Sunseeker's new Hawk 38 expected to undergo sea trials this week

Sunseeker has a heritage of high performance sports boats and once again they have turned to Italian designer Fabio Buzzi for the latest addition to its range. This time the cooperation between Sunseeker and Buzzi will be more comprehensive with Buzzi not only designing the hulls but also building them.

The new design, to be named the Hawk 38, is based on a stepped deep vee hull that has been developed based on Buzzi’s racing heritage and experience. It will be fitted out as high-performance day boat and for only the second time in Sunseeker’s long history (it produced a Sportsfisher 37 in 2004), it will be powered by outboard motors, following the trend of many US builders.

Drawing on the company’s racing heritage, the new high-performance model will be capable of a leisurely 70mph (62kts) ‘out of the box’ with standard twin Mercury 400R outboards. The hull has been optimised to take advantage of the latest outboard engine technology giving not only performance benefits but also low-cost maintenance for clients. For even more performance, other outboard engines are available to special order. In addition to being a stand alone sports boat the Hawk 38 has the potential as a superyacht tender or chase boat.

The prototype for the Hawk 38 is under construction at the FB Design facility in Annone Brianza, north of Milan and it is anticipated that it will undergo its first sea trial later this week. Once tested and approved, the hulls will be moulded in Italy and then shipped to the UK where Supermarine Powerboats will do the rigging of the outboards and Sunseeker will complete the outfitting.

This arrangement of moulding the hulls in Italy has been necessary because they embrace the Structural Foam concept that has been patented by FB Design. This not only makes for an unsinkable boat but also moderates vibration and noise transmission to an absolute minimum combined with a very strong and lightweight hull. To reduce lateral pitching and increase comfort and safety whilst running at high speed, inflatable STAB® tubes are fitted as standard and provide the added benefit of built-in fendering for easy boarding and stability at anchor.

The Hawk 38 will be equipped with four FB Design developed sprung racing seats that allow the occupants to sit or stand. These seats are now being made by Besenzoni under a recently signed cooperation agreement between FB Design and Besenzoni. A helm canopy is standard.

The initial contract with Sunseeker calls for 50 of the Hawk 38 hulls to be produced

The creation of this new design for Sunseeker is a new development for FB Design, a company that has concentrated on producing high quality, high speed patrol boats for military and para-military organisations around the World. “The quality required for building our patrol boats will be transferred into the building of these boats for Sunseeker” commented Fabio Buzzi.

The initial contract with Sunseeker calls for 50 of the Hawk 38 hulls to be produced. “With our computer controlled 5 axis milling machine moulding system and our Structural Foam construction system we can produce the very accurate and strong hulls required for this contract”, said Buzzi.

Commenting on the Hawk 38, Sunseeker CEO, Christian Marti said: “The heritage of the Sunseeker brand is unparalleled; built on a legacy of developing small performance racing boats, we are the technical experts in this field, and it lies within the brand’s DNA. Having worked previously with FB Design on the XS2000 and XS Sport as far back as 18 years ago, Sunseeker has always dominated this area and will continue to do so with this technologically advanced cutting-edge new model.

“To properly understand the market and therefore genuine customer demand, we carried out detailed research to fully appreciate the breadth of this complex sector. Now is the perfect time for a high-performance day boat designed, engineered and built to exacting standards; the all-new Hawk 38 will deliver an experience like nothing else in the market.”