A friend thinks he wants a 20' boat with more seating behind the windscreen for a better ride, and he?s found a boat that he thinks will do it. The reason for placing the extra seating in the back of the boat? He figures that the further back towards the transom, the better the ride will be. In general, I think he?s right. Most boats give more of a sporty ride the farther forward towards the bow you sit. The back of the boat is for the softer ride. For example, the layout of a Center Console places the helmsman fairly far back within the cockpit for this reason. So the skipper of a CC usually gets a good ride via this location.
Then how does the boat that my friend pointed out get more seating behind the console helm? The designers put the engine under the seat, eliminated the splash well, and gained seating room! And then they raised the transom to a flat, straight-across design, fairly tight to the back of the boat within the cockpit. These features accommodate a second padded seat, facing aft. That allows for the additional seating behind the windscreen ?and gets the ride he wants for the most people onboard.
Once the designers put the engine under the seat, they decided to use a drive system that offers power trim as standard equipment. It provides more range, and requires neither additional cost nor additional space allocated to a bigger fuel tank. I/Os with power trim generally gain range compared to I/Bs with the same fuel tank size.
Funny how one decision begets another...
Once they thought through the seating location, and then found the range gain through power trim, the engineers decided on a diesel engine to gain even more fuel mileage. My friend can have a Merc/Cummins diesel as shown in the photos, or a Volvo diesel of either 130 or 160 Hp, any of which will provide good numbers and snappy performance. Traditional folks can also get the same boat with a Suzuki or Mercury O/B of about 150 - 175 Hp. These do not have the extra seating, though, since they have a big splash motor well against the back of the cockpit to match up with the cut-down transom that together takes up about the same space. And the O/B option is about $5,000 - $7,000 cheaper.
So, back to my friend and his attraction to this utility boat. With its open cockpit, it allows the kind of walking-around space that many boats of this size don?t offer. That?s what attracted him to a Center Console style in the first place. Not that he will fish that much. He wants to day-cruise the bays and sounds, look at waterfront homes, and go to lunch on a sunny day. Or take a quick solo run to blow out the cobwebs in boat style that affords an easy clean-up.
This boat is exactly 20', with a trailer-able beam of 8 ? feet. It?s made with an all-fiberglass construction method. To me it seems like a rather small boat for open waters, where a steep chop can blow up quickly with an afternoon wind. But it should be an easy tow and an easy-to-launch rig.
The boat builder also makes larger models, but this is the one that has my friend?s attention. He likes the shallow vee bottom of 10 degrees at the transom. When I counsel him to consider a deeper vee for more open waters, he retorts that it has as deep a vee as those ski/wakeboard boats that are promoted as a salt water series.
So, here are the questions?
1. What else should he be considering?
2. Which power: Diesel or O/B?
3. Should he get a bigger boat?
Then how does the boat that my friend pointed out get more seating behind the console helm? The designers put the engine under the seat, eliminated the splash well, and gained seating room! And then they raised the transom to a flat, straight-across design, fairly tight to the back of the boat within the cockpit. These features accommodate a second padded seat, facing aft. That allows for the additional seating behind the windscreen ?and gets the ride he wants for the most people onboard.
Once the designers put the engine under the seat, they decided to use a drive system that offers power trim as standard equipment. It provides more range, and requires neither additional cost nor additional space allocated to a bigger fuel tank. I/Os with power trim generally gain range compared to I/Bs with the same fuel tank size.
Funny how one decision begets another...
Once they thought through the seating location, and then found the range gain through power trim, the engineers decided on a diesel engine to gain even more fuel mileage. My friend can have a Merc/Cummins diesel as shown in the photos, or a Volvo diesel of either 130 or 160 Hp, any of which will provide good numbers and snappy performance. Traditional folks can also get the same boat with a Suzuki or Mercury O/B of about 150 - 175 Hp. These do not have the extra seating, though, since they have a big splash motor well against the back of the cockpit to match up with the cut-down transom that together takes up about the same space. And the O/B option is about $5,000 - $7,000 cheaper.
So, back to my friend and his attraction to this utility boat. With its open cockpit, it allows the kind of walking-around space that many boats of this size don?t offer. That?s what attracted him to a Center Console style in the first place. Not that he will fish that much. He wants to day-cruise the bays and sounds, look at waterfront homes, and go to lunch on a sunny day. Or take a quick solo run to blow out the cobwebs in boat style that affords an easy clean-up.
This boat is exactly 20', with a trailer-able beam of 8 ? feet. It?s made with an all-fiberglass construction method. To me it seems like a rather small boat for open waters, where a steep chop can blow up quickly with an afternoon wind. But it should be an easy tow and an easy-to-launch rig.
The boat builder also makes larger models, but this is the one that has my friend?s attention. He likes the shallow vee bottom of 10 degrees at the transom. When I counsel him to consider a deeper vee for more open waters, he retorts that it has as deep a vee as those ski/wakeboard boats that are promoted as a salt water series.
So, here are the questions?
1. What else should he be considering?
2. Which power: Diesel or O/B?
3. Should he get a bigger boat?
