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On September 15, 1998,
Cavileer Boatworks, under the direction of owner John DiDonato, opened
its doors for business by launching a semicustom 53-foot convertible designed
by Donald L. Blount and Associates.
Two years after that,
DiDonato introduced a new Cavileer Model at the 2001 Miami International
Boat Show. The 48 was developed around the primary architectural elements
of her predecessor’s blueprint: A basic three-stateroom, two-head
layout, the 48 Convertible featured what Cavileer said was the largest
flying bridge in her class.
Cavileer presented a
redesign of its 53 last year at the Miami International Boat Show that
is now running on a Dave Martin bottom. “We learned a lot with the
Blount design of the 48, which was done from scratch,” says DiDonato.
“Now with this redesigned boat, we have a different running angle
with a sharp entry of about 63 degrees, somewhere around 28 degrees amidships,
and flattening to ten degrees aft,” he explains. DiDonato also had
Martin alter the boat’s weights and measures by changing the placement
of the engines, batteries, and other equipment, giving the boat a lower
center of gravity. Basically this means that the lower the center of mass
on the object, the greater the angle will be before it falls over. “We
feel it gives better handling and running,” he adds, noting that
Martin also tucked in the flying bridge and changed the deckhouse lines.
Some things that didn’t change on the redesigned boat include
the hull being solid fiberglass to the waterline and balsa-cored above,
the balsa-cored flying bridge and deck, and the three-stateroom, three-head
layout.
To make the interior
appealing to both cruising and fishing owners, Cavileer added a wine cooler,
plasma TV, and rounded joinery work. “Our doors are solid teak instead
of plywood, and those in the interior are arched. And underneath our gunwales,
you’ll find smoothed-out fiberglass, just like our exteriors,”
says DiDonato, explaining further how some things, like these, weren’t
changed.
He goes on to explain
that he wants to distance Cavileer from production builders and make it
more like a custom builder. “We’ll lay out whatever the customer
wants as long as it doesn’t harm the integrity of our build,”
he says.
Cavileer Boatworks
( (609) 965-8650. www.cavileer.com.
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