he couldn’t shoot for beans. It was his partner
who got the famous duo out of most of their scrapes. Always quick on the
draw, never rattled, the Sundance Kid was the ultimate strong, silent
type. With his smile and his six-shooter he could get into and out of
everything the Old West put in front of him–and enjoy himself the
whole time.
Sea Ray’s 410 Sundancer
is also the ultimate strong, silent type. With throttles down she’s
quick on the draw, and no matter what the speed or sea conditions, her
rock-solid, traditional construction never rattles. Armed with an arsenal
of standard equipment that’s second to none as well as an express-style
layout with two heads instead of one, she turns what the sea puts in front
of her into an adventure. Calm, collected, and charming as hell, the 410
is built not only to punch through waves, but to enjoy every minute of
it.
On the morning of our
test, I met PMY’s boat test guru, Capt. Bill Pike, for a high-protein
breakfast near Miami Beach. We hopped on over to Bassett Boats, where
amid a throng of motor-yachts, the Sundancer looked ready for a hard day
of testing on the Intracoastal Waterway. We carried the test gear aboard,
opened the hydraulic engine-room hatch in the cockpit, and got started.
Splicing fuel flow meters into the fuel lines of the Sundancer’s
port-side 350-hp Caterpillar 3116 diesel was a breeze: With no deck overhead
and a wide walkway between the engines, there was enough space to throw
a lasso. The diesels were also rock-solid: The isolation mounts were secured
on flanges through-bolted through the engine bearers.
Five batteries are mounted
on the port side behind the two Racor fuel filters (one per engine). Sea
Ray mounts the Racors on an upright two-by-four, secured top and bottom,
an approach that hinders easy access to the batteries. A more solid and
less prominent bulkhead mount would be better. The eight-gallon Atwood
water heater near the firewall was easy to reach for any winterizing maintenance,
but the Westerbeke 7.2-kW genset was buried pretty deep on the outboard
side of the starboard engine. Changing the oil in the unit will require
some agility.
After the gear was hooked
up, we lowered the hatch and fired up the Caterpillars. Once out of the
no-wake zone on the Intracoastal Waterway, we pushed the throttles to
full, and the Sundancer launched from lope to full gallop. As she hit
2800 rpm, the radar gun confirmed a top speed of 34.3 mph–respectable
for a 22,000-pound boat full of fuel (335 gallons), full of water (100
gallons), and carrying test gear and three people. Strong, silent type?
You bet. When she was at wide-open throttle, the decibel meter registered
only 88 dB-A at the helm (65 is the level of normal conversation).
After the speed trials,
we treated the Sundancer to some wide-open-throttle, hard-over turns;
she performed them with ease, gusto, and not a hint of ventilation. The
Teleflex hydraulic steering was smooth, and with only four and a half
turns lock to lock, it was easy to get back on course quickly after pulling
a hairpin 360. Moreover, our Sundancer leaned into turns smoothly and
predictably and regained her speed in straightaways with dispatch. Of
course, a symptom of most V-drives is that with the engine weight so far
astern, the bow tends to rise significantly when getting on plane. The
Sundancer is no exception. Although running attitude at speed is such
that you can sit down and drive comfortably, I lost sight of the horizon
for a couple of seconds when coming out of the hole–even while standing
at the wheel and I stand at 6'4".
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Sea Ray 410 continued > Page 1, 2,
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