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The air intakes are the product of the same don't-spare-the-hours mentality. Long, louvered vents under the cockpit gunwales, port and starboard, pull air into the ER via big, beefy, industrial-grade marine fans, baffled fiberglass dorade boxes, and plenums with filters and screens outboard of the mains. The point is to interdict and drain all moisture from cockpit air that's already fairly dry and salt-free, at least by comparison with what's typically inhaled by vessels with hull-side vents exposed to the sea.
And finally, the same thinking that backgrounds great engine-room access, stainless steel valves, and superior air-intake design also figures heavily into the 52's big-time bilge-pump redundancy. In addition to the automatic Rules units (with Sure-Bail float-switches) that are so common in sportfishermen engine rooms these days, the 52's got an additional pair of engine-driven crash pumps—one per engine and each with a stainless steel gate valve and a heavily screened pickup. Why two pumps? If one engine quits during an emergency, explains Weidhaas, you still have a shot at getting the other to empty the engine room. Why gate valves? Because lever-type ball valves are too easy to inadvertently deploy, a move that can fry an engine.
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There's more to life than engine rooms, of course. And while the 52's conventional, two-head, two-stateroom layout is perhaps less impressive than her engine room's equipage and arrangement, her interior's got several unique, high-end features that are worth mentioning. Chief among these is the quality and finish of her joinerwork, most of it done in solid teak, all of it varnished to the nines. Next in line are her comfy fitments and furbishments: From Hand-Craft innerspring mattresses in the berths to Raritan Atlantis MSDs in the heads, everything's top-shelf goods.
"Wanna go for a boat ride?" asked Weidhaas, once I'd got my mind around his remarkable build-a-boat-first-then-figure-out-the-cost-later statement. I tossed off the bow lines, and he dealt with the stern.
Things went smoothly enough. My job on the foredeck was facilitated by an Awlgripped nonslip surface underfoot—way safer than the mirror-smooth, highly cambered, slippery-when-wet foredecks of numerous other sportfishing vessels I've tested over the years. We hit the trail for Miami's Government Cut to do speed and acceleration runs, preparatory to venturing into the Atlantic for a test drive.
The spiffy 47.2-mph top speed I recorded was indicative of things to come. Moreover, thanks to a little extra elevation in the bridge deck and some comparatively lofty chrome pedestals on the Murray Brothers helm chair, visibility over the bow while we were zooming up and down the cut was excellent. And thanks to power-assisted hydraulics from Teleflex SeaStar, a stainless steel Release Marine wheel, and a set of Palm Beach-style engine controls (also from Release) on either side of the sweetly varnished control station, handling was excellent as well.
The test drive was flat-out fabulous. Over the years I've run several Davis boats designed by Nick Boksa, the naval architect who used to work for Buddy Davis himself but switched to Egg Harbor when Egg Harbor bought the Buddy Davis marque. Every one of these vessels evinced super-quick turns, rail-straight tracking down-sea, a dry ride going up-sea, and the sort of lithe agility that'll put a smile on just about anybody.
The 52—a Boksa boat—ran like all the rest. I greyhounded her around the Atlantic for at least an hour, in three- to four-foot seas, sometimes at full throttle, sometimes at two-thirds throttle, sometimes on one engine (top speed: 18.4 mph), enjoying every smooth, dry, fun-filled minute. Eventually, though, it got a little late and I had to "head for the barn," as they say.
I wound the day up in characteristic fashion, sitting in one of the Murray Brothers ladder-backs with a notebook and an idle pen, thinking about what I'd seen and experienced during the day. Certainly the interior of our test boat had a conventional layout and a decor that was as gorgeous as her broken-sheer, Carolina-flare styling. And certainly her open-water performance had been absolutely enjoyable and rousing. But what made the Davis 52 Express special for me was her engine room. Charge offshore in dicey conditions and all that solid, heavy-hittin', safety conscious stuff down there's gotcha covered. Big time!
Davis Yachts
(609) 965-3877
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This article originally appeared in the June 2006
issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
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