There was a dominating presence in the convention center during the 2022 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, towering over just about every other center console and walkaround fishing boat in the building: the all-new Invincible 46 Pilothouse. This colossal power catamaran was utterly impossible to miss, sporting quadruple 450 Mercury Verado outboards and a full cabin enclosure around the helm.
Invincible 46 Pilothouse Fishing Features
There’s always a trade-off involved with putting a cabin on a fishing boat. Sure, you gain all-weather protection, but you also lose 360-degree fishability. Or, do you? The Invincible 46 Pilothouse has such a massive footprint that it provides that protection yet still delivers the ability to work a fish all the way around the boat. The cabin itself is designed more or less like a monstrous center console, with side-decks wide enough to navigate even with a hot tuna on the end of your line and a bow cockpit spacious enough to fight it from up front.
We could try to list out all the individual fishing features here, but in the case of a battlewagon like this that would be downright silly. The bottom line: if it’s related to offshore angling, you can have it. Better yet, these boats are semi-custom so you can have it exactly the way you want it. You’d like two, four, or six individual pumps in the sea chest to feed three or four different livewells with up to 70 gallons of capacity each? Not a problem. It would be cool to have built-in tuna tubes? Sure thing. You like gunwales utterly perforated with rodholders? You specify how many to install, and where to put them. You want electric reel outlets? Just say the word.
One standard feature we just can’t pass over is fish-stowing ability. The 46 Pilothouse has six different fishboxes in the deck, and four of them large enough to serve as the brig if one of your crewmembers misbehaves. Plus we have to note that the hull design also counts as a fishing feature in this case, because the pair of variable-degree deadrise hulls smooth out the ride in ways no monohull can match. When the wind kicks up and just about every other boat in the tournament opts for a lay-day, you’ll be casting off the lines without hesitation.
Invincible 46 Pilothouse Cruising Features
Enclosing the helm in a pilothouse obviously adds all-weather protection, but what else does it get you? For starters, more cruising comfort. Air conditioning is standard, there are four forward-facing pedestal seats, and a settee aft. Multiple sliding windows and doors on either side let you bring in the natural breezes when the weather’s nice. Forward there’s a small galley unit to port of the helm, and forward of that, a berth and head compartment. The settee also converts into a berth, so there are several places to catnap between bites on those overnighters offshore.
Like most big cats with extended consoles, Invincible sits a huge kick-back-and-relax lounger atop the forward section. But this one’s so darn big there’s also room for a bench seat in front of it. And on the aft pilothouse bulkhead, there are three bait-watching seats. Additional fold-out jump seats are an option, as are fore and aft Bahama shades for those times when relaxing trumps fishing.
Invincible 46 Pilothouse Performance
We’ve all come to expect rather spectacular performance from the latest generation of mega-monster powercat fishing boats, and the Invincible 46 Pilothouse is certainly no disappointment. Although there hasn’t yet been time for thorough testing of the boat throughout the RPM range with different loads, Invincible has done some preliminary testing. And with the quad 450s you can expect a top-end blasting right past the 70-mph mark. Cruising speeds are well into the upper 40s to 50-mph range. What’s surprising is that cruising at these speeds the boat gets 0.7 mpg. Most comparably-powered monohulls get more like 0.5 or 0.6 mpg at cruise, and few can clock in at 50 mph without redlining the powerplants in the first place.
Invincible’s twin-stepped semi-asymmetrical cat hull design is one big reason why the boat can perform like this, but construction is another. The 46 Pilothouse is vacuum-bagged and cored, which eliminates excessive resin (which adds weight without adding strength), while maximizing stiffness. Traditionally constructed hand-laid boats simply can’t match its strength-to-weight ratio.
Invincible 46 Pilothouse Specifications
- Length Overall: 45’11”
- Beam: 12’0”
- Weight: TBD
- Draft: TBD
- Transom Deadrise: Variable
- Max HP: 1,800
- Fuel Capacity: 1,000 gallons
If you visited the Fort Lauderdale show we’re guessing you’ve already seen the 46 Pilothouse. Like we said, it was just about impossible to overlook. But if you haven’t laid eyes on this fishing machine just yet and are in the market for a serious offshore boat that offers protection from the weather, semi-customization options, and flaming-hot performance, it’s a fair bet that you’ll be laying your eyes on the Invincible soon — failing to do so would be missing out in a massive way.