Doug Wright Begins Work on New 54-Foot Catamaran
With news being posted on the OffshoreOnly.com general discussion forum last week, I promptly called Doug Wright, the founder of Doug Wright Boats in Sebastian, Fla., to find out more about the company’s new 54-foot catamaran—the largest it has ever built.
Wright provided a good amount of details about the new design, including the canopied cockpit capsule, which he is building to deflect water away from the cockpit for additional safety. In fact, the new cockpit water deflector is part of the next 32-footer coming out of the shop in a few weeks—Kyler Talbot’s all-carbon Super Stock class race boat.
“I’m more interested in safety than anything else,” said Wright, who along with building 32-foot and 43-foot catamarans, designs, engineers and constructs high-end composites and molds for the experimental aircraft world. “The new water deflector—picture a squished football around the cockpit—will be part of all the canopy boats I build from here on out. I’ll also offer the design to other manufacturers if they’re interested.”
Wright said the company will begin milling the new 54-footer before the end of the year.
“At this point, the first boat is going to have turbine engines,” he continued. “It will probably be a rudder design, which will take the boat with stern drives from 53 feet, 8 inches to 54 feet, 3 inches.”
The race/poker run canopied boat, which has a 12-foot, 8-inch beam and a 73-inch tunnel, can be configured as a two- or four-seater. The company also will offer a non-canopied pleasure sport version with six to eight seats. Construction can consist of an all-carbon boat or an e-glass boat with carbon and Kevlar reinforcements. All Doug Wright models are constructed with epoxy, Airex core, vacuum bagged and post cured.
Speedonthewater.com will continue to provide updates on the boat during the construction process.
Related stories
Doug Wright Preps Latest 32-Foot Cat
Chief Performance Prepares 1,900-HP Engines for 43 Doug Wright
New Doug Wright All Set for Race in Sarasota
Inside the Doug Wright 32-Foot Poker Run Edition
First 32’ Doug Wright “Pleasure Boat” Ready for Testing in Two to Three Weeks