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Viking Well-Bred Warrior

Boat Review

Viking Well-Bred Warrior Review

Source: John Clemans, Yachting Magazine

We turned the corner from the channel between Peanut Island and Palm Beach Shores in the once-freshwater Lake Worth Lagoon in Florida and headed out the man-made inlet into the Atlantic. A line of white-crested waves lay across the mouth of the cut like a hedgerow across the horizon.

“Don’t do anything nuts,” said Peter Frederiksen, turning to face Viking demo captain Ryan Higgins from his seat in front of the helm console.

“We’re already doing it,” joked Higgins before advancing the synched control lever on the starboard side of the teak steering pod and bringing the Viking 50 up on plane.

I have to hand it to Frederiksen, who is the director of marketing for Viking Yachts. He didn’t have to do this. We had already put the Viking 50 through its paces in the choppy ICW, clocking a blistering 40.3 knots, knobs to the wall, and a 2,000-rpm cruising speed of 35.2 knots, burning 77 gph. There was no need to defy small-craft warnings.

Forty knots is familiar territory for Vikings. I tested Tony Faraco’s 55 Viking at 39.5 knots when that model came out, and Tony Amarosa’s 52 at 39.4 knots immediately following its debut. Viking’s new 60, to which the 50 is clearly genetically indebted, nudges 42 knots, and like the 50, it can maintain tournament weigh-in speeds in rough seas better than any Viking to date an ability that Frederiksen was anxious to demonstrate. And so, despite Higgins’ caustic comeback, we headed for the hedgerow.

Ours was the only boat in the inlet, other than a cruise ship, and I saw no others offshore. The east wind was gusting to 30 knots and the tide was going out. At the mouth of the jetties, where the tidal rapids undercut the curling rollers, turning them into 12-foot-high walls spaced as closely as the yard lines on a football field, Higgins pulled back and the 50 rose and plunged steadily until we were clear of the onerous peaks and valleys. Still faced with quartering 8-footers, I was unprepared for the 50’s sudden leap forward as if the coast were clear for a speed run. I shifted my weight from the pedestal seat’s cushion to its footrest, preparing to take the impact in my legs. But there was none.

Duly impressed, I asked Higgins, “What if a big fish were stripping the reel to port?” Without touching the controls, he turned directly into the waves and crossed to the other quarter still no jolt. “Incredible,” I exclaimed. “It’s the new hull,” he said.

The hulls of the 50- and 60-foot convertibles aren’t all that is new about these two most recent additions to the Viking lineup. They have new sheer lines and window lines, as well. The sheer lines are devoid of the traditional downward arc forward and also provide more freeboard. The windows terminate in a subtle upward swoop, and a black metallic mask that simulates forward windows is now an option. While the familiar fish-gill air vents are unchanged, below the waterline is a new, more convex hull shape with prop pockets, protecting new Veem adjustable-pitch propellers (see “Pitch Your Own Prop” in the Boatkeeper section), and only 12 degrees of deadrise aft.

This is the new Viking look. It was introduced on two new models at a time when, because of the slowing economy, you might expect caution from a builder with so successful a stable as Viking. But constantly developing new models has been pivotal to this builder’s success. Caution isn’t a word the Healey family owner of Viking for 44 years has done business by. Neither is complacency. By consistently turning obstacles into opportunities, Bill, Bob and Pat Healey have brought Viking from an also-ran to the leader of the pack.

“Our only real competition is custom boats,” said Frederiksen. Could that be because Vikings are about as close to custom as production boats can come? So close, in fact, that any single description of the new 50 would be misleading.

I could describe the 50 I tested as having a perfectly clean transom with no box or door, and as having three in-deck boxes: a large one with dividers on the starboard side; and two on the port side one a livewell and one for chipped ice. That’s pretty close to what is listed as “standard,” but not exactly. The optional Eskimo ice machine actually dumped into the large box, and the addition of a transom door and walk-through would fall under the “standard” heading. In short, each new Viking is unique.

The various possible configurations are so numerous that it literally could be years before Viking duplicates this boat. Customers can lay out their own cockpits with as many large or small boxes as they wish to have for whatever purposes they specify. Their cockpits will, however, probably have a number of features in common, including a cabinet for cable TV and telephone connections; a    Glendinning Cablemaster for the 50-amp shore cord; a quick-connect for the Viking oil-change system (no need for buckets in the engine room); a plate laminated into the deck to support a fighting chair or table; hidden gaff storage; a refrigerated soda box under the salon step, and indirect rope lighting under the coaming. Their resin-infused, robustly gasketed hatch lids will be gelcoated on the undersides and have stainless-steel gas springs and gutters that drain overboard. Their in-deck boxes will be removable for access to steering gear, trim tabs, pumps, alarm sensors and underwater lights in their impeccably Awlgripped bilges.

A Viking engine room is a thing of beauty. As per Viking standards, the engines themselves in this case, optional 1,350 hp V12 MANs ($96,000 extra) instead of the standard 1,100 hp V10s are bedded not on the fiberglass encapsulated stringers, but on steel beams as strong as the handshake  of company President Bill Healy and mounted to transverse intermediate bulkheads to isolate torque, deaden noise and vibration and ensure perfect alignment. Another Viking trademark is the engine room’s one-piece, gelcoated headliner. Because it results in quieter living quarters, there is no cutout for engine removal. If an engine must be pulled, a saw is needed.

“It’s no problem for us,” said Frederiksen, referring to an engine removal. “We have the service capability to take any project in stride.” Vikings are built in New Jersey, but two service yards in Riviera Beach, Florida, have extended the firm’s customer support capacity far beyond that of any competitor’s. Owning a Viking, says Frederiksen, is tantamount to “one-stop shopping.” Viking takes charge of any and all problems an owner could possibly encounter and will provide a fix anywhere in the world. The solidly financed company can also ensure the absence of setbacks endemic to custom boatbuilding, such as untimely requests for payments and delivery delays. About those 1782s on order, says Frederiksen, “they’ll all be on time.”

No matter what their size, all Vikings have crash pumps on both engines for safety and Delta T engine room ventilation systems to guarantee an adequate supply of dry air. A new feature on the 50 that’s particularly appealing is its raw-water distribution manifold. Two pumps, each with its own strainer, serve a system behind a hatch on the engine room’s forward bulkhead that supplies water for refrigeration, air conditioning, livewells and raw-water wash-downs. Only two through-hull fittings are needed and the backup pump serves not only as a spare, but also allows strainer cleaning without shutting down appliances. Regulation of a bypass valve allows precise flow control. It’s the neatest raw-water management system I’ve seen.

On the freshwater side, a 175-gallon tank and optional 700-gpd water maker serve wash-downs on the bow,the flying bridge, the tower and in the cockpit. So, as Higgins explained: “You can have the entire boat washed down by the time you reach the dock. That way guests, people on the dock and boats docked on either side of you don’t get sprayed. Plus, water-maker water doesn’t leave spots like dockside water does.”

I remember the first time I was on a boat with a porch, or  “mezzanine,” as it’s called. “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” I said, or something to that effect. I had always wondered why cockpits were traditionally devoid of comfortable seating. Having a big, raised sofa in the cockpit makes perfect sense to me especially in an age of refrigerated transom boxes and lure fishing. Why should boat owners or their guests have to perch atop the lids of bait stations or freezers with their feet dangling in the air, or on covering boards in the hot sun, in order to be ready for action? Why not sit in comfort or even stretch out on a mezzanine settee? On the Viking 50, you can.

At 50 feet, this Viking can serve as comfortably as a crewed tournament campaigner as it can as an owner-operated sport-fisher/cruiser. “It’s a big boat for its size,” said Frederiksen. “I find it really amazing how much more we can put in the same footprint than we could just a few years ago.”  That’s great news for owners moving up from smaller boats or moving down from larger models.

Standing in the salon, I felt like I was on a 60-footer. The layout had a lot to do with it. Instead of a U-shaped galley to port, as so many convertibles seem to have, the 50 has an L-shaped galley on the starboard side, a triangular island counter and two L-shaped settees to port, the forward one for dining. The island offers storage as well as working space and bar stool seating a customer requisite. Remember, however, that owners can customize this arrangement to their liking, and satin, rather than high-gloss teak, can grace the entire interior.

The master stateroom’s queen-size berth has plenty of walk-around room and its entire base is devoted to compartmentalized storage. Heads and shower stalls are large, and mirrored medicine cabinets are deep. Both guest staterooms offer an unusual amount of storage room; the forward stateroom has an extra-wide lower berth.

The big bridge can seat a crowd and has walking room behind the twin, ladder-back pedestal helm chairs. There’s a generous cockpit overhang, too, yet the captain can keep tabs on an angler in the chair.

As we settled softly in the big seas at 25 knots, Higgins explained that by adding more convexity to the 50’s hull shape, Viking has been able to eliminate the pounding that you would expect in such conditions. In the calmer water of the ICW, I had already observed that the boat digs a very shallow hole it lifts instead of sucking down and produces an extremely flat wake.

So, there’s a lot going on with this newest Viking new styling, better ride, innovative engineering. Yet it retains the hallmark craftsmanship and overall performance that have made the brand king of the hill among blue-water battlewagons. And no two are ever alike.