Sea Blade 20
Three years in development, this revolutionary design excels in stability, sure-footedness and performance.
Ifirst saw the Sea Blade some three years ago, when it was presented as a concept at an Auckland boat show. I knew instinctively it was something different, something that could change our expectation of how a boat should look and perform.
Conceived by Honolulu-based design group Navatek, the hull is designed with an ultra-fine-entry that feeds down to two entrapment tunnels through the midsection. This process creates a 15 percent reduction in wetted surface and greater lift – generating efficiency and speed.
Navatek’s original brief has a military origin to reduce injury and damage to equipment, which for the recreational boatie translates as a seriously comfortable and seaworthy boat. This is achieved by the advanced hull design for deadrise and planing surface breaking the water in a manner to minimise shock G-force loading.
The company has extensive data to support the entrapment energy recovery in the Sea Blade design, where those tunnels funnel a combination of aerated water and air to act as shock absorbers. The greater the pressure, the greater the energy recovery, which when trapped in the hull is very efficient.
What does this mean for a Sea Blade owner? A hull that’s stable, efficient and sea-kindly but which also delivers ride comfort, speed, safety and performance. All this is a big ask in a single hull, and is almost the ‘holy grail’ of boat design.
When Charles Winstone, CEO of Auckland’s Lancer Industries, saw the Sea Blade design he could see the potential but understood that manufacturing would be limited by the custom-built nature of the original aluminium construction, plus the very high labour costs associated with the complex hull geometry.
But he realised that moulding the hull could reduce the production
costs. So he negotiated the rights and set about developing a production 20-foot (6.35m) version of the Sea Blade for the local and export market.
Somewhat of a perfectionist, Winstone was adamant about getting the design and resulting mouldings 100 percent right. This is where the three years (and evidently a combined investment of US$3.5 million with Navatek) has come in.
Finally, he is satisfied and allowed us to have a play with his ‘baby’. The weather gods played ball and it was a fantastic day out on the water.
The boat shows a high level of attention to detail. Absolutely everything about it is perfect, from the quality of the finish (a mirror gloss), the perfectly-fitted Lancer custom decking (with Sea Blade logo in prominent locations), the customembroidered squabs, teak capping on the gunwales, beautiful stainless work and the impeccable powder-coated T-top.
But this is no show-pony. A baitboard, rod holders under the gunwales, tackle boxes tucked behind the helm backrest and massive wet lockers show this boat is set up for fun and does not mind getting dirty. The massive boarding platform further adds to the fun factor – and it also houses a livebait tank.
Clear doors slide neatly into their slots on either side of the transom, and they can be fully-removed to provide a true, walkthrough flow right from the bow area past the central helm through to the boarding platform.
This is a multi-function boat, which will serve equally well as a hard-core water sports vessel, a family boat or a down-anddirty fishing machine. The transom seat drops down when not required, opening up access to the bait board and the underfloor wet locker. Similarly, the helm seat can fold away, allowing the skipper the option of standing (with a cushioned back support) or sitting.
Speaking of the helm, this boat is seriously ‘blinged’ out. Front and centre is the Humminbird Onix 10 Si touch-screen chartplotter and fishfinder, with HD side imaging, down imaging and digital sonar processing. That connects into an on-board NMEA2000 network, from where the Czone digital solution uses one simple display to replace an entire collection of individual switches.
The 225hp four-stroke Yamaha hanging off the back has the Command Link digital electronic control, connected through the Yamaha digital tachometer and speed/fuel displays. A Fusion MS-UD750 stereo sound system provides the beat, and an Icom IC-M304 VHF radio takes care of communication.
Anchoring duties are handled by the Maxwell anchor winch, combined with the Autoanchor AA150 rode counter and remote control FOB. This allows anchoring off a beach and then running a line back to shore, with the remote control used to bring the boat back in when climbing back on board. After all this, the livebait tank pump, 60-litre freshwater tank and wash down/shower pump seem almost trivial.
ZIPWAKE And last but not least is the Zipwake gyro-stabilised dynamic trim control system. Almost worthy of an entire review of its own, this new-generation system provides much more than conventional trim tabs.
On the Sea Blade they are used to close the entrapment tunnels and create a more efficient water wedge, giving better balance and lift. With the gyro-controlled system they do this completely automatically, eliminating the need to continually tweak the trim tab settings.
As it turned out we had little need of this on our review day as conditions were about as perfect as they could be, and at speeds over 22 knots they are not required as the hull completely supports its own weight. The system also allows the skipper to adjust for uneven loads or compensate when towing water toys or similar.
So, enough of the talking – how does she perform? That is literally the million-dollar question in this case, given the investment that’s been sunk into this hull design.
It’s impossible to ignore the stability – note that the entire width of that boarding platform, sitting only about 100mm above the water, is visible from a following boat.