Boat test and engine performance results for Pacific Mariner 85, specifications, features, pricing, and more information.

Nevertheless, the 85 posted a sporty top end of 29.4 mph, just 2 mph under the 31.4 mph top speed I’d recorded on the original 85. Whether the difference was due to the GPS-radar gun swap or the extra structure Westport says it has added—as reflected in an increase in dry displacement of 5,000 pounds)—or both, I’m not sure. What I am sure of is the cool assurance she displayed underway, thanks to her fine-bow, Bill Garden hull form; an LCG placement engendering perfect balance and precise, arrow-straight tracking; and a robust Teleflex Sea-Star hydraulic steering system with power-assist. Moreover, sightlines from both of her two helm stations are excellent and enhanced by the comfort of standard Stidd helm chairs.

As soon as we’d returned to Port Angeles and tied up, a guy who looked like just another Westport working stiff came moseying down the dock, jacket flapping and work boots scuffing. Daryl Wakefield, Westport’s president, is no corporate poser, insulated from the minutiae of boatbuilding by some posh office. During lunch at a local sandwich shop and continuing on through a tour of Westport’s furniture factory (which creates finished modular interiors from plys, veneers, and dimensional lumber), he exhibited an encyclopedic knowledge of the 85’s build process while also emphasizing the virtues of Westport’s all-U.S. work force and proprietary manufacturing techniques. “Our delivery schedules are more reliable and the quality’s better,” he synopsized.

Checking out the 85’s interior afterwards gave me no reason to quibble with that pronouncement. The layout is essentially the same as the original 85’s: five staterooms below decks: a beamy master aft, a VIP forward, a guest and another VIP in between, and crew’s quarters at the stern. The topside arrangement featuring a pilothouse well forward for good visibility, a port-side galley immediately abaft it, and a long, plush saloon stretching aft to a set of stainless steel sliders that open onto a spacious cockpit. Each stateroom has its own shower-stall-equipped en suite head, and equipage throughout is turnkey-complete—literally everything onboard our test boat, from complete electronics packages for each of the helm stations to a redundant freshwater system that sports not one, not two, but three pumps.

“Whataya think?” a Westport rep asked as I finished up my examination in a scrupulously engineered machinery space that included a couple of welded-aluminum fuel tanks (with both sight gauges and electronic monitors) gleaming from the far corner and two big, isolation-mounted electric fans for the Delta ‘T’ demister system hanging from the overhead.

“I’d say,” I concluded with a grin, “that the Pac is back. And better than ever.”

Noteworthy: Power problems?

Ever had so much trouble hooking up to shore-power in the USA, among myriad splitters and confusing plug-in permutations that you wound up flipping the dockside switch with trepidation? Well, imagine the situation beyond America’s borders, where voltages vary, frequencies can be maddingly unreliable, and current comes in either single- or three-phase forms. Because so-called power converters nix all these issues, they’re becoming increasingly popular on vessels with globetrotting capabilities. Our Pac Mariner 85, for example, sported a couple of converter units from Asea (right), an up-and-comer in the field. They accept and process virtually any type of electrical power in the world, and turn it into clean usable juice. These units will even seamlessly crank a genset to maintain onboard operations should shorepower fail. Asea Power Systems (714) 896-9695. www.aseapower.com

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