Wave piercer with NZ connection

The Dashew FPB64 is the result of a four-year sea trial that covered 45,000 sea miles in challenging conditions. Photo / Supplied

Not many Kiwis have heard of Steve Dashew. Yet, among the community of those who cruise the world's oceans, he and wife Linda are both well known and respected.

They have produced "must-have" guides to cruising, such as the Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia and The Mariner's Weather Handbook: A Guide to Forecasting and Tactics.

They have also produced the Offshore Voyaging DVD Series and are one of those lucky couples who manage to spend more time afloat than they do on dry land.

In the same way that this nomadic and aquatic lifestyle has not restricted their writing or movie-making, it has also not kept Dashew from his first love: designing ocean-going vessels.

Like many designers, Dashew started with yachts and belatedly moved into power boats. For more than 20 years, he fielded requests for "an efficient and safe power boat", based on his successful yacht designs.

While he found the concept interesting, he had to admit that he and his wife were "not ready emotionally" to consider going to sea on a power boat themselves.

However, the idea gradually became more appealing and about four years ago he launched his landmark power boat design, Wind Horse.

Built in New Zealand (Dashew has long admired the boatbuilding skills here) and designated the Dashew FPB83, Wind Horse has already completed 45,000 cruising miles.

Many of those were spent seeking out the sort of conditions the rest of us go to great lengths to avoid. They comprised a comprehensive and exhaustive sea trial.

"Given the thousands of hours of design work which went into Wind Horse, along with substantial efforts in the towing tank and with CFD analysis, you would think we had all the answers," says Dashew.

"However, from long experience, we know that there is nothing like using a boat full time to get a feel for what works, and what can be improved upon.

"Now, with more than 45,000 miles under the keel since sea trials were completed, we have a handle on how, and why, this design works as well as it does.

"We've purposely searched out a variety of sea states to give our bodies and onboard instrumentation a chance to accumulate data [Wind Horse is fitted out with six accelerometers, with roll-rate and angle sensors]."

Dashew's goal was to see if he could reproduce Wind Horse's capabilities in a more compact package.

"We were not sure it was possible. We looked at more than 1000 hull shapes, dozens of interior layouts and more propulsion options than you can imagine." The result is the Dashew FPB64.

According to programme manager Todd Rickard, the FPB stands for fast pilot boat, fast passage boat or fast power boat.

Four FPB64s have already been sold and are either ocean voyaging or under construction at Circa Marine and Industrial in Whangarei. The first was launched earlier this year and, after sea trials off the Northland coast, it is now cruising around the Pacific Islands.

The second FPB64 was launched in July and the other two are scheduled for launch soon.

In many ways the FPB64 closely resembles her forerunner. Both share a similar profile, have the same freeboard and house their engine(s) all the way aft.

One major difference, however, is in the engines: Wind Horse has two, the new 64s have but one.

"The reason for this is simple: efficiency," says Dashew.

"By going to a single-engine installation, we maintain close to the FPB83's interior noise levels, have comparable range at a cruising speed of 9.5 to 10 knots - compared with the FPB83 at 10.5 to 11 knots - and what has proven to be comparable or better manoeuvrability without using the bow thruster, which is standard on the FPB64."

The 64 is fitted with a John Deere 6068TFM, which delivers 236hp at 2400rpm. By changing the computer coding the engine can be set to deliver power settings of 182-300hp.

With it's wave-piercing design, the FPBs are intended to cope with a variety of adverse conditions. For this reason, in the bow, where the topsides are welded to the stem bar, the aluminium is more than 56mm thick. "We don't need anything nearly this strong for ocean loadings," says Dashew.

"But, if you are going to be bumping into logs, docks, or other hard items, that thick, deep stem bar is really nice to have."

The plated hull is also more robust than normal. Instead of the usual 8mm, the FPB64's bottom is of 12mm plate, giving about three times the stiffness (stiffness is a cube function of thickness).

That extra thickness, which extends 150-175mm above the waterline is not needed for pounding upwind, stresses Dashew.

"That 12mm plate is being used because it gives us a warm, pleasant feeling when we're offshore, knowing we have huge factors of safety in the bottom plating for things which go bump in the night."

For Kiwis used to a high level of customisation, the Dashew approach to presenting these boats will also take some getting used to.

"These boats are being built to the same complete specifications," he says. "There are no options except for dinghies and some personal gear.

"The boats are complete right down to life-raft, full spare-parts inventory, awnings, spare anchors, drogues and warps, and two sets of dock lines.

"Just add crew and provisions and you are ready to explore."

Dashew is adamant that this production-line approach produces a high-quality product at moderate cost. It saves, he estimates, up to half of what one would pay for a custom yacht of the same specification.

It is an unusual and rather bold approach, rather like his FPB designs. And with two launched and another brace in production, it appears to be one with quite a lot of appeal.

DASHEW FPB64

* LOA: 19.85m
* DWL: 19.40m
* Beam: 5.22m
* Draft: 1m
* Displacement: 41 tonnes
* Construction: Aluminium
* Max speed: 11.1 knots
* Cruise speed: 9.5 knots
* Fuel capacity: 13,000 litres
* Water capacity: 6800 litres
* Base price: US$2.5 million

Want to know more?
Check out the full Dashew FPB64 story in the September/October issue of Pacific Motoryacht or at www.pacificmotoryacht.com.