Boat Review: 41 Grand Banks Heritage 2010

Boat Review: 41 Grand Banks Heritage 2010

Source: Boattest.com

Speed has always been a touchy subject with Grand Banks. The brand started out being a displacement cruising vessel, but once the company started to expand its market it discovered that slow wasn’t fast enough for most powerboaters. The solution was to put in bigger twin diesels and make the bottoms flatter and keep the weight down as much as possible. In 2005 GB retired its classic 42 Heritage, then in 2008 launched the boat you see above, the new Heritage 41. Powered by twin 425-hp CMD diesels driving through Zeus pod drives the boat is said to cruise in the mid teens in knots, and have a WOT speed of 25 knots. If you want to go faster, you are really in the wrong category of boat. Try something other than a trawler-type.

The 41 Heritage EU looks just like a Grand Banks, and that’s good. It has the extended saloon of all the EU models, meaning lots of living room on the main deck level. Aft, there’s a U-shaped dinette with a settee opposite, a galley forward to port, helm to starboard. All joinery is Grand Banks style, e.g., lots of wood. But the décor is clean and modern, and the large deckhouse windows make the saloon a bright, cheery space during the day and a cozy hideaway at night. Just remember to draw the curtains.

With a relatively sharp entry forward for a Grand Banks the Heritage 41 EU can cruise comfortably in the mid teens and have a WOT in the mid 20s, depending on how many horses you buy.

All of this if very much like what one has come to expect on a traditional Grand Banks, so expectations are met. After all, it is a “Heritage.”

This is a good view showing the “Heritage” look. Note the three squared-off panels in the house where the windshields are and in the flying bridge cowling. Back in the 1960s when Grand Banks started, fiberglass boats were built that way because their plugs were made from sheets of plywood. Builders the last 20 years or so have been carving out their plugs from foam or other softer material with five-axis routers driven by a CAD-CAM. Rounded corners on a Grand Banks just wouldn’t look right even though GB could now do it.

Belowdecks, the forward master stateroom has an island queen berth, the guest cabin to port a pair of twins. There’s a single head with access from the master or the passageway; it has a separate stall shower. Aft of the accommodations is a gigantic utility space where the engines ought to be. It’s big enough for a washer/dryer, workbench, spare parts, stores, you name it. You reach this great new space by opening a hatch in the galley sole and climbing down into it.

The side decks, the teak cap rail, the dog-bone pylon and the teak aft deck are all details that make Grand Banks so classy. Note the air intake louvers for the engine room on the side of the house, instead of down on the hull side where they could ship water and are certainly more vulnerable to sloppy seas. We like the stairs leading to the flying bridge instead of a more vertical ladder. Please note that Grand Banks has put teak treads on the fiberglass steps for safety; most builders neglect to do that.

Essentially the lazarette has been moved to the center of the boat, and that has its advantages. First, it is far handier to do the laundry. Second, our guess is that it will be drier than a conventional lazarette in the stern which tends to be dank and damp on virtually any boat. But where are the engines?

Grand Banks has been designing and building cruising galleys a long time and it knows what it is doing. Note the fiddles all around the galley counter. We can count the production powerboat builders in the entire world who do that on one hand. Now, all we need is sea rails on the stove top.

Zeus Makes the Difference

Thanks to GB’s choice of Zeus pod drives instead of conventional inboard engines with shafts and rudders, the Cummins MerCruiser Diesels live all the way aft, almost atop the innovative drives. That has freed up space under the salon for what everyone these days is calling it – “the basement.” Not too nautical. We prefer “hold” or, utility room, or better yet, “storeroom.” Anything except basement, please.

A typical forward cabin. GB has thoughtfully covered the hull sides in teak which warms up the cabin, but has missed an opportunity to put in much-needed storage cabinets.

If you haven’t heard of Zeus drives, then simply use BoatTEST.com’s search engine on the home page of the website and type in “Zeus pod drives” and you will be brought up to speed. According to people who have used them, Zeus drives, with the joystick function, take a lot of the angst out of boating in close quarters, while improving efficiency and performance underway.

There is a lot going on here in just 41’(12.6 m). Note the seat forward on the trunk cabin – something that the original GB’s never had — the tender on the boat deck abaft the bridge and the sharp entry at the foot.

Zeus Details

The drives are counter-rotating twin-prop units that look like the lower units of sterndrives, but are mounted in tunnels and come out of the bottom of the boat. Each one can pivot independently of the other, making it possible for the black box in the Zeus system to optimize both thrust and direction of each pod when docking or performing other delicate maneuvers.

You don’t have to have the manual dexterity of Van Cliburn to make this happen – electronics do it for you. You simply move a joystick in the direction you want to go, and the computer takes it from there. (Don’t worry – there’s a conventional wheel, too.) Implement the Zeus Skyhook feature and the computer will keep your boat completely stationary, using input from a GPS, while you rig fenders and dock lines, or wait for a bridge tender, or whatever.

To maximize the benefits of Zeus drives, Grand Banks designed a completely new modified-V hull. Before the boat was launched last year, the company predicting significantly improved efficiently across a wide range of speeds. Grand Banks has not yet asked BoatTEST.com to test the new boat, so we have yet to learn how the boat actually performs.

Summary and Price

Zeus drives are available mated to Cummins MerCruiser QSB5.9 diesels from 330 to 480 hp. Taking a hp rating in the middle – 425 – a new Grand Banks Heritage 41 has a bare-bones MSRP price of $744,000 in Singapore. Things like shipping, air conditioning, etc. are extra.

With the Heritage 41 EU – the smallest trawler in the GB line — you get all of the things that Grand Banks is famous for, plus a modern propulsion system. If you are moving up or down from a fast planing boat, then this vessel is probably a good intermediate step before reaching a full displacement-speed boat. Many people are just not ready for 8 knots.

Boat Specifications: 41 Grand Banks Heritage 2010