|
MADE TO LAST
Caravelle
stands the traditional bowrider
on solid
construction with the 207LS
By: GO Boating Test
Team
When a boat
dealer shares an honest opinion about a boat with us, we listen. In this
case, we were chatting with a dealer in the Los Angeles area while picking
up a Caravelle 207LS Bowrider for a test. He had several years of
experience selling a number of different brands of boats and was more than
willing to share some of his insights about Caravelle. While some of what
he said smacked of practiced sales pitch lingo, he also tossed out more
than a few noteworthy quips.
The comment
that stuck the most was that he said he has had very few customer
complaints or service issues with the Caravelle boats he has sold, which
obviously impacts his bottom line. Fewer problems mean he can run a
leaner service crew and save money by not having to continually fix boats
he’s already been paid for. We liked the sound of that.
All talk
aside, we were looking forward to putting the 207 through the motions. We
typically end up testing boats in a way that sets them up for flattering
results. Big power and light load are par for the course. In this case,
however, our test boat was equipped with a modest engine and we had three
people aboard, instead of the typical two.
Due to this
boat’s size and price point, it fits nicely into the top tier of the
entry-level category of craft, and we were glad to be testing it in as
close to real world conditions as we could ask for.
NO WOOD HERE
Caravelle likes to point out that the 207, like
all of its boats, is 100 percent free of wood in its construction. Wood
is great construction material and has plenty of excellent qualities –
cost effective being one of the best. The potential to rot, however, is
not one of the best qualities of wood.
While many
manufacturers still use wood in their boats with great success, be it
specially pressure-treated plywood for use as a deck material or
lightweight balsa wood totally encapsulated in fiberglass and resin for
use as a support stringer, we have to admit that the wood-free moniker
does give Caravelle a selling point that many others can’t honestly claim.
Caravelle
uses a material called Nida-Core in most places you would typically find
wood in a boat’s construction. Nida-Core is a synthetic honeycomb
material that has a number of advantages over wood and can be found in the
construction of automobiles, surfboards and even satellite dishes.
Because it’s a synthetic product, however, we wouldn’t be surprised to
learn that it’s more expensive than wood.
On the
outside of the hull you’ll find a coat of ArmorGuard, a blister resistant
barrier that comes with a one-year blister warranty. On top of that is
ArmorFlex, a flexible gelcoat designed to resist stress cracks. Last is a
coat of Armorcote, which is designed to produce a fade resistant shine for
accent colors.
IN THE BOAT
The
interior of the 207 is all it needs to be. The seating is comfortable and
there’s plenty of creative storage. Both outboard bow seats lift on
hinges to reveal storage – carpeted dry storage to starboard and a
molded-in cooler with a drain to port. Above the seats are a pair of
full-length stainless grabrails—all of the hardware on this boat is
stainless steel. The bow filler cushions come standard and create plenty
of room for a couple of kids to take a nap.
Between the
matching helm bucket seats is a deep ski locker with a good amount of
space. Lining the locker is an expanded rubber pad—nice little touch.
The seats themselves are quite the little marvels of engineering. Called
SofTech bucket seats, each features a number of component designs to
create a comfortable ride—we especially like that fact that both had
flip-up bolsters.
The helm is
sporty and simple and has the customary set of gauges, including a
standard digital depth sounder. On the port side is a deep glove box big
enough for at least a change of clothes for two or three people.
Wrapped
around the console is one of the sturdiest windshield we’ve come across.
Each side of the windshield features solid construction around a curved
piece of thick tempered safety glass. In between is a swinging section
that completes a walk-through. While there are plenty of grab rails
positioned throughout the boat, the top edge of the windshield itself
serves as another solid support—and no amount of shaking is going to work
it loose.
The elbow
stern bench is comfortable and has more storage under the seats. Above
and aft is decent sunpad, but it’s not huge. The pad lifts aft and the
bench swings forward to offer very good access to the engine—there’s
another storage area to port that is blocked from the engine by a snap-in
canvas wall, which can be removed for greater access to the engine.
To starboard
is a walk-through leading to the transom, which has a rather small
integrated swim step. We’re told that the top-selling option is the
extended swim platform, which will run you an additional $1,350 (and is
worth every penny – save yourself a step and money and have it installed
by the factory instead of later by the dealer).
PERFORMANCE
We
loaded our two passengers and one tester during the surprisingly calm day
out on Castaic Lake, which is about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The lake’s elevation is 1,055 feet, so we didn’t expect to experience much
in the way of power loss due to altitude. Our test engine was a
carbureted 220 hp 5.0GL Volvo Penta SX spinning a 21-inch-pitch aluminum
three-blade prop. In addition to the three of us and light gear we had a
little over a quarter of a tank of fuel (about 10 gallons).
The
21-inch-pitch propeller demonstrated its presence right away with a time
to plane just over 4 seconds and a 0 to 30 mph time just under 7 seconds.
While our top-end was impressive at a solid 50 mph at wide-open-throttle,
we were only running at 4, 700 rpm (the Volvo 5.0 is rated for top-end
performance between 4,800 and 5,000 rpm). A 23-inch prop would have
likely given us a more impressive top-end, but it would have probably
taken our hole-shot numbers down a notch or two.
Anything
above our cruising speed of about 33 mph yielded a lot of noise from the
engine, which climbed to 97 dB at top speed. We would suggest that
Caravelle take an extra stop by insulating the engine compartment with
some sound-dampening material, which would probably quiet things down
nicely.
The water was
so calm that we couldn’t really get much of an impression of how this boat
would handle the chop. But we were able to blow through a few sets of
wakes put out by the wakeboard boat, and the 207 cut through them more
than it rode over them. We feel comfortable saying this boat has the
weight and the deadrise (18 degrees) to comfortably cleave through
moderate chop.
The 220hp
Volvo is near the low end of the available power for this boat, but we
still had plenty of fun whipping through the turns. The boat held its
speed in all but our most aggressive maneuvers. In the really hard
corners, however, some speed would be scrubbed off. With the ability to
go up another 80hp, serious performance in the corners won’t be a problem
for the boater who really needs it.
OVERALL
After our day
on the water we found the 207 to be a competent boat. We’ve been on
faster boats with more stuff, but this one seemed to do everything well
instead of just a few things really well while ignoring everything else.
With the addition of a few options (particularly the swim platform, and
probably a little more power), you’re probably looking at about $32,500 or
more out the door for this boat, which we would put at the higher end of
the entry-level market.
We’d
recommend this boat for someone who’s certain he or she wants this exact
kind of boat for a few years before trading up, or for the person who has
already had a less expensive small runabout who’s looking to move up to
something with better construction and better resale value. |
