{"id":114720,"date":"2021-05-25T09:32:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T08:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/?post_type=review&p=114720"},"modified":"2021-05-25T09:32:32","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T08:32:32","slug":"sunseeker-xs2000-archive","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/reviews\/rib-and-sportsboats\/sunseeker-xs2000-archive","title":{"rendered":"Sunseeker XS2000 review: Millennium monster - from the archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, it’s here. Yes, we\u2019ve driven it. And yes, it will cause a run on the marine industry\u2019s reserve of superlatives. Awesome, breath-taking, bonkers, hilarious, scary, brilliant, desirable.<\/p>\n

The Sunseeker XS2000 is all of the above, and an awful lot more. A must-have for the Millennium.<\/p>\n

For those of you who haven\u2019t been paying attention over the past six months, the XS2000 is an out-of-the-box raceboat.<\/p>\n

The result of a co-operative venture between Sunseeker<\/a> and Fabio Buzzi, Italian raceboat builder and all-round headcase.<\/p>\n

\"Sunseeker-XS2000-review-in-actio3-credit-Lester-McCarthy\"<\/p>\n

The Sunseeker XS2000 started life as a Buzzi 38 Sunracer. But the British yard have taken over the styling and manufacture to produce a truly startling machine.<\/p>\n

One that may well spawn a new one-design offshore race class. The 39ft 0in (11.89m) sportsboat is made from GRP and carbon\/Kevlar composites, and combines a Buzzi-designed stepped hull with exterior styling by Sunseeker.<\/p>\n

There is basic accommodation under a large sliding hatch on the foredeck, but this isn\u2019t really a weekender. It\u2019s an out-and-out performance boat.<\/p>\n

As such, it comes with a pair of high-performance engines, ZF two-speed gearboxes and Trimax surface drives.<\/p>\n

\"Sunseeker-XS2000-review-propellers-credit-Jonathan-Smythe\"<\/p>\n

The engine options are either twin 350hp Yanmar diesels, twin 420hp Yanmar diesels, or (Lordy!) a pair of Mercruiser HP600 petrols, giving a staggering 1,100hp in total.<\/p>\n

The cockpit is very firmly on the small side, with no seats for the driver and navigator – just bolsters.<\/p>\n

There is a three-seater bench aft, behind which is a large sunpad over the engine hatch.<\/p>\n

\"Sunseeker-XS2000-review-engine-credit-Jonathan-Smythe\"<\/p>\n

The Morse throttles are centrally mounted on the dash, instruments are by VDO, and the feel of the layout is one of an uncompromising raceboat.<\/p>\n

Getting in and out of the helm position is about as easy as getting in and out of a Lamborghini Countach – and there\u2019s about as much stowage.<\/p>\n

The example we tried out (in fairly lumpy seas off Poole before Christmas) boasted a pair of Yanmar 420s, and the performance was seriously impressive.<\/p>\n

Weighing in at nearly four tonnes half-loaded, and pumping out 840hp, the Sunseeker XS2000 nudged an indicated 75mph before my bottle went.<\/p>\n

\"Sunseeker-XS2000-review-in-action2-credit-Lester-McCarthy\"<\/p>\n

The two-speed gearbox allows phenomenal acceleration, especially considering this is a diesel-powered boat, and it is every bit as feisty as the 1,000hp petrol-engined Fountain 42 I tested earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The ride from the Sunseeker XS2000 is fairly soft, but then this is a deep-vee monohull with a beam of 7ft 6in (2.29m) so you’d expect it to be.<\/p>\n

The stepped hull allows it to get up on the plane very quickly, and when it\u2019s airborne (which is quite a lot of the time) it flies flat and lands fairly softly, although not softly as I had expected.<\/p>\n

In the turns the XS2000\u2019s hull grips tenaciously, while the drives hurl vast plumes of water into the air and the engines roar in a very undiesel-like fashion.<\/p>\n

The Sunseeker XS2000 also has an anti-stuff bow design, and in the interests of investigative journalism we did try it out. And it works – just.<\/p>\n

\"Sunseeker-XS2000-review-in-action4-credit-Lester-McCarthy\"<\/p>\n

On a couple of occasions we stuck the XS2000 through the mountainous wake of the Predator 75 photo boat and emerged unscathed (if a little scared) the other side.<\/p>\n

We took in enough water to set off the automatic lifejackets, but we didn\u2019t head straight for the sea bed at 60 knots.<\/p>\n

Driving the Sunseeker XS2000 is an assault on your boating senses.<\/p>\n

Your perception of speed changes completely, the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end as the engines thunder.<\/p>\n

And a huge grin spreads across your face as the speedo rockets beyond 60mph and you click it up into second gear.<\/p>\n

\"Sunseeker-XS2000-review-in-action5-credit-Lester-McCarthy\"<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a practical or sensible boat, but it is a driver\u2019s boat – unfettered monster.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most significantly, the Sunseeker XS2000 is a pure performance boat from a mainstream British builder.<\/p>\n

Hats off to them for having the balls to produce a very single-minded boat for a very particular type of customer.<\/p>\n

In an increasingly homogenised boating world populated by capable but unexciting all- rounders, Sunseeker have kicked over the traces and produced a true classic.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a McLaren F1, a Manx Norton and a Mk IX Spitfire all rolled into one for boaters. It\u2019s not perfect, but who cares when driving it makes you feel this good.<\/p>\n

First published in the February 2000 issue of MBY.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, it’s here. Yes, we\u2019ve driven it. And yes, it will cause a run on the marine industry\u2019s reserve of superlatives. Awesome, breath-taking, bonkers, hilarious, scary, brilliant, desirable. The Sunseeker XS2000 is all of the above, and an awful lot more. A must-have for the Millennium. For those of you who haven\u2019t been paying attention […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":114723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"review_manufacturer":[107],"review_category":[47],"review_type":[],"review_award":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/114720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114720"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/114720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114801,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/114720\/revisions\/114801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114720"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=114720"},{"taxonomy":"review_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_category?post=114720"},{"taxonomy":"review_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_type?post=114720"},{"taxonomy":"review_award","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mby.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_award?post=114720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}