The new HCB 65 Estrella is more than just the world’s largest center console, even if you can get your mind around a 65-foot-long center console with five mammoth Seven Marine outboards producing 3,135 horsepower. The HCB 65 defies traditional boat definitions. It’s in a class by itself. It’s a statement.
It’s also head-turning. Who wouldn’t take a second look at the HCB 65 as runs into a harbor or ties up at a marina? It’s even awesome enough to get some Hollywood screen time, making a guest appearance on Showtime’s Billions.
In case you’re wondering, the HCB itself doesn’t cost billions. With five Seven Marine 627s it carries a price tag of $3.9 million. But be prepared to spend a bit at the fuel dock. Its most fuel-efficient speed is 40 mph, when it burns 148 gallons per hour. Top speed is about 55 mph.
The new HCB isn’t just big. It’s also luxurious, with yacht-quality fit and finish and gleaming brightwork and stainless. The cabin has eight feet of headroom and it can sleep five adults, including two in the private master stateroom forward that comes with a queen bed. The super-sized head comes with a rainforest shower. If you want to watch TV in the salon, press a switch and the mirror on the wall turns into a television set. (Don’t look for that on your neighborhood center console.) For comfort, the big HCB comes with a standard Seakeeper gyro-stabilizer, watermaker, generator, several refrigerators and air conditioning at the helm.
All this means that calling the HCB 65 a center console, in the traditional sense, is a considerable misnomer, or at least an understatement. As the company says, it launched the Estrella because it “recognized the need for a new category in the marine industry.” The result: Inside and out, the HCB is in a category by itself.
HCB stands for Hydrasports Custom Boats, and the operative word here is custom. The boats are built in Vonore, Tennessee and tested in Islamorada, Florida. On the 65, the standard helm has five seats, facing three large Garmin displays, and the seats can be rotated 180 degrees to form a 10-person dining area with the five-person settee aft, all under the hardtop. If you want, you can have a full outdoor kitchen there, with an electric grill, sink and fridge.
There’s mezzanine seating aft, and the large cockpit can be set up with a fighting chair for fishing or you can add extra seating for socializing. Forward, there is lounge seating on the front of the console, and wrap-around seating, with a table, in the bow. Lower the table and you can have a massive sun lounge.
Below, in the cabin, there’s a galley across from a dinette that converts into a double berth. A single Pullman berth can be pulled out of the wall above the dinette. Then there’s the master forward.
To make docking easy, the Estrella comes with standard bow and stern thrusters. The transom has an 18-degree deadrise to help cut through rough water. Bridge clearance is only 12 feet, so cruising in Florida or even the Great Loop shouldn’t be a problem.
HCB also makes a 53, 42 and 39; you can see them all at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, starting Oct. 30.
Specs.: LOA: 65’0”; Beam: 16’0”; Draft: engines up: 36”, engines down: 48”; Disp.: 65,000 lbs.; Fuel: 1,500 gals.; Water: 100 gals.; Power: 5×627-hp Seven outboards.
