2008 Sea Swirl 22 Bay 200HP Yamaha 4 Stroke

November 06, 2008

2008 Sea Swirl 22 Bay 200HP Yamaha 4 Stroke

Now here is a pretty slick bay and shallows fishing boat that would be equally at home on your favorite lake yet can still take a run out in the Gulf when you want. Make no Mistake about it this boat is every bit as respectable as her Tidewater Boats competition In fact it is a really close tie in my opinion. Having had the opportunity to run both vessels out this is an excellent choice for the person who wants all the features yet does not have the money for A Tidewater 2100 BayMax. While either boat is better built and equipped than a Scout at a far lower price The SeaSwirl 22 bay makes a nice entry level choice for the person who needs a complete fishing package yet cant afford to jump up to the top of the line just yet.

Running her out we find that she is light and nimble. The hull is solid and hard, ample deck drains to keep the cockpit dry when you get in a bit of the rough tuff out in the Gulf of Mexico. In the intercoastal you would have to work at it to find a wake that will even get you wet or spill your beer. She is a solid handler and cuts the water like a knife through butter. This boat has a mini tunnel just before the beefy 200hp Yamaha 4 stroke that means she will squat and then put you up on plane almost immediately when you get on her and at the same time she will run more efficiently than most boats without this setup.

Right out of the box this is a complete fishing machine. She has a wonderful casting platform out front as well as a factory equipped Minn-Kota trolling motor that is placed intelligently enough that it is not in the way when you want to use the forward casting platform without using the trolling motor. The trolling motor itself is well thought out in most details, not just in placement but the mount was selected based on its ability to keep the motor from bouncing all over the place when you are running in and out at speed.

The rear casting platform is adequate and there is plenty of room between the console and the sides for those times when you get a big fish on and have to get to the front of the boat to work it. Granted you can work most fish from the rear platform but it is nice to know that when you have to get to the front and just let that 150lb tarpon or 500lb shark drag you around for a bit that you can get there without anything in your way. The 4 aluminum rod holders on the back make trolling this boat nice and the seat behind the console makes a pretty good redneck fighting chair in a pinch but the boat is light enough that all one really has to do is stand down in the cockpit and work up to the forward platform which is pretty nicely laid out. There is a small "step-down" from the sides of the boat that allows you to dig your foot in and really fight the big fish when you have to. Like I said before though - the boat is light enough that you will have a huge fish on before you have to.

For flats fishing this boat is already rigged out with a power pole shallows anchor that will keep you on your favorite spot in the flats. Her shallow draft means she can get in pretty much anywhere on the flats without hurting her. The location of the console is pretty nice in that while you are motoring in with the engine up, you can spot obstacles (or fish) on your way to your spot and for shorter people, the windshield can be removed. The jackplate on the back means that you can raise the engine up rather than tilting it so you have good, solid low speed control in the shallows and at the same time provides a way for the engine to get clogged with weeds a lot less than the old way when you trimmed (tilted) it up and sucked up every bit of grass, mud and so on on your way. Jackplates make wandering the flats so much nicer. This boat was not rigged with some cheapie jackplate either. This boat has a real Flats-Jac with all the quality hydraulics and controls you expect from Flats Jac.

There is ample rod storage for 3 or 4 guys to carry a full days fishing gear and there are lots of storage compartments all over the place. Plus she has 18 and a 32 gallon live wells that just make life nice when you go to reach for bait. Both the front and rear livewells are easily accessible with old school pump / aerator / overflow combos that are extremely effective at keeping your bait investment alive yet at the same time are not in your way. The real bonus with these livewells is that even though you just about have to leave them on all day, the pumps are not battery sucking monsters but rather high quality, low amperage pumps selected with a full day and into the nights fishing in mind. That brings us to batteries - yup - stock trolling motor batter and your usual 1 starting battery with 1 deep cycle for running your accessories all day. The stitches are easy to get to as is all wiring on this boat. I looked over the wiring on one of them when we were planning to rig some additional electronics for a customer and this is a really nice job - nice proper disconnects where necessary and all of the connectors I saw were well sealed which means this boat was designed to be around a while with no wiring hassles like a lot of other brands.

The stock electronics package on these boats is pretty impressive as well. There is an Excellent Raymarine A65 chartplotter with fishfinder option (included) that is full color and gives a really easy to read display in the day and at night you can dim it down and it will still be easy to see while at the same time wont throw so much light that it impedes tight nighttime navigation. There is also a Raymarine VHF radio and all the standard Yamaha digital guages but back on that A65...... While I strongly recommend using common sense and not counting on just a GPS device to keep you in the channel, the A65 unit I had on my WellCraft V-20 was very impressive. Accurate to a tight enough range that I was often looking at it to get a bearing of where the next marker should be when in strange waters at night. These A65's are some rugged units too - the one I had on my V-20 took one heck of a pounding and had a lot of water over it on more than one occasion and it never failed me. While this one does not come with it there are some small enough RayMarine Radar units that would fit nicely on this boat and make nighttime navigation a lot easier as well as give you excellent weather overlays for those days when you think you might need to be running back in but are not quite sure. Also The A65 units come with some of the nicest chart options and ease of use features that even someone who has never used a real chartplotter before will be comfortable with its use.

Fuel consumption wise, this boat will not rob you at the pumps either - she is among the most economical in her class to begin with and has been properly propped and tuned for maximum efficiency by the pros at Marine Dynamics which means she aint no slouch in the performance department on those days when you feel like getting on her and running wide open.At optimum cruising speed I would be more than comfortable running her to the keys knowing that there will still be fuel in the tank when I get there. Goodland Round Trip from Englewood, Not a prob and still go fishing a couple of times during the week too!.

This boat has all the usual stuff like a huge cooler too and let us not forget the Lenco trim tabs mounted to this slick, hand laid fiberglass hull. All in all while I did not have time to fish her or do much more than run into the flats and take some water samples... I was very impressed with this boat.

Give Mark a call at 941-716-4200 to arrange a seatrial of this slick little fishing machine today.