Our Blackfin 29 Combi story started in 2012 as a 1989 production built sportfish purchased from an astrophysicist named Edwin Kellogg in Boston, Ma. Two partners, Al Thompson and Mike Gable purchased the boat named AQUARIUS, and it was immediately apparent that Blackfin boats had a great rough water dry ride, unlike all the Bertram 28's we tested. So the partners that teamed up on many "Team Projects" before, put their heads together and formulated an initial plan and budget for our new mission
. Upon our arrival to the local boat yard in Boston, we started what was to be a journey that would get us to this date with some bumps and bruises, lots of time and money, many good memories, with some bad.
Production Blackfin 29 Combi's weigh in at a published 12,200 lbs and with Twin Volvo Penta 200 Diesels and 3 blade bronze props,she planed fast but effective cruising speed was 18 knts at 3200 rpm. After 2-3 years of fishing with this old production boat and continuous maintenance of breaking hardware, electronics, engines, and transmissions, we drydocked Aquarius and we were faced with a decision. Do we patch up existing boat again (8,000 budget), spend money on lightening the boat and updating the layout (65,000 budget), or spend money on new engines, instruments, shafts, struts, props, and a larger fuel tank which would be needed for longer ranges if additional hp was installed (100,000 budget)? The latter plan would not update the boat layout at all and frankly wasn't an option!
After choosing the 65,000.00 planned budget, the upgrades to date 2-21 plus gross outlay's including original boat purchase/delivery total over $170,000 plus 8 years of labor ( almost 2.5 years full time ) which bring the total upgrade cost's to over $305,000. Boating is an art of love, not good financial investment or sanity
is my new saying. The 2018 upgraded Split Decision weighs 10,000lbs dry, and focus on maximized storage, efficiency, low maintenance, ease of cleaning and open layout thruout was in our redesign process during the entire upgrade. Streamlined shafts and underbody, carbon fiber struts, fiberglass oversized trim tabs, and class 1 DQX 4 blade 19 x 24 nibral props help the 2018 new boat cruise 12-13 gph near 22 knts/3000 rpms with a WOT near 29-30 knts (3/8 tank of fuel, clean bottom). First Page Of Story