New Boat: Brooklin Boat Yard Center Console 32
Okay, I’ll admit it. My first favorable impression of the Brooklin Boat Yard Center Console 32 that debuted last summer at the 2022 Newport boat show was …its color—which is saying something, as the very agreeable lines of this appealing little vessel conjur such adjectives as “purposeful” and “arresting.” But the creamy, sallow hull, offset by Newport’s blue sea and sky—with the boat’s angular 300-hp V8 Mercury outboard rendered in the exact same shade, just to hammer the point home. Well, I found it practically hypnotic. The Awlgrip paint is called Fighting Lady Yellow, supposedly after a pretty Floridian sportfisherman of the same name and hue. Quite cool.
It wasn’t until later, after taking the boat for a peppy sea trial out of Narragansett Bay and into the open Atlantic, that I realized the pretty exterior was also a bit of a distraction. For the BBY 32 combines one sweet ride with serious chops in design, build and execution.
Hard on the shores of Eggemoggin Reach in the town of Brooklin, the eponymous Down East boatyard from which this subtle beast in smooth finery emerged is somewhat of a Maine institution. Founded in 1960 by yacht designer Joel White (the offspring of celebrated author E.B. White), the full-service yard is now run by his son, Steve White, and while the facility can handle the repair and maintenance of yachts crafted in any material, it remains renowned for its high-end building, restoration and maintenance of wooden vessels. Consider it the best of both worlds: traditional Yankee grit and ingenuity married to the latest techniques in high-tech, cold-molded, vacuum-bagged wood/epoxy composite construction.
The center-console iteration is actually the second, relatively spare version of an identical hard-chine Peter Kriessle design; the first was a fully found express cruiser with twin engines, a windshield, coach roof and modest but comfortable accommodations in the forward cuddy cabin. With all those accoutrements stripped away, what’s left is all business: considerable flare forward in the Carolina tradition of workmanlike runabouts, a hard-topped central console with plenty of storage and an enclosed head, and wide-open decks for comfort and utility.
Built in Douglas Fir with a Sapele plywood sheathe, hand-cut frames and structural girders, stringers and bulkheads, the BBY 32 represents a “less is more” equation. At $350,000, it’s certainly not an inexpensive boat. But what that purchases is a super-strong platform with a premium on weight, or more accurately, the lack thereof. The boat weighs in at a mere 5,400 pounds, including a topped-off 185-gallon fuel tank and that aforementioned Merc. (That also covers countless little details, like the varnished bilge!)
On the morning following the Newport show, with a slight assist from the bow thruster, we ambled out of the harbor and into the glassy, flat-calm bay. The published cruising speed is 21 knots at 4,000 rpm but with the ideal conditions, we opened it right up to 4,700 rpm which notched a nifty 30 knots on the button. As expected, the bow lifted then settled, and the whole shooting match glided along like a champ, the wheel light but firm.
At the mouth of the bay, en route to Rhode Island Sound, an opposing tide leaned into the filling breeze, creating a slight chop and the first previews of the day’s emerging seaway, and things got more interesting. The boat muscled into and through it, as if on a dare, and then seemed to relish a sequence of longish, sweeping turns, in complete harmony with the surrounding elements. You’d expect a light, fast craft to be lively but solid, and this was all that and more.
Life mellowed out on the dash back to the marina—the delivery crew was bound north for Maine, and I felt somewhat obliged to hand them back their boat—but I had to open it up for one last blast, notching a rather effortless 38 knots at 5,700 rpm. I reckon there was a bit more punch to be had but decided not to overstay my welcome.
As I watched the Brooklin boys motor back out, I of course wished I’d had the time to join them. Instead, as it pulled away, I made one last entry on the BBY 32 in my notebook: “It’s a piece of art you can get wet.”
BBY 32 Specifications:
LOA: 34′ 2″
Beam: 9′ 2″
Draft: 1′ 3″
Weight (dry w/engine): 5,400 lbs
Fuel: 185 gal
View the original article to see embedded media.
Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/boats/brooklin-boat-yard-center-console-32-boat-review
