formula 45 yacht review

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• By Roy Attaway
• Updated: October 4, 2007

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Looking westward from Sarasota’s New Inlet, the Gulf of Mexico was a seamless cyclorama where shrimp boats seemed to rise above the sea in shimmering fata morgana. It was a Monday morning and the frenzy of weekend boaters had vanished and the Gulf seemed relaxed-or was it exhausted? For Formula’s Vic Spellberg and me, it didn’t matter. We were off on an anticipated odyssey that would take us, over the next few days, from Florida’s west coast to the east coast via its soggy, fertile middle-familiar ground for both of us, but no less exciting.

We turned south, put the new Formula 45 yacht on autopilot, slid back the sunroof and dreamed of “one particular harbor,” as Mr. Buffett sings, watching the depth varying little from 36 feet, our speed a constant 31.2 mph. I had to ransack my memory to recall the last time I’d seen the Gulf this quiescent.

The 45’s bridge already had proved to be the ideal platform for inveterate voyeurs and connoisseurs of the passing scenery, including myself. This fully enclosed sweep of windows in a permanent hardtop is a configuration Formula calls its “coupé.” For anyone seated on the portside bench, or especially the double helm/companion seat opposite, it affords unobstructed views of the world around you and, not so incidentally, for the helmsman of the bow and stern.

It is a very comfortable arrangement with a party center replete with electric grill, icemaker/fridge, sink, stowage for trash and an auxiliary Igloo abaft this. An isinglass curtain drops down behind to seal off the 30,000 BTUs of cockpit air-conditioning, if you like. At 90°F ambient, we liked. We were snug in a temperate world of our own.

Our transit took us well offshore of some of Florida’s most glorious beaches on islands as thin as razor clams. From here they were like tufted sandbars with houses tucked into the casuarina and pine, windows winking friendly semaphores. Now and again, we glimpsed the Spanish Revivalism popularized in the east by architect Addison Mizner in Palm Beach and developer George Merrick in Coral Gables. Occasionally, there was an eruptive highrise, but for the most part it was not too unlike the landscape first discovered by the overanxious 16th-century Spaniards.

North of here, Pánfilo de Naváez found himself ingesting more of the Gulf than he wanted as he fled the supremely irritated Apalachee Indians. Just over there, in Charlotte Harbor, the conqueror of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico and the discoverer of La Florida (1513), Juan Poncé de León, tripped not over the Fountain of Youth but a Tocobaga arrow and fell mortally wounded.

And out in the middle of this great limestone peninsula, Hernando de Soto thrashed his way through slash pine and saw palmetto looking fruitlessly for gold (apparently geology wasn’t the Spaniards’ strong suit) before turning north into Georgia and South Carolina, thence westward, eventually dying on the banks of the Mississippi.

We, on the other hand, were doing just fine. At 3:15 that afternoon, we rounded Sanibel Light-well to the south to avoid the sprawling shoals that keep TowBoatUS fat and happy-transited San Carlos Bay, threaded our way through Miserable Mile, the notorious stretch of no-wake leading into the Caloosahatchie River, and eased into the Fort Myers Yacht Basin for fuel.

This charming old town did indeed begin life as a fort, built in 1850 and named for Col. Abraham Myers, a South Carolinian who later became quartermaster general of the Confederate army. It was a genuine backwater until Thomas Alva Edison built a compound with house and laboratory here to escape New Jersey winters. Eventually, his friend Henry Ford built a home nearby. The two magnates quickly became magnets for others.

Edison’s sprawling Seminole Lodge notwithstanding, I’d begun to appreciate the ingenuity of Formula’s design and execution (courtesy of the redoubtable John Adams). This may well be the company’s most fully found yacht to date.

Beyond the bridge’s weather barrier are the open cockpit and other benches and the transom door. The swim platform is as wide as a platypus’ bill and is hydraulically controlled. Put your PWC or dink on it, lower same into the water and float it off. Retrieval is equally easy. Behind the portside bench, there is an ingenious stowage space for curtains and such.

Below stairs, as the Brits say, the accommodation is as well-thought-out as you’ll find in a 45-foot yacht. The master is forward, a high-pedestal queen with steps up both sides, stowage under and hanging lockers port and starboard, a large hatch over (plus two portlights), shelves running down both sides (but needing fiddles), and a really nice arrangement with head and shower in separate compartments, both very large and comfortable.

The after stateroom is smaller, but cleverly laid out with twin berths to starboard, converting to a double with an ingenious flip-out filler. The sink is en suite, and the head and shower are in a separate compartment.

The saloon is amidships, with lots of stowage in ubiquitous cabinets; a hi-low dinette table on the starboard side is roomy enough, as we Americans say, for six Krispy Kreme derrières and the banquette is upholstered in Ultraleather. Ralph Lauren fabrics are optional.

The galley opposite has a stand-up fridge/freezer, two-burner electric range (the Corian cover flips up to double as a splash board) and a microwave. Again, tons of stowage. There also is a translucent panel over the galley, in addition to large oval portlights. A handsome teak and holly sole plays off of the rich cherry laminates.

Three large flat-screen TVs provide the indoor entertainment. The one in the after stateroom is battery-powered and may be relocated to a special bracket on the bridge.

Line-handling is easy, even if the side decks are too narrow for my large green Crocs. Fortunately, the forward windshield is split by a fold-back door, giving easy access to the foredeck with its two-person sunpads.

Unfortunately, I was unable to fully test the facilities-other than the heads-as this was hull No. 1 and Formula was keeping it as a showboat. (If you’re interested, take a number; they’re sold out into next year.) So, after overnighting in the Winyah Bay motel adjacent to Centennial Marina, we churned out into the Caloosahatchee current, already chocolaty brown and subsuming the azure Gulf.

Our immediate problem was a dense ground fog hugging the river and reducing visibility to less than 30 yards, the sun fading to a hot white disk. Power yachts and sailboats suddenly emerged, their captains looking like ghosts of spooked skippers past, wide-eyed and apprehensive at our approach.

An hour later, after we advanced cautiously with the aid of the Raymarine electronics package (love the new chart plotter with the aerial views), the sun finally burned off the mist and we could smell the hot scent of the jungle. We were now in the Caloosahatchee Canal, a.k.a. the Okeechobee Waterway, approaching the headwaters of what was once a boisterous river replete with rapids.

Our first lift was a three-foot rise in the W.P. Franklin Lock at Olga. Not long after passing the Fort Denaud Bridge with its gracious lady bridge tender, we glided by the two-century old town of La Belle, home of the Swamp Cabbage Festival every February. This delicacy is sold in fancy restaurants as hearts of palm.

Then it was the Ortona Lock and, the last before entering the lake, the Moore Haven Lock. It was here, on September 18, 1926, that a hurricane plowed into Miami, drove straight across Lake Okeechobee and collapsed the western rim, drowning 300 souls, injuring 6,000 and leaving 18,000 homeless. Two years later, on September 16, another major storm ripped Palm Beach apart before engulfing Okeechobee and killing an estimated 2,000. A more recent tempest left a trail of destruction, with pieces of mobile homes still littering the banks.

We transited the rim canal, running through the majestic drowned forest, and made the sugar town of Clewiston and Roland and Mary Ann Martin’s Marina at 1:30, just in time to lunch on their famous Bubba Burger. It fit right in with the tiki décor and the man whose t-shirt read Take Only Trophies/Leave Only Gut Piles.

Prior to entering Lake Okeechobee, we’d been traversing mostly cane fields and the heavy scent of sugar being refined hung over the river. Now, in the St. Lucie Canal, we were enveloped in the heavenly perfume of orange blossoms.

And the waterway changed rapidly as we now went downhill. Development is rampant, but the thickly mantled islets, known as river ayots, persist, remnants of pre-history. The St. Lucie Lock was a breeze, the railroad bridge under the Roosevelt Bridge interminable.

The next morning, we picked up two more passengers, Bob Schneider and Jill Davis. Bob and I had shared another adventure a few years back when, along with Formula’s Scott Porter and Yachting’s Peter Janssen, we crossed the Gulf Stream from Key West to Mariel in Cuba.

This day, we ran briefly down the outside (the Atlantic was as much of a mill pond as the Gulf had been), ducked into Boynton Beach for lunch, then took a real estate tour down The Ditch to Ft. Lauderdale. The McMansions were glittering, and the beautiful people ashore probably would have convinced Poncé de Léon the Fountain of Youth wasn’t so far off.

Our bright, calm weather had been a blessing to us, and while posing no great test of the Formula’s hull, it affirmed her place as an absolutely first-rate cruiser for such a luxurious journey-just the ticket to paradise.

Thunderbird Products, (260) 724-9111; www.formulaboats.com

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• Your Formula

45 Yacht Cruising RPMs

• Thread starter FormulaFanMN
• Start date Jul 19, 2011

FormulaFanMN

• Jul 19, 2011

For the owners of the 45, what RPM do you run at when on plane and cruising ? Just curious about the D6-435 engines and cruise RPM on the 45 Yacht Thanks !  

• Jul 21, 2011

FormulaFanMN said: For the owners of the 45, what RPM do you run at when on plane and cruising ? Just curious about the D6-435 engines and cruise RPM on the 45 Yacht Thanks ! Click to expand...

FanMN, I've found that 2800 RPM's gives me about 21-22k with a total of 36gph burn rate. the rated WOT on that setup is 3600 RPM which gets me around 28-30k. oh, and it rides like a caddy. ;D twarble  

• Apr 3, 2012

Administrator

ITS VERY HARD TO DIAGNOSE, BUT BOTH ENGINES SHOULD BURN RELATIVELY THE SAME AMOUNT OF FUEL. IF ONE IS USING MUCH MORE THAN THE OTHER, YOU WILL NEED TO START LOOKING TO SEE WHY. I WOULD START WITH PROPS, SINCE THEY WERE CHANGED. THE PROPS NEED TO BE SCANNED, TO DETERMINE IF THEY ARE IDENTICALLY THE SAME. THE CUP MAY BE OFF ON ONE PROP MORE THAN THE OTHER. ARE THERE ANY VIBRATIONS? WAS THE SHOP THAT DID THE REPAIR REPUTABLE? COULD THE WRONG PROP HAVE BEEN INSTALLED? LOTS OF VARIABLES, BUT NO MATTER WHAT, THE BOAT WILL NEED HAULED OUT TO FIND ANSWERS. KEEP US POSTED.  

Beginning of last season, I had the props done, shafts checked, bottom redone, etc. By the EVC computers, at 3100 rpm (by memory) was getting about 0.8 nmpg and 25ish knots with full fuel and water. Then the 2nd week, we hit something portside. Sure sounded like metal to metal. Horrible vibrations over 900 rpm. Haul boat again, send out port props (to same shop as before), check shaft (no damage!), reinstall, relaunch. With no vibrations felt, rest of the season cruised at 3100, 25ish knots, more like .72 or so nmpg. Go figure. I'm just glad we never hit anything else (that we felt), esp after the hurricane. Fuel burn engine to engine is practically identical. I find the computer total fuel consumption to be so close to accurate that I pay little attention to the fuel gauges, which were never fully calibrated (they point at E when I have about 110 gallons left). I always take more fuel to port because of the generator, and the additional fuel correlates fairly well to generator run time. So I guess my takeaway is that maybe best performance comes from having all 4 props done at the same time. Unlike my previous boat, on the 45 Yacht, speed and efficiency appear almost completely unaffected by trim tab position. So I usually run with tabs at what makes for best comfort and visibility. In my experience, once I hit about 2900 rpm, my efficiency curve is flat up to WOT, so I run at whatever speed is comfortable or meets the admiral's needs at the time. 8) Oh, and to my surprise, I complained to the coast guard about my obstruction (which I suspected to be an old metal daymark I'd seen deteriorate over time). In a rare display of value for taxdollars, the coast guard responded promptly with a chartlet with a mark where I reported the obstruction. I verified the location, and they forwarded it to MD DNR, who went out and dragged the location with a wire (finding nothing, of course).  

• Apr 4, 2012

bottom paint 2yrs old but keeped clean by diver, propspeed on props only 75% worn off (10 months old) light to med load, tabs dont make a big diff for me. 2870 rpm, 21.5 kts, 1.31 NM/GAL both engines same. 3080 rpm, 23.7 kts, ------------- 3300 rpm, 27.0 kts, -------------- highest rpm 3350 new paint and propspeed on props, light load 2700 rpm, 19.6 kts -------------- as soon as I test more ill report back 2007 IPS600  

• Apr 9, 2012

Attachments

Doesn't Volvo have some type of diagnostic program that can be easily hooked to the D6 engine to determine all engine parameters, etc?  

• Apr 12, 2012

It seems to me that everything is pointing to an issue with the props that were reworked. It's critical that your engines are reaching maximum rated RPM. 3,630? If not they are over loaded ( too much pitch) and you can damage them in a hurry. Make sure you reach maximum RPM, but be careful and watch your temps on the port side. If you are not reaching max RPM then don't run the boat hard, because you might hurt your engines. Try posting your question on Boatdiesel.com. There's a few Volvo techs that patrol that site..good luck.  

Even on the smaller boats that Formula produces with D4 / D6 engines, Formula props them for right around 3600 RPMs.... I know it's a pain, but what about pulling the boat and swapping the props from side to side ??  

I recently ran a ground with my 45 and had to have all four props reconditioned. Some of them were pretty badly mangled and were missing pieces. I had propspeed on them before and was able to get 3500 RPM. Now without propspeed I get about 3350. Can propspeed make that much of a difference or do I have a pitch problem?  

You can only get 3350 right after the repairs?  

3350 right after repairs is correct.  

Then I would say something is wrong with the repairs.  

What I think I've learned trolling the Boatdiesel website for a couple of years is this: manufacturers, not by any means just Formula, tend to over prop their boats for maximum performance when they are new. When you start loading the boat down with a normal amount of gear, it gets a lot heavier and therefore the engines are no longer able to reach maximum RPM. Apparently, this is a major factor in the early demise of many marine diesels. What is happening in effect, is that 80% effort becomes 100% effort so ( not using a calculator here) if your engine is supposed to run at 3000 RPM wide open and it only reaches 2800 running it at a 2700 RPM cruise is actualy running the guts out of it because younare only 100 RPM off your actual 100% capability versus 300 RPM off the rated 100% RPM ( using hypotheticals here). So what happens in reality with a diesel that cannot achieve full RPM, is that the engine when running under load is always working much harder than is apparent to the user. It's really important to learn what the engine manufacturer specifies as maximum RPM and make sure that you can reach that RPM with a full load of fuel and water and normal amount of load. If you cant reach that RPM, then you are over propped, plain and simple.  

• Apr 18, 2012

As part of the new boat delivery process for every boat with IPS, Volvo requires that a technician attach his Vodio tool to the engines while it's run up to cruise and WOT. That information is supposed to be kept by Volvo for reference and comparison purposes. You should be seeking to return to those specs post-repair. As I recall, the props on the 45 Yacht are T3 spec, and the shop should be able to hit that right. If they conditioned them to something different, they owe you a rework.  

• Apr 22, 2012

hey guys...lots has happened since i last posted...hence the delay. boathound, thanks for reminding me to test out WOT. i had done this at some point previously, and was able to hit 3630 on both engines. i tried it again last weekend, and couldn't get past 3400 on the port side which is the trouble side. this is the side that i had newly refurbished props installed on March 23rd. i also read a post elsewhere here where some folks had issues with their pod drive leading to water intrusion. this got me to thinking that perhaps i had water in the port pod, and perhaps the transmission was the source of the extra resistance. i checked the oil, and the port side pod was clean...but the starboard had water intrusion! the props that were installed on the 23rd were done by hand, and didn't have Prop Scan run on them. i have a spare set that was recently redone, and had Prop Scan done (I've changed prop service companies). only issue i have is that i was already planning to replace the starboard side props as i noticed a ding on them the last time around. so, i've ordered a new set of T3's, and will replace both props with the brand new ones going on the port side. we're going to haul and block on Tuesday. we'll yank the props, vacuum test the starboard side, determine the problem, and hope that whatever it is, Formula Guard will cover it. we'll then run the same test on the port side just to test it out, but i don't expect to find anything. i'm going to take the March 23rd, potentially improperly done, props to be Prop Scanned and see if they are indeed done incorrectly. hopefully this is the issue, and i can get this fixed and move forward. and yeah i'll take that up with the old prop service company if that is the case. WizzyNoise...thanks for the info. i didn't know that VP kept this type of info on file. it will be invaluable in this case as I've never had the boat when it ran perfectly. i'll see if we can get that info from them for comparison. thanks for all the help guys, i'll let you know how it works out. todd  

• Apr 24, 2012

I REALLY LIKE THE ELECTRONIC SCANNING METHOD, BUT MAKE SURE AFTER ALL REPAIRS ARE MADE, THEY SCAN THEM IN FRONT OF YOU, AND PRINT YOU A COPY TO VERIFY THE REPAIRS. I KNOW THIS IS REDUNDANT, BUT MISTAKES HAPPEN IN SHOPS, AND IF YOU NEED TO HAUL OUT BECAUSE A REPAIR MAY HAVE BEEN MISSED, IT WOULD BE AT YOUR EXPENSE. IT TAKES A COUPLE OF MINUTES FOR THEM TO RE-CHECK.