Boat test for the 2006 Davis 52 Express with boat pictures, boat specifications, and boat test results. Includes pricing, videos, engine test reviews, and ratings for the 2006 Davis 52 Express.

As we were getting ready to take the new Davis 52 Express out for some testing in the sporty Atlantic, Bob Weidhaas said something that knocked my socks off. Weidhaas is the chief operating officer for Davis Yachts (as well as for Davis' parent company, Egg Harbor Yachts), and he's a direct, no-nonsense kind of guy, especially when it comes to explaining exactly how his company designs and creates semicustom, Carolina-style sportfishing vessels. "We really don't consider how much stuff costs when we're putting one of these boats together," he said, just before firing up our test boat's big, seemingly smokeless MAN common-rail diesels. "We simply build the best product we possibly can, with the best materials, equipment, and technology, and then we sit down at the end of the day and figure out what we're gonna charge."

Hyperbole is not exactly unheard of on boat tests, and I'd have taken Weidhaas' statement with the grain of salt I normally reserve for one of those boat-test semistretchers had I not just finished going through our 52 with him, stem to stern. It had been an impressive tour.

Let's talk engine-room virtues first. There's no denying that the life the 52 was created to live and love is a tough one. Offshore sportfishing is a demanding endeavor, often practiced under challenging and occasionally dangerous conditions. The folks at Egg Harbor understand all this, of course, most likely because they've been building sportfishing boats in New Jersey since Old Tige was a pup. And most likely it's this understanding that's at the bottom of the salty, straightforward, safety-conscious approach the company takes when designing and equipping the 52's engine room.

The 52 charging offshore.

The good news starts with engine-room access: The 52's is different from what you'll find on most express-type sportfishing boats these days. Instead of getting to her mains and ancillaries by raising a heavy bridge deck via electro-hydraulic rams, you simply lift a large but comparatively lightweight hatch/step between the reefer and livewell consoles in the cockpit and step down into the ER, much as you would enter through the companionway entrance on a typical convertible. There's no arguing with the simple safety of this setup: Achieving fast, wide-open access to this engine room is not at all contingent upon electricity and/or hydraulics, and additionally, there's no thumb-twiddling while you wait for slow-ball actuators to actually actuate.

Solid design sensibility highlights the engine room itself. Thanks to a lofty headroom measurement that pushes seven feet, a plethora of D.C. and A.C. overhead lights, and white gelcoat, the ambiance is about as bright, open, clean, and schematically organized as an operating theater. Sea strainers, ball-valve-type through hulls, piping, and all other plumbing components are of stainless steel, an unusual feature in a recreational vessel, let alone one in the 50-foot range. Why expensive stainless? I asked Weidhass. "The stuff doesn't corrode like bronze," he explains. "And it looks better, long-term. Who wants to see green corrosion all over the place?"

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