Model History Flemming 55
5:37 AM
If a boat appears in the Model History feature in Classic Yacht you can fairly well assume it is a personal favorite of mine. This is certainly true of the Fleming 55. As an engineer I have a silly fondness for things that are, well, properly designed and built for their intended use. If your intention is to cruise under power to latitudes high and low, the Fleming 55 demands your attention as a result of the sheer focus with which it is designed and built.
The Fleming 55 story begins with the legendary Alaskan 49, designed by Fleming 55 Arthur DeFever and built by Grand Banks in the 1960s. Tony Fleming was in Hong Kong at the time working as the technical director for American Marine, builder of all things Grand Banks. After almost 20 years of steadily improving the Alaskan trawler series Tony left to develop a new pilothouse motor yacht design. The result is the Fleming 55.
Well, the initial result was the Fleming 50. Eight of those were built, followed by a handful at 53 feet and now over 200 Fleming 55s have been sold around the world. The visible differences between the three versions amount to little more than the added cockpit length. What’s not immediately apparent to the casual observer are the dozens of refinements made over the years, inside and out, that make this one of the most finely tuned cruising yachts of all time.
Built of fiberglass (those topside seams are tooled into the hull mold) by the Tung Hwa yard in Taiwan since 1987, the 55-foot examples were first launched in 1991. She’s not a trawler; the hard chine semi-displacement hull can be driven to almost 20 knots with twin 500hp Cummins QSC 8.3 diesels, although most have been powered with Caterpillar diesels ranging from 210hp to 475hp apiece. The goal for Tony Fleming was to create a refined and dependable cruising yacht capable of taking her crew in comfort and safety wherever they might wish to go.
As a result, the selection of every item on board reflects the Fleming philosophy.
The hull’s clipper bow helps keep the foredeck dry. She’s got fine forefoot for a clean entry and long, deep keel to keep her tracking steadily and to protect the running gear as much as possible. The Portuguese bridge forward of the pilothouse is one of the essential design elements that tells us this boat is ready when you are.
Other cruising details: the anchor chain is stowed in a massive tube to prevents its tumbling.
An Aquadrive anti-vibration system is fitted to each main engine and propshaft, stifling vibration at the source. An elaborate main engine exhaust system works with the extensive sound insulation to muffle the vast majority of engine room noise. A simple dumbwaiter leads from the overhead galley cabinet to the bride, arriving exactly where you’d want it, inside a cabinet right in the middle of the flybridge seating group.
The four-burner cooktop in the galley is recessed and includes individual potholders for each burner. Each of the three staterooms has been arranged with real-world stowage capacity. Lockers, drawers and cubbies abound everywhere you look. Both heads have shower stalls and medicine cabinets with security locks. The Fleming 55’s hull is constructed robustly as you would expect. There’s no core below the waterline, just 13 layers of fiberglass mat and roving laminated with blister-resistant epoxy resin.
Frames and stringers are laid eight layers thick. This boat has good bones. At a leisurely 1,600 rpm the Fleming 55 can make 8.4 knots and burn just six tenths of a gallon of fuel per nautical mile. That’s five gallons per hour and a range of over 1,600 nautical miles, two very cruising- friendly figures. Is she perfect? No, of course not. My first disappointment is the lack of a full-length watch berth in the pilothouse.
And no boat with this svelte a profile will have much in the way of stand-up headroom in the engine room. Finally, the guest head butts up against the master stateroom bulkhead, a small price to pay for a layout that devotes so much space to a grand, multipurpose cockpit. But for those with the means and the appreciation of the hundreds of little details that make this boat what is it, there are few better choices.
What to pay for cruising bliss? I found 20 for sale in early March, ranging from $590,000 for a 1991 to $1,795,000 for a 2008, both in San Diego, California. The majority of Fleming 55s on the market are in Maryland and California, nearest their dealers.
The Fleming 55 story begins with the legendary Alaskan 49, designed by Fleming 55 Arthur DeFever and built by Grand Banks in the 1960s. Tony Fleming was in Hong Kong at the time working as the technical director for American Marine, builder of all things Grand Banks. After almost 20 years of steadily improving the Alaskan trawler series Tony left to develop a new pilothouse motor yacht design. The result is the Fleming 55.
Well, the initial result was the Fleming 50. Eight of those were built, followed by a handful at 53 feet and now over 200 Fleming 55s have been sold around the world. The visible differences between the three versions amount to little more than the added cockpit length. What’s not immediately apparent to the casual observer are the dozens of refinements made over the years, inside and out, that make this one of the most finely tuned cruising yachts of all time.
Built of fiberglass (those topside seams are tooled into the hull mold) by the Tung Hwa yard in Taiwan since 1987, the 55-foot examples were first launched in 1991. She’s not a trawler; the hard chine semi-displacement hull can be driven to almost 20 knots with twin 500hp Cummins QSC 8.3 diesels, although most have been powered with Caterpillar diesels ranging from 210hp to 475hp apiece. The goal for Tony Fleming was to create a refined and dependable cruising yacht capable of taking her crew in comfort and safety wherever they might wish to go.
As a result, the selection of every item on board reflects the Fleming philosophy.
The hull’s clipper bow helps keep the foredeck dry. She’s got fine forefoot for a clean entry and long, deep keel to keep her tracking steadily and to protect the running gear as much as possible. The Portuguese bridge forward of the pilothouse is one of the essential design elements that tells us this boat is ready when you are.
Other cruising details: the anchor chain is stowed in a massive tube to prevents its tumbling.
An Aquadrive anti-vibration system is fitted to each main engine and propshaft, stifling vibration at the source. An elaborate main engine exhaust system works with the extensive sound insulation to muffle the vast majority of engine room noise. A simple dumbwaiter leads from the overhead galley cabinet to the bride, arriving exactly where you’d want it, inside a cabinet right in the middle of the flybridge seating group.
The four-burner cooktop in the galley is recessed and includes individual potholders for each burner. Each of the three staterooms has been arranged with real-world stowage capacity. Lockers, drawers and cubbies abound everywhere you look. Both heads have shower stalls and medicine cabinets with security locks. The Fleming 55’s hull is constructed robustly as you would expect. There’s no core below the waterline, just 13 layers of fiberglass mat and roving laminated with blister-resistant epoxy resin.
Frames and stringers are laid eight layers thick. This boat has good bones. At a leisurely 1,600 rpm the Fleming 55 can make 8.4 knots and burn just six tenths of a gallon of fuel per nautical mile. That’s five gallons per hour and a range of over 1,600 nautical miles, two very cruising- friendly figures. Is she perfect? No, of course not. My first disappointment is the lack of a full-length watch berth in the pilothouse.
And no boat with this svelte a profile will have much in the way of stand-up headroom in the engine room. Finally, the guest head butts up against the master stateroom bulkhead, a small price to pay for a layout that devotes so much space to a grand, multipurpose cockpit. But for those with the means and the appreciation of the hundreds of little details that make this boat what is it, there are few better choices.
What to pay for cruising bliss? I found 20 for sale in early March, ranging from $590,000 for a 1991 to $1,795,000 for a 2008, both in San Diego, California. The majority of Fleming 55s on the market are in Maryland and California, nearest their dealers.
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