Rio Yachts Colorado 44. Seaworthiness and beauty are standard. Sea trial in the beautiful waters of Procida.

As soon as we climb on board, the first thing that impresses us is the wide surface on the main deck which, with no steps or height differences, stretches from the stern to the coachroof.

The Colorado 44 is a pure open boat where, when the glass door is completely open, the sense of space is really amazing and makes you feel on board a 50-footer.

This version, as an additional evidence of the considerable customization capacity of the shipyard, is fitted with twin Volvo Penta IPS 600 435hp engines which, requested by the owner, benefit from an engine room that, in terms of arrangement and size, is a small masterpiece of naval engineering.

As soon as we go out of the port, we’re welcomed by a long wave of medium height, as inevitable after days of bad weather. The Colorado 44 sails slowly, with no roll, while we arrange our camera equipment.

I station myself at the controls and I start speeding up gently, the yacht starts planing at 11/2 knots and achieves its sailing trim.

The long wave we encounter is perfect to test the real qualities of the hull that, despite the wide spaces it offers inside, proves to be extremely soft at sea, it never crashes against the wave, not even when we speed up.

I’m intrigued, so I accelerate and start my maneuvers. A series of turns, progressively more tighter, gives me a feeling of safety and seaworthiness.

I try to put the boat on the spot by opening up the throttle while we’re still in tight turn but the Colorado 44 remains perfectly stable and follows her trajectory unperturbed.

I perform a series of fast turns and counter turns and, again, the hull reacts perfectly, it is even responsive despite the fifteen tons we’re carrying around.

I ask the owner how he is getting along with the Colorado 44 and he answers that, living in Naples, he uses his boat throughout the year, in any weather condition, even if the sea is no joke here. When summer holidays come, Fabio likes sailing the Mediterranean, so his ideal boat is, first of all, a seaworthy boat.

I test the top speed, 32.7 knots, not bad considering that the IPS power is the lowest option among the different ones offered by the shipyard.

Conversely, these engines provide us with a wide range of cruising speeds that, combined with hull qualities, allow to sail long distances with very low consumption levels.

The acceleration test unveils another funny side of the Colorado 44: she goes out of water within 5 seconds and touches 20 knots in little less than 11 seconds, which is a really surprising performance for a yacht of this size.

After about 20 minutes of maneuvers, where all my attempts to put this yacht in difficulties proved to be useless, I assign the controls to the owner who is completely satisfied of the test we’ve just performed.

But that’s not all because the owner has a surprise in store for us; he heads towards Corricella, an enchanting fishing village situated north-east of Procida and he takes us to lunch in a special place.

Gracefully, we enter the “Marina di Corricella” which is actually no more than a groups of rocks sheltering the most ancient fishing village of Procida.

Here, it’s like the time has stopped and the village welcomes us with its colorful picturesque houses.

Fabio maneuvers with no problem and docks near some fishing boats.

Once ashore , I turn back to look “Otra Vez” and I smile while I instantaneously understand the meaning of the name chosen by the owner for his Colorado 44.