An Inside Look: The Just Delivered Viking 72C "Quick Raise"

In the world of luxury yachts and fishing vessels, the Viking 72 Open Bridge Convertible has always been a formidable contender. However, owner Joe Bernert took his love for this iconic vessel to a whole new level with the creation of the Quick Raise – a brand-new Viking 72 that has been meticulously customized for efficiency, performance, and fishing prowess. In an exclusive interview with the HMY Yachts team on board “Quick Raise”, Joe shares some of the remarkable changes and updates that set this boat apart. Full Transcript: Katie Flanagan: Hey, I’m Katie Flanagan with HMY Yacht Sales and today we’re at the White Marlin Open on board the newly delivered 72 Viking, Quick Raise. We’re here with owner Joe Berner. Joe, can you explain some of your favorite options on board the 72? You’ve owned two now. Joe Bernert: Yes, having had a 72 for three or four years- when we were getting into design stages, we went through and looked at the different things that are new to the market and the different things on the boat that we thought we could make a lot more efficient by some simple design changes. I think one of the most efficient changes we made was the CJR running gear. We’re probably running two and a half to three knots faster. We’re burning the same amount of fuel so it’s about an 8% efficiency increase. We’re probably on a standard trip 100 miles out and back burning about 100 gallons less a day. So that in itself is a huge efficiency change. With the strainers- now we have the ElectroSea Strainers. Even down in the waters in Florida we changed our 72 out before and the things just stay clean. You don’t have all the mud, crabs, and grass in the strainers are hugely more efficient. You know again, you’re cutting your maintenance down. The water maker system-this new water maker system is a lot more efficient. We’ve even used it offshore up in New Jersey where the water is not that beautiful Florida water. Then we went to the SIMRAD sonar system, just all the new electronics on the boat, the improvement in four or five years of electronics has been really crazy with how much better they’ve gotten. With the build process I’ve had five or six boats now. I’ve never built them from scratch. But with this one we’ve gotten to pick how we wanted things done. You know, I love the pantry design changes. It’s just- I do a lot of cooking for breakfast and lunches when we’re out fishing and I’m in and out of there getting food and pots, pans, frying pans, whatever we’re using or lunch. And it’s just easier to get in and out. Down in the companionway we put a rod locker. Now all of our rods and reels are consolidated in there. What I lost in the master stateroom is a couple of drawers. Which weren’t really all that important. So that was a huge change. You’ve got everything in one location. We made some changes to the bunks with the spacing to get them a little bit further apart. So that it's not as tight for the people that are in there sleeping. Forward we did the V configurations to the queen bed, which makes it a lot more efficient to get in and out. So, I think having the one 72 and then doing it again you just look at all the things and say “why didn’t that work” and you make the changes. Just working with the people at Viking, just an excellent company. You go up and sit with them and say I want this change and this change, they make the notes, send the drawings, and yet we did this thing in such a quick fashion. We had like a week or two weeks to make all the decisions about what we wanted done on the boat. So, it was very quick. From the day we signed the contract with Dave, delivery was exactly 10 months. So, it was fast! Katie Flanagan: So as far as efficiency with different- you know technology, you mentioned SIMRAD and ElectroSea and different modifications in the forward berth and the rod closet that you guys put in. It sounds like you have outfitted this boat for fishing! Joe Bernert: Oh Yeah! This thing is just so great! It’s a great ride. I have to say it's fast. We like being fast. I don’t like going slow. We like going really fast and this goes really fast! Katie Flanagan: Well, that’s awesome to hear, it sounds like you guys are excited for White Marlin Open this week and we couldn’t be more excited for you guys. Is this the first tournament on the new boat? Joe Bernert: Yes, it is. I think we’ve had it out four or five days, just trying to work any bugs out. And that was the thing, there were just so few bugs in this boat from the day it was delivered. They came down a couple of times and some minor things were taken care of but other than that HMY and Viking took excellent care of us. Katie Flanagan: That’s fantastic, well we wish you guys the best of luck this week at White Marlin Open and we hope to see you at the scales. Joe Bernert: Thank you very much! Thank you for coming down to see us!