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Old 05-02-2014, 12:22 PM   #17
Nick14
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City: New England
Vessel Name: Culmination
Vessel Model: Helmsman 38 Sedan
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 719
For whatever it's worth, I seriously looked at the SRD38 a few years ago, the first SRD from Shannon (a smaller version of this boat).

I can't comment on the new 46, but THD, I noticed several of your observations. The boat was "small" for a 38, with a narrow beam and a sort of 'pinched' bottom design which resulted in a small cabin. It felt a lot like a 34-ish ft sailboat inside.

We ultimately sea trialed two different boats, one with twin engines, and one a single. Walter Shultz was very big on surface piercing drives for the boat, but both of the ones we sea trialed had conventional drives.

I personally loved the performance of the boat. It struck me as having some similar design elements and characteristics of powerboats of the 1930's - narrow beam, light weight, and as a result, more easily driven with less power. The combination of the deep forefoot and narrow beam gave them a very stable, smooth, wave-piercing ride, very different from any planning hull I've ever been on.

They both accelerated very quickly (one had twin 150 hp, the other a single 440). I can't comment on the total performance envelope, but each one seemed to comfortably cruise in the mid-high teens, and were completely unperturbed by waves and chop. It was almost uncanny, how this light and relatively small-ish boat was able to handle waves so well, and at speed. It was both a smoother and faster ride than lobster boats I've been on. That speed range ("semi-displacement", "semi-planning", whatever you like to call it) is where we like to be, so a cruise speed in the teens was perfect.

I found Walter Shultz to be delightful to talk with. He was (understandably) very passionate about and a big champion for his SRD design, I think deservedly so. He seemed very knowledgeable, and the boats showed a lot of attention to detail and seemed well-built. I can't comment on the performance specs in the magazine article, other than to say it wouldn't be the first time a magazine article had errors in some of the data they report and might later have to correct it. I seem to recall at the time the SRD38 getting about 2 nmpg at cruise speed, which struck me as about 50%+ better than either a conventional planning or a 'semi-displacement' hull. I would suspect the figures they quote on their website are the right ones.

In the end, we didn't buy one, mostly because a new SRD38 was just out of our budget. Despite the relatively tight interior, if it was less expensive, we probably would have bought one. The single engine boat we looked at was used and I thought a good value, but I moved too slowly and it sold before I could move on it.

I don't think Shannon made very many of the SRD38, maybe half a dozen? The boat is too different from what most buyers are looking for. It's not beamy with a spacious interior so it wouldn't be a good party barge or dockside condo, and the tight interior of the 38 also wouldn't lend itself to the long distance cruising many trawler owners do (it would have worked for us since most of our trips are short). I haven't seem a SRD46, but it seems like a smart move for Shannon, to make a bigger version to address one of the main design limitations of the previous 38, the tight interior.

The whole hydraulic drivetrain and second engine with saildrive seems overly complicated, unnecessary, and silly to me, for all the reasons previously discussed - the boat gets noticeably better fuel economy than others just with a conventional drivetrain, so why make it complicated? The price of the SRD46 is way out of our budget, but it would be on my short list (with conventional drive) if we ever win the lottery.
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