Driving Fayerweather is a tactile, emotional experience that's hard to equal. Edmonds developed the hull shape to minimize vertical accelerations when the boat runs into the short, steep chop of Nantucket Sound. She feels as though she belongs in the water, moving quietly over and through it without making a huge disturbance. Her entry has a 50-degree deadrise and is very fine. She parts the water with a "pardon me, please," and gets pushy only when she has to involve her forward chines. Even then, the increase in buoyancy sneaks up on the crew, rather than slapping them.
The rest of the bottom is a constant deadrise V-form of 19 degrees and is naked of lifting strakes. Her full-length sharp chines may fool you into thinking she rides on a planing bottom, but it's more of a penetrating form. She does lift, but not much, keeping her center of gravity fairly low. She also doesn't show a transition.
Oh my, is she ever quiet. Her Yanmars are far enough away from the helm to be in another ZIP code and are subdued by the "shushing" technology of SounDown. We conversed at normal volume while Fayerweather hustled along the ICW at her max of 33 knots. The hull, too, is quiet through the water.
Jet boats like to wander, and some require fins to make them track a straight line, but Fayerweather tracks well for a jet boat. The extraordinary maneuverability that jets provide at low speeds makes up for a bit of wandering. We were able to walk the 60 sideways, making only a tiny amount of way forward. If you drop the buckets to cover half the nozzles' area, you can steer via the wheel in combination with quick bursts of throttle to turn sharply without moving too far forward. Turn on the autopilot, drop the buckets to half, and you can hold the bow to windward for as long as the fuel lasts.
In keeping with her antecedents, the Fayerweather 60's dashboard is nearly horizontal, and her steering wheel is completely horizontal. The small-diameter Edson wheel was right at my chest level (I'm 5 feet, 6 inches tall). At first, this seemed far from ideal, but steering felt natural after 10 minutes. The boat's owner specified unassisted steering, so it was heavier than I expected. I didn't mind when we were cruising, but quick steering inputs were harder, therefore slower, than I like.
Goetz Boats laminated the entire boat with E-glass pre-preg vacuum-bagged over a balsa core and post-cured at 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Carbon fiber stiffens the longitudinals and house. After the hull has been faired and painted, another session of post-curing at about 150 degrees stabilizes the paint and fillers.
Narragansett Shipwrights of Newport, Rhode Island, did the joinery. The boat doesn't have a liner, and she doesn't need one. The Goetz crew faired and painted the back side of the laminate to a nearly perfect satin white.
Duplicating Fayerweather will require an investment of about $1.5 million. Like all great works of art, her value will grow, and her simple elegance will seem fresh for generations.
Contact: Edmonds Design, (617) 489-7731; fax (617) 489-7736; penn@edmondsdesign.com; www.edmondsdesign.com.
