68 Viking Motor Yacht

Source: John Shinnick, Sea Magazine

This is one sexy European you can bring home to Mother

What makes Viking Sport Cruisers’ 68 Motor Yacht so different?

It’s an aggressive style, born of European traditions. It’s that je ne sais quois that gives fashion on the far side of the Atlantic such a distinctly different look.

It’s also a mature style — not merely an Auto CAD solution to space utilization issues. In fact, the first thing that hits you when you board the Viking 68 — even before you react to its sleek profile, flawless gelcoat exterior and high-gloss cherry interior — is the intimacy of this layout and the use of space itself.

This is not a small boat, but the space is used in such a way that the stylish profile suggests a yacht much smaller than its 68 foot length. Where many North American builders and designers might tend to adhere to the Panamax approach (a designation for a freighter designed with the largest dimensions allowed to transit the Panama Canal), this yacht seems to treat interior space as something of an inconvenience. In other words, do not expect a slab-sided maximum-accommodation pleasureboat.

Ooh La La
You enter the 68 across a large teak swim grid. Up three steps, you’ll find the lower aft deck and a comfortable settee covered in UV-resistant fabric. Protected from rain and sun by an extension of the upper deck, you may find this area can easily become “Party Central” on a boat that worships the very idea of the outdoors, sunshine, blue water and quality time with friends and family.

As you cross the teak sole, you’ll pass a pump panel with controls for winch-assisted line handlers, to starboard; and a teak and fiberglass stairway to the upper deck.

The entrance to the main saloon is through a sliding stainless steel-framed glass door. The saloon, in contrast to the open spaces of the decks, is intimate — more like the living room in a stylish apartment.

A curved settee and a curved raised dinette seat combine to seat up to a dozen guests. The living area itself is finished in the contrasting warmth of cherry bulkheads with padded panels and an overhead of white vinyl.

Three stainless steel-trimmed oval windows, radiused corners, warm woods and bright fabrics give this boat the feel of a much more expensive yacht.

Galleys on 68 foot yachts don’t get more compact or efficient than the one on this motoryacht. With its Corian countertops, microwave oven and four-burner glass-top electric range, this is not some frou-frou culinary arts playpen. It is a serious cooking area dedicated to the production of lots of food — fast.

The galley can be closed off from the saloon behind sliding polished-cherry doors and drop-down electric pass-throughs for formal dining occasions — or it can be opened to bring the chef into the party.

Opposite the galley, there’s ready access to the boat’s wide sidedecks via electric-assist aircraft-style doors. The decks feature molded-in skid-resistant surfaces, for surefooted maneuvering in all weather.

Surprisingly, you’ll discover that you can bunk as many family members and guests on this boat as you can on some 80-footers.

You enter the lower sleeping quarters from a spiral staircase. Accommodations include a queen-size master stateroom amidships, a queen-size guest stateroom forward and two twins to port and starboard off the companionway (plus, there’s a small two-bunk crew’s quarters, which can be entered via the foredeck).

The finish in the stateroom interiors is on a par with the main living areas above. Again, finely polished cherry is everywhere.

Serious Business
Viking builds this boat through an unusual arrangement with a British boat builder, Princess Yachts International of Plymouth — a company known for its own line of yachts. Viking ships containers packed with electronic and mechanical components from North America to the British yard. There, virtually everything an American owner will need is installed at the factory — ready to be serviced under the original factory warranties by American service agents in the owner’s homeport.

This unusual cooperation ensures that the components on the 68 are loaded with software for North American users. The buttons, switches, plugs, lubricants and other aspects meet North American sensibilities, and can be operated with manuals that are written in language familiar to tradesmen in home waters.

Parts for Viking Sport Cruisers are also more readily accessible than with most boats built expressly for the European Common Market. The added benefit is that the owner doesn’t have to jump through major hoops, at shop rate, having installers remove parts of the interior to install electronic components after the boat arrives. The result is a turnkey package with European flair.

The engine room is accessible through two hatches in the aft deck. Like the galley, this area is cozy, with limited headroom and limited elbowroom. This is an area for wrench monkeys, not owners.

Into this space, in the manner of a fine Italian or German sports car, the builders have shoehorned a pair of 1,200 hp 2842LE-406 MAN V-12 diesels. On our test boat, furnished by The Crow’s Nest in Seattle, these powerplants had been tweaked to produce 1,300 hp — an $18,000 option, according to the dealer, Dan Wood.

One of the most unusual items in the 68’s engine room is a replacement shaft — a feature that any owner who has ever waited extra days (or weeks) in a distant port for a replacement part to arrive will definitely appreciate. This replacement shaft also comes with a coupler — already faced and ready to be installed.

Both the upper and lower control stations include such standard features as Mathers MicroCommander controls, Sidepower thruster controls, Autohelm instrumentation and VDO gauges. The lower station has Raymarine radar, chart plotter and depth sounder displays.

Both stations have small wood-spoke captain’s wheels with leather trim. The upper station has an electric-assist instrument panel that pops up out of the console and disappears when not needed — which should ensure long life by sunproofing and rainproofing the gauges and electronics in this area.

The upper station is an ideal social area, equipped with an L-shaped settee, a small table and a built-in barbecue, sink and refrigerator abaft the helm. Instead of a radar arch, a radar tower keeps all the radio, radar and satellite antennas in one convenient location. There is room for a dinghy davit and a tender on the overhang over the lower deck.

Before the boats reach U.S. dealers, the 68s are shipped inside the holds of freighters instead of weathering the indignities of deck passage, further ensuring that the boats arrive in the same showroom-like condition as during their original launch.

Before being shipped, all Viking Sport Cruisers in this series undergo up to 40 hours of sea trials on the English Channel, a waterway noted for its snotty temperament. To meet conditions much tougher than we generally encounter in the Inside Passage or West Coast waters, the 68’s deep-V hull is built to rigorous scantlings and layup schedules. It’s built to ABS and Lloyd’s standards, but inspections are optional.

Good Show, Viking
For our test cruise, Dan Wood and I took the 68 out from Seattle’s Lake Union through the Montlake Cut into Lake Washington. Going out, we ran from the lower station — and returning to the marina, we ran the boat from the upper station.

The wind was calm, and the day was clear. Our test boat idled at 600 rpm, pushing along at 7.4 knots. Past the speed limit marker at the entrance to the cut, we throttled up through the rpm range in 1,000 rpm increments.

The ride was flat, with the bow rising only gradually as the boat achieved a plane. With a half load of fuel and water, we topped out at 33.9 knots at 2,400 rpm. Speeds should be a full knot better on salt water, because of the higher density. With this much power, you can pick your cruise to suit the conditions, load and fuel.

Belowdecks, the ride was conversationally whisper quiet, even at top speed. The response in the turns was tight, with none of the noticeable rpm dropoff you sometimes get in turns with boats this size.

This 68-footer would be equally at home gunkholing in the San Juan Islands or mooring stern-to in a Mediterranean marina.

Where many of this boat’s contemporaries are designed from the inside out, compromising the profile for the sake of wide-open spaces belowdecks, the Viking Sport Cruiser 68 Motor Yacht was clearly designed from the outside in — starting with the sleek, sporty profile and making the accommodations fit the lines. The effect works — at the docks and under way.