46 Hatteras Convertible

Source: Peter Bohr, Sea Magazine

It may be out of production but never, but never out of style

“The introduction of a new Hatteras is like that of a new Mercedes-Benz: just another step along the path of steady improvement on what is already acknowledged as one of the technical and qualitative leaders in its market.”

Those words prefaced a Sea trial on a Hatteras 46 Convertible back I July 1982, and the comparison is a good one.

Yes, as a necessary emblem for affluent, social-climbing professionals, a Mercedes-Benz has become something of a cliché. But there is sound logic behind this phenomenon.

Although most Mercedes buyers probably don’t understand the intricate workings of anti-lock brakes, hydro-pneumatic shocks and other sophisticated features common to their cars, they do know that year after year Mercedes offers automobiles crafted with superb attention to technical detail.

When it comes to sportfishers, much the same can be said of the HighPoint, North Carolina-based Hatteras.

Eye-catching gimmicks are anathema to Mercedes engineers, who are ever conscious of function, not just form. The typical Mercedes also lacks the awesome performance and gee-whiz styling of say, the typical Ferrari. However exciting those attributes may be on certain occasions, they are not particularly necessary of even desirable when one is slogging through daily rush hour traffic.

In the same manner, a Hatteras is different from a Riva: It’s neither as fast nor as rakish as the Italian yacht. “We could lower the profiles of our boats for a Med-boat look,” said Ken Kranz, director of marketing and planning for Hatteras. “But we’re unwilling to sacrifice interior room for it.”

Hatteras designers eschew suede covered bulkheads and bidgets in favor of more practical fittings, although Hatteras interiors are not exactly spartan.

A new Hatteras is always an evolutionary, essentially American design, and has much in common with its predecessors. “We put very little effort into contemporizing the styling of out boats,” Kranz said. “Our R and D is spent on engineering, on things like electrical and hydraulic systems.”

Kranz added that Hatteras has “the largest engineering staff in the business.” The company makes extensive use of computers, whether in lofting a new hull, milling parts or testing and concocting resin mixtures. Hatteras is eager to embrace state-of-the-art technology, but only after the engineers are satisfied that a new feature is a true advance, not just an unreliable novelty.

Indeed, as the first mass producer of large fiberglass power boats, Hatteras has a history of innovation. Unlike many other boat manufacturers, which began building in wood and later switched to fiberglass when the bright future of plastic became obvious, Hatteras never built timber hulls.

Around the time of the company’s founding in 1959, other manufacturers were building fiberglass boats, but only in smaller sizes. The first Hatteras, a 41-footer, was a bold move.

Incidentally, Hatteras recently found hull number one still in service on the west coast of panama. The company bought the boat and has refurbished it.

Since that first design, Hatteras has offered a vast assortment of models. Most can be placed into one of two categories: convertible/sportfishers and motoryachts.

Among the former, the Hatteras 46 still ranks as the company’s most popular model, even though it’s no longer in production. From 1974 through the first half of 1984, Hatteras built 269 of the 46 Convertibles.

Like other Hatteras models produced over the years, the 46’s basic hull design is not much different from the original Hatteras 41. It has a modified V-bottom with a single chine and a keel deep enough to protect the underwater gear.

The 46 Convertible was built with the attention to detail that makes every Hatteras so special (and expensive). A typical boat show shopper might not appreciate those details during a cursory inspection, but most owners come to regard them highly. A few examples:

Detail: From the time the 46 made its debut, Hatteras painted all its hulls with polyurethane developed by Imron.

The outer surface of other fiberglass boats is gelcoat, a smooth layer of resin. As anyone who has owned a fiberglass boat knows, the gelcoat fades quite rapidly unless it’s polished regularly. Eventually, after the gelcoat becomes thoroughly scruffy, many owners give their boats a coat of polyurethane.

On a Hatteras, the Imron does not replace the gelcoat, but is added over it. Hatteras says the Imron won’t fade and is very easy to match when nicks in the hull need filling. Imron is an extra step in production, but it makes the boat easier to maintain in the long run.

Detail: The 46 Convertible’s engine compartment, accessed via the cabin sole hatch, is sensibly arranged for dockside service or for fixing problems at sea. Fuel filters, fuel separators and fuel manifold switches are clearly marked and placed. Ditto for the plumbing. And all wiring is both color coded and numbered.

Detail: The “owner’s manual” provided to every Hatteras buyer is a briefcase-sized volume so complete that one could practically build a Hatteras by referring to its pages.

Detail: The interior is trimmed with solid teak, each piece carefully chosen and matched. The undersides of drawers are waxed, and any exposed grain is sealed with paint.

Detail: Hatteras designers seem to anticipate the little problems that tend to crop up on boats. Ed Richardson, a Newport Beach yacht broker who’s been selling Hatteras boats almost from the company’s inception, related this brief story.

A friend of his with a 46 foot power boat (not a Hatteras) bent several stanchions around the bow. When he unscrewed the stanchions from their bases for repairs, the nuts and washers fell between the inner and outer hull, unreachable and useless.

On a Hatteras, a nut plate is glassed into place to prevent such an occurrence.

Of course he’s prejudiced, but Richardson believes the Hatteras 46 has one of the best layouts of any boat in its size range – with a huge saloon and extensive accommodation, a cockpit that measures nearly nine feet long by 10 feet wide, plus a roomy flying bridge.

The boat has two basic interior arrangements. The galley-down option has two staterooms, each with an enclosed head. And each head compartment has the luxury of a separate shower stall. When the galley is up in the deck house, there’s room for another stateroom below, with a pair of bunks but not a third head compartment.

Until the early 1980’s, the 46 Convertible came with a pair of Detroit Diesels, each rated at 450 hp. It cruised at 21 knots and burned 32 gallons of fuel an hour.

“That was perfectly acceptable a decade ago,” Kranz said. “In recent years buyers have wanted more speed.” So, Hatteras developed a model with a pair of muscular, turbo charged Detroit Diesels that produced 650 hp each. With these engines, cruising speeds jumped to 26 knots. Naturally, fuel consumption jumped too, to 51 gallon per hour.

The extra ponies also put extra strain on the hull. Jack Hargrave, the boat’s designer, said the forces on a boat increase almost on the square of its speed.

Consequently, he beefed up the high performance 46 with extra transverse frames, and stiffened the sides of the solid fiberglass hull with a backing of balsa core. The deep keel was also shortened a bit to give increased lift.

Alas, the high performance 46 proved to be only an interim boat: It has since been replace by the Hatteras 45 Convertible. The new 45-footer has twin chines, more flare at the bow and side-vented exhausts. These modifications make the boat roomier, quieter and of course quicker.

The 46 Convertible may now be out, but it’s certainly not down. Like any good out-of-production Mercedes-Benz, it has simply become a modern classic.