Mid-morning at Sydney Heads. The ocean is barely heaving, there's just a zephyr caressing the deep blue sea, as the sun beams overhead. Cotton-candy clouds drift over the horizon, as could we in the Fleming 55, a boat built for serious coastal cruising, if not crossing oceans.
All we need to do is turn left at The Heads, pick a waypoint on the GPS chart plotter, set up a radar alarm and call the autopilot into action. Engage the stabilisers, run a movie through the spare Raymarine E120 navigation screen, and put something on the stove.
Ten hours later, we would be pulling into Port Stephens, having used just 80 litres of fuel for the passage. The next day, it might be Coffs Harbour, then Yamba, on to the Gold Coast, up to Mooloolaba, into Hervey Bay and eventually the Great Barrier Reef.
Considered the benchmark of motor cruisers, the Fleming 55 is made for going places. As tested here, with twin 500hp Cummins QSC8.3 electronic diesel engines, its range is about 2000 nautical miles, or more than 3700 kilometres at a relaxed eight knots.
Unsurprisingly, long-range ocean cruising is a passion of Tony Fleming, 72, the wayfaring boatbuilder behind these eponymous passagemakers. As I write this, he has just sent a dispatch from Venture, the first 65 he built and kept as a research vessel.
At last report, Venture had 15,000 sea miles under her full-length keel, 4200 of which were accrued on a recent voyage from La Paz, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, down the coast via various ports of call to the Cocos Islands off Costa Rica, across the Equator and down to the Galapagos Islands.
Fleming later took on 5867 litres of diesel in Baltra Island in the Galapagos before arriving at Panama City, at the entrance to the canal. This was the longest passage he had ever undertaken, taking four days and six hours at an average speed of 8.7 knots, burning 4.54 litres per nautical mile. But by the time you read this, he will be headed for New York, then up the Hudson River, Erie Canal and the St Lawrence Seaway en route to Nova Scotia. See what I mean about wayfaring?
Back to the 55, the baby in Fleming Yachts' limited three-boat range, which includes a 65 and 75, all manufactured at the Tung Hwa yard in Southern Taiwan. Fleming makes just 18 or 19 boats each year, with the 55 accounting for 90 per cent of production.
The Sydney owner arrived at his boat via a circuitous route. He was working in London and fell in love with the Fleming at Southampton Boat Show. On the flight home, the chap alongside was reading Passagemaker magazine. He borrowed the journal, and liked what he saw.
His boat was loaded with options: Side Power bow and stern thrusters, ABT Trac stabilisers, a second Cummins Onan generator, two extra docking helm stations (cockpit and aft flybridge), a double-gypsy anchor winch, Reverso fuel-polishing system, flybridge hardtop and cockpit sink.
The Steelhead Marine davit was upgraded to 363 kilograms to lift a Swift 3.4-metre tender with 25hp outboard. Indoors, there was a Bose Lifestyle system, Foxtel and Satphone, and upgraded (all Burmese, of course) teak joinery.
Fleming builds its boat to international standards; in fact, they are made to CE Category Ocean Class A, which means - heaven help us - operating in seas up to seven metres and winds of Force 9 or 41 to 47 knots. Construction is the antipathy of high-tech build, all solid fibreglass, simply because weight at displacement speeds, where these boats spend most of their time, isn't so important.
From the waterline to the top of the signal mast is just 5.7 metres, so the owner can sneak under The Spit Bridge and into Darling Harbour. The draft is a modest 1.52 metres, and a full-length solid keel protects the props and running gear. So skinny waterways such as the Myall River, the Queensland channels, Moreton and Hervey bays can be negotiated with peace of mind.
Big-boat thinking is central to the Fleming's engineering, while the 55 is a class leader in respect of vibration and noise. The engines are fitted with anti-vibration coupling systems or CV joints called Aquadrives that transfer the thrust from the propellers directly to the hull via full-length glass-encapsulated steel bars rather than engines mounts.
Outdoors, the Fleming 55 taps the mindset of Australians in a way many motoryacht manufacturers fail to do. The cockpit is huge, measuring more than 12 square metres, and the bulwarks are 55 centimetres wide and therefore kid, dog and crew friendly.
An internal staircase and cockpit ladder lead to the flybridge, where there's seating for at least eight on lounges, a custom-made retractable Miele barbecue on gas struts that emerges from a cabinet, and a dumbwaiter to the galley.
A domestic side-by-side fridge/freezer and crockery locker stand guard at the entrance to a homely galley. Amenities range from Bosch induction four-burner cooktop with pot holders to Miele convection microwave oven and matching slimline dishwasher, to twin sinks with separate filtered drinking water and saltwater rinse, to InSinkErator and garbage compactor.
The three cabin and two-head layout favours owners, with a stateroom in the bow that boasts a big island double berth on slides. The VIP guests cabin to port has twin single beds with a pullout bunk outboard. As with the third cabin, the upper bunk mattress is half width when not in use, sliding out to full size only when needed.
We set off on a make-believe voyage from Sydney, venturing seaward just far enough to see the coast unfurl enticingly to the north. The logical thing would be to head for Queensland.
At 9.7 knots, we are going places, reeling in the sea miles using 41 litres per hour. Top speed is better than 18 knots, but tipping the scales at 30,000kg, and with the stabilisers deployed, the feeling of the Fleming 55 is unhurried.
The owner plans to do the Hawkesbury next month, Port Stephens and then some east coast cruising, and maybe New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup in 2011. Way to go. THE LOWDOWN As tested, the Fleming 55 would cost about $2.3m with twin Cummins QSC8.3 diesel engines and a boatload of options. More from Paulsen Trading Pty Ltd, Mosman. Phone (02) 9968 3222. ekpaulsen@bigpond.com .
See www.flemingyachts.com.
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