The Power

I have lost track of how many times I���ve visited the Viking Yachts factory in New Gretna, New Jersey. I���ve been through a number of boatbuilders, but I especially like my visits to Viking. Maybe it���s the homemade lunch from the cafeteria���the chicken caccciatora is one of my favorites���or the fact that Viking���s management basically grants open access to their operation. They simply want you to see how they���re building boats and how they are different than other builders.

The new 48 Sundancer is proof that Sea Ray is not afraid to take big swings. Sea Ray fans will first sense change in the air when they note that she is the 48 not a 480. In fact, the 48 Sundancer is the first boat in Sea Ray?Ĵs fleet to display this new badge. She is also the first Sundancer to feature a semi-enclosed helm deck. Her shapely fiberglass hardtop is integrated with a dramatic, forward sweeping arch, a curved glass windshield and glass side-windows.

OVERVIEW: Test Sea Ray 420 Sedan
The 420 Sedan Bridge is new for 2004 and features two private staterooms and two heads, making the 42 a perfect getaway for a family or two couples. She features all the luxuries you���ve come to expect from Sea Ray, as well as a long list of standard features.

KEY FEATURES

Flying down Lake Erie on the new Baja 405, I quickly ran out of room on my speed sheet. On most tests, I stop somewhere in the thirty-knot range. Well, on the 405 we blasted past forty knots, then fifty knots, and finally hit 53.1 knots. Yes indeed, the twin 425 hp MerCruisers pushed Baja���s lightening fast cruiser to a top speed of more than 60 miles per hour.

I remember the first time I climbed on board and poked around a Mainship trawler. It was an older 34-foot model, perhaps an early 80s vintage, docked in Cuba's Marina Hemingway. (Don't worry Mr. Taxman I had permission). It was tied up to the dilapidated pier and looking rather salty. The couple from Toronto had bought her for a very reasonable price and were in the middle of a one-year Great Circle cruise.

One of the many things I enjoy about this job is meeting some of the people behind the boats I test and evaluate. A question I like to ask, especially to the independent builders, is, "How did you get into this business?" More than once the response from a giddy rookie was that they were looking to buy a boat for themselves, couldn't find one that they liked, so they started a company. Then, before they know it,they are in the boat building business.

When I was a kid growing up on the waters and tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, I had a yacht. It was a 12-foot aluminum Prince Craft skiff with a 7.5 hp Mercury outboard. She had mahogany-ply seats and a few pieces of trim that to me glowed like the USS Sequoia. And as far as I was concerned, that skiff was the biggest vessel on the water. By the time I was eight, I spent as many summer days as I could on the Bay, armed with a crab net and chicken necks, a few cold sodas, and a sandwich.