For the last couple of decades, the center console boat design has dominated in all boat segments and moved beyond its humble fishing roots to performance and luxury cruisers of all sizes. Versatility, simplicity and the ability to pack more people on board seems to be the reason for wide spread adoption. I would say in many ways the center console design is much like the SUV of the car world where what was once the rugged out door vehicle is now ubiquitous in every manufacturers lineup. Is the open layout center console design the boat style of the future? Let’s take a look at the emergence of this popular boat type.

Much like SUVs, the prevailing feature of a center console is the practicality. The open cockpit was very useful for commercial fisherman and that's the same for recreational fishing. Where smaller commercial fishing boats might have used a simple tiller, as they got bigger the console was added; often right at the back in the case of old east coast style boats, or sometimes right at the front. Single side consoles were also popular but as with larger walk around designs, the usefulness of the console being in the middle made sense. And commercial fisherman aren’t concerned with aesthetics, they want to haul in fish and get home.

Some of the old center consoles are revered for their practicality and usefulness, like the smaller SeaCraft and Bertram, which have a timeless design with a high freeboard, steep entry and generous flare for a smaller hull. In the sixties and seventies several popular brands emerged, Boston Whaler, Grady White, Mako, Blackfin and several more as the boat industry has always been an entrepreneurial playground. Today there are dozens of builders exclusively building Center Consoles and a major difference from the past is the size. When early boats were popular in the 20’ and 25’ range, with the advent of more power, we see CCs in the 40 and 50+ foot range with luxury Center Consoles in the 60’ and 70’+ range.

The design gained popularity throughout the eighties and nineties but probably had most of its growth in the South East, until more recently where now center console design dominates many areas. Brands like SeaRay and Bayliner made lines of CC boats with moderate success. With the demand for offshore fishing and larger boats, some builders like Contender, Sea Hunter, Sea Vee, Yellowfin and HydraSports (HCB) went on to become leaders in the higher end custom building scene. Again, there are too many brands to mention them all. In fact there is a really popular Instagram page dedicated to the style “center consoles only” and they do a great job showcasing the many different brands.

For the CC design, the range is incredible, from affordable CC boats under 20’, 38’ offshore fishing machines to 70’ Luxury CCs that are great for shuttling swimsuit models and Champagne back to the yacht without firing up the helicopter. Don’t you hate running the chopper when you don’t need to.

Innovation in CC design more recently has been the adoption of large catamarans. Offering massive beams, stability and a smooth ride make a large CC Cat a pretty solid offering. Freeman, World Cat, Tideline and many others are expanding the CAT offerings, although because of the need for a deep tunnel offshore, these boats are not easy on the eyes like a performance cat is. They look brutal actually, similar aesthetics to a bulldozer but are very practical from a usability standpoint.

Because I’m more interested in performance boats, it is worth mentioning how similar to the way bass boats helped some performance builders find a new market to survive, some offshore brands partially or fully moved to center consoles to grow sales. Nor-Tech, Cigarette, MTI are just some of the builders that make most of their money now building family haulers and not high performance boats. Scarab was pretty early in the CC game and actually had some pretty iconic narrow beam CCs that ran pretty well.

Although some of these “performance” CCs are marketed as performance boats, the CC design is pretty bad for high performance offshore. Part of the reason is they are larger heavier hulls, a sport deck can be lighter and more rigid. A CC just can’t perform dynamically to a true sport deck performance boat power for power.

Another bad design flaw of the CC for performance and recreation is that although you can fit lots of people on them, you have many passengers standing or sitting up front, so it becomes really uncomfortable as a passenger and even a driver. All the big CCs I have driven or ridden in are tiring on a long trip from standing or leaning; I like sitting or at least being in a solid bolster for comfort. The wind is pretty tiring in an open boat as well.

The other flaw is if you do bury the bow, they are bathtubs. Generally, most CCs have really good drainage, so it’s not the end of the world but when you have people upfront it’s a potentially dangerous situation. It is really rare to find comfortable seating at the helm in a CC. When you’re use to performance boats where everything is at your fingertips and you’re sitting comfortable, running a CC is like standing up while driving a tractor. Even top builders negate some pretty simple ergonomic rules.

For small performance boats, you do see some neat small center consoles. In fact I did an article last year about some of the older performance CCs and there are some cool ones. For all the reasons above, they generally aren’t as fast as a true performance boat. For running a bay they can be great.

Allison Boats makes a sport center console design off of their very popular 21’ bass boat called the Pro Sport 21’. And as usual, Allison gets it right, 2+2 seating, behind a windshield and perfect ergonomics. This isn’t surprising as Darris Allison is one of the greatest boat designers of our time. This shows how the center console design can be utilized much better, especially in smaller boats. In really fast boats, you want to be sitting inside the boat too and not standing or sitting on the deck ready to be pitched out, unfortunately somewhat common in a CC design.

I would love to see more innovation in the design of offshore center console boats where you get the benefits of bolstered seating and wind protection. Most CC boats look the same, which is part of their charm, they are like pickup trucks.

Some boats have a large closed deck area at the bow, which I think is great for storage and adding a little protection from stuffing the bow. I really love the old center consoles and even love the old stern drive or direct drive models from way back, they are almost like a cool old vintage SUV. The massive luxury CCs are really boring to me and are really lazy from a design perspective.

Some builders like HCB, Cigarette and Midnight Express have larger models that have 6 or 7 outboards strung across the transom which is just awful; a waste of space and brutal for performance. Mercury is addressing this to a degree with the Verado 600 V12, at least they can reduce the mess on the transom with some of these boats. More than quads is when it gets dumb for me, you’re adding too much drag and weight.

For many reasons, center consoles will continue to dominate marine sales in many sectors. It’s not the greatest design for performance or recreation but it’s great for fishing and has been adopted by the general market. Let’s hope we see some innovation in center console design that improves on comfort and performance.