After a full year of building the highly anticipated M41 Widebody, Dave’s Custom Boats (DCB) dipped the boat in the water for the first time on Friday afternoon at San Diego’s J Street Marina. Company founder Dave Hemmingson e-mailed a handful of images this evening after a few hours of running the 41-foot catamaran in the bay and out in the Pacific Ocean. Needless to say, he was ecstatic.

Calling the M41 Widebody an “absolute home run,” Hemmingson said the boat, which is powered by twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines, reached a top speed of 170 mph around 6,200 rpm during the first day of testing. He added that the catamaran “has lots left in her” since they didn’t want to push the boat too hard its first time out.

DCB’s Tony Chiaramonte said he’s never been in a boat that was so amazing right off the trailer.

“Seriously this boat rock-solid at any speed—it’s so nice,” Chiaramonte said. “We ran it up to 170.4 mph with a pair of Mercury Racing 17”x41” propellers turning in. We tried a couple of props, but we were really out there to get a feeling for what the boat can do. There were some 3- to 4-footers and good crosswind in the ocean today, and it handled all of it perfectly.”

Chiaramonte said DCB will be taking the boat to Arizona’s Lake Havasu in the next couple of weeks to dial it in more and turn it over to its proud owner, Win Farnsworth. Speedonthewater.com will provide updates as they’re made available. You also can follow DCB’s efforts in its InsideOut column on its website.

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