Wild Thing: Domn8er’s 28 Deck Boat is as West Coast custom as they come.

The big brother in a deck-boat family that includes 22- and 25-footers, the Domn8er 28 Deck Boat—at least the one we tested on the Colorado River—is impossible to miss. If company owner Dory Sarafin and his hardworking team even offer their boats in anything other than bright, wild colors, we’ve yet to see one.

And that’s as it should be, because Domn8er plays in the West Coast custom arena, where the words “quiet” and “understated” simply don’t apply. The only thing louder than a typical West Coast custom boat’s graphics package is most likely its stereo system.

But beyond the requisite bling, Domn8er builds a solid product with strong performance. We’ve seen that time and time again, and the 28 Deck Boat we tested was no exception.

Workmanship

From its billet grab handles to the upholstery for its forward lounges, bucket seat at the helm and L-shape lounge, the 28 Deck Boat was color-coordinated. That translated to a whole lot of fluorescent orange, which was the primary hue in the 28-footer’s gelcoat graphics package. The application of those graphics was excellent, and was matched in quality by the boat’s tooling and rubrail installation.

Included in the lay-up of the 28 Deck Boat was a 2-ounce skin coat, 1708 and 2408 fiberglass and vinylester resin. For coring in select areas, the builder used balsa.

To jazz up the boat’s pieces of production hardware such as Accon Pull-Up cleats and stainless-steel handrails, the builder used color-matched orange bezels. Naturally, the twin billet swim platforms (the starboard side platform was equipped with a ladder) were also powder-painted orange.

Taking a healthy section of the L-shape lounge with it as it raised on stainless-steel electric screw jack, the engine hatch was made of fiberglass and upholstered on top. Securing the 540-horsepower supercharged engine from GT Performance were L-angles through-bolted to the stringers. All plumbing was handled with braided stainless-steel line and the wiring was, in general, supported well with cushion clamps.

Interior

With the aforementioned lounges forward and the L-shape lounge in the cockpit, Domn8er provided seating for a serious crowd in the 28-footer. We particularly appreciated the contoured “lip” on the outer edges of the lounges up front. They made our forward-facing passengers on those lounges feel snug and secure, as did the easily reachable handrails.

Just aft of the starboard lounge in the bow was the driver’s console. The console contained a cold-water stainless-steel sink under a lid supported by a gas strut, stowage compartments and a cooler that drained to the bilge.

At the helm itself, there was a comfortable bucket seat with tilt steering and an Elite Series shifter and throttle from Eddie Marine. A combination of Livorsi Marine Monster and standard gauges in color-coordinated orange bezels were in clear view on the dash. A flip-up wind deflector was mounted on top of the dash—another wind deflector was mounted on the console to port. JL Audio speakers were located throughout the boat for the Pioneer stereo system. To its credit, the builder protected those speakers with billet—orange of course—grilles.

Stowage lockers were located under the bottom cushions for the L-shape lounge, which started opposite of the helm and terminated at the three-step, starboard-side walk-through. A long gunwale with cupholders ran almost the length of the lounge. Sliding acrylic doors were used for all the major gunwale lockers.

Performance

Packing a strong punch, the GT 540 engine was dialed into an IMCO Marine SCX drive—the latest drive from the company—with a 1.5:1 gear reduction. For a propeller, the build went with a 32"-pitch, five-blade Mercury Maximus.

The 28 Deck Boat’s stepped center pod was almost as tall as it sponsons, which also were stepped. Each sponson had a single strake and a slightly negative chine.

The boat came on plane in 5.7 seconds, and its bow did not rise excessively during the process. From a standing start, it reached 71 mph in 20 seconds.

Those numbers were decent, but the 28 Deck Boat strutted its best stuff in midrange acceleration runs. It ran from 30 to 50 mph in 5 seconds, 40 to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and 40 to 70 mph in 8.8 seconds.

Top speed for the 28 -footer was 98.2 mph with the engine turning 5,700 rpm. As the boat approached its top-end speed, it did feel a bit light and loose in the tail, but our test drivers had no trouble handling it.

“Right around 96 mph, it feels like the gear case is ‘surfing’ and it bonks the tail around a little bit,” said Bob Teague, our lead test driver.

At speeds up to 70 mph, the 28 Deck Boat leaned nicely into turns. It tended to turn flatter at higher speeds, and accordingly our drivers put the boats through wider arcs at those speeds. In wide arcs, the boat turned a bit better to the right than to the left, where it exhibited a slight catch or grab.

With the exception of an oscillation that kicked in above 70 mph but stopped by the time boat reached 80 mph, straight-line tracking was excellent. So, too, was the deck boat’s ride quality in what little chop we could find during our test day.

OVERALL

Per the West Coast custom market, Domn8er goes big and bold with its graphics. Obviously, the 28 Deck Boat held true to form in that department. It also was built with quality and care, which is something we’ve to expect from Domn8er. It’s West Coast to its core.

Click to enlarge.