Southport's 28 Express joins the advantages of marine computer-aided design and a soft-riding hull form designed for outboard four-stroke power by C. Raymond Hunt Associates with superior new synthetic boat-building materials and cutting edge electrical technology. The result is the most technologically advanced offshore Express model of its kind.

Only solid modelling and forward thinking could produce the six-piece unibody construction of the Southport 28 Express.

Before computer modelling made tooling accuracy of one-thousandth of an inch a reality, the six interlocking pieces that form the hull, cabin, bridge and deck of the 28 Express would have been impossible to construct. But using this CAD technology together with advanced materials like vinylester boat resins, knitted boat glasses, composite cores and methacrylate bonding produces a monocoque construction where the interior and exterior become structural. As a result, the 28 Express is a solid, foam-filled vessel weighing as much as 650 Kg less than competitive sports boats. And since the hull form was designed by Hunt specifically for the added weight of four stroke power, the Express is as soft and dry riding as her open sister vessels without the performance-robbing weight disadvantages of conventional boat- building methods.

The six large interlocking laminate parts of the 28 Express are molecularly bonded with methacrylate, which never loses elasticity while holding the parts together with strength of 4000 pounds per square inch.

The stringer system of the 28 Express is bonded to the hull with methacrylate while in the mould, insuring the Hunt4 hull retains its designed shape. While expensive, methacrylate is an extraordinary boat-building material which holds with a tensile strength of 4000 ppsi, retraining flexibility to move with the laminate when needed without failing like stringers tabbed into a hull with more brittle resin and fiberglass. After the stringer system is filled with foam, the hull/stringer grid retains remarkable strength. Plus, the stringer system forms the lower part of the Express cabin and holds marine receivers for the cabin and head overheads and the aft cockpit parts that form the structural bridges to the deck/foredeck 'cap'.

The cabin and head overheads and the aft cockpit part are all bonded to the stringer system with methacrylate. These parts fit into intricate receivers made possible by utilizing the three-dimensional capabilities of computer-aided design. In fact, inside the cabin and head compartments the seams between the parts are all but invisible are a result of the part-to-part fit and a design that purposely hides the seams. The result is a clean look that requires a minimum of maintenance. And since there are no trim pieces and extra bulkheads that creak and groan, there is a remarkable feeling solidity and strength when running in a seaway.

Advanced electrical advances borrowed from the automotive industry combined with LED lighting for boats technology make full AC power available without a heavy, noisy generator for boat.