HookedOnFishingBoats.com

Do you want to cast with class? Chris-Craft’s 23 Catalina is a serious fishboat that has elegance any Ahab would respect.

Eye Candy

Keeping with the classic Chris-Craft look, this boat has a teak accents and curves galore. Check out the bowlight, for example—it’s so curvaceous it could pass for art deco. The pipework bends to match the boat’s sheerline, the transom has tumblehome, and metal is either powder-coated or shines like chrome. Now check out that clip on the gunwale: it’s mounted there so you have a place to secure the VHF antenna when it needs to be folded down. Talk about attention to details!

Surprise: the Catalina has more then just good looks, you’ll love her for what’s inside, too. Things like a 20-gallon livewell with LED lighting and a pump timer; rod boxes running down both sides; macerated, insulated fishboxes; and a cockpit dinette table that flips over to expose a non-slip surface, which can be used as a foredeck casting platform filler.

When I tested the 23 Catalina the chop was one to two feet, and the 21-degree deadrise V-bottom with variable-degree down-angled strakes, running from three to five degrees steeper as you move aft, won me over. It works with turned-down chines which are four and a half inches wide, to capture and throw down the water. Put these features together with the flare, and you can explain why the boat rides so dry—we cruised around Sarasota Bay all day long, chasing redfish and then specks, without ever taking a drop of spray at the helm. The hull also has an aft pad which keeps the boat feeling light on its feet, bringing the 21” static draft to 16” when you’re on plane. And while a two foot wave isn’t exactly challenging to a 23’ boat, the Catalina certainly did eat them up without hesitation.

So she’s a looker and she’s smart—but is she built? Damn straight. Check out the hatches for an example. They’re resin-infused, light and strong, finished on both sides, and they have hand-cut seals that fit perfectly. But the aft deck hatch needs a gas-assist strut added, so it doesn’t lean back against the hinges when opened. Stringer grids are integrated into the liner, voids are filled with foam, and through hulls are all stainless-steel. Now check out the anchor windlass. It’s hidden under a hatch and the anchor itself butts up against a stainless-steel strike plate in the bow, so the foredeck remains completely clean. It looks great and the fly-guys will love its snag-free nature. But I do have one beef with it: the access plate to get into the anchor locker is tiny, and I could barely get one arm through. When the windlass jams—and the question isn’t if, it is when—it’ll be tough to get it un-tangled.

Okay: she’s hot, strong, and built. What else? As I poked around on our test boat I saw oodles of goodies, and felt like I was constantly asking the rep if this or that was a standard feature or an option. Finally, he sighed and told me this was a stock boat—everything on board was a standard feature. Huh? The powder-coated leaning post with a quartet of rocket launchers came stock? The removable coaming bolsters, freshwater transom shower, stainless-steel tilt wheel, Kenwood stereo with four speakers, and even the helm seat cover, all were included in the Catalina’s list price? Yup. Chris-Craft builds the Catalina fully decked-out, or not at all. So if you want a boat that looks good, fishes hard, performs like a thoroughbred, and is built like a brick you-know-what, you’ll probably be charmed by the Catalina—I know I was.

See more of the 23 Catalina at www.chriscraft.com

LOA - 23’6”

Beam - 8’4”

Draft - 1’9”

Dry weight - 4,484

Fuel capacity - 100

Max. HP -

Price – Right around 80K.

Observed performance notes w/3 people and full load fuel, single 250 HP Yamaha F-250 four-stroke outboard, swinging a 15” x 21” three bladed stainless-steel prop:

You want to run to the rigs and load up on snapper? Troll the weedlines for mahi-mahi? Maybe do a drift or two for grouper? Sounds like Century’s 22 center console might be the ride you’re looking for. This boat comes ready to fish out of the box, with a healthy list of standard features that put you in the comfort zone and put your quarry in the fishbox.

Speaking of fishboxes: the Century has two of them forward, 180-quarts each, and both are fully insulated and finished inside and out. Now close them, please, so we can enjoy those soft but firm cushions. Coaming bolsters ring the foredeck to act as backrests, and you can sit or stretch up here in total comfort, whichever you desire. Your comfort level will also be boosted by the head in the console. Few 22’ boats have enough space for full-grown men to use the MSD in comfort, but I had no problem getting seated on the throne and found a surprising amount of elbow room inside. While inside the console, I also noted the easy access to the rear of the electronics panel. The back of the fishfinder and chartplotter are reachable from here, and the flat at the helm station has enough room for two 10” units.

Can the Century take the pounding of oceanic runs? The boat’s all-composite, and is built with epoxy-dipped screws. When these screws are driven in, the heat caused by friction sets the epoxy—preventing the screws from backing out when exposed to the vibrations and impacts of offshore runs. Using epoxy-dipped screws adds about $300 to the cost of each boat, but it’s an expense that’s well worth it. Stringers are prefabricated foam-cores, and aluminum plates back hardware attachment points. Tilt-steering, lighted rocker switches, and a heavy stainless-steel capstan are a few other items of note. Your favorite fishing feature, however, is bound to be found behind the leaning post. It houses a tackle station with Starboard drawers, overtop of a 94-quart cooler. That means no more lugging a tacklebox around, then dealing with a cluttered deck. Whether you need a hook or a Hoochie, it’ll always be close at hand. And whether you’re on the hunt for snapper, mahi or grouper, that’ll help you put more fish in those fishboxes.

One thing you’ve got to love about Pro-Lines: they give you the maximum bang for your buck. The 23 Sport is a perfect example. This boat is slick and clean inside and out with a finish that rivals much more expensive boats, it comes with an 18-gallon live, 30-gallon insulated fishboxes, a leaning post with four rocket launchers, a raw water washdown, and hydraulic steering—and with a 150-hp four-stroke on the back you can get it for around 40 grand. Many other rigs this size will cost closer to 60.

My test boat was rigged with a 250-hp Suzuki, which pushed us to 47.5-mph. And driving this boat is down-right fun—swing the wheel hard-over and the 20-degree deadrise hull carves into the water. Now look for a few waves, and use ‘em for ramps. Landings won’t hurt and nothing will break. When I tested the 23 it was actually quite rough outside of the protected harbor, with three to four foot seas washing every which way. The boat took it like a champ, though, and maintaining a cruise in the mid-20’s was perfectly reasonable.

There’s room for improvement on the 23 Sport: the console head access door is small and doesn’t secure open, and the throttle hits the leaning post when you open up the tilt-back helm. But remember: this is a relatively small boat, giving you a heck of a lot of LOA for the dollar. How does Pro-Line do it? Economy of scale is one cost-saver, and another is smart, time-saving construction methods. Check the stringers, for example. They’re pre-fabricated glass over foam, which can be taken out of the box and laminated right into the hull. Yet items like the cushion fabrics, pipework, and hardware are still above par. 40k? Yeah—you’ve gotta love that!

Pro-Line's web site is www.prolineboats.com.

LOA – 23’0”
Beam – 8’6”
Draft – 2’2”
Dry weight – 3,540
Fuel capacity – 125
Max. HP – 500
Price – About $40,000 depending on power choice.

You like a dry boat? Who doesn’t? But all boats will, in one condition or another, throw spray into your face. One rare exception to the rule: Sailfish’s 2860 CC. Now, I’m not saying you’ll never get wet on this boat. But I ran it in a frothy Eastern Bay that was churned up into three and four foot cliff-sharp choppy bay waves. We should have been soaked five minutes into the test. Yet we took spray over the bow only once, and that was when I tabbed the bow down and threw the wheel hard-over. Running against, with, and beam-to the seas the Sailfish shed water out and away from the boat while we stayed amazingly, surprisingly, pleasantly dry. Perfectly dry? Of course not. Damn near? You bet.

The Sailfish PR dudes call this hull the “VDS5 multiple-plane” hull design. English translation: a variable-degree deadrise deep-V tapers to 24-degrees at the transom. Different sections of the hull have different angles as you move out from the keel, which also gives the boat a stability boost. In other words this is the same basic idea for bottom design that Sea Craft rode to fame decades ago. And, it’s a big part of the story behind the 2860’s ride. Yeah, I know: you’ve heard “smooth dry ride” so many times you want to rip your hair out, but in this case, the cliché is applicable.

Who cares if you’re dry, if you can’t slay the beast when you get to your fishing destination? No one, at least not the hard-core anglers who’d choose a center console like this, and Sailfish knows it. The standard boat comes equipped with a whopping 17 rod holders, including five vertical holders in the transom, a handy place for holders which most boat builders leave blank. Toe rails line the cockpit, and they have built-in downrigger ball holders. There’s a raw water washdown, a knife/pliers rack, and a four-step telescopic boarding ladder. The leaning post houses a couple of tackle boxes, a rigging station with a sink, and a 35-gallon livewell. In an incredibly smart move, Sailfish used magnetic catches in the tops of the hatches for the livewell and rigging station. When you open them they stay open—and there’s no strut to get in the way of your bait net or sink access. It works great, and this is a feature you’re sure to see copied on other boats.

Live baiters will like the 35-gallon livewell leaning post and the 30-gallon transom wells. When they catch their quarry it’ll be time to swing open the fishboxes—but the aft deck boxes only have 145 quarts of capacity. On the bright side, they are well insulated. There’s also a pair of 225-qt. boxes in the bowdeck, but experienced center console anglers know these usually get stuffed with gear. On this boat, you’ll need to keep at least one side open in case you land Bubba. What about food and drink? A 94-qt. cooler in the forward console seat can serve duty as a “clean” cooler.

Sailfish’s construction techniques are another high point. The structure of the boat is made up of foam-filled pre-formed Compsys fiberglass stringers (the same pre-fabs they use to construct the backbone in commercial lifeboats,) a urethane transom, carbon-fiber reinforced decks, and a hand-laminated hull. The big sections of the boat are bonded with Plexus, the same stuff they use to attach the heat-protective tiles to the space shuttle. Another indication of construction quality: check out those hatches. Cheap, easy to mold fiberglass hatches are heavy and unfinished on one side, but on this boat the hatches are light and finished on both sides because they’re RTM (resin transfer molding) molded. RTM is a closed-mold system in which the resin is injected under pressure into a two-piece mold already containing the fiberglass, ensuring an ideal resin-to-glass ratio for maximum strength with minimum weight. But there is room for improvement on these hatches. When I dropped the hatch to the stowage compartment in the foredeck (which has an inset in the bottom that holds a five-gallon bucket) it slammed shut with a bang. That’ll spook every fish within 50 yards of the boat. Adding gas-assist struts and/or a rubber gasket would take care of this problem.

How about performance? Our test boat carried 500 snorting YamArabian horses on the transom, the maximum power package available. Cruising at 4500 RPM the GPS held steady at 37.1-mph, while we sucked down a total 22.3 gallons per hour. That makes for 1.7 miles to the gallon, which is about average for a boat in this class running with twin 250-hp four-strokes. At wide-open throttle we hit 50.6-mph while burning 43.2 gallons per hour, just besting one mile to the gallon.

Now shut one engine down, tilt it up, and firewall the other—as we did during our test—and you’ll break 36-mph. That’s a get-home speed that should give you some serious piece of mind. Surprised the Sailfish is this speedy on a single screw? I was, too, even after breaking 50-mph at WOT. In fact, this boat could have gone faster. Were it not for the sea conditions, my guess is we’d have been able to tweak out the drives a bit more and hit 52- or 53-mph. Or, maybe my theory is all wet. On this boat, however, I seriously doubt it.

Sailfish's web site: www.sailfishboats.com.

LOA – 28’6”