Boat test for the 2006 Ocean Alexander 98 Cockpit Motoryacht with boat pictures, boat specifications, and boat test results. Includes pricing, videos, engine test reviews, and ratings for the 2006 Ocean Alexander 98 Cockpit Motoryacht.

Secondary shindig-supporting systems are just as impressive. Take cold-storage capability, for example. Not only is there a big, chest-type GE freezer in the engine room, but there's also a huge, teak-clad, 16-cubic-foot built-in in the dining area, beneath the windshield and at the foot of the stairway connecting the bottom deck and the main deck dining area. Add such packing-house potential to the combined capacities of a 48-inch stand-up Sub-Zero refrigerator in the galley and four drawer-style Sub-Zeros in various other locations, and you've got a cold-storage capability of 70 cubic feet, a number that virtually guarantees thrills on the grill well into a long vacation.

Given the electrical engineering outfitting and other extremes that Ocean Alexander has obviously gone to in creating the 98, it's no wonder the vessel tips the scales at 224,000 pounds. And having sensed her heft through my deck shoes shortly after venturing aboard, I was well pleased to cast our lines off and depart Redondo Beach for the open Pacific Ocean once I'd finished looking around. How would the boat actually perform?

The answer came resoundingly. Thanks to a semidisplacement hull form styled by Ed Monk, Jr. and a set of nozzled-down "lifting tunnels" of the sort West Coast hydrodynamicist Ed Hageman is famous for, our test vessel clocked a rousing average top speed of 25.6 mph with a highly efficient, drag-reducing running attitude of just 3.5 degrees. Moreover, visibility was great from the sumptuously decorated, precisely joinered pilothouse. The electrically adjustable Stidd helm seats there were comfy, and keeping tabs on our 1,500-hp MTU 12V 2000s, as well as all other shipboard functions, was a piece of cake thanks to a glass-bridge-style console running an MTU engine/yacht-monitoring system.

But while all this sweetness and light was at least as gratifying as the smooth, dry ride we experienced in both tight turns and on straight stretches in two- to three-foot rollers, it didn't hold a candle to the sound readings I recorded. At an idle rpm of 575, engine noise in the pilothouse was close to indiscernible. At 1000 rpm, my reading was just 51 dB-A, some 14 dB-A below the level of normal conversation. And finally, with the MTUs going full chat, I recorded a sound level in the pilothouse of just 60 dB-A. Mute—or almost mute—testimony to Ocean Alexander's sound- and-vibration-attenuating techniques, which include floating cabin soles on Sylomer urethane padding, blanketing bulkheads and overheads with thick layers of Soundown insulation, and using isolation mounts on machinery wherever possible.

We returned dockside late that afternoon. Since there are five remote helm stations beside the primary helm onboard the 98, each at different locations and with controls for two powerful 50-hp Key Power hydraulic thrusters as well as the mains, our skipper had little trouble easing us back alongside.

As I was disembarking, he mentioned something about his owner heading south soon with a whole passel of friends. The names of a few exotic Mexican destinations were dropped. And a fast but good-timey fish story or two.

"So whataya think of the Ocean Alexander 98 Cockpit Motoryacht?" the guy concluded at length.

"Well," I opined, "she reminds me of a boat I used to work on. Big. Sophisticated. Lots of fun."

I was thinking of the Betty Wood, of course.

Alexander Marine Company
(800) 815-4081

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