Of course, what you tend to find on the other side of a huge wave, once you’ve blasted through it, is a lot of air and a serious drop. So the Barracuda has four-point harnesses to hold you in place during the inevitable descent, while a 22 degree deep-vee hull and X Craft C-Force suspension seats help cushion the landing.
Not to mention a heavy-duty hand-laid FRP co*posite hull (6,800g on hull bottom, 8,500g along the keel).
Such a focussed boat requires an equally focussed customer base, and customers don’t co*e much more focussed than the military, which is why Safehaven’s options list is rather different to that of Princess Yachts.
There are no hot tubs, no teak deck option, no rise and fall TV. But there is a rise and fall gyro stabilised machine gun platform that emerges from the foredeck, controlled from the wheelhouse. Bulletproofing and a gun rack for the AK47s are also on the menu, should its customer base require it.
But like the original Land Rover Defender, what’s really cool about this boat is its co*plete lack of style for style’s sake, it’s the shape it is because it’s the shape most fit for purpose. And that purpose, apart from going where no fast boat has gone before, is to do it in secret. Which is why every panel is designed to disperse radar reflections rather than beam them back to whence they came.
For all its super cool all-weather performance, perhaps the coolest thing of all about the Barracuda SV11 is that it’s a bona fide stealth boat!
Year: 2015
LOA: 11m BEAM: 4.0m
Power: Twin Caterpil*ar C9 575hp diesel engines
Speed: 33 knots
Price when launched: £1 Million
To submit your suggestion for the world’s coolest boat, head over to the MBY forum.
This article World's coolest boats: Safehaven Marine Barracuda SV11 appeared first on Motor Boat & Yachting.
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