Overmarine: Mangusta 105

Spring is showing its Italian face this morning. Glorious sunshine lies over the jetties and yachts of Viareggio. Winds from the last few days are still causing some swell in the bay, which extends right into the harbour, where a Mangusta 105 of the second series is moored in front of us. She was only launched four weeks ago. Shipyard captain Pierluigi "Gigi" Della Capanna invites us on board, and a few minutes later the two MTU sixteen-cylinder engines start to work. Their power works on jets. We are excited to see what awaits us, because a high-speed boat like this, which can reach speeds of more than 30 knots, has less to do with swell here in Viareggio than with the fouling of the underwater hull and the jets. The four weeks have already left their mark.

The challenge was called Cobra

Gigi gently steers the 105 out of the box with the Rolls-Royce steering units. The MTUs push the 30 metres of technology against the swell towards the harbour entrance. At slow speeds like this, the jets are tilted inwards by ten degrees. In the water, they act like propellers in terms of handling and steering. Outside Viareggio, with the harbour pier half a mile behind us, Humphree's trim system is now demonstrating its importance for sprinting. Gigi has extended the flaps by just 22 millimetres, but the bow rises immediately when the boatyard captain takes them back.

The shipyard, that's Overmarine. It was the electronics engineer Giuseppe Balducci who founded Overmarine in 1985. He had spent years at the Viareggio shipyards and one day dared to build yachts on his own. The measure of fast things on water at the time was called the Cobra 62 and came from the halls of Tecnomarine. Balducci was ambitious enough to take on this challenge. This decided what he would call his Cobra-Eater.

It had to be a predator that is insensitive to snakes, on which the snake's venom virtually rolls off. It is mongooses that fulfil this requirement. Mongooses belong to the mongoose family, mammals from the order of carnivores. Overmarine started with an 80-footer. Today, the shipyard offers lengths from the Mangusta 72 to the 165. 72 and 80 are propelled by surface drives. All other models use jets. Overmarine has so far delivered over 30 units of the first series. Our Mangusta 105 today is the result of model maintenance with a revised superstructure. Gigi switches the controls on the Rolls-Royce touchscreen panel to wheel steering. It needs to be handled with feeling. The steering needs just a quarter turn of the wheel from stop to stop.