Venture 39 Tournament Edition

Power & Motoryacht's first look at the Venture 39 Tournament Edition

By Kevin Koenig

November 13, 2013

I tested the Venture 39 Tournament Edition this past September at the Venture yard in Stuart, Florida. What I found was a reinvigorated builder that is turning out fast, solidly built boats with an eye towards pleasing even the most demanding customer.

Venture is a true semi-customizable brand. As such, outside of the hull, nearly everything onboard the 39 I tested was at the owner’s behest. He will use the boat primarily as a dive and fishing boat (he’s apparently got other boats for cruising), so my 39 was ruggedly outfitted for those activities.

The aforementioned hull is super sturdy and geared towards performance. It’s hand-laid with vinylester resin and is solid below the waterline. And the whole thing is reinforced with Kevlar, making it basically bulletproof. In fact, Venture is so confident in its hulls’ ruggedness that they offer limited lifetime warranties on every one they build. (In a nutshell, “limited” means that the first owner has full coverage, as well as the second owner, but the 15th owner might not get the same treatment. Seems more than fair to me.)

Among many impressive attributes I noted while driving the 39, her trim numbers were probably the most memorable. Once on plane, she stays almost perfectly horizontal with the water, clocking a nearly non-existent 0.5 degrees on my clinometer throughout her range, until I dropped the hammer and she hit 42 knots and rocked all the way back to 1.5 degrees. (That’s still really, really good.)

She was a heck of a lot of fun to drive, and with tons of rod holders, a seven-foot-long fishbox, a live well, and many other fishy accouterments, she will almost certainly be a star on the tournament circuits now that she’s made her public debut.