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60 Viking Convertible

Viking Yachts

60 Viking Convertible Review

Source: Capt. Tom Serio, Sea Magazine

Bad to the Bone

When is a Viking 60 Convertible not a Viking 60 convertible? When it’s a Viking 60 Convertible Bad Company Edition.

To make the new Bad Company Edition (BCE) Viking 60, take a bunch of fanatical West Coast anglers, toss in some radical and seemingly practical ideas and add in a premier Viking fishing platform. It’s a tricked-out sportfisher; a Viking 60 on steroids. And it’s designed by the winningest fishing team around, Team Bad Company of California.

Let’s look at the basics first, as this is the foundation for the BCE version. On a recent sea trial, right out of the hole the speed of this Viking battlewagon is very impressive. Thanks to the famous and proven “Viking fishability,” not only will you get to the fish first, you’ll be catching them too. The BCE features will give you the competitive edge, which equates to taking home the prize.

As a captain as well as someone who’s spent his fair share of time wetting lines, I look at several points on a boat for functionality, accessibility and reliability.

Functionally, the Viking 60 BCE works. For fishing, the cockpit offers approximately 170 square feet of fish-fighting cockpit space. And there’s plenty of room to swing an 18-inch offset fighting chair/rod holder unit, so let the games begin.

One of the tedious tasks while trolling is watching the lines. Viking’s BCE custom mezzanine feature has padded seating up one level from the cockpit across the aft bulkhead, making that chore a little more comfortable. Add in bait stowage with bait trays, an in-deck 14-cubic-foot livewell, two in-deck storage wells, custom BCE house bait tanks and more, and you’ve got a heck of a fishing machine.

The BCE guys created a custom and removable “tuna tubes” system where the transom baitwell is located. Live tuna or other baits can be placed in the tubes, which have seawater running through them, keeping the baits alive an average of 24 hours (up to 50 hours has been experienced). Don’t underestimate the value of live baits.

With more than 20 years of fishing experience, Team Bad Company captain Steve Lassley with team owner Anthony Hsieh of Crow’s Nest Yachts in Newport Beach decided to replace their fishing fleet with a boat that can handle the perfect West Coast setup. Having experienced other big-name fishing platforms, Viking Yachts was chosen not just for the functionality, but also for the willingness to work with Lassley and Hsieh in designing their ideas. Viking is building the BCE as turnkey yachts specifically designed for Pacific Ocean big game. According to Lassley, “This has been a great collaboration with Viking Yachts, a marriage of form and function.”

And Team Bad Company uses the entire boat to fish, including the bow. To enhance their chances of hooking up, they designed a portable bow bait tank that can be tied down, complete with rod holders. A full custom bow pulpit allows for unobstructed casting by minimizing the anchor gear.

One major BCE feature is the unobstructed views from the bridge and custom tower, thanks to repositioned outriggers (mounted higher on the bridge instead of the house). No looking through spreader bars and wires while searching the seas from the Murray Products helm seats, port bench or forward padded seats. Antennas mounted on top of the tower, as opposed to the sides, gives much-improved sight capacity from the tower. Sighting fish movement and water patterns is essential to improving the odds of hooking up.

Need to back down on a fish or pull into a slip? The “Palm Beach” or pod-style helm has Caterpillar single-lever electronic shifters outward, allowing the captain to face aft with full control. Add in the BCE-designed bow thruster buttons on the shifter levers and the captain can stand looking aft while backing down on a fish or slip, and hit the bow thruster buttons with his thumbs if needed. No turning around to grab a thruster joystick and taking your eye off the target.

The Viking 60 has a new feature called a Moritz Octoplex. No longer do you need a full panel of breaker switches taking up valuable room in the salon. The Octoplex is a flush-mounted, touch-screen display that electronically controls power throughout the yacht. One display was at the helm (the other in the salon), giving the captain full electronic control of the vessel without having to leave the helm. If you want to turn on the salon lights, check on the water level or turn on the freezer, it’s all done via the panel. The system controls solenoids that are housed in the engine room and can be accessed if something goes wrong. It also saves 700 to 800 pounds of wiring, a significant amount of weight on a boat.

The Viking BCE helm is clean and sleek, with a glass-enclosed dash that houses the custom electronics package, tuned and designed by Captain Lassley. Furuno products are the choice here, including video screens (chartplotter, radar, fishfinder, etc). A drop-down overhead box contains the Cat engine monitor displays, plus anything else you would like.

Additional electronics such as VHF, autopilot, switches and buttons are housed in two covered boxes that flank the helm. Ready when needed, the boxes secure these devices from water and roving eyes when not in use, and add to the clean look. The optional split-cover on these boxes allows for only half the cover to be open, for easy access to radio or other controls while still offering protection.

As mentioned, the Viking 60 is one fast platform. Our sea trial cruise (800 gallons of fuel, full water, eight persons, full tower) was about 32 knots at 1900 rpm. But put the pedal to the metal, and the Viking 60 shot up to a WOT of 42.4 knots (over 48 mph). Put the wheel over hard, and the yacht heels into the turn, tracking true, with no bogging down of the engines.

With Captain Lassley at the wheel, we did try to force some of the blue water over the transom, but thanks to the underwater exhaust, the aft section actually lifts a bit when backing, helping to minimize the amount of H2O over the transom (water is better left outside a boat, in my opinion). It is important to note that there was a growling sound during these maneuvers. To the uneducated ear, it would appear that the boat had a bad case of cavitation. In fact, it was the underwater exhaust exiting with force as the throttles were applied. Nothing but shear power coming out of this boat.

What gave the Viking BCE these abilities was a pair of very reliable Caterpillar C32 ACERT diesel engines, rated at 1,825 hp. Cruising at 32 knots will consume about 108 gph, which is approximately 62 percent of load. Accessibility to the engine room is clear, through a hydraulic-assisted section of the mezzanine seating, without having to traipse through the salon.

Supporting that power/speed package is a new hull design. The aft section is a little flatter at 12 degrees deadrise, giving more lift, speed and efficiency. The hull structure is fully balsa cored with Baltek end-grain high sheer-strength balsa sandwiched between vacuum-bagged fiberglass layers. Viking claims that with the use of balsa coring for the past 20 years there has never been a single construction failure, so the company must be doing something right. Solid fiberglass is used in all areas of through-hull penetration, such as struts, shaft logs, water intakes and the like. Coring topside and through the superstructure helps give rigidity and strength while reducing weight, which increases that speed figure.

But it’s not all about the hull, as the Viking 60 lines show off a slightly changed profile. The side windows sport a new upturn at the aft end, giving a sleeker look. With optional bow railing configurations (i.e., railings all the way around, just at the bow peak or none), the Viking 60 looks fast by just looking good. Our BCE version had full railings, which improves safety for anyone going forward.

For the interior, the Viking 60 offers three-and four-stateroom layouts, with the company’s signature fit, finish and joinery. The midship master has a queen-size berth, with teak end tables, credenzas and a hanging locker. Stowage abounds beneath the berth and within drawers. All drawers and lockers are maple lined.

The forward guest stateroom also has a queen-size berth or an optional cross-over twin-berth setup. The starboard room offers side-by-side bunks. All staterooms have en suite heads with shower stalls.

As a vertically integrated company, 90 percent of a Viking is manufactured in house at its New Gretna, New Jersey, family-owned location. And all BCE features and options are built-in at the factory, not add-ons later. When you order the Bad Company Edition, you get it right out of the box.

The salon boasts the best interior. A workable area with either a satin or high-gloss finish, the starboard-side large L-shaped settee is open to all points here with no obstructions around. With a galley-up configuration to port, and a U-shaped dinette to starboard, no matter where you sit you are part of the activity. Entertainment is from a 42-inch Sharp LCD HD TV over the dinette and a Bose sound system.

The U-shaped galley features curved granite countertops (Corian optional), eliminating sharp corners. Granite is also easier to clean and doesn’t stain, a good idea when fishermen, who live to fish, are around. Under-counter Sub-Zero drawer-style refrigeration (four drawers) and freezers (two drawers), a recessed sink, a flat-top four-burner stove, microwave/ convection oven and plenty of deep stowage make this more than a weekender galley.

If you’re looking to fish the Pacific, let the experience of Team Bad Company and the Viking 60 Bad Company Edition give you the edge.