More comfortable, luxurious and exciting than staying ashore
By: Roger McAfee
Hampton’s new Endurance series of long-range cruisers may well persuade many people that the cruising lifestyle can be as comfortable, luxurious and even more exciting than staying ashore. In developing the Endurance series, Hampton set out to produce one of the most stable hulls available to recreational boaters — a good feature for a series of long-range cruisers. Good stability means safety and comfort on the open ocean. According to the builder and the designer, the final stability calculations exceed the U.S. Coast Guard stability requirements for Commercial Open Ocean Service and also the IMO (Intergovernmental Marine Organization) international standards.
Hampton wanted the Endurance hulls to be fuel efficient, particularly at cruising speeds in the 8-knot range. To help meet the varied goals, the builder retained Howard Apollonio, a respected Pacific Northwest naval architect and marine engineer. The result is what Hampton calls a “hybrid hull,” which features a fine entry and a round bottom hull in its forward one-third, with the traditional spray rail molded in well above the waterline along that same forward one-third. The aft two-thirds of the hull is a hard chine and is a semi-planing form with a wide, shallow stern that allows water to flow easily out from under the hull to create very little wake (and drag) at lower speeds.
Prop tunnels have been integrated into the hull to help improve the hydrodynamics. The entire Endurance hull is solid hand-laid fiberglass. Laminated into the hull, from chine to chine, are two layers of Kevlar, which provides additional strength and stiffness, without adding much weight, in case the vessel strikes floating debris. There are three layers of Kevlar in the hull’s forward collision zone. Vinylester resin is used for the first five layers of hull layup, which is helpful in preventing the hull laminate from taking up water as the vessel ages. The deck and topsides are cored glass.
