For the last couple of years everybody's been yacking about and creating new sportboats. It's not that I don't like sport boats. I've been sailing and building and thoroughly enjoying International 14's for almost a decade, and those are definately sportboats and then some (or swimming platforms, depending on your point of view)! There are few experiences that can match the excitement and beauty of mastering a truly high performance sailboat. The only thing that bothers me about the current glut of sportboats is that many of them are redundant and hence will tend to fragment rather than enrich the market.

The Viper 640 is another sport boat. However, the good news is that it fills a different niche than most other sportboats. It looks and handles a lot like a dinghy but it's not a dinghy. The Viper has been "de-fanged" with a 185 pound ballast bulb, which means that unlike a dinghy you shouldn't have to spend much time standing on it's bottom. But with a total weight of 700 pounds in a 21' boat, I don't think that you can call it a keelboat. It's something in between.

I found the Viper to be a very pleasant boat to sail. It's fast, comfortable to sail, and well balanced. Upwind, the boat's fine bow slices through the water without much fuss. Downwind, it gets up and planes very nicely, with the kind of accelerations in the puffs that one doesn't expect in a ballasted boat. In short, this boat handles more like a dinghy than most other sportboats on the market. With its low freeboard and fine bow, the boat also tends to be as wet as a dinghy.

The construction of the Viper is first class. I spoke to the builder regarding the boats construction and it is evident that he is using production boat building techniques as good or better than you will find elsewhere in the market. The rigging is simple, workable, and robust. And at $17,000 ready to sail, the Viper is also less than half the cost of most of its sportboat brethren. In my mind this probably puts it at or close to the top of the sportboat class on a speed per dollar basis.

My only gripe with the Viper 640 is its scary and a little too aggressive name. It doesn't really fit such a fast yet kindly beast.