A NEW DAY DAWNS

Welcome aboard the Viking 60. There’s no doubt about it. The new Viking 60 Convertible is a speed merchant with a built in af nity to raise sh. Making its international premiere at the Ft. Lauderdale Boat show in October, the new model is already well on its way to setting sales records. The new 60 Convertible is clearly a groundbreaker in styling, design and performance. The rst of a new breed of Vikings to feature a black mask wraparound that melds artfully into a distinc- tively shaped window line, its appearance is truly exciting at the marine dock, but also at sea. When you see its black mask heading your way, get a good look because the next thing you will notice is the gracefully arced transom as it passes you by. The more you study the lines of the boat the better you can ap-preciate the styling. The sheer line is breathtaking because of the remarkable transition from bow to stern. Freeboard forward is just over seven feet yet at the cockpit it’s less than three feet. The fore- deck rises ever so slightly until the black mask dominates the view and your eyes take in the creamy shape of the wraparound ying bridge. In the cockpit details abound from above like the over- hang of the bridge deck shielding the mezzanine and below like the swept back cabin trails. From any angle you select, the Viking 60 is one beautiful creation.Of course, styling means little if the design lacks mettle. But this is a Viking, so there is no problem here. The 60 employs an ad- vanced hull form that provides speeds to 40+ knots. For stabil-ity and sea keeping ability, the running surface features a convex deadrise shape with 12-degree transom deadrise matched to an aggressively raked entry with sharpened waterline sections. The convex deadrise adds curvature and form to the hull bottom and the wide beam which carries well aft increases lifting motion in a seaway. Regardless of the vertical acceleration, the hull meets the water softly upon re-entry to improve ride comfort and dryness. To enhance performance and achieve better engine and propulsion ef- ciencies, our design engineering and production groups explored various opportunities to shave off unnecessary poundage and thus were successful in bringing the deckhouse and hull weights to frui- tion within the desired framework. An engineering driven company, Viking has been using end grain balsa as a coring material for over 20 years without a single con- struction failure. Our success and con dence with this material led us to explore other areas where we could take advantage of the product’s varied attributes for stiffness, strength, lighter weight and durability in the development of the 60 Convertible. Some ex- amples of these weight saving achievements include using vacuum bagged high-strength Baltek anti-fungal coring in the highly load- ed bottom panels of the running surface. It should be noted that end grain balsa has tremendous shear strength and in the event of an accidental grounding our experience has been that any damage THE 60 EMPLOYSAN ADVANCED HULL FORM THAT PROVIDES SPEEDS TO 40+ KNOTS.