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 that 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.
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.
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 25 foot hull, there’s still plenty of room for you and your mates.
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 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.
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 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.
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
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