41 Grand Banks Heritage EU

Source: Alan Jones, Sea Magazine.com

Old school meets new wave

For more than a half century, Grand Banks has been the benchmark in the trawler market for those looking for a quality vessel to economically make their way from port to port at speeds from 6 to 8 knots in comfort with superior sea keeping ability. While that hasn’t changed, the designers also wanted a replacement for the popular 42 Classic — arguably the most popular cruiser ever, discontinued in 2005 — that would also give owners the option of going faster if they desired. With its revolutionary new 41 Heritage EU that features MerCruiser’s Zeus pod propulsion and joystick docking system, Grand Banks wanted to create a new standard of user-friendliness that would help extend the cruising careers of retirees and carve out a new niche that would attract new owners.

Woody and Roomy
The 41 Europa presents very elegantly from the stern with an expansive teak swim platform and a wood-faced transom. Boarding is via a robust transom gate that leads to the covered aft deck, which is also teak over fiberglass. Starting to see a trend? Grand Banks loves teak and it’s carefully selected to ensure a color match that’s expertly installed everywhere on the 41EU from the gunwales to the salon, twin staterooms, walkways, walls, furniture, entire lower helm console and steps leading to the flybridge where you are greeted by a giant teak latticed table. The interior sole on our test boat is high-quality maple and holly.

The profile of the 41EU seems rather compressed leading you to think it might be cramped, but entering the salon through the 36-inch sliding glass door dispels that myth. Of course, having a whopping 15-foot, 3-inch beam helps, but the great-room floorplan circled by large windows all around adds to the feeling of expansiveness with twin settees on either side that would serve admirably as single berths in an overnight overflow situation. You can even order an optional convertible sofa/bed. Another option offered is to replace the starboard settee with a pair of single barrel chairs, but this might limit your flexibility.

Big-Time Features
Several features scream maxi-yacht like the portside galley across from the lower helm station with its acreage of Corian in its wrap-around design. This not only gives on-water chefs plenty of food prep space, but also plenty of room to present their meal while leaving the folding-leaf inlaid teak salon table free for diners.

Something else you won’t see on your average 40-something-footer is a utility room, accessed by the surfboard-sized hatch in the middle of the salon. This is where the engine room would normally be, if it had conventional power, but the Cummins MerCruiser Diesel (CMD) Zeus pod drive system moves that farther abaft. This is an itinerant tinkerer’s dream with a workbench complete with a vice, and is greatly needed, because where else would you complete a messy mechanical repair … on the beautiful teak tables? There’s plenty of room for things that cruisers crave like a place for a freezer, washer/dryer or just some extra storage space.

Not many builders brag about the engine room on a 41-foot, 5-inch boat, but that was the first thing shown to me and it’s not hard to see why. The interior is the finished side of a liner giving it a classy appearance, and the roominess and accessibility for maintenance is amazing. If major engine surgery is needed, an easy-to-remove section of the aft deck makes it far less costly. Six inches of insulation does an amazing job of noise containment as we measured 58 decibels at idle and only 73 at wide-open throttle at the helm.

Accommodations are elegantly simple with a master suite that has an island queen bed with loads of storage to help keep things organized. No weird designer schemes here, just ivory fabrics surrounded by planked teak. Guest quarters are fairly small but feature twin beds with a filler option that converts them into a queen. The twin cabins share a single head compartment that has dual access and an enclosed shower large enough for couples to be able to conserve water from the 200-gallon tank by not showering alone.

A New, Faster Trawler Hull
Unlike the Grand Banks trawler hulls of previous generations, the 41EU features a modified deep-V planing hull with pockets at the stern for the new Zeus pod drives that are mounted via two oval holes in the bottom of the hull. But unlike most conventional hulls of this type, the Grand Banks still features a ¾ keel, which extends down as far as the outdrive’s bullets to help protect the twin counter-rotating propellers as well as to provide better tracking. Should a catastrophic underwater strike occur, the lower unit shears off and the hole is sealed to prevent sinking. Although you might think a keel would interfere with the independently articulating drives’ ability to move the boat directly sideways — one of its most useful tricks — it performed this maneuver during our sea trial at the Miami Boat Show with ease. And we needed all the maneuverability we could get since our slip had less than a foot of clearance on either side in addition to a dicey current.

Pod Power
The popularity of pod propulsion systems with joystick controls has been the buzz of the boating industry for several years, and Grand Banks wanted to tap into this emerging technology for its new model. “We had been looking at MerCruiser’s Zeus drive system and Volvo Penta’s IPS pod drives,” said David Hensel, Grand Banks’ brand and marketing director. “Ultimately we favored the more traditional rearward-facing props of MerCruiser’s propulsion system. And it’s been a great partnership; Cummins/MerCruiser Diesel has done a good job of earning our business.”

One awesome feature we got to use immediately while waiting for the Venetian Causeway Bridge to open was Zeus’ Skyhook, which interfaces with the GPS and held our boat in position without any input from the driver, even though the current was starting to rip. This is a particularly handy feature for those who are single-handing, because it allows the driver to get the lines and fenders ready before docking. Zeus’s Precision Pilot control panel, the size of a drink coaster, is the system’s autopilot and it’s very simple to use. To continue on a course, you push one button. To fine-tune your direction, you simply jog the joystick left or right, which changes course by 1 degree. To alter course in 10-degree increments you just press the left or right button once.

When the bridge’s green light flashed, I used the joystick to maneuver us through the gap and then let go of it and grabbed the large, vertical, elegant wooden wheel, a Grand Banks trademark. At first the helm felt a little cramped; the double-wide helm seat seemed to wedge me too close to the wheel when standing. But then it dawned on me that the seat bottom becomes a de facto leaning post when you have two feet planted on the holly and teak sole, and when you sit atop the helm seat, you can still easily reach the tall wheel. Hensel warned me that it would tend to wander a bit at idle, but having run an old Stamas single I/O for more than a decade, a boat with a mind of its own at idle, it was no worries, mate.

More Usable Power
Finally past the no-wake zone, we got a chance to open it up and the twin Cummins QSB5.9 aftercooled turbocharged diesels came to life. These modern engines, rated EPA 2 for their environmental friendliness, use common-rail fuel injectors. This increases efficient combustion and drastically reduces the emissions that exit the boat underwater so passengers won’t see or smell diesel fumes. After a few seconds the turbochargers kicked in and gave us a satisfying, stance-adjusting blast of power. Time to plane was tricky to determine since the MerCruiser Zeus system comes with automatic trim tabs that kept the bow from rising and falling. The best way to tell we were on plane was watching when the wake flattened out, which occurred in only 8.7 seconds. Minimum planing speed was 13.5 knots and as we backed off the throttles, the auto tabs deployed to keep the bow from rising up, which will make maneuvers like running in following seas much easier.

The Zeus drive system is up to 30 percent more efficient than inboards because the props’ angle is parallel to the hull unlike direct drive systems that vector away thrust by angling downward. The similar Volvo Penta IPS system recognizes this increased efficiency by naming their 435 hp model the IPS600, because Volvo estimates that it will perform like a conventional 600 hp diesel.

Speedy and Nimble … This is a Trawler?
As we passed through Government Cut and headed into the Atlantic, it was depressingly calm for testing a seaworthy hull like this. The international crew headed up the wide stairs to the flybridge, and we discovered it is large enough to accommodate a well-attended sunset cocktail cruise with a pair of long bench seats and a Pompanette captain’s chair. The helm was equipped with a full array of electronics, gauges, a huge stainless wheel and another Zeus joystick docking station. The calm conditions allowed us to check out one of the benefits of the Zeus system: its unparalleled maneuverability. Running it up to 20 knots, we took turns cranking the 41EU in impossibly tight turns. As we headed in, Hensel checked his watch and realized we were in danger of missing the scheduled bridge opening, so without further prompting I jammed the throttles to the max and we topped out at 23.6 knots as we streaked toward homeport just in time to make it. Go fast, go slow, the Grand Banks 41EU is one trawler that allows you to decide when you want to arrive – in style.