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Staying with the Classic Boat theme, but taking us to more recent times (but still keeping 30 years of bearing…), it is possible to find now cult boats, Youngtimers so iconic that they have left their mark. In this case, with its 11.25 meters in length and a whopping 53 knots of top speed, it is the turn of a fast commuter full son of the 1980s American heritage: the Baja 370 ES, a 1990 cabin cruiser that we tell you about through our vintage test.
The Baja 370 ES is interesting on several fronts, but particularly because it is the first boat to reintroduce in Europe the Made in USA production and quality that had made the brand great. After a period of production in factories in southwestern Europe, the quality of the boats suffered in comparison with those overseas, leading the shipyard to decide on a different approach, importing directly from the US. This is the case with the Baja 370 ES, the first to be imported into Italy by Centro Nautico Verbella.
Boats with such high performance (contextualizing to 1990) were intended for a very discerning, speed-loving clientele eager for that look capable of attracting looks to themselves, emphasizing a prestigious product. And the Baja 370 ES fully met these demands. The line is aggressive, with high freeboard and a long, sleek bow that extends well beyond the midships, rising to protect the cockpit to its junction with the windshield.
But in terms of technology, too, she was not lacking anything, being, after all, the daughter of one of the first shipyards to make use of computerized programs for calculation and able to pour huge investments into prototyping and testing-studies that did not fail to contemplate the systematic sectioning of the first specimens, in the continuous search for the optimization of weights and volumes. The deep-V hull is thus extended to the stern and fitted with a pair of support skids intended for stabilization, simplifying and making safer even fast sailing on formed seas, optimized by Kiekhaefer flaps, sourced from Offshore Racing.
At first glance struck the high clear edges and the bow, slowly rising until it curves sharply toward the cockpit, where it rejoins the windshield. A very long bow with no walkways, thus accessible from the interior or by climbing over the windshield. Some versions, specific to the Mediterranean market, will have installed spoilers also designed to assist in the transition to the bow, while, by default, there are also two halogen depth lights, to facilitate navigation in narrow, unlit waters.
Looking to the opposite end, however, a swim platform crowns the transom, covering the stern feet and facilitating access to the water. Very large, it also houses an outdoor shower. Just beyond, toward the cockpit, a sundeck takes its place for, covering the engine compartment. In the cockpit, the real heart of the outdoor spaces, there is a classic full-beam sofa, comfortable for 3 or 4 guests, and wheelhouse seating, 2, for pilot and co-pilot respectively. To starboard takes its place the helm station, from which all necessary instrumentation can be accessed while, amidships, there is access to the interior area.
Although a boat designed to enhance great speed capabilities, the Baja 370 ES was, in its time, also one of the most habitable models of the shipyard’s entire production. With an open space layout, the 370 ES in fact houses an aft galley area complete with burners, sinks, refrigerator and whatever else is needed to consider it complete; a central full-beam dinette consisting of two broadside sofas (convertible to bunks) and a central folding table; a forward V berth (closable by means of a curtain); and a bathroom and shower, complete with electric pumps and depressurizing drains. There is also no shortage of storage space, created both in the furniture and in large lockers hidden under the sofas and forward berth.
The construction is all balsa sandwich with hand layering and Kevlar reinforcements in the bow wheel and torsion points. A choice at the time that was very rare in boating, the deck hull and broadside were all made of balsa wood and, thanks in part to the use of fiberglass, lacked floorboards, which were replaced by false floorboards and fiberglass stringers. The only counter-molds relate to the services, such as the toilet and the buoyancy reserves, which are carved out under the forward berth and in the engine compartment.Resin-coated to the deck are structural bulkheads, and the anchoring of the hull to the deck was extremely well maintained, with overlaps of the parts with thicknesses as close as 3 and up to 5 cm, siliconized and resined again. The interiors were themselves remarkably well cared for, with dunnage carpeting, leatherette and alcantara for the upholstery and ceiling, and formica for cabinet and wall coverings.
As for the engine, the Baja 370 ES was first of all available in two different engines: a pair of Mercruiser V8s of 330 hp each, or, again Mercruiser, from a pair of Magnum 454 V8 Gasoline of 7440 cc displacement and 365 horsepower per engine. The latter was the motorization installed in the case of the Motor Boats test below, which took place in late 1990. The transmission is with electrically trimmable stern feet and equipped with 3-blade stainless steel propellers of the Mirage or Chopper type. The wheelhouse is itself stainless steel, power-assisted on the feet.
“The motorization we find on this Baja 370 ES is the most powerful one provided by the shipyard, the one that best highlights the marine qualities of the hull. The acronym that identifies the pair of Mercruisers installed on board is “Magnum 454,” and it identifies the single 8-cylinder V-engine that makes it up, with 7440cc displacement and four-barrel carburetors and maximum rotation of 5,000 rpm. If at cruising speed you consume about 80lt./h, sinking the throttles to the maximum the matter is so completely different. In fact, with this boat, maximum rpm is reached quickly and acceleration is progressive. While up to 3,000-3,500 rpm the Baja 370 ES can therefore seem like a quiet, easily steered boat, pushing the throttles further out almost feels, instead, like being on a racing hull.”
“In the course of the test, therefore, it was not difficult to exceed the 48 knots of speed claimed by the shipyard, safely reaching up to 53 knots of top speed. Without any intervention on the flaps, at 2,500 rpm the boat entered the glide at 27 knots, a value that by managing the flaps by a few degrees, dropped to a glide entry with just 2,300 rpm. In tests of tight turns and abrupt course changes, the hull’s behavior was always commendable, free of abnormal swells, even when running on our own waves.”
Baja 370 ES – Water Test (1990)
| RPM (rpm) | Speed (kn) | Consumption (l/h) and Autonomy (h) |
| 2500 | 27 kn | 60 l/h (13.3 h) |
| 3500 | 42 kn | 120 t/h (6.6 h) |
| 5000 | 53 kn | 200 l/h (4 h) |
| Length Over All (LOA) | 11.25 m |
| Baglio Massimo (B.Max) | 2.85 m |
| Immersion (Draft) | 0.70 m |
| Displacement (Dspl.) | 4500 kg |
| Maximum Motorization | 2x Mercruiser Mod. 454 Magnum Gasoline 8V 365 hp 7440cc |
| Fuel Tank | 800 lt. |
| Maximum Speed | 52 kn (60 mph x 5000 rpm) |
| Project | Baja Shipyard |
| Construction | Baja Shipyard; Ohio; USA |
Here are all the other great Classic Boats. If you have one and would like to tell us about it, please email us at deluise@panamaeditore.it
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