Fine lines

This clean sportfisher reinvents

the classic Carolina look.

The first boat a builder puts his own name on must be a very special vessel. For Roger Brooks, that boat is the Brooks 34. The cream-hulled express sportfisher made its debut at the recent fall boat shows, where it turned heads with its ultra-clean lines.

The new 34 is the culmination of a 30-year career in the boat-building industry. Roger learned his trade working for several major powerboat manufacturers, including Sea Ox, Sea Ray, Fountain and Albemarle. In 2000, he and his wife, Lesha, founded Brooks Boatworks in Washington, North Carolina. They make fiberglass tooling and parts for a variety of well-known builders, such as Tiara and Hatteras, as well as building semi-custom boats, including the Jarrett Bay 32 and the Eastport 32. Brooks Boatworks, which also offers custom hardtops and towers, recently added a 24,000-foot fiberglass fabrication shop with 26-foot ceilings, creating enough space to launch a line of eponymous boats.

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The Brooks 34 features a hull drawn by noted yacht designer Ward Setzer.  “It’s a new twist on a classic Carolina hullform,” says Roger, who created the boat’s topsides and interior. “The new twist is we have a trunk cabin—most Carolina boats don’t have that.” In addition he says, “Most Carolina boats have a broken sheer. This one has a raked sheer—It’s just one unbroken line all the way.”
Roger found that twin Yamaha 300 V6 four-strokes make the best power package for the 34’s hull (although he is also working on an IPS version). During our run in four-foot seas off Fort Lauderdale, the boat accelerated onto plane in only a heartbeat or two, thanks to its substantial lifting strakes, turned tightly, and stayed on plane down to 14 miles per hour without making the driver fight the bow. The ride was surprisingly soft—even in a rough beam sea, it would roll but never snap—and dry, even at top end, due to the 34’s wide forward chines.
Sightlines are excellent for the driver, either sitting or standing, and the wind fairing forward does a good job. You also can mount just about any size display screens inside the fairing. The central steering pod gives you an added feeling of control. Better yet, it is hinged and pulls open to provide full access to the helm and electronics wiring inside. The hardtop overhead—custom-built by Brooks, of course—shades the entire bridge, including the forward seating area.
Below, the trunk cabin top provides full 6′ 6″ headroom. A spiral stair leads down to an interior that Roger has optimized for livability. It encompasses a private head, galley with ample counter space and a forward V-berth for a couple. Aft is a double mid-cabin berth with about two feet of room overhead. Although the interior furnishings are simple and look easy to maintain as befits a fishing boat, sapele woodwork and an ash-and-teak cabin sole add a feeling of elegance.
Brooks Boatworks has manufactured much of what’s aboard the 34, including the chrome work. The rest of the equipment is top-drawer, including the Rupp outriggers on Hull #1. All of the hardware is heavy-duty and securely mounted; the cleats are drilled and tapped to aluminum backing plates. Roger’s experience in building sportfishermen is evident in the number of grabrails around the boat, the wide walkarounds and the handy fuel fills on either side.
His devotion to keeping the topsides clean and easy to maintain is also obvious. Fishing features such as the bait prep station and wet bar behind the helm seat are covered when not in use. There is a five-foot, lift-out fishbox in the center of the cockpit sole, flanked by two deep storage hatches. The bridge deck is hinged and lifts up to give access to the fuel tank and a utility room. The insides of all the hatches have a gel coated, molded surface for a neat, clean look.
The Brooks 34 is built of fully cored sandwich composite, with 20-ounce woven Kevlar laid over the entire bottom and solid fiberglass in the chine and keel. Construction utilizes vacuum infusion technology, and the cabin liners are bonded and glassed into the stringer assembly for added structural integrity. “You will not break my boat,” Roger says. “Let me take that back—you can break it, but I wouldn’t want to be you when you do.”