“The Most Incredible Offshore Hull I’ve Ever Driven“
Credits: Dan Jones
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Should we be excited or nervous? This is going to be the fastest we’ve ever been on the water. So how does this American stepped hull compare to all the European stepped hulls? And is this the finest hull that money can buy?
All right, welcome to Shelly Beach, ladies and gentlemen, probably gentlemen, but I hope a few of you ladies are watching too, and the Pacific Ocean. This is going to be a difficult one to explain in pure accuracy because I think I’m on the most incredible offshore hull that I’ve driven in my life.
Here we are bouncing through a few waves, not a lot of rough conditions today, I might add, but I’m already at 30 knots with a little bit of Westerly wind behind me under a metre of swell. But it is coming up to well over that as we come around this corner. So we’re on the Valhalla 41, by the way, and in this test, we’re going to just run it down the coast, expose you to a few offshore conditions, and then when we get into the protected water, we’re really going to open this thing up because the speed capability on this boat is a mess. It’s 60 plus knots. I did it this morning, and I’ve never experienced anything like it.
“The speed capability on this boat is a mess. It’s 60 plus knots. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
So we’re running the V10, 400 horsepower Mercury’s on this one, she’s rated for up to Quad 450. So we’ve got the quad V10s, she’s about an 8.3-ton light ship and nine and a half ton loaded, 2100 plus litres of fuel, and we’re running a little under half a tank at the moment, just maintaining a speed of 32 SOG on 3500 revs to 3600 revs and a fuel flow of 157 total.
Just watch this going up and down through the waves. I’m not going to accelerate too much more through this part of the drive because my drone just would have no possibility of keeping up with you. But we’re going through some confused water right now. We can see a little bit of bounce back from these rocks here. The hull is just eating it up. This stepped hull compared to any of the European stepped hulls I have driven feels completely different. Completely different!
33 knots, it feels almost too easy, I think is the way I’m going to describe it because right now we’re definitely over a metre of swell, and the boat’s just gliding through it. It’s hard to actually describe.
So driving on the single lever mode, I’m just assuming like a boxing stance in terms of my driving position. I’m not going to sit down until later in the video when we get back in shore. We’ve got some tourist boats around us, so I’m going to go wide of them and keep maintaining that 32, 31 knot speed. My fuel flow is just hovering around 150 litres total mark. So I’m going to have to let these tourist boats pass me to starboard before I go and turn back into the harbour. Then we’re going to hook it around through Manly, and we’ll go downwind, and that’s where we’re going to really test out the speed of this hull when the water is a little bit calmer.
Up and over, amazing! Feel that! 33 knots. So engine revs are hovering around 3,600. I’m just going to hook it through now, so confident. So now I’ve got some boat wash on me. Now there’s a small tinny up ahead. I’m going to go inside him and the rocks. Look at that, hopefully, that’s coming up in the camera. Look at the bounce back right here from the rocks. I’m not taking that at the best angle, and I’m just gliding over at 33 knots, and all the wash is going out to the side. Nobody is getting wet on this thing. This windscreen seems to be excellent protection from the wind because it’s in full height, and the actual amount of space I have here at the helm to move around in bouncing water or if you are a taller person and you need more head height, I don’t think you’re going to have any problems.
Okay, I got a couple of waves behind me now, so I’m going to be doing a bit of surfing. 36 knots, playing with the engine trim. I’ve got the zipwakes on auto. We do have a Seakeeper Gyro on this one today. It’s operated from a lithium battery bank. We’ll show that to you in the walkthrough. And it’s coming through at 37 knots, effortless. I’ll do a little bit of trim up on the motor. Single lever feels natural at these sorts of speeds.
I’m going to do a wide turn. I’m just going to have to keep my timing on this one. Ferry two, ferry three. Got some waves, a little bit of traffic up the harbour, so I’m going to hook it around these rocks just here, and then I’m going to do a sweeping turn and slowly increase my speed, trim the motors up, and see how she feels at wide open. I’m coming in at 40 knots, not completely accurate compared to my drone footage, which was a little bit slower, but it’s going to be the best I can do for you because I don’t make drones that go fast enough for this boat.
“I’m just gliding over at 33 knots, and all the wash is going out to the side. Nobody is getting wet on this thing.”
Okay, I’m going to have to go for a turn now. A little bit of a trim up on the motor. 40 knots. Making some room in front of these guys. One kayaker, one power boat, and starting my turn. I’m going to go across this guy’s heading and leave him to port, and then I’m going to leave this guy to starboard. Oh wow, feel the grip in that turn. Okay, now we’re going to start to increase our speed. The boat’s really starting to boogie here and settle in, and her attitude is straight down. I’m just going to give it a little bit of a trim up there. That’s 47 knots, incredible!
Okay, that’s just an easy 47 knots. We’re in not flat water right now, guys. We are exposed to the ocean on the port side, and I’ve got a little bit of boat activity sending me some wash as well. Easy 48 knots. When I get across this exposed part of the water, I’m going to push it to full wide-open throttle. That’s 4,700 revs, 300 litres total for all four motors.
One boat crossing my bow now. I’m going to leave him to starboard. When I’ve got a clear run, I’m going to hit the gas. Okay, starting to clear all the waves. My visibility, by the way, is exceptional. You’ll see that on the front camera. And let’s go wide open. Whoa! Feel that pick up! That’s incredible! Whoa, man, she just hits those waves. This is so powerful!
Okay, just off the gas, go through these waves here. And I’m just going to pick one more line. Just look at the acceleration, 50 knots, 53 knots, 55 knots, and climbing. Just trimmed down a little bit, the bow’s have been too lively there. I’m going to run out of water right now. That’s incredible! 63 knots is no problem on this boat. Let’s hook it in. That is incredible. We’ll do one more speed run in flat water, I think, guys.
Feel this! I’m doing that turn at 41 knots. The boat just hooks in. It’s remaining dry. It’s still smooth. You could do these speeds. I don’t recommend this with someone sitting on the front lounge. That’s incredible!
Okay, we’re going to go into some protected waters. We’re going to test out the joystick, we’ll see how it is to manoeuvre this boat in close waters, and we’ll drop the anchor as well just to see what the operation is like through that process. We’ll go through a couple of waves, and then we’ll do one more full-speed run in completely flat water and show you what it’s all about
MANOEUVRABILITY
Okay, so I’ve just got it on throttles only instead of taking it out of single lever, and I’m just going to test the boat’s manoeuvrability before we go to the joystick. So we have a bow thruster and we’ve got the Optimus 360. I haven’t used this before, I’m just going to do some transverse thrust and spin the boat to starboard, and we’ll see how responsive she is. Oh yeah, that goes. Okay, let’s just speed it up a bit. Yeah, plenty of power there.
You know what, if you come from a twin-engine, twin rig, that’s actually going to feel like you have a lot more control relative to just two sets of props in the water.
Okay, that’s cool. Let’s just try the bow thruster because we’re a 10-ton boat. Let’s just see if that does much. Talky but not hugely powerful, I would say. So that’s going to be useful as a bow thruster should be at the dock when you need to touch it in. Okay, so if you just need to tickle it up at the dock and avoid someone else having to go and grab a line, that bow thruster is going to be useful for that. But I wouldn’t actually swivel the boat so much with it.
I’ve now pressed take command, which I assume is the take command option with this Optimus, and now I’m just going to try swivelling the boat using the joystick. And I’m just doing a light input on the joystick right now and I turn to starboard. Now I’m going to speed that turn up a little bit.
Okay, so it appears to be maintaining the boat’s relative position quite well, I must say. I did this on the Mercury joystick the other day on another brand of boat, and I wasn’t super impressed, but that’s quite good. So let’s just reverse the direction of travel slowly. Okay, now let’s try to side slip the boat to starboard using just sideways push and see if it holds the boat’s attitude. Oh, that’s pretty good. That’s sending the boat forward slightly, but our attitude is very good. Let’s just do a little bit of reverse.
“If we’re talking about something that’s rugged, that’s practical, that’s fast and just blisteringly fast, then it’s this Valhalla 41.”
So, okay, my first go at the Optimus joystick – You know, I like to drive traditionally, but if you are going to go for a joystick, which I think many of you should, because for resale, everyone’s kind of demanding these sorts of technology these days. So if you don’t have it, you might be lost when you’re trying to turn the boat over to the next model. But I would say, of the joysticks that I’ve tested, that one’s not too bad.
Next thing is, we do have the side opening doors back here on our starboard. So when you are pulling in on the dock, let’s just activate throttle. Great! Okay, so that deactivated the Optimus. I’d be favouring the port side for obvious reasons because you can step out on the port side quite easy. Very good! So let’s drop the anchor and see how easy it is.
SUMMARY
Well, is this the best centre console money can buy? If we’re talking about performance, I’m going to say yes! Yes, it is, compared to everything that I’ve driven so far, from our last little speed run just there hitting 62 knots almost myself and Rod, you’ve still beat me for the day at 63. That’s just speeds I’m not used to achieving on a boat with the conditions we just went through. The feeling this thing gives you of confidence at high speed in changeable and rough conditions is unmatched. That’s it, it’s as simple as that.
Styling, okay, some of you are going to prefer the Euro styling to the American styling. That’s really going to be up to you. But if we’re focusing on performance, if we’re talking about something that’s rugged, that’s practical, that’s fast and just blisteringly fast, then it’s this Valhalla 41. I don’t think I can honestly compare this with another boat because I’ve never done that before. It’s as simple as that.
So I will pop up a link of some other boats in this style for you guys to check out right now. Feel free to click on those as they come up on the screen. Dan Jones is my name. Don’t forget to subscribe, do support the channel. I love all your comments. Keep it coming, and I’ll respond as soon as I get a chance. Thanks so much, guys. I’ll see you on the next one.
