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Power and Elegance on
Display
at the Boat Show
By Peter Baker
Henry Hungerford
pushed the throttles forward and headed for a charterboat passing into the
Severn River outside Annapolis Harbor. The 22-foot catamaran shot ahead,
twin hulls riding lightly over the wavelets before easily knifing through the
charterboat's wake at 30-plus knots.
"On
these boats, that wake is nothing," Hungerford said during one of many
demonstration rides aboard a Twin Vee Awesome 22 last week at the United
States Powerboat Show. "We need some waves, some real rough water,
to get a feel for what these boats can do. Give me 20 knots of wind on
the nose and three or four-footers and I'd really show you the difference
between these cats and a normal 22-footer."
However, on
Thursday at the mouth of the Severn, the wind was light, the waves and wakes
were inconsequential and Hungerford had to be content with speed trials and
handling demonstrations. And
the 22-footer, powered by twin 70 horsepower, four-stroke Suzuki outboards,
performed well, coming up on plane at low rpms, running quietly and dry at
more than 30 knots and turning nimbly at high speeds.
Jim Snyder of
Williamsport, who keeps a 31-foot monohull at Kentmoor Marina on Kent Island,
was aboard for a test ride Thursday and came away impressed. "I
have a Wellcraft that I use mostly for fishing," said Snyder, "but
this [the Twin Vee] is really different -- smoother, stable, spacious for a
22-footer -- and those four-stroke outboards are so quiet you almost don't
know they are there."
Twin Vee's line
of plain, no-nonsense powered catamarans are at the bottom of the price range
for power cats. The Awesome 22, with T-top, bait wells, basic instruments and
twin outboards, is affordably priced, one of the bargain fishing boats at the
show.
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