Test Notes
PPeople buy different boats for different reasons. Fishermen value speed and a big, unobstructed cockpit, while cruisers place range and seaworthiness at the top of their lists. But what about motoryacht buyers? What are they looking for? Certainly comfort is a major draw, but not just the kind that derives from large, en suite staterooms with enclosed showers. Experienced boaters—those who spend a lot of time on board and, more importantly, underway—know that you can’t be comfortable if your motoryacht roars like a wind tunnel or shakes like a leaf. That’s why they so highly value silence, or the nearest thing to it. They will certainly appreciate the Hampton 650 Pilothouse. It’s quiet, as you can see from our test results. I took the sound measurements (on page 99) at the lower helm, and the meter reading was so low that I had to ask the captain to shut off the air conditioning because it was louder than either the engine or the sea. I also took measurements in the midship master stateroom, which is forward of the engine room, and at 1,900 rpm my meter barely hit 70 dB(A). But the 650’s smoothness was just as impressive, no surprise since vibration and sound are so closely related. Credit goes to the standard Seatorque drive system: a self-contained, oil-filled, shaftand-thrust-bearing propulsion system that transfers the force generated by the propeller directly to the hull via a rubber mounting.
But lots of boats use Seatorque, including those in Hampton’s own Endurance line, and haven’t felt so smooth. Indeed, I’ve never tested a Seatorque installation that worked as well as this one did. I simply felt no vibration.
That sensation may also have been due to the Caterpillar C12.9s, but I can’t say for sure as I’ve never tested another boat with these motors. The 12.9 became available to builders only last year, and our 650 had the first pair installed in an Asiabuilt boat. It may also have had something to do with Hampton’s extensive use of Soundown noisereducing insulation, or the coring that overlays the hull laminate expressly to reduce noise.
It also couldn’t hurt that full-beam fuel tankage separates the engine room from the master. Admittedly this is nothing unusual, although the configuration of the tanks is special: There are two, but each is baffled longitudinally down the middle, and the two inboard compartments are connected via a crossover pipe, so you essentially have three fuel compartments. (A second, larger crossover pipe can be opened during refueling, so that all three can be filled from either side of the boat.) Why this unusual configuration? Mainly to prevent 1,200 gallons of diesel from sloshing about in a seaway, compromising stability.
And the 650 is stable. A combination of Pacific swells and a stabilizer system that had not yet been initialized failed to intimidate our test boat, AT HAMPTON silence is something of an obsession—it’s built into the yacht’s structure.
THE SPLIT CHINE hull sets the 650 Pilothouse apart, with a design that dramatically reduces hydrodynamic resistance while also maximizing lift.
CHECK OUT the corners of the furniture on the previous page. They’re solid cherry.
ADD 14 COATS of varnish to 50-mil veneers and African cherry corners, and you get eye-popping joinery that holds up over a lifetime at sea.
HAMTPON EMPLOYS 200 full-time Taiwanese craftsmen to work in the company’s Shanghai, China shipyard.