New Test Video
Schaefer Yachts 510 Sport:
Brazilian Built for Day & Night Entertaining
The Schaefer Yachts 510 Sport is a Brazilian-built express cruiser coupe with Euro-styling that has many features seen on larger boats, such as a three-stateroom, three-head layout. Schaefer builds the largest recreational boats in Brazil and the 510 is just one of a number of models now being made available to consumers in North America. The 510 Sport that we tested was powered with a pair of 435-hp Volvo Penta IPS 600s, which produced a top speed of 29 knots, as well as a best cruise at 2800 rpm and 19.2 knots. Not surprisingly, the main features of this yacht revolve around entertaining and having parties on the boat day and night.
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Test Video
Aquila 32:
OB Cat w/Functional Design
The Aquila 32 has an impressive amount of space on board thanks to the 12’8” (3.85 m) beam spanning her twin catamaran hulls. An unusual feature in an outboard-powered boat is the full hydraulic swim platform. It encircles and extends beyond the powerheads, providing unencumbered space for swimming and watersports. Amazingly, the design allows tilting the lower units fully out of the water with some clever engineering to get the seats out of the way of the powerhead. She comes standard with a hardtop shading the cockpit and a pair of skylights lets in sunshine and air flow when desired.
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Test Video
Chaparral 243 Vortex VRX:
Twin Jet w/Wake Surfing Options
The Chaparral 243 Vortex VRX is a twin-jet bowrider that can be optioned specifically for wakesports. She offers a surfing package that includes tanks for up to 1,350 lbs. (612 kg) of water ballast to make her “squat” and roll up a big wake. She also includes the “Aerial Surf Platform”, an extension of the swim platform with a contoured bottom that helps to shape the wake to perfect surfing proportions. The 250-hp Rotax jets not only provide plenty of power — with an amazing 2.6-second time to plane and a top speed of 56.1 mph — but also provide the safety of enclosed drives when swimmers and surfers are in the water.
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Test Video
Bennington Q27:
Loads of Torque for Loads of Guests
With a 10’ (3.05 m) beam and a 28’3” (8.61 m) LOA, the Bennington Q27 is a big pontoon boat. Powered with twin Evinrude 300 E-TEC G2s, she got on plane in 3.8 seconds and had a top speed of 58.0 mph, which is much faster than most people want to ride in a pontoon boat. Perhaps more importantly, all that two-stroke torque means she can plane off easily even with her rated capacity load of 18 people aboard. She has plenty of power to tow multiple water-skiers and tubers. Fuel consumption is pretty much linear with the electronically-injected V6 outboards. At 3000 rpm and 28.5 mph, about the speed most people enjoy pontoon riding, she got 1.9 mpg in our test.
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Test Video
Hampton Yachts 650:
Easy Handling for the Owner/Operator
The Hampton Yachts 650 is well-designed to be operated by an experienced owner. She includes standard bow and stern thrusters with a hold-in-place feature that’s designed to fix her gently against a dock temporarily while the skipper tosses a line. Sliding water-tight doors on either side of the pilothouse allow a quick check of docking progress and, if that’s not enough, there are two added control stations on the aft deck. Pompanette Platinum series helm chairs are found here and on the flybridge. Cherry wood finishes add the same feeling of luxury to the helm area and is found throughout the rest of the yacht.
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