Tactical Custom Boats T40
A new name to the U.S. market, this boat—and builder—was born to attract attention.
If you prefer to blend in at the dock, if you prefer to be left alone in idle solitude in the back corner of a harbor, if the thought of people streaming live videos of you from their phones while you maneuver into a tricky slip gives you cold sweat, you do not want to own the Tactical T40. Where this boat goes, gawkers, cell phone paparazzi and full-on blank stares are sure to follow.
With militaristic lines, a forward raked windshield, gunmetal gray hull and matte-black hardtop, it’s more G.I. Joe than Joe Schmo. Adding to the overall aesthetic of this warship-turned-cruiser is a pair of 627-hp Seven Marine outboards that are likely to scare small children when they roar to life dockside.
While you may have never heard of Tactical Boats, you may know the brand’s sister company Crescent Yachts, the British Columbia-based builder of high-quality superyachts. Hull No.
1 of the 40, which the team and I had the opportunity to test in Vancouver, is owned by a couple that uses it as a ferry from one adventure to another. Their float plan includes the Inside Passage and the Med.
Wherever they decide to go they will have performance to spare. One of the first boats to employ Volvo Penta’s new DuoProp technology on Seven Marine engines, for an outboard boat it has truck-tire torque, and on the top end we saw speeds hovering right around 40 knots. But according to Tactical Founder Tim Charles, this craft wasn’t designed to just be fast, “but to be fast in rough seas.”
A big factor that allows it to deliver just that is the choice of seating. Four, forward-facing Shockwave suspension seats mitigate any pounding from the sea. It took some getting used to, to really settle into them and not fight the bouncing, which is the natural response. But when we finally were able to relax our legs and core and let the shocks do the work, we could feel how they would allow an owner to cruise longer and farther without suffering from the fog of fatigue.
Another nice touch around the helm area was that the guests in Shockwave seats to port have twin MFDs in front
of them so they can either follow along with the captain or help navigation when on a short-handed mission. Other yacht-style amenities on this Greg Marshall-designed 40-footer include the foam collar that’s ready for duty as a tender to be tied alongside a superyacht, a Seakeeper 5, no less than three joysticks and a C-Zone digital switching system.
As the builder’s name implies, these boats are highly customizable—from the paint scheme to the options list, this boat can be, well, whatever you want it to be.
There is currently a 77-footer from Tactical in build that’s being designed by our own Bill Prince for an owner who would make G.I. Joe look like a pencil neck paper pusher, but that’s a story for a future issue. — Daniel Harding Jr.