First and foremost Sunny Briggs builds fishing boats. I didn't have to look any farther than the cockpit, flying bridge and engine room to see that someone who really knows something about fishing built the new Briggs 56-footer, Persistence. Then, during the sea trial, everything I expected to be right was, with attention to detail nothing short of magnificent.
Flybridge
From the helm, you don't just see the foredeck or the fighting chair; you have a good view of them both. Briggs installs the electronics displays at an angle so you can easily see from both the helm and companion seats. Yes, it's a bit of a squeeze to get into the companion chair, but if you moved the helm chair forward, it would detract from your view of the cockpit.
Cockpit
The hull sides of the cockpit exhibit considerable tumblehome, making it easier for rod tips to clear the corners of the transom — essential when angling with heavy tackle. Even with the chair's offset stanchion set with the base plate forward of the chair, you can clear the corners with 7-foot rods. You'd need less offset if you reversed the stanchion, also making life easier on the deckhands.
Performance
The convex transom curve allows the Briggs to back up fast with less water coming on board. Briggs also believes the curve creates less resistance when a boat spins on its axis with one engine ahead and one in reverse. Judging by how Persistence handled, it seems he hit the nail on the head again. During our sea trials Briggs' 56 spun well with the rudders centered, and it really zipped around with the rudders turned with one engine in forward. It also proved easy to steer in either direction with only one engine in gear.
Our top speed with a pair of 1,650 hp C32 Caterpillars hit an impressive 44 knots — with full fuel and water. And the boat's 36-knot cruising speed will put smiles on the faces of all the speed demons out there.
Engine Room
The lazarette and engine room on this boat constitute a captain's dream! Briggs makes maintaining the boat easier in ways that I never even considered. For example, trim-tab actuators can be serviced or replaced from inside the boat. The huge cockpit fish box uses a Head Hunter jet flush — no macerator to clog or break down — and the rudder stocks come with spare seals already on the shafts, as do the shafts for the main engines.
Briggs builds small hatches into the big hatches, allowing you to lift the big Cat C32 engines out if and when you need major repairs. The little hatch is even easier to remove, relegating the 1,000-hour after-cooler service job to a minor chore rather than a major one. I really love this boat!
Interior
Briggs incorporates the desires of a knowledgeable owner in the custom interior design, and the builder's crew of fine craftsmen executes those desires flawlessly. The superb finish with adjacent ebony and teak panels that seem to be offset — an optical illusion that requires one to try, unsuccessfully, to feel the joint — is beautiful. The master stateroom boasts remarkable headroom — eight feet, in fact — which drops down twice, yielding curved soffets for extra storage space in the galley.
The unique Tiger onyx countertops in the galley and heads let light below the tops pass softly through the lightest colors in the onyx, creating elegant and unobtrusive night lighting. Everything curves sensuously with no hard corners anywhere.
This Briggs 56 epitomizes the best in a custom boat with fancy fixins: great machinery spaces that allow an absolute minimum of downtime and the moves of a polo pony when getting after a fish. As I said before, I love this boat.
LOA.....56'
BEAM.....17'6''
DRAFT.....4'6''
WEIGHT.....62,000 pounds
FUEL.....1,700 gallons
WATER.....225 gallons
POWER.....T 1,650 hp C32 Cats
PRICE.....Price on request
Briggs Boat Works / Wanchese, North Carolina / 252-473-2393 / www.briggsboatworks.com
