Best Family Boats | Australia's Greatest Boats 2014
This year we sought to broaden the Australia’s Greatest Boats criteria and focus our attention on one of the largest boating segments in the world – sportsboats i.e. family boats.
From removable dinette tables that convert to sunlounges to folding seat panels that afford easier access and flow through the transom, sportsboats shouldn’t limit your potential on the water but rather enhance it.
Styling is a no brainer and while most manufacturers take their own slant on this, svelte profiles enhanced by low-raked windscreens are all the rage. Sportsboats are generally athletic in appearance with dropping sheer lines and curvaceous top decks but most retain generous cockpit depths, affording a fair degree of safety and comfort in rougher conditions.
While predominantly designed for inshore and lake use, each of this year’s finalists in the family boats category exhibited a quality of ride that gave little away to the hardcore fishing rigs we’d tested previously — at least inshore.
BEST FAMILY / SPORTS BOATS
Bayliner 175 Flight
Bayliner has hit the mark with this value-packed budget blaster, the Bayliner 175 Flight. All judges commented on the performance the gutsy little four-cylinder MerCruiser sterndrive engine. With a combined boat-motor-trailer weight of around 1200kg the 175 is an easy-tow package.
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Crownline 19XS
The American giant teamed with its Australian distributor to create an innovative solution to Aussie sportsboating. In a market segment crowded with sterndrives, Crownline went back to the drawing board with its 19XS to produce a beautiful bowrider with a thumping Mercury outboard on the rear.
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Quicksilver 645 Cabin
This was supposed to be the Sports Boat category of Australia’s Greatest Trailer Boats. So what was a 6.45m cabin boat with a comparatively small Mercury 150hp four-stroke outboard doing here? Turns out we might have been a bit hasty in judging Quicksilver’s Activ 645 Cabin, because it was pretty…active. Agile. Dare we say…sporty?
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Chaparral H20 19
They’re a sneaky mob at Chaparral. Rather than just toss another sports bowrider into the mix, they threw a real spanner in the works. Tempting the judges was the H20 19 Sport – an innovative sports/fish crossover boat. It’s a sturdy, assuring, yet assertive sports machine backed by the performance of a MerCruiser V6 sterndrive.
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Regal 2100 Bowrider
After our judges had taken the Regal 2100 Bowrider for a spin, we approached them for comment. The problem was, nothing they said could be repeated given our family-friendly website. To quote one of the few clean comments from one judge: "I set out to test the boat, but the boat tested me. The Regal feels like a Bentley and handles like a Ferrari."
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