SPECS:
The wind was out of the north at 15 knots, and the seas were about 3 to 5 feet during this year's Silver Sailfish Derby out of West Palm Beach, Florida. As I looked to the south while keeping an eye on my kite baits, I saw a boat coming up the line toward us. As she started to pass us on the offshore side, I noticed how easily she handled the sloppy sea conditions. It was the new Double Take from American Custom Yachts. Seeing her in all of her beauty brought me back to the afternoon just a few weeks earlier when I sea-trialed this incredible new addition to the ACY fleet.
Double Take is 67 feet in overall length with a beam of 18 feet 8 inches and a draft of 5 feet 4 inches. As I walked up to the boat at Sailfish Marina in Singer Island, Florida, Capt. Mike Laufle had one of the two 24 kW Phasor generators running and ready to go. Upon my arrival, he cranked the big Caterpillar C32 ACERT Tier 3 diesels, and we were soon underway. I always want to have an overall view of the boat during a sea trial, so I climbed straight up the polished pipe Bausch tower. Pulling out of the slip, the Vetus bow thruster easily helped push the bow around into the strong current.
Once out of the inlet, Capt. Laufle eased up the throttles, and the 1,900 hp CATs combined with 3150 ZF transmissions quickly pushed her up on plane by 1,300 rpm. Double Take reached a comfortable cruising speed at 32 knots turning 1,850 rpm and burning 135 gph. With a fuel capacity of 2,000 gallons, Double Take has an approximate range of 450 miles at cruising speed.
All engine vitals can be monitored while running the boat on the two Caterpillar screens mounted in the overhead electric fold-down in the hardtop. The remaining electronics on the bridge are tucked away cleanly in recessed electronic boxes, with two on either side of the helm pod and one directly in front.
Back at the dock at Sailfish Marina, Capt. Laufle took me on a tour throughout the boat to show me all the different systems aboard. She has two 45-gallon oil tanks and an oil-change system, which has all of the needed equipment to move oil to and from the tanks or buckets. Each engine is equipped with three Racor filters as well.
As you step into the pump room, you can see that the boat has an 1,800 gallon per day Parker Village Marine watermaker with 300- gallon capacity water tank. She is also equipped with a Spot Zero watermaker and a pair of Crusair 30,000 Btu air-conditioning chillers to keep the interior cool.
ACY specifically designed her cockpit with fishing in mind — especially with the international adventures planned by her owner and crew. Just forward of the pedestal for the fighting chair is a large fish box and two Eskimo ice machines, capable of producing up to 450 pounds of ice per day. The mezzanine seating includes a starboard bench freezer. Port and starboard livewells are built into the mezzanine deck, perfect for those days when flying the kites for South Florida sailfish. Should you need additional bait storage, she also has in-deck hookups for two portable livewells that sit on each side of the pedestal. The beautiful thing here is that the wells are centrally located, and once connected to the deck fittings, there are no hoses running across the deck to trip over. Three tuna tubes are built into both the port and starboard covering boards, giving a very clean look for the functional tubes. Her beautiful lines are complemented by 45-foot Rupp quad-spreader riggers. The Seakeeper gyro is neatly mounted underneath the cockpit deck, an essential item for any new boat build.
The first thing I noticed as I walked through the salon door situated to the port side of the bulkhead is the aft-facing galley. This configuration allows a free view of the cockpit and the spread, so you can make lunch or any meal without missing out on the action. On the aft side of the galley is a concealed Wolf two-burner cooktop with a Bosch convection microwave oven below. A 27-inch Sub-Zero freezer and a 27-inch Sub-Zero refrigerator are located in the forward part of the galley. Above the Sub-Zero units is a beautiful countertop with three bar stools forward of the galley, so you can face aft and continue to watch the spread.
Forward cabinetry located just above the aft-facing wraparound couch provides ample storage space. The TV is tucked in an overhead drop-down compartment situated so that everyone sitting either on the couch or the bar stools can watch TV at the same time. The dinette table is found on the port side of the salon along with a portside pop-up bar, conveniently hidden into the cabinetry when underway.
At the top of the companionway is a fishing-reel locker on the port side, which provides direct access to all the reels and allows the crew to keep the reels in a climate-controlled environment. Tucked behind two glass doors, the locker has the capacity to hold six 80s and six 50s.
The first door to the starboard side at the bottom of the companionway is the entrance into a full-beam master stateroom. The master bed is against the aft bulkhead with a nightstand on either side. On the starboard side of the master bed are two closets with a full desk between them. The master bath and shower is located just forward of the master bed.
The second door starboard of the companionway is the VIP stateroom. The room features a VIP bed against the starboard side of the boat, and the VIP head is just forward of the bed. The crew/day head is located to the port side at the bottom of the companionway. Just forward is the door into the crew’s quarters, which is also accessed via a second door in the portside head. The washer and dryer is found to port of the crew’s quarters with a closet just ahead of it. On the starboard side of the crew’s quarters, there is an upper and a lower bunk, with storage under the lower bunk.
Capt. Mike Laufle says the owner built Double Take with the idea of doing long fishing trips through the lower Bahamas and even transiting the Panama Canal on her own bottom. After seeing her in person, she's certainly a capable boat for these kinds of trips, and I'm sure she'll have many marlin releases to her name in no time.
