Hull number one of the Summit 54, the flagship of the new cruising brand from Kadey-Krogen, has just run down to Stuart, Florida, from Savannah, Georgia, and is ready for its worldwide debut at the rescheduled Palm Beach boat show, starting May 14. The Summit, with a hull by legendary designer Michael Peters, lived up to all its expectations, performing well throughout the speed range.
Kadey-Krogen developed the Summit brand for people who wanted the well-established quality of a Kadey-Krogen but with a faster turn of speed. Summits are built at the Asia Harbor yard in Taiwan, which has launched more than 600 Kadey-Krogen full-displacement trawlers in the past 40 years.
On the run from Savannah, where the Summit was unloaded from the ship from Taiwan, to the Summit and Kadey-Krogen headquarters in Stuart, the numbers tell the story:
Top speed: 25.25 knots, burning 56 gph, for a range of 338 nm to empty.
Cruising speed: 21 knots, burning 39 gph, for a range of 400 nm to empty.
Trawler speed: 7.2 knots, burning 3.7 gph, for a range of 1,450 nm to empty.
Those numbers reflect a two-way test with 50 percent fuel, 60 percent water, and three people on board. Power comes from twin 542-hp Cummins QSB6.7 diesels with straight shafts. The boat also showed little bow rise, ran level on turns and, as expected, was sturdy, solid and stable.
But the numbers themselves are only part of the story. The new Summit 54 is designed as a comfortable floating home-like retreat for cruising people. It is filled with light, from wraparound windows in the pilothouse and super-sized windows in the salon. It has a clean, contemporary design with a spacious interior layout, including three cabins, two heads, a pilothouse, flybridge, protected aft deck and a ready-for-sunbathing foredeck. As in a Kadey-Krogen, the side decks are wide and protected to make docking and line-handling safe and easy, and they have boarding gates.
The Summit 54 has a large, teak swim platform, with two steps up on each side to the aft deck, which is protected by the overhang from the flybridge/boat deck above. It has a U-shaped settee with a teak table aft and two barstools on stainless steel pedestals forward on the port side, facing a grilling station with a service window opening to the galley, aft in the salon.
The galley is home-like in its space and appliances, with Silestone countertops, a fridge/freezer with double drawers, convection microwave, cooktop, icemaker and dishwasher. To starboard is a breakfast nook with a settee and teak table.
Going forward, you step up to the pilothouse/helm deck, which is made for long-range cruising. It has a two-person helm seat on the starboard side, a teak wheel, and a door that opens to the side deck. A large, elevated dining area is to port with U-shaped seating and a high/low table on a stainless pedestal.
The flybridge, protected by a hardtop, has an inviting sun lounge forward of the helm, which is offset slightly to starboard with twin helm chairs. An L-shaped settee with a handcrafted teak table is to port; there’s also a fridge. One person can launch the tender from the hydraulic crane on the boat deck aft.
The foredeck is a separate social area. You can relax there on a sun lounge; it has arm rests and a canopy. There also is a seat facing forward.
Below, the amidships master stateroom is full-beam, with a queen berth, his-and-hers closets, a desk/vanity with a chair, a TV, and a large en suite head and shower. The VIP cabin is forward with a walk-around queen berth, hanging locker, storage, a TV, and en suite access to the guest head with a stall glass shower.
The third cabin, on the starboard side, has a full berth, hanging storage, desk, and washer and dryer. You can forego the berth and dedicate this stateroom as an on board office.
Specs.: LOA: 58’5”; Beam: 15’10”; Draft: 3’7”; Disp.: 55,400 lbs.; Fuel: 750 gals. Water: 215 gals. Power: 2×542-hp Cummins QSB6.7 diesels.
