72 Hatteras Motoryacht

Source: Capt. Pat Rains, Sea Magazine

Feel at Home Making the Mexico to Alaska Circuit and Cruising the Med

Having helped my husband deliver a dozen different Hatteras motoryachts and convertibles from Florida to California via the Panama Canal, I was curious about the new 72-foot flybridge motoryacht. Hatteras has always earned our respect for its American craftsmanship and reliable designs. But would this new 72 be easy when handling lines and docking in tight marinas? Would it still be comfortable offshore? How would the helm and interior spaces be arranged?

Stan Miller Yachts had sold this model’s Hull #1, which was going to reside in San Diego, so by mid-February, I had twisted the arm of its full-time skipper, Capt. Sean Oversmith, to meet me at San Diego Yacht Club and go out for a sea trial.

Miss Sealaneous Expense II was berthed stern-to, so as I approached, my first impression was “What a pretty aft end it has.” None of the brochures I’d seen had showed the stern, but maybe they should.

STERN-TO
Enclosed within the swan-neck curvature of the 20-foot-wide transom and lofty aft quarters, twin stairways from the rounded and built-in swim step rose straight up to the covered aft deck. Tall hoop-type rails ring the swim step, and shorter ones in the same style continue all the way up to the bow. Creating a gracious entrance, it blends plump contemporary softness and traditional straight-ahead crispness. This Miss will be at home cruising the Med and making the Mexico to Alaska circuit.

Before firing up, let’s inspect the engine room. You have two ways to get there; the first is through a beefy ship-type door in the center of the transom, which leads you through the crew quarters and utility room. The other path to the engine room is by way of a stairwell cleverly concealed behind the recessed wet bar in the main salon.

ENGINE ROOM
The large, stand-up engine room gives full access to these powerful 1,650 hp C-32 Cat mains (one option above standard 1,550 hp) for easy inspection and maintenance. Each of the compact twin 27 kw Onan generators located right behind the mains can provide plenty of liveaboard power, even with air conditioning or heat, but if you really want to, you can split the load and run with both gensets.

The fuel transfer manifold is clearly marked, well laid out and uses large-size hoses and valves. Today we are carrying about 2,000 gallons of diesel, about 200 gallons less than a full load. We’ll draw from the centerline day tank, where fuel has already been filtered, but it then goes through dual Racors and a standard prime pump on its way to the engines. Shore power comes through an isolation transformer to prevent reverse-polarity problems.

LIGHT ’EM OFF
Tall people will appreciate this engine room’s head space and ventilation. Variable high-volume fans exchange air through huge intake screens in the bulwarks of the upper deck walkways, far from possible salt intrusion. Later, after running far offshore a few hours, the engine room was still fresh and cool. Speaking of cool, Hatteras has cleverly designed its own dripless stuffing box that is cooled via the engine cooling system.

LAYOUT OPTIONS
While Capt. Oversmith got the boat warmed up, my husband, the Stan Miller representative (who happened to be Blake Oversmith, the skipper’s father) and I made our way up to the main steering station, which on this boat is on the flybridge. You get here either from the aft cockpit up to the port side of the boat deck (187 square feet) or from interior stairs forward of the galley.

This flybridge immediately became my favorite, and it’s easy to see why. Almost everything up here was standard Hatteras equipment (two Pompanette helm chairs, two built-in lounge seating areas, a very nice wet bar with a refrigerator and stationary bar stools, etc.), but the owners had upgraded to the hardtop enclosure with EZ2CY-brand windows. This widened the control station, allowing more monitor screens, yet it left room for a third smaller Pompanette chair to port with a straight view forward. The EZ2CY windows are stiffer than typical vinyl, giving much better visibility and durability.

Capt. Oversmith surveyed this boat’s production in New Bern, North Carolina, and he had Hatteras incorporate several bright ideas on this deck: a zippered ventilation flap at the top of each window and small drain holes in the bottoms that can’t drip inboard; a hydraulically controlled wide-screen TV that flips down over the bar; aerodynamic molded pods around the aft deck lights; a stainless boatswain’s ladder to the crow’s nest that uses no deck space; and flush-deck mounting chocks for the dinghies.

Our test boat had two smaller dinghies mounted fore and aft alongside the 1,500-pound crane, but one larger skiff mounted athwartships would be more typical, to be launched over the starboard side.

As we untied the dock lines, Capt. Oversmith came down to the starboard side of the aft cockpit and used the very compact, flip-down steering station, which is unobtrusively mounted in the side bulkhead. This aft steering station allows better visibility alongside and aft for docking and fishing (as would the remote panel on order).

UNDER WAY
We took Miss Sealaneous Expense II out well past the Point Loma sea buoy to put it through its paces. If we’d waited one day, we’d have had 35 knots of wind and 6-foot seas. But that storm hadn’t reached San Diego yet, so we had no more than 15 knots of prevailing northwest wind and 3-foot seas for a slightly shorter period than normal.

This 72-footer was very easy to maneuver while docking, even at low rpm. It has eight-blade props on a 4:1 reduction gear, so it was very smooth under way. One prop had been bent, so we didn’t run the measured mile – we just pushed the throttles forward and headed offshore. Even when we ran up to 2250 rpm, making 23.5 knots, there was no pounding and the ride was smooth on the back deck.

I was looking for stability in a beam sea, so we turned off the stabilizers and laid the boat beam-to the wind and seas. We ran totally unstabilized at various speeds, then we came to neutral and let it drift in the trough awhile. Granted, this wasn’t like crossing the Caribbean in the roaring trade winds, lying dead in the water while trying to fix the steering gear or unwrap a prop. But in a 3-foot beam sea, there was hardly any roll-up on the flybridge, so I was impressed with its inherent stability.

Spinning tight doughnuts offshore, the boat steered well and nothing went flying down below. Heading dead down-swell again, we flipped the autopilot and stabilizers back on, and they made it track a perfect straight line.

LAYOUT ALTERNATIVES
Heading back into San Diego Bay, we inspected the living spaces. While this boat had a six-person dinette forward of the galley on the main deck, Hatteras also offers an inside steering station. The galley had lots of roll-out stowage, granite counters and nice appliances such as the stainless Sub-Zero fridge, and even an island with a flip-down wide-screen TV.

Instead of this boat’s very handy day head located between the galley and the main salon, you could have an extra pantry room.

Hatteras’ optional sunken bar at the aft port corner of the main salon is an excellent feature for several reasons: It disguises the utilitarian stairway down to the crew quarters and engine room; it gives shape to this large main salon when you enter from the aft deck; and the wet bar itself is very attractive, with two curved tiers of granite below a wide-screen TV.

Below decks forward, the master stateroom spreads across the boat’s entire beam. The most remarkable feature is the three large oval ports on each side, with seating benches below them. These ports admit valuable natural light, and because the center port actually opens and is screened, they provide natural cross-ventilation – another precious commodity. Being romantic, I loved this boat’s twin heads with a common see-through shower, but you might choose the walk-in closet.

The VIP guest stateroom to port could have a similar oval port light. There’s a nice forward stateroom, and all these quarters have their own heads, cedar-lined closets, storage under the berths, etc. The other option forward is between a fourth stateroom with bunk beds or giving the master stateroom an office or additional lounge seating.

CREW ON BOARD
Living space below decks aft is reached either by the hidden stairway behind the sunken bar off the main salon or via the shippy port in the transom.

The layout options here are between having a skipper’s berth with a walk-through utility room and separate head, or an aft guest stateroom with a walk-around double bed and separate head. Either way, this aft area is adjacent to the engine room door back bulkhead, and it gives access to the steering gear and aft port, so the utilitarian mode seems more logical.

Hatteras has already begun making a few minor improvements to Hull #2, thanks in part to feedback from Capt. Over smith and the owners of this lovely Hull #1. The companies that build the hardtop, the stainless rails and so many other major components have their own fabrication shops right within the Hatteras plant in New Bern, so during construction of subsequent hulls, owner-inspired modifications to the design plans are no problem.

It all depends on where you want to go and how many guests you want to have on board. Take the grand kids to Alaska for the summer. Take your business partners to Puerto Vallarta for the winter. Cruise Italy and Croatia or live aboard in Los Angeles. This new 72-foot Hatteras motoryacht is loaded with options.