Boat Review: Whiticar 76 Enclosed Bridge

Whiticar Custom Boats in Stuart, Florida, has been in the business of building traditional offshore fishing boats for a long time. The past few boats brought such successful advancements that they’ve carried the company into a whole new market. Jim Dragseth and John Whiticar deserve kudos for carrying their company to the top of the custom-builder heap with their latest launch – the Whiticar 76, named Boomer.

Performance
Lying some 620 nautical miles east of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Bermuda can offer some righteous seas from time to time. Our test day, however, wasn’t one of those times, with unchallenging calm and sunny conditions. Trolling off the edge of the reef at slow idle (594 rpm), we ran at 7.5 knots with our lures in two distinct, clear alleys between the centerline subsurface prop wash and surface turbulence from the passage of the hull. Standard idle (697 rpm) bumped us up to 8.7 knots using 6 gph. Boomer’s extremely prudent captain spent much of the 29 hours it took to get from Morehead City, North Carolina, to Hamilton, Bermuda, traveling at about 10 knots burning a mere 10.5 gph. At that speed, this 76-footer enjoys a passage-making range well in excess of 2,500 nautical miles.

Cruise speed at 70 percent engine load equates to 28 knots turning 1,840 rpm and burning 112 gph total. Top speed hit 36 knots.

Engine Room
I liked the wide-body engine hatch followed by an astounding 7 1¼2 feet of headroom in the engine compartment. A pump room all the way forward houses a well-equipped workshop. I asked about crash pumps and was told that the vessel has numerous, separate, independent crash pumps throughout the boat from stem to stern.

Boomer’s owner plans to travel far afield – we ran the boat in Bermuda – and that always provides the potential to pick up bad fuel. The tanks aboard this boat have two fuel pickups: one at the very bottom and another about an inch higher. Each day, the crew runs the fuel from the tank bottom through separate fuel filters to prevent the twin V-16 MTU 2000 engines rated at 2,000 hp each from ever getting sludge.

Interior
The distinct paucity of right angles in the Whiticar 76’s profile carries over to the interior as well. Everywhere you look, you see beautiful radius curves and flowing lines.

I entered the living quarters from the engine room and immediately came upon the captain’s quarters portside with its twin bed and a fold-down bunk, along with a private head and separate shower. Climb a slightly curved stairwell to the main stateroom deck, where you’ll find an island double to starboard with separate head and shower. I love the S-curve companionway moving forward to another island-berth stateroom and another opposite to port. Throughout Boomer, the owner chose old-style yacht décor.

In the bow, the master stateroom boasts an athwartship queen-sized berth and private head.

Whiticar makes superb use of dead space, so storage abounds. The galley uses stainless-steel drawers under the counters for refrigerators and freezers, and the space is large enough to accommodate both a chef and sous-chef with no interference.

**Cockpit
**No large sport-fisherman comes without a mezzanine these days, and Boomer makes no exception. This mezzanine deck holds the usual items like several deep freezes, a drink refrigerator and the Eskimo ice maker’s ice container. Additionally, a rigging station and cockpit controls hide to starboard. Perhaps Boomer’s best mezzanine feature is a day head. It lets people do their business without tracking saltwater or bait mess from their shoes through the entire salon on their way to the head. The other door on the mezzanine reveals the circular staircase to the flybridge.