Excellence in Design 2010 Award Winners Staff Report Trailer Boats January 5, 2010

CHAPARRAL 204 XTREME
For the third consecutive year, Chaparral takes home an Excellence in Design honor—this time with an aggressive bowrider variant it calls the 204 Xtreme. Clearly, this sterndrive-powered boat is focused on wakesports. It shows in so many ways, from the tattoo-style graphics and crisp edges to the black windshield frame and low-slung profile that mimics V-drive wakeboard boats.

However, the most dominant and truly innovative feature is Chaparral’s optional Xtreme Arch Tower. The tower rakes boldly forward with a tube frame extending aft that integrates a canvas system, in turn eliminating the need for a bimini top. This makes it one of the most unique and cohesive tower systems we’ve seen. Yet—get this—it’s also motorized, so you can fold it down and forward (with the canvas in place) at the flip of a switch. Very cool. The tower, which has integrated LED lighting, also can be fitted with custom speakers and wakeboard racks.

Combine all of that with the company’s patented Wide Tech bowrider design, integrated ballast system and swim platform with rubberized nonskid, and you have a bowrider with a serious wakesports attitude. In our minds, it is one of 2010’s freshest concepts … and a shining example of Excellence in Design.

MONTEREY M5
A few months after owning a new boat, every owner can come up with a list of items they wish the boat had. With Monterey Boats’ new M5, that wish list would be short or nonexistent. The company’s designers worked hard to anticipate the needs of the buyer who will use the boat for cruising the lake and watersports. A smart feature is the rear-facing bench seat just above the large integrated swim platform. This turns into a sizable sun lounger with the touch of a button. For watching friends wakeboard, there is a rear-facing spot on the starboard side behind the driver. And Monterey designed the boat to stay on plane at 18 to 22 mph—an ideal speed for wakeboarding.

Designers didn’t forget about the passengers up front in the bow. Monterey offers a couple of seating options. Standard are the contoured seats with flip-down armrests. Not only are they a great comfort feature but they’re something to hold onto if the water gets a little rough. The builder also offers optional filler cushions to convert the bow into full lounges.

When it comes to seating, including the large L-shape lounge in the cockpit, M5 buyers aren’t going to be left wanting. And that is definitely excellence.

When it comes to cruising, a variety of boats will get you to your destination, yet size, power, amenities and styling can lead buyers in many directions. Still, with all those choices, this year’s Excellence in Design winner is a boat that just might appeal to everyone.

RINKER 310 EXPRESS CRUISER
The engineering and design team at Rinker spent a full year developing its new 310 Express Cruiser, and there’s no doubt the time was well spent. While the boat can easily handle its own within the cruising segment, it also offers an incredibly well-rounded experience on the water, which is why it earned our Excellence in Design award.

Starting in the spacious cockpit, where much of Rinker’s efforts were focused, the company created a handful of unique features. From the reclining aft seat (which doesn’t just fold flat but can be adjusted to multiple angles) to the slide-out bench seat that retracts from the port-side lounge to form U-shape seating around a removable cockpit table, the innovation in the cockpit is obvious.

Other highlights of the 33-footer include a day hatch for quick access to the engines without raising the entire hatch, a flat-screen TV in the cabin that faces the port-side lounge but is mounted on a spring-assisted cabinet door that opens for viewing from the V-berth, and an oversized, oval skylight, which isn’t just cool looking, but serves a purpose of letting plenty of natural light into the cabin. There’s no doubt Rinker has a winner with its 310 Express Cruiser.

In our first year of presenting a Trailer Boats Excellence in Design Award in this category, it’s fitting we came across a model that truly signifies the one word that comes to mind when thinking about pontoon boats—fun.

PARTI KRAFT CELEBRATION 250 WET BAR
Pontoon boats serve many purposes, but above all they’re built with entertainment in mind. Refrigerators, barbecues, serving areas and plenty of seating make them a social platform. And while grills and wet bars aren’t new to the market, the folks at Parti Kraft showed they can take the party atmosphere to another level.

Parti Kraft’s Celebration 250 Wet Bar features a unique stern entertainment center. Included is a sizable cooler that shields the engine area, and ahead of that is a fiberglass-base bar with two comfy stools facing forward and four LED-lit cupholders in a dark acrylic raised counter.

The builder didn’t settle for one bar design, though. With several configurations including sink and refrigerator options, it can be ordered to your liking.

The options don’t end there. A customizable grill center also is offered behind the driver’s seat, and you can pick from seven skin colors and nine interior accent colors. An optional sound system upgrade truly enhances the experience. And if you really want the boat to stand out, a Tiki Bar graphics package is available. It could not have been easy for the design team at Parti Kraft to fit all its features into the 81?2-foot-wide model, but the company pulled it off, and has an Excellence in Design award to show for it.

Sport-jet builders have long touted the safety of their boats, thanks to no exposed drives or propellers, yet until recent years, these craft often felt like a glorified PWC. Today’s sport jets not only offer exceptional room and amenities but they are fun to drive. Instant acceleration, superior handling and shallow-water capabilities make these boats hard to pass up.

YAMAHA 242 LIMITED S
Give Yamaha credit for taking some of the best features from the sport-boat and tow-boat markets, and improving on them. That’s what the company did for the all-new 242 Limited S, which is the first Yamaha boat to have twin 1.8L engines—the largest standard displacement power package the company offers. The 242 Limited S not only replaces the well-honored 232 Series, it sets the standard for a new era of jet boats.

Technology is the cornerstone of the design that features a GPS-based information control center. A few of the features include compass headings, water depth, top speed and real-time fuel-flow data. The Cruise Assist can be engaged at 16 positions to hold the engines at a specific cruising or towing speed. Another nifty feature is the No Wake Mode that offers three different rpm settings for optimum speed.

Yamaha touts that its new compact four-stroke engines and drivelines allow for a more spacious cockpit, but it’s the driver that will appreciate the propulsion package. On plane in less than 3 seconds and topping out around 50 mph, the 242 Limited S offers serious performance, especially with its fly-by-wire steering. And that’s Excellence in Design.

We appreciate manufacturers that take good ideas and build on them. In the world of wakeboard boats, this happens often as wake-shaping devices, towers and electronics keep improving. And when it comes to improving its exclusive features, nobody does it better than this year’s Excellence in Design winner.

MALIBU BOATS WAKESETTER VLX
From its Illusion G3 tower to its MaliView dash system, Malibu Boats continues to produce innovative features you’ll find only on its models. And even when those features do the job well, the company still looks for ways to improve them. The new Wakesetter VLX takes advantage of a handful of redesigned elements for 2010.

Thanks to a new gas-spring-assisted apparatus, the boat’s Illusion G3 tower is practically weightless when folding it down by yourself. And with spinner/slide-off racks standard on the boat, the tower blends the best of form and function. Malibu also fine-tuned its wake-enhancement and shaping tools, which can be altered and stored for a rider’s preference.

And how’s this for options? Choose between the builder’s Diamond or Wake hull on the sleek Wakesetter VLX. The Diamond hull has strakes that are turned down to create more lift and a soft wake for skiing. The Wake hull has flatter strakes and sits deeper in the water at wakeboarding speeds to displace more water and create larger wakes. Throw in optional seating configurations and snap-in carpet to match the graphics and it’s easy to see why the customization offered by Malibu earned the builder this year’s Excellence in Design award.

Saltwater anglers are tough customers, and rightly so. They venture out in the roughest seas, driven by their passion for fishing and desire to succeed. Their boats must be equally tough, seaworthy and equipped to succeed. These factors have brought about great ideas and features over the years, and this year’s Trailer Boats Excellence in Design winner reflects the latest innovations in the saltwater fish boats category.

SCOUT 262 XSF
For the second straight year, Scout takes home a Trailer Boats Excellence in Design award—this time for its 262 XSF. The handsome lines, interior details and copious fishing features alone are almost enough to justify an award.

However, we are looking for innovation, and this center console delivers in two areas. First is the forward seating consisting of a pair of loungers with removable backrests. OK, it is not for the hard-core fishing crowd, but this unique feature allows you to take a leisurely cruise with family and friends in between offshore forays.

The second innovation is the hull. Scout calls it the NuV3 hull. With 22 degrees of deadrise at the transom, it allows the 262 XSF to run smoothly in choppy seas. Yet, the variable deadrise of the NuV3 hull also helps create greater efficiency than a conventional deep-V.

Scout’s 262 XSF is one saltwater boat that brings it all together—good looks, quality fit and finish, innovative creature comforts and unsurpassed fishability, as well as a hull that combines a smooth ride with extended range. In our book, that’s Excellence in Design.

The freshwater fishing boat category is one of the most hotly contested in the boating industry, particularly in this economy when companies must claw for every boat sale. Rather than sit back and wait for better times, a number of brands are aggressively developing new models. It is within this competitive fire that the 2010 winner was forged.

RANGER Z521 COMANCHE
This is Ranger’s second consecutive Excellence in Design award, and the new Z521 Comanche has so many cool features it’s hard to know where to start. But we’ll focus on the redesigned consoles, which we consider the best in a bass boat. For starters, there is enough room at the driver’s console to flush mount large-screen electronics directly above the steering wheel, eliminating the need for a RAM-style mount. The console also maximizes visibility of other instruments and controls, and at the same time it does not impair forward visibility.

Second, there is unique concave beveling on the outside of both consoles, allowing the tips of rods stored on the front deck to stay secure. We love this kind of detail. And finally, the consoles just look great.

Ranger also put some serious design work into the hull of the 21-footer, with the goal of maximizing performance with outboards of varying weight. This is especially critical as four-stroke outboards challenge the dominance of two-strokes in the bass market. That makes the Z521 Comanche hull an excellent design not only for this year, but for years to come.

Style is a subjective concept and difficult to define. While all of the boats that applied in this category have style, the editors based their votes on whether a particular model would be a trendsetter or not. Two such models—a pontoon boat and a bowrider—met this criteria in the editors’ eyes.

SANPAN 2500 BC I/O ELITE
This 251/2-foot tri-toon fairly defines the luxury pontoon market with hallmarks such as richly upholstered settees in the cockpit and bow, a removable dining table, a captain’s seat and a galley station abaft the helm.

However, the most innovative interior element of the boat is the convertible aft “island” lounge that inclines, reclines and folds out into a spacious sun pad. It doubles as the engine compartment cover and even includes a changing room.

Also integral to this plush platform are specially placed speakers. Engineers from Godfrey Marine worked with Jensen Marine sound system engineers in designing the entire Elite package interior elements to create an incomparable amphitheater experience. As we moved about the pontoon, we could not find a musical “dead zone.”

While you might not consider a pontoon boat a real contender when it comes to style, this boat may have you changing your tune on “toons.” And in our mind, that makes it an excellent design.

REGAL 2300 FASTRAC
We have been close up and personal with the 2300 FasTrac from Regal Boats, following this model in a trilogy of stories from the drawing board to the tooling to the finished product. In fact, the boat even graced the cover of our December 2009 issue. Yet, as we stand back today and admire it, we realize that this boat really does have style.

Gone are the molds, resin and shards of fiberglass, replaced by exquisite lines, the vented FasTrac hull, a forward-sweeping sport tower and a richly appointed interior made all-the-more comfortable with slender gunwales to open up more cockpit space.

There are two innovative—dare we say trendsetting—features to the 2300 FasTrac, as well. First is the forward hinging engine hatch, which helps keep the tools and smudges out of the cockpit. The second is the motorized folding feature on the sport tower—just touch a button and the arch folds down or up. What’s more, the sport tower is made from carbon-fiber composite to reduce weight while maintaining strength, not to mention its flowing lines.

All told, the Regal 2300 FasTrac is definitely a style winner.

These days, the Excellence in Design Value category is more significant than ever. Yet, how do you define “value.” To us, it is the quality of the features vs. the quantity of dollars. This year’s winner is a boat that we believe maximizes this quality-to-cost ratio.

SKEETER ZX 170
This boat was on the drawing board for three years, so unless the Skeeter folks have incredible foresight (which certainly could be, since Skeeter introduced the very first bass boat), you can’t say it was designed in response to the weak economy. Yet, with an MSRP of $27,380, the timing of this fiberglass boat/outboard/trailer package is fortuitous.

The ZX 170 rounds out the vaunted Skeeter ZX bass boat line, and it is the smallest member of the family. Yet, this 17-foot side-console model is big on design innovations, including a state-of-the-art aircraft aluminum torque transfer transom and stringer system, as well as an aluminum deck grillage system and a composite one-piece floor. In addition, the ZX 170’s constant hull curvature from bow to stern helps create a large front casting deck and allows for more storage up front, including room for 10 fishing rods.

The package includes a Yamaha 90 four-stroke outboard, a Minn Kota 70-pound-thrust trolling motor and two Humminbird 323 fishfinders—one at the helm and bow. You also get a single-axle trailer with chrome wheels and a spare tire. There is much more, but suffice to say, this is a boat whose time has come—an excellent design with innovative features and a down-to-earth price.

There’s something to be said for being able to have an enjoyable boating experience without breaking the bank, especially in today’s economy. And whether $25,000 sounds like a lot to you or not, getting on the water for any less is a challenge. And finding a bargain boat with some design innovation is even harder—when you do, it’s award-worthy.

BOSTON WHALER 150 SUPER SPORT
Whether it’s an 11-foot sport boat or a 37-foot fishing boat, Boston Whaler knows how to get the most out of its designs. The new Super Sport series is no exception. A larger version of its 130 Super Sport sibling, the sleek 150 Super Sport features stylish lines with a wide bow that converts to a sun pad with filler cushions.

Along with the boat’s playful appearance, the offering of aftermarket accessories for the 150 Super Sport is what led us to hand over this year’s award. You can create a boat for your lifestyle. Starting with the hull wrap colors, choose from a list of notable options, including fishing rod holders, a tower arch with wakeboard racks, a bow rail, a bench seat and a console side seat cooler. You can even pick your seats—bucket, bench or fishing—and change them depending on the occasion.

The best part—besides the price—is that most of the accessories are easy to install with simple tools. But the bottom line is many larger boats don’t offer the customization that the Boston Whaler 150 Super Sport provides.

When choosing the 2009 Excellence in Design awards, we opted to create a category for boats with innovative designs that didn’t necessarily fit in a particular category. We called it Editors’ Choice, and we’re pleased to bring the category back for 2010 as we award another model that caught our attention.

CORRECT CRAFT SKI NAUTIQUE 200
Since we haven’t tested the new-for-2010 model, we can’t confirm Nautique’s claims that its Ski Nautique 200 creates the “ultimate skier’s wake.” We can, however, tell from the new hull design, which features a wider running surface, dual lifting pads and the company’s exclusive Hydro-Gate that softens the rooster tail and wakes, that the boat should be ideal for all types of skiing.

Available in open- or closed-bow form, the 20-footer also features a user-friendly interior layout. Rather than having a trunk that skiers have to climb over to get to the swim platform, the builder developed twin saddlebags on each side of the cockpit’s stern area. Both compartments accommodate a minimum of three skis up to 72 inches in length along with other gear, plus the storage space offers more usable stern seating.

Another noteworthy design element is the helm instrument pod that is offset toward the outside of the steering wheel. Not only does the lowered instrumentation panel provide an improved range of vision for the driver, but it helps when accessing the controls. The effort put forth by the manufacturer makes the Ski Nautique 200 the perfect selection for our Editors’ Choice Excellence in Design award.


Web Bonus! Check out the additional running photos and technical diagrams of the 2010 award-winning models.