Feb 19

Feb 19 Old School Center Console Boats: Offshore on a Budget

For a while I have been avoiding the elephant in the room. Center Console boats. In general, I’m not a huge fan of Center Consoles. For one, the open design isn’t the greatest and really only makes sense for fishing or transporting drunk people to sandbars. Stuff a center console, and you have a bathtub. Sure, many have self draining liners, and well designed ones have a flare with deep entry, but for passengers, you don’t really want to be upfront when you’re in rough water in any boat. Plus, you end up standing up when riding in them, which is really tiring. But, to be fair, there are some amazing old center console boats on the market that you can do a refresh on and be on the water for a budget. Let’s look at some center console pros and cons when it comes repowering and going fast.

The early days of sport center consoles were really interesting. Many hulls came from offshore boats with proven designs like Scarab, Formula, Cigarette, Fountain, Midnight Express and many others. Especially in Florida, quite a few builders, even prominent ones, got their start splashing deep V offshore hulls, usually from 24 to 32 feet to build their own boats, and center consoles were born out of guys wanting the fishability and ease of use of an outboard with the performance of a sport boat. In the eighties and nineties, center consoles were cheaper to make than sport boats too, as they were generally basic and not as sophisticated as they are now.

An early eighties Wellcraft center console, this one needs some elbow grease. But, the boat is pretty simple, and if the structure is good, you can be on the water on a budget. You have to dispose of the dead body in the cuddy.

Even today, with some center consoles, you can see the lineage of some of the original narrow offshore hulls. 24 degree deadrise, narrow beam, and back then, they just used brackets on the back to mount the engines. Today, it’s more common to have a “euro” integrated transom with no bracket, but the lineage is the same. Modern designs often added steps, some have pads and wider beams are very common.

Deep V hulls, enough freeboard and light enough to be fast. Older sport cc’s are great options to go fast on a budget.

This brings us back to the original point of the article, there are some great deals on center consoles less than 15 years old that have fairly fast hulls that with some setup are really good performers. Plenty of boats are in the 24 to 30’ range too, perfect for single or twin engine installs. And as opposed to converting an old offshore sport boat, the hard part is done, they are already rigged for outboards. The market is huge down south, so you can find more fishing focused ones and or pure performance options. Many are well built, so if you find one with a solid floor and transom, you could be in luck with a simple refresh, possibly a repower and you’re cruising.

Here are some things to look for and some cool boats. I am not a center console expert, but have seen many and looked closely, these are just my thoughts and opinions. There are also so many manufacturers it’s impossible to mention them all. If you don’t care about fishing, you can ditch the fishing gear, remove extra rod holders, bait wells etc. and build more of a performance boat. Removing the T-top or going with a lighter one is beneficial too.

Chris Craft made quite a few of these Scorpion CCs you see them around Florida often. These are getting old. Unless you are hardcore, I’m not sure about a restoration on these but they look cool and way ahead of their time. Unbolting those Honda’s a… — Chris Craft made quite a few of these Scorpion CCs you see them around Florida often. These are getting old. Unless you are hardcore, I’m not sure about a restoration on these but they look cool and way ahead of their time. Unbolting those Honda’s and taking them to a scrap yard would be the first step.

For performance, sticking to the performance brands is a safe bet. Although many are too old, the ones that borrowed heavily from great early designs are still in business, here are a couple that aren’t traditional performance boats but are certainly pretty fast. Like I said, there are too many to mention, so here are a couple ideas, but there are literally dozens of great sport center console boats out there. Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite in the 23 to 30 foot range.

SeaVee made several boats early on that were narrow, well built and pretty fast. The 25’ SeaVee from the 80s and 90s is a classic CC in its own right, not necessarily fast, the deep 25’ can run in serious water, features a 8’6” beam, deep deadrise. With great options for power in the 300 HP to 400 HP range today, repowering with a single would be nice. To me though, for a more performance boat with twins, the older SeaVee 290 is awesome. Narrower than the newer 290, this classic SeaVee is still a head turner, and you can see it’s sport boat DNA in the lines. SeaVee built its reputation on quality, these boats don’t disappoint.

The original SeaVee 290, a solid boat that is much sleeker than a new 290. Narrow, pretty fast and well built. Many are setup for hardcore fishing, but you could set it up to be a better performer. Great boat.

Concept Boats have been a staple around Florida for a long time, gaining traction with their early 23’ model and 25’. The Miami builder has really stuck to their guns, and kept it performance with some fishing options you can add. Custom built, Concept still makes the 25’ but now is called a 27’ as they added a molded transom as opposed to a bracket, a longer running surface and step to the 24 degree hull. This is my favorite one, along with the 30’. The 27’ is reasonably fast, can run a single and look the part. You can find the 25’ models used for very reasonable prices.

The Concept 27’ is an evolution of their original 25’, with the running surface extended, and transom integrated. Now 26’10” overall, narrow 94” beam, and 24 degree hull and only 2,600 Lbs make it pretty fast.

Contender Boats are also one of those hardcore fishing center consoles that have a performance edge. The 27’ Contender is a very nice boat. You can find these used for reasonable and are of a very high quality. These can be great refresh, repower boats that can be made to run pretty fast.

Older Contenders are very well built, great performers. The 31 and 27 are very nice, not the fastest, but if you can find a clean one, it will hold it’s value well.

If you hate yourself and want to do a full restoration of a vintage center console I would look at an older Scarab 26’ sometimes called a Sportster, or the Sport 302. Both look very cool but will probably need lots of work. The designs themselves are very solid though, the 26’ I believe is a direct descendant of the Scarab 26’ sport boat. The 302 is a small 30”, narrow beam, deep V. These hulls used brackets, so hopefully you can do the structural work, and refurbish the existing bracket. Fast boats with a solid name.

A Classic Scarab 302 here, this needs more than a refresh, more like a flame thrower. But, these are actually really good hulls, so restoring is an option.

Some go to names for smaller 21 to 26’ boats, look at Paramount, Glasstream, Action Marine and you’ll see many others that look similar. Again, there are just too many to mention them all, but you’ll recognize some of the copies and some unique boats from small builders that are long gone.

A true classic, the 21 Paramount. This design has been replicated many times over. A great little CC, pretty fast with a 200 HP and up. You can find these and similar boats all over Florida.

If you want to spend some money and want to go bigger. Cigarette Racing has made some sport CCs over the years, in fact Cigarette and Don Aronow were pioneers in offshore CCs going way back to the beginning. The 38 Top Gun Open is rare, but very cool. Nor-Tech, Donzi and Fountain all made sport center consoles from 28 to 34 that are usually faster than traditional builders. The Nor-Tech 298 is fast and really nice.

Cigarette Racing has been building sport center consoles for a long time, the 38’ Top Gun Open, and Top Fish are good examples. Using their narrow sport boat hulls made them reasonably fast and very good in rough water. Be prepared to spend, but the… — Cigarette Racing has been building sport center consoles for a long time, the 38’ Top Gun Open, and Top Fish are good examples. Using their narrow sport boat hulls made them reasonably fast and very good in rough water. Be prepared to spend, but they hold their value well.

Again, the sport center console market, especially down south, is filled with many options. There are amazing hulls to choose from. The simplicity of sport CC’s is attractive, easy to reupholster, and you can refresh the engines or repower very simply. The demand for center console boats is very strong, so you will have to hunt for deals, but a well refurbished sport CC would also have solid resale value.