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Maybe it was just the way things looked that morning around the marina at Roche Harbor Resort, a lovely little spot on the northern coast of evergreen-fringed San Juan Island just a short floatplane ride west of Bellingham, Washington. Or maybe it was just the weather, which was absolutely spectacular, with an air temperature of 68°F, atmospheric conditions so incredibly clear that visibility seemed unlimited, and just the faintest whiff of a breeze now and again. But I swear, once I'd come up the teak-paved stairway from the saloon of our Australian-built Maritimo 48 and entered the flying bridge, the view dang near took my breath away. And I was just as impressed with the cruise-friendly ambiance of the place.
Off to port I could see the smooth waters of Nelson Bay glowing electric blue. To starboard, the rocky shores of Henry Island shone with equal vivacity. And toward the rear of our flying bridge, I noted a big sliding-glass door that opened onto a porch-like aft deck with stainless steel rails, two comfy-looking deck chairs, and dewy visions of the resort's fabled marina. What a grand and lofty observatory, I thought to myself.
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"The windshield panels and the side windows up here are immense—it's almost like they bring the outdoors inside," enthused Chris Eilliot of Compass Point Yachts, Maritimo's West Coast dealership. "It's one of the reasons why the 48's flybridge is so impressive, I guess."
I added a couple of other reasons while leaning on one of the two Stidd adjustable helm chairs abaft the starboard steering console, the only one onboard given the absence of an optional lower helm in the saloon. For starters, there was the layout of the place, one of two Maritimo offers with the 48. Ours put the helm and helm chairs all the way forward, leaving space for an L-shape settee and dinette table directly abaft and a benchseat lounge to port and just forward of the stairwell. Whether you go with this arrangement or the second, which simply exchanges the settee/dinette area for the helm, there's little likelihood that driving the 48 will ever be a solitary endeavor, unless, of course, you're into that sort of thing. Conviviality is key here, with meals underway in the offing as well as plenty of plain ol' sightseeing with friends and relations.
There was another, subtler feature as well: the pure ease of handling facilitated by the 48's flying bridge. Shortly after firing up our twin 670-mhp Cummins QSM11 diesel inboards, I slid back the side window next to the helm station, stuck my head out to make sure Elliot had tossed off our lines and jumped safely back onboard, and began working the ZF-Mathers electronic controls with my right hand. What ensued was almost instantaneous confidence in the 48 and her oomphy, wholly agreeable dockside maneuvering capabilities.
Sightlines were excellent. By simply leaning out the side window to check on the stern or glancing ahead through the giant windshield to observe the movement of the bow, I was able to easily measure my progress while walking the 48 to port from her side-to berth. And responsiveness? Thanks to lots of torquey diesel horsepower, a gutsy 2:1 gear ratio, a powerful 24-volt Side-Power bow thruster (I didn't need our optional stern thruster), and a comparatively simple, modified-V running surface aft (prop pockets often tend to muddle sideways maneuverability, I've noticed), I stayed well clear of the teaky green-hulled cruiser moored just under our stern.
Handling in open water was excellent, although the smoothness of extant sea conditions offshore nixed chances of getting a feel for rough-water performance. The average top speed of 36.6 mph was sporty, steering was quick and steady thanks to the Marcon Hydraulics race-type system onboard, and running efficiencies were good (making 0.63 mpg at 2100 rpm while doing 31.2 mph is none too shabby for a vessel of the 48's type) and thanks to a tightly sealed, thoroughly insulated engine room, sound levels were low, with decibels staying less than 70 well beyond the 20-mph mark. (Sixty-five db-A is the level of normal conversation.) In addition, the running attitudes I recorded were indicative of a sweetly balanced cruiser: optimum angles for planing vessels at speed generally run from two to four degrees, and our boat stayed close to those numbers throughout the rpm register.
Returning to the dock was a trip. Once I'd positioned the Maritimo 48 in close proximity to her berth, I descended to the cockpit, stood on the starboard side, and walked her home with a cool little tool: a ZF handheld engine/thruster control. The thing worked like a champ once I'd gotten my mind around the fact that I'd literally abandoned the boat's helm. And it was something of a showstopper as well. The couple on that aforementioned teaky, green-hulled cruiser hit the foredeck in apparent alarm at first but ultimately turned appreciative and curious as we zooped into our spot, just a few feet from their boat.
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