Boat Test: Whittley SL25

Whittley SL25HT with 300hp Mercury Verado V-8

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FMG Steve Morgan

s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… there’s nothing quite like taking a couple of hundred thousand bucks worth of boat out for a spin on the Gold Coast. Better still, it was during the week! Of course, there is the flipside where Matthew (photographer and FM Production Manager) and I get stuck behind a screen editing photos and videos, but we save that for when the weather is bad.

We got hold of a couple of Whittley boats after the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show. These happened to be the very first ones that have been powered with Mercury outboards and the team at Whittley were clever enough to build them in colours that matched perfectly.

SPECIFICATIONS

Overall length....7.70m Length on trailer.. 8.45m Height on trailer... 3.30m Width on trailer.... 2.49m Beam................. 2.49m Capacity ..... 8 persons Transom deadrise ..23° Fuel ..................... 240L Water..................... 40L Max hp..................300

Rest assured that they turned a few heads at the show.

We turned up at the Whittley Queensland dealership and launched the SL25 and an SL22 into the Coomera River. It’s handy when the yard is that close to the ramp. This review is about the SL25.

Main: This is the first Whittley that we have tested with a Mercury outboard on the back – a 300hp V-8 Verado. Above: The SL25 is a serious offshore fishing hull that’s been made a lot more functional (even if less spacious) by a hard top.

Up front, compared to similar rigs in this class, the cabin is spacious – and you know you’ve made it when you have a TV in there. Like most Whittley boats, there’s a drop in table that adds convenience.

Ride-wise, the 25 was a

Supplied on a twin axle trailer, the 25 would be at the limit of what you’d want to tow with a standard, 3.5t capacity dual cab ute, especially when it’s loaded, but when you’re spending nearly $200K on a rig, you may have something extra

PERFORMANCE RPM............Speed (km/h) ... Economy (km/L)

600..................................4 ......................... 1.4 1000................................5 ......................... 1.1 2000.............................. 10 ......................... 0.8 3000.............................. 20 ......................... 0.8 3500.............................. 33 ......................... 1.2 4000.............................. 43 ......................... 1.1 4500.............................. 52 ......................... 1.1 5000.............................. 63 ......................... 1.1 5900.............................. 79 ......................... 0.8

The Sea Legend isn’t a new hull, but the Hard Top version is more recent and solves plenty of on water problems. It adds shade, it’s able to be enclosed and keep out of the weather and it offers options for mounting radios, storing rods and mounting outriggers. Anglers like them. That’s why you see more and more around the traps.

This SL25 is powered by the Verado 300hp, which is a 4.6L, V8 outboard that’s a four-stroke. Verados feature AMS, which is short for Advanced Mid Section. It’s designed to remove all vibrations between the hull and the outboard and it’s been a feature since Verados were a supercharged, straight six-cylinder.

As to be expected, it’s not the boat you buy to save on fuel. At wide open throttle, this rig gets to just under 80km/h at 5,900rpm at an economy of 800m per litre. Drop back to 3,500rpm and you get 50% better bang for your buck, with 1.2km for each litre burned at 33km/h. The standard fuel tanks are 240L, which will give you just under 300km of theoretical range at cruising speeds.

It does, however, have a functional and great looking interior, with fully customised rubber flooring and a unique seating arrangement that features both forward and aft-facing seats. This removes the need to swivel seats around all the time and gives you a great position to get busy waiting for the spread to attract some action.

The transom arrangement is also pretty cool, with a central battery locker housing all of your house power and breakers and isolators that you’ll need access to. They’re sitting behind a set of cupboard doors that are under the bait station. There’s a live bait tank built into the transom and a standard transom door.

The transom itself fits nicely with in-water activities and also is fitted with the flooring material. Kids will love swimming from it.

The downside is that the seating and transom eat into the cockpit space a little, but with a 25ft hull, there’s still plenty of room for you and your mates. pleasure to be in. Although we couldn’t take it offshore on the day (it was big enough to swamp a trawler on the Seaway that day), we did our best to beat ourselves up in this rig in the pressure waves and it rode nicely. in there to upgrade the tow vehicle as well.

As tested, this unit comes in at $198,072. Visit www. whittley.com.au for more information or reach out to any of the dealers in the Whittley network.

Top: With an Advanced Mid Section (AMS), Mercury’s Verados are designed to minimise vibrations transmitted to the boat, making the ride smooth. Above: Gary Honeychurch was a newbie to the Southport Seaway, but he soon became comfortable in the slop. Top: Whittley’s bait station is removable and features a flip-up bait board with wet storage underneath. Above: This is pretty neat - and reminiscent of the setup in Stabicraft boats. There’s a centrally mounted battery box on the transom that houses the main breakers and isolation switches. It’s easy to access. She is an imposing ship from the bow. Like most boats this size, an anchor winch is a necessary addition.

With the way the transom is shaped and the rear-facing seating, the cockpit space is probably smaller than you’d expect.

Top Left: There isn’t any wasted space in this rig – here you can see the underseat storage. Top Right: The cabin is set up here for day tripping, although we’re sure you can convert it for overnight use. Like most Whittleys we’ve tested, it’s plush. Bottom Left: There you have it, a helm with plenty of space for flush mounting MFDs. Bottom Right: The transom is a space that’s designed to be fun around the water on the family days, although it eats into fishing space a little.

Top: You can fit 10 rods in the rocket launchers, and the lighting options up there make early morning starts, or night fishing trips, a pleasure. Above: The unique seating arrangement boasts higher helm and passenger seats with lower, rear-facing seats behind them. It’s a great compromise between luxury and space that bait fishos in particular will enjoy.