Boat Review: Titan 62 Convertible

Turn into the Ocean City, Maryland, inlet and head north, up through Isle of Wight Bay. Just past the Ocean City Expressway bridge, turn northwest and head up the St. Martin River, past Newport and Piney Point, and all the way up past Bishopville Prong. There you’ll find Titan Yachts, a custom builder in Bishopville. While you might not think of Maryland as a premier boatbuilding center, Titan products enjoy quality and design standards that you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere. Owner Russell Garufi even commissioned noted naval architect Darren Roop of Shorebreak Design to draw the lines of this new 62 convertible.

**Performance
**According to Garufi, the new 62 made the trip south for the Fort Lauderdale show transiting some heavy seas and 30-knot northeasterly winds in the process. Apparently she rose to the challenge beautifully, maintaining a 28-knot cruise down-sea without taking a drop of water into the cockpit or onto the weather curtains. With the power-assist steering and a well-designed aspect ratio on the rudder, the boat maneuvers like a sports car. The boat’s time to plane, a speedy six seconds, is incredibly quick for a 62-footer.

Top speed hits 40.1 knots at 2,350 rpm so far, burning a lean 164 gph. However, designer Roop claims that the current props aren’t meeting his slippage calculations, so new ones are being milled to hopefully gain the extra 2 to 3 knots that the design parameters outline for this hull. The most efficient cruising speed seems to be about 33 knots turning 1,950 rpm. At that speed, you burn about 105 gph for a range of 430 nautical miles.

The engine room offers easy and spacious access from the cockpit through a hatch in the mezzanine sole. The compartment itself, as well as all bilge areas, get faired and painted with a nonporous epoxy finish. All maintenance points enjoy easy access. A single 27-kW Caterpillar genset offers more than enough shipboard electrical power.

**Cockpit
**With the advent of mezzanines, the cockpit of large sportfishing convertibles has been transformed into more than just a fishing work space. As my mother said when she first saw one, “What a nice patio to entertain on.” The Titan incorporates a teak deck, coamings and covering boards for a traditional look. As you’d expect, lots of features hide under the mezzanine. You’ll find a pair of bait freezers to port and a large insulated drink box to starboard. A 100-gallon, insulated stainless-steel box in the deck acts as the repository for the 600 pounds of ice generated daily by the Eskimo ice machine. On this particular hull, a Release Marine fighting chair, embossed with the Titan logo, bolts through the center of the cockpit deck, and an insulated transom fish box provides space for your future table fare.

**Interior
**This hull sports a very traditional galley-forward layout. Walk in from the cockpit through the pneumatically activated sliding door and you’re greeted by an L-shaped leather settee (with loads of storage underneath) aft to port. It abuts the comma-shaped dinette – over a marble floor – just forward. The starboard side galley boasts undercounter refrigerator and freezer drawers, granite countertops and a breakfast bar with stools. The entertainment center faces the salon settee and features a big-screen plasma TV that rises on rams. You’ll also find LCD screens in each stateroom below.

Custom yacht builders never seem to run out of exotic woods to use in interiors. Titan creates its custom cabinetry using quartersawn Anigre from the Ivory Coast of Africa. This wood has a yellowish-white to pale brown color (sometimes with a pinkish tint), as well as what woodworkers would call a “lively grain.”

Belowdecks, the Titan includes a crew’s quarters immediately to port with a closet and over/under single berths. That cabin shares the portside guest head with the guest stateroom forward, which boasts an island queen berth on centerline. The entire starboard side below belongs to the master stateroom with private head and shower, vanity and athwartships queen-sized berth. All staterooms come with cedar-lined hanging lockers.

**Design and Construction
**Bowing to the excellent trend in custom sportfishing construction, Titan cold-molds its hull and the cabin using epoxy resin and knit fiberglass over Okoume plywood planking and Douglas fir stiffeners. Computer-routed jigs allow Titan to build the hull, cabin and flybridge side by side at the same time, rather than in steps, to assure a proper fit. Using the cabin top as a jig for making the hardtop assures that the profile lines match in every way. Speaking of profile lines, one thing you notice right off the bat about the 62 Titan is that it appears low-slung, like a performance sports car. And, yes, sleek is sexy.