Boat test for the 2005 Buccaneer 95 including boat specifications, photo galleries, boat videos, boat layout diagrams, boat test numbers, boat test results, and boat speed graphs. Also includes pricing, engine test reviews, ratings, standard features, and gear for the 2005 Buccaneer 95.

Get there from anywhere.

That's the mission of the stout-looking, passagemaking Buccaneer 95. To prove its point, the builder took this full-displacement, steel-hull vessel from the Inace yard in Brazil, where she was constructed, to last year's Miami International Boat Show on her own bottom. That's a 3,000-mile-plus haul. The crew told me that during the delivery there were several days of steady 12-footers, adding that the 95 still made a comfortable 10 knots throughout. This all sounded great, but I I wanted to see this kind of performance for myself. And that's just what I got to do.

Sea conditions on test day were ideal—if you like bad weather. It was blowing 25 to 30 knots, according to the 95's standard anemometer, and on a normal boat, the short-spaced six-plus-footers outside Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades inlet would be as inviting as a dentist's drill. However, this 95-footer has a displacement of nearly 195 tons fully loaded, a foredeck that makes her seem like the nautical equivalent of a skyscraper, and an all-weather hull with transverse steel plates spaced on 19.68-inch centers, a 3/4-inch steel-plate keel, 5/16-inch bottom plating, 1/4-inch side plating, and 1/4-inch bulkhead plating. And of course, there are eight water- and oiltight bulkheads. Perhaps stout is an understatement.

Buccaneer's Capt. Jim Blake was at the flying-bridge helm as the 95 exited the inlet, and the standard Quantum stabilizers kept the craft steady enough for a card game. (That is, if it weren't for those 30-knot winds.) I watched as a six-pack boat in the mid-40s bashed her way through the seas to try a hand at some weedline trolling. The occupants didn't look happy. I spent so much time watching the sportfisherman crash through waves and throw spray with reckless abandon that I'd hardly noticed the 95 was just motoring along as if we were on a cruise up the placid New River, despite the wind-driven spray that blew up onto the pilothouse windows once we broke the inlet.

At her 12-mph cruise speed, the Buccaneer 95 has a 6,000-mile range. The tender cradle on the middle deck is also a fuel depot for the dinghy.

Blake ran the boat cross-sea as I began to record my performance data. I looked at my Stalker radar gun for her top speed, waiting with the anticipation one has for ketchup to come out of the bottle. It took a while, but as the 95 crested and settled over each swell, the standard twin 440-hp Cat 3406Cs spooled up, and I recorded a top average speed of 14 mph with the engines spinning their rated 2100 rpm. With the engines dialed back to 1750 rpm, the 95 made a comfortable cruise of 12.2 mph with the stabilizers on. A little later we disengaged the stabilizers and gained about 0.5 mph or so at the top end. This came at the expense of some comfort, especially with the 95's high-sided nature. I occasionally found myself walking through the saloon with my arms outstretched for balance. I say lose the speed and keep the stabilizers engaged.

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