The nicest 32' sportfish in a long time

[LI32]

My bet is the 5,000 lb weight dry and empty will creep up to 7,000+ lbs, and that with power, batteries, etc it will be 12,000 lbs, which for a boat that is 32' LOA (is that with the pulpit?) and 11' wide isn't scary light - stability might be an issue with all that weight up high (it does look like a bloat boat). The big problem I see is that there is virtually no market for 32' flybridge boats today; hell Cabo hasn't sold more than 6 35' flybridge's a year in any of the past 5 years (available on a special order basis only), and as far as I know none of the other fishing boat builders besides Luhrs even offers a flybridge boat under 38'; and no one makes one smaller than the 35 Cabo's and Luhrs' - tells me if the big boys don't see a market and can't sell what they make, the Mirage won't be very successful.
To me it looks very much (not style wise, but platform wise) like a modern interpretation of the 31 Bertram - short, narrow, light and spartan; something that went out of style in 1986, and if all recall, betram was unable to sell all 50 20th Anniversary models it built over a 3 year run - it averaged 12 per year - not enough to develop and keep a small boat in production.

[The Business]

They were working on this when I drove by this morning.

[OReely]

While I agree the market for small flybridge boats is very narrow, a small company without bloated advertising and management budgets could make a go of it selling a few boats a year. Mirage has been around a long time building what some (myself included) would consider some pretty unusual boats. It's not my cup of tea but someone else might think it's the greatest boat ever. Time will tell if they hit a niche that can support their efforts. I wish them good luck.

As far as ride quality goes, the pilot has a lot to do with that. The boat in question has a hull designed to cut through the waves, not bash through with brute force. Yes, the boat could fly out of the water at higher speeds but it has a feature that could help prevent that. It rests under your right hand, it's called a throttle. Pull back on that lever and the boat slows down, thus preventing the dreaded launch.

Here's a novel concept, let them get the boat in the water, go for a ride and then bash them from personal experience.

[roknstevo]

Thanks Bogii!!
I'm a fan of Mirage. They are excellent boats.....well designed, well made. I know a charter cap'n that uses one, and he just replaces engines when they need it and carries on. I know several other civilians with 32s and they love them. All this other BS on this thread means just that........BS.