December 26, 2012
We just got back from Whangarei where we ran across one of Dashew’s FPB boats on the dock. I guess the FPB stands for “Fast Power Boat” but that makes little sense to me since they cruise at about 11 knots – not fast at all compared to the cruising speed of some boats this big. But this design really interests me. It is a true ocean crossing power boat. I’d very much like to build something like this, but smaller, slower and much less expensive. I wrote a little article a while back introducing my ideas for our next boat: Sailing Sucks
Update: We received a nice email from Todd Rickard, the program manager for FPB Yachts. He points out that FPB might more appropriately stand for “Fast Passage Boat” and with that, I couldn’t agree more. It would be a dream to make an ocean crossing at 10 knots. Our 22 day passage from Los Angeles to the Marquesas (5.4 knots average speed) would have taken just under 12 days at 10 knots. That’s a huge difference and it would make weather planning much easier. Todd writes more:
Being able to average 10 knots on an offshore passage is, as you know, fast. The John Deere 6 cylinder diesel (236hp) burns just over 5 gallons/hr at that speed, giving us a potential range at that speed of over 6,000 nautical miles. The FPB 64’s “get-home” drive (110hp Yanmar w/ Gori 3-blade) will push the boat comfortably through the water at 6.5-7 knots burning around 2 gallons/hr.
By the way, the boat in the picture is Tiger. A very impressive boat!
