You want to find out how good your dentist really is? Try running dead-on into a three-foot chop at 50-mph in a 26’ center console—if anything is going to shake your fillings free, that’ll do the trick. Now you’re wondering if those new hair implants look real when wet? Then turn 90-degrees or so and take the waves off the beam. Before you know it, saltwater will be streaming down your neck. How many boats in this class can defy these realities? Not many, but when I spent a day tuna fishing off the Delaware coast on a new Southport 26 CC, I discovered it’s one of them.
First off, many thanks to Bob Nethan for inviting me out on his new Southport. We had a great day, which included Scotty catching the tuna you see here. Unfortunately, soon after we landed the fish the weather took a turn for the worse and started gusting to 20-knots out of the south. Yep, it would be a good test for the Southport.
As we turned west and got ready to head for port, I walked to the starboard (read: dry) side of the boat and sat down on the cushion capping the integrated tackle station behind the leaning post, for the run. No need—when Bob hit the throttles and we started cruising, thanks to the extreme Carolina flare in this hull the entire helm and cockpit stayed dry.
More about that integrated tackle station: I loved all those drawers and tackle boxes. Plus, a 45-gallon livewell centered in the station will keep a whole school of baits alive through the weekend. When you start casting you’ll also note cushy coaming bolsters lining the inwales, the aft rigging station with an insulated bait box, a sink, and a cutting board, the removable macerated fishbox in the cockpit sole, the aluminum toe rails, the six flush-mounted rodholders, the four under-gunwale rodracks, the raw water washdown, and the built-in foredeck cooler boxes. The down-side to such a well-equipped cockpit? All those goodies eat into the available space. We had four anglers aboard and never felt a bit cramped, but more bodies would have seriously crimped the elbow room. In fact, the only reason the Southport can get away with packing in so much stuff is by expanding the beam; most 26’6” LOA center consoles have a full foot less than the Southport’s 9’6”. More space is great, but remember that the 9’6” beam makes trailering the boat impossible in many states.
Like most boats of this nature the center console holds little more then a head and a sink, but there’s enough room in there to stow eight trolling rods plus four casting rods. That means you can leave all your tackle on the boat through the week, and all of your rigs will be safely locked away.
What about construction? The old cliché “rock-solid” doesn’t even begin to describe it. This is an all-composite boat, with a vinylester skin coat and molded, foam-filled fiberglass stringers. The stringer grid is bonded to the hull with methyl-methacrylate (read: 4000 pound per square inch of strength!) and all voids that won’t be utilized as compartments are filled with foam. Strakes are reinforced with two layers of 45-degree bias knitted fiberglass, and are cored with high-density foam. Match up the tank-like construction methods with a 22-degree variable deadrise deep-V hull and 4,600-pounds of displacement, and you get a boat that can deal with virtually any sea conditions that aren’t associated with a named storm.
But… bigger, better equipped, better built boats can cost a mint, and rigged with rigged with twin F-250’s (providing a top-end that broke 50-mph during our test) the Southport runs a hair over 100K. Then again, you get what you pay for, and our ride home in the slop made it clear that in this case, there is some serious bang for your buck. It also made it clear why Southports are owned by so many dentists, who just so happen to belong to the Hair Club for Men.
Check out www.southport-boatworks.com for more info. LOA - 26'6" Beam -9'6" Weight - 4,600 Fuel capacity - 204 Max. HP - 500 Price - Around 100K
Observed performance notes w/ 3 people and half load fuel, twin 225-hp Yamaha F225 outboards swinging 15” x 21” three bladed stainless steel props:
Cruise RPM
Speed in MPH
Gallons per hour
Miles per gallon
Slow cruise/3500
30.0
15.5
1.9
Fast cruise/4500
41.0
26.0
1.6
Wide open throttle/5900
52.1
39.1
1.3
Check out that flare - this is a very dry boat.
Now that's how we like to test a boat!
Contact HookedOnFishingBoats.com by e-mailing lr@geareduppublications.com. Copyright 2009, by Geared Up, LLC.
