SEA TRIAL: INTREPID 400 CUDDY, A GOOD IDEA AGAINST BOREDOM

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Intrepid 400? Let us say it: an instigation to exaggerate. Yes, we confess it, we let ourselves a lot, or maybe too much, during our sea trial. We have been maddening and daredevil in the sea. A midlife crisis? A boat like a porsche to prove to be still young?

No, we are not so bad. It’s just that this boat makes you do what you wouldn’t imagine. An afternoon during the The Boat Show of Cannes we went out, with other boats, to do some sea trials and tests. There were some journalists and potential customers. It was little windy, waves were low but annoying.

We had a lot of fun with this boat and we noticed that the other boats weren’t able to reach us.

Fortunately, no horns nor high beams on board, otherwise our license would have been revoked. Maybe a not so good behaviour in the glamorous Côte d’Azur but it was very funny, especially because we had three Mercury Verado 350 engines, so 18 cylinders, 1,050 horsepower and 910 kg of evil.

Intrepid is popular in the boating world. Made in Florida, they are narrow and evil, fast and brutal, a little kitsch and marine. Means for sporting fishermen and good life in Miami or Fort Lauderdale: they are in fact often used as “following tenders” and towed by megayachts.

Moreover, Intrepid designers are crazy about fiberglass.

Intrepid boats are very solid, with the same equipments and finishings like big yachts. Like in a submarine, huge steels and hatches produce a “clonk” when they close.

Cuddy 400 is one of the most Mediterranean boats of the shipyard, a perfect mixture of big game and cruise. The zone below the deck is well-arranged and it presents the classic configuration: a fore zone convertible from dinette into a double berth; a kitchen and a bathroom in the middle and a second astern cabin. The bathroom is huge, literally huge.

The final result? No creacking, no vibration nor noise except for the three Verado engines. Very precise veers and fast, never nervous, approachings. You can travel at 40 knots, even on a rough sea, without perceiving it. Until 4,500 revolutions consumption is contained (4,9 l for a mile); then, they increase but without exaggerating. We reached 50 knots near the coast, on a flatter water point and working with trims, but always with absolute control.

Finally, we apologize with all those we annoyed in the elegant background of the Gulf of Cannes. We won’t make it again….