2003 Awesome 3800 Signature
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Testers Notebook: |
When big water and high winds slow others down, it's great to have a boat designed for the job.
This is a 38 foot signature built by Awesome Power Boats of Marine City, Michigan. A spectacular cat, said to be fast and luxurious, and designed for the discriminating performance boater. We're about to see how it handles when the going gets tough.
At rest, you can appreciate the true size of this boat, with lines and graphics that accentuate the meaning of performance. Mcleod interiors have be customized for comfort and security, with grab handles built into the seats and ergonomically placed for every passenger on-board.
Whether driven single-handedly or throttled by a co-pilot, the helm is laid out for optimum visibility. Awesome's powder coated gaffered steering wheel attracts attention to a wide bank of performance gauges and switches, with matching gaffer controls mounted next to the trim indicator and remote stereo control.
Under the hatch rest some very powerful motors in a compartment both spacious and well-organized. Mercury racing supercharged 600's were coupled with combination bravo-inco drives propelled by a 34 inch pitch bravo 1, 4-blade propellers.
For a catamaran, the Awesome has plenty of well-lighted cabin space incorporating 5'8" of maximum head room and a centre pad that could accommodate the Jolly Green Giant.
Now, today's test is taking place in Lake St. Clair in Michigan, and the Awesome 38 Signature, at 37"'9" long with a 10 1/2 foot beam weighing 9,000 pounds, is going to have to take on some pretty rough water. We've got wind gusts up to 25 miles an hour, but we've found a calmer section of the lake right now to do our initial speed run. So here we go. Let's see how it gets up on plane.
"Quick, 4.37 seconds, and what's nice about that was a lot of these cats, when you get them up on-plane, the props ventilate just when you're at a high r.p.m., but the r.p.m.'s stayed low. I just shot up momentarily to 5 and right back down to 35 hundred. So running at this speed, we turn the drives up a little bit. We're at 3,000 r.p.m., it runs real nice. 3500rpm - we're at 60 miles an hour.
The Awesome 38 cat is a two-tunnel. It has a wedge in the centre but it is a two-tunnel, but it's running on pads that are about 8 inches wide on the bottom portion of it. Now, that's a little different. Two tunnels run right on the knife edge, but this is actually running pad that ends just forward of the second step. But I'll tell you what, at this speed, which is around 65 miles an hour, 3800 r.p.m., this boat rides like a dream.
We'll do an acceleration run running at 40 miles an hour to 70. Here we go. Baby, 22 seconds, and the boat feels good. Then I try to turn it a little bit, doing a nice, gradual turn - the boat stays absolutely level. Lovely. Port turn is beautiful.
Time for the high-speed lap. Here we go. 75, 80, whoa, nelly! 90 miles an hour. 92. 94. 99. Come on. 99.9 100. 101. 101! Beautiful run. And absolutely straight as a die. Nice and level.
Clipboard notes show our cruising speed at 67 miles an hour at 4,000 r.p.m. Mercury racing's twin h.p. 600s.c.'s turning 34-inch Bravo 1 props find maximum r.p.m. just outside the operating range. But our speed was an awesome 101 miles an hour.
Well, we certainly had a mean machine to conquer the weather today, which was clearly less than ideal. I consider this boat to be a wave tamer, but I was most impressed with the way the boat handled the wind gusts at extremely high speeds. The bow doesn't get played in any direction and the hull tracks straight and true.
Overall, the 38 Signature is well-appointed and aggressive. It's simply awesome. We'll see you up next time."
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Beam: 10' 5" Weight: 9,000 lbs. Fuel: 216 gal. |
Test boat engine: Mercury racing supercharged 600's, coupled
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For the dealer nearest you contact:
Awesome Powerboats
7025 Marine City Highway,
Marine City, MI 48039
(810)765-8191
http://www.awesomepowerboats.net/
