Hinckley 40 Picnic Boat
At first glance, the renderings for the Hinckley Picnic Boat 40 look, in many ways, conventional. From the flag blue hull to the sweeping teak sheerline and open salon, you’re forgiven if you think you’ve seen this boat before. However, this new 40 has tricks up her sleeve. Those that first catch my eye are an innovative hullside door that actually slides away into the gunwale and a cockpit step that lowers into the hull with the goal of not impeding on valuable entertaining space while contributing to the boat’s clean lines.
Another significant element of the 40 will be the technology incorporated into the hull. Penned by designer Michael Peters, the hull will be built with a process called Triguard construction, where an E-glass outer skin and carbon-fiber inner skin sandwich Corecell foam. The result will be a boat that’s strong and light—it’s expected to weigh 25,000 pounds.
Propulsion for the largest picnic boat to date (her siblings are 34 and 37 feet LOA) will be 480-horsepower Cummins diesels paired to Hamilton 322 jet drives. This powerplant should push the hull, with 19 degrees of deadrise at the transom, to about 34 knots, according to Hinckley.
With styling borrowed from the picnic boats of yesterday and the technology of tomorrow, the Hinckley 40 might just combine the best of both worlds when she splashes in summer 2018.