BOAT TEST
DUAL PURPOSE The new Explorer 19CC Sport By Natal Caravans and Marine
By Erwin Bursik
T
HE Explorer 19CC has been a ver y popular offshore craft since early 2011. It’s a stylish and easily towable ski-boat that fills a niche for those who fish the inshore waters along the South African coastline as well as off Moçambique. The boat is so stylish that it’s now become equally as popular as a dual-use family leisure craft on inland waters. It was, in fact, for this latter application that the 2020 edition of the Explorer 19 Centre Console has been remodelled. Both her top deck layout as well as her hull design have been tweaked to ensure performance with a single outboard motor on f lat water is maximised. It was also with this application in mind that Geoff Courtis and Bill Harrison of Natal Caravans Marine asked me to take her to sea recently and play with her in the calm waters off Durban Harbour to give them my impressions of this new generation Explorer.
20 • SKI-BOAT May/June 2020
FIRST IMPRESSION At Durban’s Natal Rod & Reel Club slipway we slipped her into the water under the watchful eye of her designer and manufacturer, Grantley Read, and with the doyens from Natal Caravans and Marine mentioned above in attendance. The boat was a big dose of “eye candy” — beautiful, sleek and elegant — as she drifted off her road trailer for a taste of saltwater. The Explorer 19CC Sport was towed to the slipway on a single axle galvanised trailer behind Geoff’s Ford Everest. With her aerodynamically designed hull and marginal above deck console structure she towed like a dream and in respect of long tows to distant stillwaters and Moçambique, towing this 19ft craft should be a cinch. WEATHER CONDITIONS We launched in the very early morning in order to make the most of some initial calm water conditions before the arrival of a strong south-westerly blow that was predicted. As we exited the harbour the remnants of the previous day’s moderate north-easterly was very apparent both visually and physically
on the hull of the craft I was reviewing. The comparison of performance between the Explorer 19CC and the much larger SeaCat running alongside us as the photo boat was interesting. I immediately got the impression that this “sports car” I was driving was raring to be opened up so she could show her “big sister” a clean pair of heels as she virtually glided over the churned waters of the outgoing tide over Durban’s notorious “bar”. PERFORMANCE During a lengthy photo session out in the deep water off Durban’s beachfront, and before the arrival of the imminent south-westerly blow, I was able to study this hull-over-water performance both through the eye of the camera as well as physically as Grantley put his new protégé through her paces in this unsettled water. It was interesting. Very interesting. The Explorer 19CC Sport I tested was powered by a single 130hp Yamaha 4-stroke outboard that provided more than sufficient power for this craft. Grantley assured me she was not overpowered for her proposed use of
