Hatteras M90 Panacera 2017 Test Video by BoatTest.com

The latest model to enter the Hatteras fleet, the Hatteras M90 Panacera’s stunning open-concept features a crisp, light-filled interior that strikes a perfect balance of dramatic form and ingenious function. The M90 Panacera incorporates an inspiring range of global design influences to create new uses of living, dining and entertaining spaces. 

Distinctive features include the 360-degree wraparound windows, signature skylights and sweeping staircase to the expansive bridge. Join us as BoatTest.com takes a look at this breathtaking motoryacht:

The following opinions are solely those of BoatTest.com and its test captain. 

Hi, Capt. Steve for BoatTest.com and today I’m on an all-new launch from Hatteras, the 90 Panacera. Now, the design team at Hatteras tell me that they made this to be an oceangoing yacht but because they’ve ramped up the technology so much, the boat now works for you instead of you working for the boat. Let’s take a look. 

Now throughout this video, you’re going to hear me referencing the HattCon system. This is a system that has been developed by Hatteras so that everything on the boat can be controlled through either an iPad mini or your smartphone. 

When I say everything, I mean everything. From an entertainment aspect, it’s the air conditioning, the lights, the TVs. From an operational aspect, the AC systems, the DC systems, the tank monitoring, the fuel transfer, navigation. Now because everything is so controllable through the system, they’re two different profiles – one for the guest and one for the captain. 

Crew quarters can be accessed from either this transom door or a discreet door in the aft deck. Once inside, to port is a crew stateroom with an over/under berth, directly across is the head and this has another access door leading to the captain’s cabin. Here we have a queen-size berth with plenty of storage all around. 

Coming out of the captains takes us to the central seating area opposite a flat-screen TV and adjacent to that, we have a modest galley with a microwave, plenty of counter space, below are refrigerated drawers, a single basin stainless steel sink and storage above and below. And then of course, the steps to the aft deck. 

As we continue forward our main AC distribution panels are over on the starboard bulkhead. It feeds power to 6 separate individual panels forward which is located right here in the engine room. Let’s take a look. 

Here we have a very nicely laid out engine room. Unbelievable headroom. Right at the entrance, 6 feet 8 inches and we stepped down 7 feet 10 inches. That is narrowest 28 inches between the 2 sets of fuel filters, two 40kW generators right at the entrance and of course the focal point, the twin C-32 ACERTs at 1902 horsepower each. 

Just an overview of some of the larger items in the engine room – the fans, filter to keep salt water out, cruiser system providing chilled water air conditioning throughout the boat, looking at the front of the edges I can easily see the raw water pickups and also like to see a divider so that we can draw water from the bilge in the event of an emergency.

Main battery switch is at the forward bulkhead. Just ahead of this forward bulkhead is the fuel tank providing sound insulation from the master statement which is on the other side. Over on the starboard side 1800 gallon-a-day fresh water maker. 

Hatteras worked with making an improvement to this thematic water maker where it has a programmable logic controllers that automatically primes it. So when it loses its prime, it will automatically get it back to have alarms going off. Really cool system. 

I can see the AC pump for the stabilizing fins. This gives us a zero-speed stabilization. And I have to point out this exhaust system. Look at the high risers plus this massive muffler system. This is the running water down under the hoist, so we’ve got underwater exhaust, but we’ve also got suit scrubbers that are giving all our guests fresh air while they’re on the boat and we’re not getting the bubbling next to the boat plus it’s got an added benefit of giving us a full-beam crew quarters.

Now the bilge down below by the staterooms has a lot going on. Let’s take a look. The bulk of what’s going on down here is water supply and discharge for the heads. So water pump right over here. There’s a discharge line, here’s your supply lines. But follow this down, you’ve got your pressure gauge right here, a bled valve, so we can let air out of the system.

Over to the other side is another water pump and there’s an expansion tank just behind. Just under the stairs, some pump for the condensate, manifolds for all 5 heads, so we can shut them off individually for servicing each one. Down below we’ve got an AC crash pump and fully forward the 45 horsepower bow thruster.

To both quarters of the aft deck are heavy duty bulwarks leading out to stainless steel rollers. There’s room in the front for optional warping winches. Just overhead, cameras that can be activated for 360 degrees through the head can be controlled on an iPad or your smartphone. 

This boat has a symmetrical layout. So the side decks are the same on both sides. Let’s take a look. There are opening side doors to both port and starboard. The side deck space is 19 inches between the cabin side and the bulwarks that come up 33 inches.

Now when we get to the midship area we have hatch. I can open this stuff. It’s a storage place for the stairway that mounts to the side of the boat. We talked about the exhaust earlier. The generator is tied into the exhaust system. I can just barely hear the generator running but more importantly, we have no exhaust smell, the fumes; I’m breathing fresh air. So quiet and clean.

At midship we have another opening side door. This is where that stairway is going to be mounted. Watertight door to both sides. Notice how the bulwarks come up 4 feet 3 inches. How’s that for safety? Look at this, stainless steel hose pipe with the clips to both sides so now we can reach through and tie the boat from the dock. I also like how these side decks are protected from overhead and they have a drip edge, so rainwater flows over the side. 

As we make our way up to the working end of the bow, the rail comes up 4 feet 1 inch. Look at this, an electrically actuated hatch over the windlass system. I’ve got a 4500 Maxwell windlass – 300 feet of echelon hot dipped galvanized chain, going out through a chain stop and a stainless steel roller, 140 pounds polished stainless steel plow anchor.

There’s an access hatch to the side so that we can get to the chain. There’s a freshwater wash down. Now in this boat, the fuel filler is on the port side. It is kind of a neat setup. First of all, we’ve got the patented Hatteras vents, you can hang a bucket under there to catch any fuel that might come out of the vents.

But that’s not going to happen because we have fuel level indicators so that when it reaches 95% alarm goes up, we silence the alarm and then we can slow the process down. It means, shut it off when we get to the full point.

Of course, all this is connected to the HattCon system, which means that you could be looking at the field level on your phones; you don’t have to be standing right here to shut the fuel off. You could right at the fuel pump. And of course, this could be on the port side, the starboard side or both.

Now, taking a look at the helm, it’s starboard mounted, and honestly, I have seen some well laid out helms in my day; this one seems to take them all and put them to shame. It’s really really well laid out starts with four 19-inch displays and they are all interconnected, interchangeable, so you can put anything on each display that you want.

And this system is really where the HattCon controllability starts to shine. Touching HattCon is basically your homepage. We can come up with anything that we want to display on these pages to get any kind of information we want and we can control everything on the boat. When I say everything, I mean literally everything from the lights to the air conditioning, to the pumps, to the fuel tanks. 

We can also change anything we want and put it on any display we want just by clicking and dragging, so that it comes up however we want. Now this system gets way too involved for this video. But there are some standout features that we do want to point out to you. 

Simple things like going to something safe, the nav lights. We can’t accidentally turned the lights on. You have to make a positive control and then the lights will come on. Another example, if I want the lighting control, it won’t let me shot lights off in a room that I’m not in for safety reasons. But if I want to do that anyway, there is a password that I can override that system at. 

So safety is built into all of that system. If I want to say the radar on here, notice that they can also move it around, I like having things off center because I’m more concerned with what’s in front of me. I can also pinch to zoom, widen, all of that functionalities here and it’s pretty intuitive. 

Now the underlying theme of all of this HattCon controllability is it takes systems that use to have all of their own functionality, we had figure out how each one worked, combines it all into one user interface so that everything works the same way. Now of course we have an open flybridge layout here. So without these isinglass windows there whether going through this helm and for that reason, all of the screens are weatherproof. 

We still have things that is controlled by switches that you want immediate access to – the searchlights, the nav lights, the bilge pumps. Over the starboard side, the engine controls, the CAT 360 joystick and the interface control for all forward screens. So this works much better in see way instead of having to deal with the touch screens, you can do everything by these touchpads here.

Now this is the admissions system, everything works by these touch buttons. Emergency stop, lift up this lead. There’s your stop right there. And we have a fingerprint scanner so we can only have authorized people use it obviously, I’m not one of the authorized people. 

Take a look at this steering wheel – stainless steel, 24 inch, vertically mounted. You can’t even see a single weld in this and it’s connected to the electric over hydraulic system, so it’s programmable round the dock, three returns from lock to lock, underway it’s 5 turns. 

The helm seats up from chrome. High back, flip-up armrests, swivel, slide adjustable for height and has flip-down footrest. The touchscreen interface that we have on the panel is going to be repeated on the arm of the chair. And it is well laid out is this helm is. It’s only lacking for one thing – beverage holder. 

So I’ve always been of the opinion that the bigger the boat is, the easier it is to handle because there are so many systems that help with that handling and this is one of them – the Cat 360. This joystick seems to be dialed in better than probably any boat I’ve ever been on, I was able to control this so precisely. You still use the pulses, but hold that pulse a little bit longer, because it’s the heavy boat, you need to get it moving.

Once you get it moving, then you can get back off on the stack, let the momentum take and just keep giving a little pulses to maintain that motion in the right direction that you are going to. And moving the stack sideways, brings it perfectly sideways. There’s no stern first, bow first that you need to accommodate for its style, then spot on.

Now there is a reason why the system is so well dialed in, normally the ABT thrusters and the stabilizers have their own proprietary hydraulic systems but in this instance, Hatteras came up with their own system that combines the hydraulics for the thrusters, the stabilizers and the CAT 360 system; so that’s all in one hydraulic system and that’s why it’s so perfect and in my opinion, the best I’ve ever used. 

Once clear of the dock, we were on our way. We started up by maneuvering through some narrow waterways that give us a good indication of how well she handles at low speeds. Soon enough, we’re at open water and clear to run. Now let’s start by taking a look at the numbers. 

The Hatteras M90 Panacera has a length overall of 91 feet 9 inches, a beam of 22 feet 6 inches and a draft of 6 feet 2 inches. With an empty weight of 230,000 pounds, 90% percent fuel and 4 people onboard, we estimated our test weight at 254,236 pounds. 

Now that most definitely puts her into the heavyweight category, probably the heaviest in class. So why is that? Well first, if we eliminate the fact that she carries more fuel and water than the competition, we’re still left with what heavy boat.

The reasons for that are several. They’re overbuilt – Hatteras doesn’t cut corners anywhere to save weight and certainly not on the build process. Everything is solid. Even the counties are solid marble, not honeycomb core to make them lighter. Everything is all in here. The boat includes virtually everything. All items that would be otherwise considered options are most often standard here and all are included in that empty weight. 

So with that said, Hatteras had to innovate with this propulsion system to match the prop with the drive, the drive with the whole form to gain back its efficiency and performance. With a pair of 1,902 horsepower Cat C32 ACERTs turning 54 by 66 pitch, 8 plated propellers, we reached our top speed of 24.7 knots at 2315 rpm.

That makes for 0.1 nautical mile per gallon and that number stays consistent all the way down to 1500 rpm in 10.2 knots. Below that, the rain starts to double and that double again, then triple. However, for normal operations at most prorate rate 80% load which is the Cat recommended cruise speed. That comes in a 2100 rpm in 21.9 knots. 

At that speed, she’ll burn 169 gallons per hour for a range of 382.6 nautical miles. All while still holding back at 10% reserve of the boat’s 3,285-gallon total fuel capacity. Now we don’t normally run things like time to plane and acceleration times with large body but Hatteras made a significant investment in time and money and this yacht’s propulsion. 

It not only designed the hull for maximum efficiency, it designed the propellers too. So we measure to time to a plane of this 254,236 pound boat at 10.6 seconds at a time to 20 miles per hour at 55.2 seconds. 

Hatteras spent a lot of time and effort into making a well-performing hull. So we need to test her handling, smoothness and low sound. The first part is easy. To test the handling, I took it from her full speed and spun the wheel hard over. And I found that she’ll turn to the level attitude and then once it’s established into the turn, she’ll roll at gentle 7 degrees into the turn. 

I could feel when the stabilizers kicked in and they not so much kept the turn docile, but also worked with the radars to coordinate the turn; much like an airplane uses the ailerons and radar in conjunction with one another. It’s definitely a feel that I noticed. 

As for timing, the turns aren’t quick nor are they supposed to be. We measured our turn diameter at 600 yards, we came around 360 degrees in 2 minutes 10 seconds. Again, at full speed. 

Next because the systems are so dialed into one another, we wanted to look at the position keeping capability of the CAT 360 system. So all stop, engage the system and let’s take a look. Here we’re zoomed into 49 yards to both sides of the screen. 

Of course there’s the boat in the center in our track light from where we first engaged the system. The dotted line here shows which way it’s trying to move the boat to hold this position against the wind and tide moving in this direction. 

We’re also holding are heading as well as position. For existing conditions, we have winds coming from 181 degrees at nearly 15 knots. And of course, our stabilizers are locked. Disengage the system and we immediately start moving at 0.5 not and 129 degrees. 

Now normally this system goes through a Caterpillar interface. But what Hatteras did was work with Cat and twin desk to get the codes and lock that interface in with head count. So here we have it on the HattCon screen where we otherwise couldn’t if it were a Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad or whatever other display. Again, another example of head counting one interface. 

Now lastly, to see how smooth and quiet this yacht is, I did something I never would normally do. Once back up to full speed, I went to where the worst of the sound and vibration should be, right behind the propellers out on this one platform. 

First I measured the sound levels with the wind and sprain engines all doing their works. I got only between 90 and 91 decibels. I’ve measured that on sport boats. Also, that exhaust system is doing its thing – nothing but fresh air and no station wagon effect. 

I then felt for vibration. Nothing would they feet so I went to my hands and found it to be minimal. And there’s a reason for this the deep tunnel’s and 8 plate propellers are designed for maximum performance and efficiency, also reducing noise and vibration. And as I’ve seen, it’s noticeable. And at the end of the day these are the things that make a difference – the Hatteras difference. 

And that’s my full performance evaluation of the 90 Panacera from Hatteras. For BoatTest.com, I’m Capt. Steve. We’ll see you on the water.