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I was prepared to not like the Hamilton waterjet-propelled Huckins Linwood 56 all that much, primarily because some of the waterjet vessels I've driven over the years have evinced a few dicey handling characteristics. You know, stuff like wandering off course at low (and sometimes high) speeds and turning simple docking situations into unwholesomely entertaining events, complete with spectators. So when Huckins owner (and granddaughter of Huckins founder Frank Pembroke Huckins) Cindy Purcell turned the 56's custom-upholstered Recaro Atlantic LT-H helm seat over to me in the midst of the St. Johns River, not far from the Huckins plant in Jacksonville, Florida, I took possession with mixed feelings.
Certainly, I had a few reservations—just ask my wife about my tendency to expect the worst. But on the other hand, Purcell had so far managed to pique my curiosity as well. A talented boathandler, she'd driven La Belle Helene throughout the whole testing regime that morning, easing through the slow-mo portions in a relaxed seated position that allowed her to steer with her bare feet. Such nonchalance was not unfamiliar to me—I used to steer 197-foot Halter oil-field vessels the very same way sometimes. And I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that steering with one's feet was at best difficult, if not impossible, on a vessel prone to wandering off course.
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I advanced the levers of the Twin Disc electronic engine control until the SmartCraft digital tachs read 1000 rpm, put the bow on a water tower dead ahead, and with the wheel centered, began to wait. Seconds went by. The 56 kept on keepin' her course with arrow-straight precision. Hmm.
I advanced the levers a tad more, until the tachs read 2000 rpm, kept the bow on the tower, and continued to wait. Seconds went by. The 56 displayed the same arrow-straight precision as before. "How about carving a nice little corner?" I warned, cranking La Belle Helene into a tight, starboard turn, which she accomplished with little heel, no blow-out, and virtually no sideways slippage. Here was a jetboat that ran like a rocket and tracked like the Orient Express!
I straightened out the 56, advanced the throttles yet again, and began an elegant, long-legged lope back across the river with the tower directly astern. Her running attitude at 2250 rpm, I knew from our earlier testing, was precisely three degrees, a wholly perfect angle of attack for a planing powerboat. I firewalled the Twin Disc sticks, taking our Hamilton HJ403 waterjets off the leash. Within seconds, the 56 was doing a smooth, seemingly effortless top hop of 38.6 mph—with the tower still directly astern. "Let's skip the full-speed turn," advised Purcell as I swept slightly left and right to gauge steering agility, "Lots of the owner's china below—a hundred dollars a plate."
At length, we coasted to a stop, and I let La Belle Helene drift—there was virtually no current or wind—while Purcell briefly explained how to maneuver dockside. For starters, there were the Twin Disc single-lever sticks already mentioned—that controlled engine revs and gears, although the latter were seldom shifted out of forward since neutral simply nixed thrust and reverse only served to back-flush clogged jets. Then there were the Teleflex Morse sticks—they controlled the waterjets' buckets (see "Noteworthy: Hamilton Waterjets," this story). And finally, there was the wheel, a lovely, leather-wrapped affair custom-fabricated by Lecarra of Onelda, Tennessee: It controlled the direction of the nozzles. "We have a foot-pad-operated electro-hydraulic bow thruster as well," Purcell advised, while pointing towards my feet, "but I don't think you'll need it—the boat handles quite easily."
She was right. Although the 56 has close-quarters maneuvering characteristics that are much different from an inboard vessel's, she's far from a handful. Indeed, after I'd spent a little less than 20 minutes playing with the aforementioned components, both singly and in unison, I was able to walk La Belle Helene sideways, without even thinking about tapping a thruster pad. How?
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