A Deep Dive into the Phenom 37
The new Phenom 37 is engaging both in and out of the water.
Taking a boat like the Phenom 37 out on the water is the only way to get the true feeling of how she accelerates, rides through a turn, handles the chop, and how the deck layout works when you’re underway or at anchor. Sitting on a settee at the boat show gives you a break from all the walking around, and you can imagine being out on the water, but it’s quite a different experience.
Phenom 37: Where Family, Fishing, Performance, and Luxury Meet
I first saw the Phenom 34 center console at the 2022 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show—out of the water. She was pretty impressive with her Carolina-style bow flaring over anyone who walked by, a sweeping gunwale down to the transom, and twin Mercury 600 V12s hanging off the stern. Boats sure look a lot larger when they’re out of the water, but the advantage is the ability to get down and inspect the hull design and get a detailed look at the deck and its accessories without rocking back and forth.
Exploring the Uniqueness of the Phenom 37’s Hull Design
The Phenom 37’s hull design always catches my eye, so I commented to Victor Gonzalez, Phenom’s marketing director, about the shape of the hull, particularly noting the boat’s profile. “We developed our very own step hull,” he says. “The first thing you see is we have three strakes in the front step of the hull. Typically, you only see two strakes down here, so the surface area of these three strakes is identical to what the surface area would be of two strakes. The difference is that our bottom strake ends up closer to the keel.” What that does is reduce the vertical speed (and the force) as the hull re-enters the water to provide a much smoother ride.
“The other thing we did is chamfer everything at forty-five degrees. Every race boat has razor-sharp edges because water will shear off the edge and not wrap around a rounded corner…that would rob performance out of the boat….We gained about two-and-a-half miles an hour by doing that.”
What I really noticed about the hull design was how it handled a mild swell with a 15- to 20-knot breeze creating a three- to five-foot chop off the port bow. Every boat rides well when it’s calm, but that’s not usually the case in open water, and I got my chance to find out when I joined Shaun Reale, Phenom’s national sales manager, on the new Phenom 37 with triple Mercury V10 400-hp Verados to deliver her from Palm Beach down to the Miami International Boat Show.
As I mentioned, it was pretty choppy with the wind and waves off the port bow and though the wind blew the occasional spray onto the windshield, the Carolina flare-type design did its job directing the wash out and away from the hull. So did the stepped hull.
“That’s the thing about stepped hulls,” says Gonzalez. “One of the reasons why you want one is because of the performance in rough waters; you’re able to just get through all that stuff over the top at a higher speed where everything kind of gets smoothed out, as opposed to beating yourself up at a slower speed.”
The Phenom 34 and Phenom 37 are designed to reach speeds of 70 mph plus, but maneuvering speed was the call heading into the chop. Still, that was at 35 mph. The boat was solid with no rattling of nerves, hinges, lazarettes, or the hardtop structure. Even the cushions remained in place. The auto trim also did its job, but with some fine-tuning, the boat worked her way through the waves as if riding on an air cushion.
Safety Measures: A Priority in Design
“We had to build a very safe boat,” says Gonzalez. “We’re one of the only, if not the only, National Marine Manufacturers Association-certified boat in this class.”
Where Family, Fishing, Performance, and Luxury Meet
While Phenom’s four pillars are family, fishing, performance, and luxury, safety is paramount in every aspect. One example is the hawse pipe built into the aft gunwale with the cleat down underneath and out of the way. Another is the smart plug for shore power.
“It allows you to plug in the shore power and run a test,” says Gonzalez. “If you get the green light, then you can go ahead and actually activate the shore power. That way you don’t have any safety or electrical shortages or polarity reverse.” Every sound speaker is flush, and the bow handrails are recessed, nothing protrudes to interfere with moving about the deck.
Family Comfort and Fishing Capabilities in Phenom 37
Family
Then there’s the family comfort. Spacious entertainment zones in the bow and cockpit include Ultrafabrics’ Ultraleather, multi-texture upholstery. Console chaise lounge seating in the bow can be complemented with optional permanent bench seating forward with backrests and storage underneath. The chaise lounge hides a 330-quart cooler. Another bow option is the electronically actuated table that lowers flush with the deck, another safety feature.
Triple captain’s chairs are designed to let cool air from the air conditioner flow through the backrests, and for those cold days, the seats are also heated. I can attest to the comfort of the aft-facing mezzanine seating as that’s where I leaned, sat, knelt, and hung on throughout the trip down to Miami. The cooler underneath carried the water and drinks. The transom has a bench seat with backrest that conveniently folds out of the way for more room, especially when fishing.
Fishing
Speaking of which, the Phenom 37 center console easily transforms into a fishing machine. The model I was on didn’t have the optional bow forepeak seating, so there was plenty of room to maneuver from side to side with a comfortable bolster wrapped right at thigh height. Rod holders line the gunwale, and Phenom has a patent-pending automatic pressurized aquarium (meaning you can see the bait through the front windows) livewell system with a 30-gallon tank on each side.
Two 290-quart macerated fish boxes are built into the cockpit floor, and there are two 220-quart in-deck storage boxes amidships. Washdowns are located fore and aft, and rod storage is abundant under the gunwales and with the optional in-floor vertical storage inside the console. Gemlux Bluewater outriggers are an option in-floor as well. The hardtop also has room for a rocket launcher-style rod holder, and a big upgrade replaces the standard pancake reels in the hardtop with Penn auto teaser reels.
The helm is outfitted with Garmin 22-inch displays, JL Audio, Lumitec lighting, Zipwake trim control, and Mercury Joystick piloting to match the Vetus bow thruster and Mercury outboards.
The Phenom’s standard equipment will have you out on the water immediately once you add either twin 600-hp Mercury Verado V12s or the triple 400-hp Mercury Verado V10 outboards. Inside the console, a six-foot berth with a convertible seat adds to the comfort level as does the head and, maybe more importantly, a Seakeeper 3 gyrostabilizer is standard.
Walking through the Phenom 34 at the Fort Lauderdale show showed me what the center console had to offer and provided the details of her features and innovations. “Not everybody does this type of boating,” says Gonzalez. “For the people that do, we don’t believe there’s any boat out there that meets all criteria and checks every box the way that these Phenoms do, and that’s a very difficult task to do.”
I have to say that because of the trip down to Miami, the Phenom 37 proved she was built for family, fishing, performance, and luxury. She’s solid, clean, and a joy to ride.
-by Steve Davis
