Center Console Roundup
Our Center Console Roundup has options for everyone.
Far beyond the basics, today’s center consoles offer features to make boating more fun. And, in some cases, more luxurious. The evolution of the age-old, center console design continues to improve its versatility and usability for a wide range of watersport enthusiasts.
Center console boats elicit images of everything from a single-engine, 20-foot runabout to a 60-foot, carbon-infused, luxury fishing machine with quad outboards dominating the transom. Each year, builders school us on how versatile center consoles are, how much they’ve evolved and what models technically fall under that moniker.
Your father’s center console has morphed, and it’s not hard to find upscale features offered as standard equipment. Multiple and larger engines, gyrostabilizers, air-conditioned cockpits, side gates cut into gunwales, full outdoor galleys, and complete interior accommodations are just some of the evolutions you can have on what used to be a fairly utilitarian design. That means these boats are asked to do double and triple duty as fishing boats, dive boats, tow boats, weekenders, and crowd-pleasing entertaining platforms.
Powerful, quiet, fuel-sipping propulsion has enabled the center console to go just about anywhere, get there quickly and maybe even stay the weekend due to numerous lux amenities so cruisers won’t feel like they’re camping. Whether you’re an old salt with multiple center consoles under your belt or haven’t considered one yet, check out some of the latest designs. Maybe one of these new models in our Center Console Roundup will leave you perfectly centered.
21 to 29 Feet
Albury Brothers Bay and Bluewater 23
40 and up
By Zuzana Prochazka, Southern Boating July 2019
This is a useful compilation, but it would be far more valuable if it had price ranges for each boat. I know the manufacturers don’t like to be pinned down, but the pricing is the most important compnent of the decision making for someone searching for the right boat.