Metal Shark 40 Fearless
Metal Shark 40 Fearless
Metal Shark 40 Fearless
Metal Shark 40 Fearless
Metal Shark 40 Fearless
Metal Shark 40 Fearless
We Say: Civilian boaters who love Hummers will love the Fearless. At full speed in four-foot seas, this bulletproof fisher gave our team a relaxing ride when seated in the four adjustable, shock-mitigating Shox armchair buckets (they’d better be comfy at $20,000 each) that rode securely up and down their rails in response to the crushing power of the seas.
“When lawmen go after drug runners in this, they don’t run them down or shoot them up,” says Metal Shark president Chris Allard. “They just ride softly behind them, relaxed, while the drug runners take the full punishment of the waves. It just wears them out, and they give up.”
To take that pounding without cracking up, the Michael Peters-designed aluminum hull is all welded, from running surface to keel, stringers to hull, sole to stringers and T-top structure to sole. You could say everything is welded to the keel on the Metal Shark, and you would not be contradicted.
Livorsi digital throttles and separate gearshifts are crisp, offering precise control and eliminating the danger of accidentally jumping from forward to reverse, stripping the gears. Transom coolers can be plumbed for livewells, and a dive door to starboard opens to admit a chunky bluefin. The only flaw we saw in the rugged hull is a very slight angle in the gunwale, due to contraction of the welded seams.
Who’d Want One: The macho few who want a fish boat capable of going to war.
Another Choice: Intrepid’s rugged law-enforcement 400 comes with triple Yamaha 350s ($380,000 plus the seats) but with more luxury options.
Bottom Line: $350,000 base with test power; metalsharkboats.com
