Cigarette Releases New 41’ Stern Drive 1040 Center Console

Performance boat fans headed to Key West, Fla., next week for the Super Boat International Offshore World Championships will get their first look at Cigarette Racing Team’s new 41′ Stern Drive 1040 luxury performance center console. The new model, which will be displayed in the Florida Powerboat Club‘s Poker Run Village, was made public to today and has its own special website to showcase it. The boat is powered by twin Mercury Racing 520 engines with twin-propeller, counter-rotating Bravo Three drives. The all-new 41-footer joins Cigarette’s line of outboard-engine-powered center consoles including the 39′ GTS and 42′ Huntress as the company’s only stern-drive center console offering.

Cigarette Racing Team’s new 41′ Stern Drive 1040 luxury performance center console will be on display next week in the Florida Powerboat Club’s Poker Run Village in Key West, Fla.

According to a press release from the Opa-locka, Fla., company, the 41′ Stern Drive 1040 is designed to attract an entirely new audience to the water—one that demands not just luxury and performance but absolute ease of operation in all of its vehicles.

“We created the 41′ Stern Drive 1040 to change the game in a big way and bring new blood into the marketplace,” said Skip Braver, the owner and chief executive officer of Cigarette Racing Team, in the release. “Yes, it falls into the ‘luxury performance center console segment of the market,’ but this new model is an entirely new and innovative concept.

“What keeps most people who didn’t grow up around boats from getting into the powerboating world?” he continued. “It’s very simple: hassle. Everything Cigarette Racing Team designed, engineered and built into the 41′ Stern Drive 1040 was done with one simple mandate: ‘Remove the hassle.’ It really is that simple.”

Operational features of the 41′ Stern Drive 1040, which has an 11-foot beam, include Mercury Marine Axius joystick control system for docking. The system works in tandem with Mercury’s Skyhook automatic positioning system, which holds the boat in its GPS-fixed position when it’s not underway. A pair 15- and 12-inch Garmin GPS readouts are standard at the helm station.

“We knew the boat had to be easy to drive, but we also knew it had to be fun to drive,” said Braver. “Not only did we achieve that with the new 41′ Stern Drive 1040, we set a completely new standard in drivability.”

Interior features of the 41′ Stern Drive 1040 include unencumbered forward, side and rear views, a generous sunpad with walkways on each side and a large swim platform. The console incorporates a cabin with stand-up headroom, wood-grain finishing on the cabinetry, seating and a berth area.

According to Braver, outfitting a 41-footer with uncommon, passenger friendly features was as crucial as making the boat easy and enjoyable to drive.

“We knew that we to had to focus just as much, and maybe even a little more, on everyone in the boat who isn’t driving, and on how it functions as a platform for everything from family adventures to social functions,” he said in the release. “We believe that the 41′ Stern Drive 1040 will ‘open’—a word you’ll find often on the new website—an entirely new world of boating. We believe this one is a game-changer.”

Editor’s note: Look for a comprehensive feature on the new Cigarette 41′ Stern Drive 1040 in the November/December issue of Speed On The Water digital magazine. You can download the September/October 2014 issue of the digital mag at no charge by clicking here and you can read all about the State of the Union at Cigarette Racing by downloading the May/June 2014 issue.