photography by
Todd Taylor
290-S
N
ew speedboat companies don’t launch very often these days, so when Jerry Barron (son of Nick Barron,
the legendary founder and president of Hallett Boats) set up shop as Barron Boats last year, the industry brimmed with anticipation to see what kind of fruits the fledgling venture would bear. At the time, Jerry spoke of creating a 29-foot family deckboat with fresh, contemporary styling, and by the end of the year, the first 290-S had hit the water. “We started this company with a pencil,” Barron tells Speedboat. “That’s the bottom line. Our first boat out of the realm was our 290. We drew it up, put it all on CAD, whittled it out of foam, and finished the process in house.”
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To say he was pleased with the results would be an understatement. “The boat absolutely performs better than I had anticipated,” he says. “All cats around this size have a tendency to porpoise at some speed. But this boat had none. Zero. It planed with very minimal bowrise and turns on a dime. I think that we’ve hit a home run.” With Mercury Racing’s 540 engine, the first boat out of the mold achieved 75 mph in its initial testing, according to Barron. “I was pretty happy with that for the first boat,” he says. “I’ve never built light boats. Yes, I could build them a lot lighter and maybe pick up a few miles an hour, but I think it’s a very respectable speed for that particular powerplant and that big of a boat. With some prop testing and a bit of
positioning, I think we could bump it up a couple of mph.” The Package: The 290-S is a wide catamaran that leans more to the traditional walk-through open-bow style tunnel than some of the deckboats we’ve tested with wraparound seating. The cockpit of the 290-S contains two buckets seats for the driver and co-pilot, plus a rear bench for up to three adults to sit comfortably. That bench—the back of which lifts up as part of the engine hatch—has been sculpted to accommodate a set of rear-entry stairs on the starboard side of the engine compartment for easy access to an extended swim platform at the transom. The bow section, meanwhile, contains ample room for up to eight passengers, assuming that some of them are kids. speedboat.com
3/16/19 9:21 PM