520 NAUTICAL MILES

maximum cruising range at 8 knots

Twenty-two-inch-tall portholes are on both sides and open for fresh air. You couldn’t get much more light into that space without peeling off the foredeck. ¶ The other two staterooms — with a double berth to port and twin berths to starboard — have hullside windows that are just as big. Consequently, the whole lower deck feels light and bright. Headroom is more than 6 feet 3 inches in the owners’ and VIP staterooms, more than enough for my 6-foot1-inch frame, and I barely had to stoop in the twin-berth stateroom. ¶ When it comes to power, all Absolutes use Volvo Penta IPS engines. The Navetta 48 has twin 435 hp IPS600 D6s. During my time aboard Hull No. 1, the boat topped out at 27.5 knots with the engines spinning at their maximum 3,700 rpm. She wasn’t that heavy — no hardtop, no Seakeeper 6 gyrostabilizer, and no tender weighing as much as 660 pounds — and we had just four people aboard. ¶ Full up, her fuel tanks carry 475 gallons, so at my preferred dawdle of 10 knots and a burn rate of around 6.5 gallons per hour per engine, she would run for some 330 nautical miles, figures that exclude a 10 percent reserve. Go slower and the range really stretches out. With the engines at 1,600 rpm and moving through the water at around 8 knots, she would run happily for 520 nautical miles. Or at a more brisk 18 knots and nearly 3,000 rpm, the range would be about 250 nautical miles. Take your pick. ¶ She ran smoothly and predictably in a flat-calm Mediterranean Sea with barely a breath of warm Côte d’Azur breeze. Steering was precise with the IPS installation, and docking was easy with the twist-andnudge joystick. ¶ The 48 may be the smallest in Absolute’s Navetta line, but she has all the features and seakeeping that her larger siblings offer. She’s easily handled by a cruising couple too. Just choose a waypoint and go.