A 63-foot Hatteras sportfishing boat just crossed the Atlantic on its own bottom, and the company says it may be the first production boat to make such a journey. Indeed, the Hatteras GT63 Post One cruised 1,985 nm from Bermuda to the Azores in nine days; it refueled three times from its mothership, a 148-foot Cheoy Lee named Dorothea III. All told, crews on both boats transferred about 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel from the Cheoy Lee to the Hatteras, which had been fitted with a special fuel fill.
The Hatteras, powered by twin CAT V-12 C32 diesels, cruised at 10.5 knots on the trans-Atlantic trip. It usually serves as a fishing tender to the big Cheoy Lee, and both boats previously had cruised down to Panama. John Crupi, who served as fleet captain for the crossing, praised the Hatteras. “We’ve put over 500 hours on the boat in three months and we’ve had almost nothing go wrong,” he said. “It’s a phenomenal boat.”
The weather was helpful for the trip from Bermuda to the Azores, with light winds and relatively calm seas. After Post One tied up in Horta Marina in Faial, Azores, the crew washed it down, cleaned up the interior and was ready to fish for blue marlin on the Azores Bank the next morning.
