Yesterday, I got flashed by a new Deep Impact Custom Boats beauty. The curved structure below her top was something to behold, almost a bit overwhelming. It was so much, in fact, that I needed to take a breath before responding to company principal Mark Fischer, who asked what I thought about it.
“That’s some heavy-duty hardware,” I said. “What’s it made of?”
Fischer responded, “Two-inch-diameter schedule 40 welded aluminum.”
I’m talking, of course about the aluminum structure inside the top for the new Deep Impact 439 center console coming to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show this. It is same top design/build found on the then-new 499 center console debuted last year at the Fort Lauderdale happening.
What did you think I was talking about?
“No wonder you need six outboards to move these things,” I added. “They’re heavy.”
That wasn’t insult, not at least as Fischer is concerned. He prides Deep Impact models on their ability to master rough water, and that’s where solidly constructed mass comes into play. To that end, the company builds its center-console structures with a fiberglass inner liner.
“Our boats can handle offshore water,” Fischer said. “So we build them to handle it and include fuel tanks with enough capacity for cruising.
“But thanks to great hull design they are still within two to three miles per hour of the top speed of competitive products of the same size,” he added.