Why No Center Consoles?

MarshRat

MarshRat

Steelhead
Out here in Charleston SC, 16-18ft fiberglass center consoles (single 50hp-90hp outboard) are the most common fishing vessel by a good margin. Why isn't this platform more common for the Puget Sound? Certainly not a vessel for open ocean, but we have a 6ft avg tide range, common 20-25 knot winds, choppy inlets/harbors, and these boats handle it fine. Open bow (and even stern) for easy casting, decent gunnel height, simple trolling motor rigging. I figure they'd be great for a lot of the inner Puget Sound but, aside from a few Whaler Montauks, I feel like I don't see that many center consoles around.

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I have asked that question myself. The only answer that comes to mind is that they don’t work so well as a platform for downriggers. People seem to want to have a chair that swivels so that they can spend all their time looking back at the downriggers (and not looking where they are going!).
 
I'd like to see some welded aluminum boats with center console. They're rare, that's for sure. Duroboat used to offer them but I don't think that company exists anymore.
 
Buzzy said:
I'd like to see some welded aluminum boats with center console. They're rare, that's for sure. Duroboat used to offer them but I don't think that company exists anymore.
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Pat- check out Klamath boats! If I ever decide to get a real boat, it'll be one of these. Lightweight, all welded, PNW built. May Marine in Belfair sells them
(I still like the quiet of my kayak too much to commit to a big boat right now)
 
Northern said:
Pat- check out Klamath boats! If I ever decide to get a real boat, it'll be one of these. Lightweight, all welded, PNW built. May Marine in Belfair sells them
(I still like the quiet of my kayak too much to commit to a big boat right now)
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Thanks, Leigh!
 
For my 16 footer I just greatly prefer a tiller and wide open layout. I don't see what sacrificing a significant portion of my deck space to a helm would accomplish.

Edit: I do need to point out I don't fish the puget sound. My 16 footer is for the lower Columbia river
 
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I think Chucker said it best, people use downrigger A LOT out on the Sound. They also like enclosed windshield and canopy to keep out the elements, sit back and keep an eye on the downrigger. There isn't just a whole lot of fly fishers out on the Sound to have a market for these center consoles so Whalers are a popular choice for them. It makes sense having fished a lot on @jasmillo Montauk they make a great fly fishing platform with the flat wide bow and open space in the back.
 
MarshRat said:
Out here in Charleston SC, 16-18ft fiberglass center consoles (single 50hp-90hp outboard) are the most common fishing vessel by a good margin. Why isn't this platform more common for the Puget Sound? Certainly not a vessel for open ocean, but we have a 6ft avg tide range, common 20-25 knot winds, choppy inlets/harbors, and these boats handle it fine. Open bow (and even stern) for easy casting, decent gunnel height, simple trolling motor rigging. I figure they'd be great for a lot of the inner Puget Sound but, aside from a few Whaler Montauks, I feel like I don't see that many center consoles around.

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I ran a 24’ Regulator with twin 200’s for years off of Hawaii 20-30 miles offshore…they are definitely for the open ocean…
 
Buzzy said:
I'd like to see some welded aluminum boats with center console. They're rare, that's for sure. Duroboat used to offer them but I don't think that company exists anymore.
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During the economic crash in about 2008 I was looking online at boats and found a new 17’ Fish-Rite, welded aluminum center console with high sides and a 50hp Suzuki 4 stroke at Brinsfield Boat Basin in Oregon. I didn’t pull the trigger on it, and a couple years later when fishing a beach in Tacoma I swear I saw it cruise past me.

I still think about that boat a lot.
 
I had a side-console Klamath that I gifted my son. He now uses it for crabbing on the west side of Washington. I prefer the windshield on my new (to me) 16 ft Smokercraft for those cold mornings driving upriver on the Columbia.
 
I love center consoles myself, that’s why I modified my wooden skiff build to have it.
Open casting deck up front, decent space in the back, outfitted with a spot lock motor she makes a pretty sweet fly fishing platform.

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MarshRat said:
Out here in Charleston SC, 16-18ft fiberglass center consoles (single 50hp-90hp outboard) are the most common fishing vessel by a good margin. Why isn't this platform more common for the Puget Sound? Certainly not a vessel for open ocean, but we have a 6ft avg tide range, common 20-25 knot winds, choppy inlets/harbors, and these boats handle it fine. Open bow (and even stern) for easy casting, decent gunnel height, simple trolling motor rigging. I figure they'd be great for a lot of the inner Puget Sound but, aside from a few Whaler Montauks, I feel like I don't see that many center consoles around.

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Yeah I don’t know either but the downrigger and just shittier weather theories seem most likely. Just a sort of cultural momentum with some practicality behind it. My FIL in GA has a CC Key West sorta like that one sitting in his driveway, collecting oak and poplar leaves on the cover. There was talk of him trailering it out here this past spring so that we’d automatically have a more family friendly and capable boat to use but that never materialized. I still have hope. The poor thing just sits there anymore. It needs some love (and salmon blood).
 
Is there a reason why a CC with a rotating seat vs. fixed, forward looking seat is not available?
 
Huh, maybe I'm just thinking about it from a fly-fishing perspective and not seeing the bigger picture. I guess if you're never casting and retrieving then you have no need for an open bow/casting deck.

However, I'm sure you could find a way to rig downriggers on just about any kind of gunwale, and replace the cooler seat with a rotating captains chair or two. That just leaves the lack of cabin for weather protection, but I feel like I see dudes roughing it in open-style aluminum tiller boats all the time. Maybe it's just a regional-cultural-trend thing.
 
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"Just a sort of cultural momentum with some practicality behind it" said Matt B, and I think this is spot-on. There are certain types of boats that always show up for sale in certain regions. While certainly not unknown where I live, drift boats, for example, are vanishingly rare; I see less than a handful for sale each year in my Craig's List search (something I've done daily for about 10 years). I only see Bar Tenders, another boat I like, available in the PNW, as well as the classic SeaSwirl/Hiway P-14.
 
_WW_ said:
A lot of folks get the boat they can afford.
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Totally agree, which could explain the simple aluminum/tiller crowd. However, there are used center consoles at almost every price point out here, and are priced very similarly to the inboard/outboard bayliners and other fish/ski boats.
 
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