2021 Whittley FF 1950 review

The appeal of the Whittley FF 1950 is that it is a boat that’s big enough to occasionally venture offshore if conditions suit, and big enough for a family to grow into, yet small enough to comfortably haul behind an ordinary family car.

It has the added benefit of being not quite a hardcore fishing boat – some soft, comfortable fearures take enough of an edge off the angling application to mean this can equally double as a family-friendly platform when the rods are left at home.

The Whittley FF 1950 is an Australian-made mid-size fibreglass boat that aims to deliver good value for money compared with similar-sized rivals.

It starts with competitive drive-away pricing, which for the Whittley FF 1950 starts from $69,900 for a standard boat sitting on a single-axle galvanised trailer.

You also get a nicely proportioned boat with a forward cabin that’s small but – thanks to the Whittley FF 1950’s wide beam carried well forward – still quite roomy in the cockpit space.

But it’s the list of standard-fit extras, many of which will appear on rival brands’ options lists, where the Whittley starts to look even more impressive.

You don’t pay anything extra to have features such as a stainless steel anchor roller and bow rails; cabin cushions and windows; bow access hatch; helm sports seats with footrests; twin under-seat Dometic iceboxes; rubber flooring; a bimini with a six -rod rocket launcher; side pockets with rod storage racks; a large forward kill tank; bilge pump; transom door with step-through; a stainless steel boarding ladder; LED anchor and running lights; and a two-tone gelcoat with sports decal kit.

The entry-level package includes a 100hp Mercury FourStroke extra longshaft (30-inch) outboard engine with mechanical steering, and the whole set-up sits on a Mackay galvanised single-axle trailer with spare wheel and cover, and fixed ratchet straps.

Whittley will even deliver the boat locally to new owners without charging extra.

The options list add versatility, such as a Garmin fishfinder and GPS navigation unit; clears that clip in between the bimini and trailing edge of the low wrap-around windscreen to make the boat more comfortable in cooler, more damp climates; a canvas tent for the cockpit for extended onboard adventures; and more.

If the underlying purpose of the Whittley FF 1950 is fishing, options such as bait boards, snapper racks and plumbing for the transom live well are available.

Whittley boats are covered under a five-year warranty.

Whittley is a longstanding family-owned Australian fibreglass boat manufacturer with a pedigree running back to the 1950s. Based in Melbourne, it now ranks among Australia’s largest fibreglass boat makers.

The beamy hull sitting under the Whittley FF 1950 taps into a time-proven Savage Mako design. Modified over time under Whittley’s hands to improve its performance, it now features a 19-degree deadrise with a fine wave-cutting bow entry to help soften the ride, subtle lifting strakes and a flat, almost reversed hard chine running aft to help with at-rest stability, as well as deflect spray on the move.

Whittley’s boat-building process uses a fiberglass encapsulated stringer system for strength, noise reduction and longevity. Both the stringers and the cockpit are formed from one-piece moulds, adding strength and minimising rattles and hull noise.

One of the boat’s features is a deep internal freeboard, making it ideal for family applications where young children are involved.

While the deeper 19-degree vee is good in terms of giving the Whittley FF 1950 some serious bluewater chops, hull pods that extend under the transom boarding platforms help with stability while anchored up.

Since their introduction to the showroom in 2015, Whittley has continually tweaked the FF range’s formula to evolve it.

The Whittley FF 1950 is a fishing-focussed model that is an alternative to the more cruising-oriented Clearwater model line, and not quite as offshore-honed as the Sea Legend series of boats built alongside the FF 1950.

The forward cabin is large, surprisingly tall and airy, with plenty of natural light flowing in via a large 400mm-wide companionway set to port, and 100mm-long windows running like a slit along each side. There’s no door for the cabin – it means children will still need to wear life jackets even when inside this space – but you can option to have a canvas cover for it.

A long, narrow overhead hatch opens up to the forward deck, giving good access to the anchor well that on our test boat includes a Savwinch electric winch that makes setting and retrieving the anchor as simple as a push of the button.

The helm console is wrapped in a low Alufab-made windscreen that opens in the centre to allow airflow into the cockpit, and alternative access to the bow framed in a low, split stainless steel rail.

Seats for the skipper and crew sit atop height-adjustable stainless steel frames built over a pair of Dometic ice boxes – handy so you can keep lunch cool in one, and the catch of the day in the other without cross-contaminating. The comfy seats can swivel, but don’t adjust fore and aft; standing behind the helm can feel a bit cramped as a consequence.

Both seats have rubber-backed footrests on the trailing edge of the cabin bulkhead, and the crew has a handy stainless steel grab rail set atop the wide cabin entry. Wide and deep recessed shelves built into either side of the helm take care of anything you need to empty out of pockets.

The dash in front of the skipper has a wide blacked-out section for flush-mounting instruments. Our test boat included twin Yamaha CommandLink digital readouts for the F130 powering it, mounted above a 5.0-inch Garmin combination fishfinder and GPS navigation unit, with plenty of room left over to retrofit a much larger screen once the budget allows.

Our test boat also was fitted with a two-post alloy bimini that included zip-and-clip-in clears to provide a more comfortable enclosed space. The bimini includes rocket launcher rod holders, but set so high off the cockpit floor that most people will need to find something to stand on to access them.

Behind the console is a large, wide and deep self-draining cockpit. The internal beam measures 1860mm, while the freeboard measures an impressive 800mm along most of its length, falling to 700mm around the transom.

Each topdeck is fitted with two angled stainless steel rod holders that have rubber caps. Our test boat is also fitted with a factory-supplied bait board with four rod holders – at $550 it’s the only thing that looks a bit rich.

Deep full-length pockets run down each side of the cockpit, with thigh-high padding and good toe space a feature – you’ll appreciate the latter when bracing to pull in a fish on a rough day, or retrieving a lost hat from the water. Our test boat had rod racks built into the pockets – handy for when you’re towing the boat to and from the water.

The self-draining cockpit floor is entirely covered in soft rubber, making it grippy and comfortable wet or dry. It even has a ruler built into it to make it easy to tell if the fish you’ve caught is size.

The transom has seatbacks mounted on it, but no bench. Instead, the iceboxes under the seats have padding on them, and can move aft to double as seats. The bait board will have to stow somewhere if you want to use the iceboxes as jump seats.

The full-width transom also has good toe space, and a starboard side fold-down transom door makes it easy to step through to the boarding platform. To port is a lift-lidded live bait tank, which included the optional plumbing needed to keep bait alive and swimming.

A battery box with an isolator switch sits under the transom. It would be nice if this was enclosed, but that would make the Whittley FF 1950 a more expensive boat.

The outboard engine sits inside a pod that extends over a bilge space where you can monitor the amount of water inside the boat. The bilge pump has a manual switch, so if you’re taking waves over the transom you’ll need to monitor it.

A large underfloor kill tank, located in between the console seats and with its long lid held open via a spring, drains into the bilge.

We tested the Whittley FF 1950 on a fishing trip to Bemm River in eastern Victoria. It’s a spot more suited to tinnies than trailer boats, but plenty of recent rainfall meant there was plenty of water to run on.

Our test boat was fitted with Yamaha’s F130 outboard engine, a 130hp 1.8-litre four-stroke, twin overhead cam four-cylinder engine block used across the brand’s 75hp to 130hp power band.

To be fair, testing didn’t really do the Yamaha much justice. With a belly full of 150 litres of fuel weighing it down, and two people and all their equipment on board, hole-shot performance was a little sluggish. I’m sure the running test results would have been very different with only half the more than 100kg of fuel on board bogging down the transom.

Performance

Maximum cruising range based on 95% of 150L fuel tank: 306nm at 4000rpm

The deep vee of the Whittley FF 1950’s hull means it does need a bit more effort to get up on the plane, but once there it rockets along, the weight of its fibreglass construction providing a soft, stable ride at high speed.

Rocketing the Whittley FF 1950 across the millpond-still surface of Sydneham Inlet early in the morning felt nothing short of wonderful, the boat immediately responsive to the throttle.

Pitch it into a corner and the almost reversed chines bite into the water, carving out a sharp turn as the boat leans a shoulder into it.

Across the short, sharp chop and crossing wakes, the Whittley was stable and predictable, with the forward section of the chines throwing down any spray kicked up.

Changes of direction were also quite direct.

At rest, the boat is quite stable despite what you’d expect as a characteristic of the bluewater-friendly deeper vee; those rear pods helping to keep the transom corners buoyant.

Fuel use, too, was quite good on test, and a testament to one of the Yamaha F130’s strengths.

By the way, I’m not a fan of the Garmin unit as it’s the type of chartplotter that only reveals sections of the map as you traverse them.

In places such as Bemm River, where shallow patches abound, it means you need to crawl over the top of areas to reveal small sections of the map below you. You also need to traverse deeper areas at speeds of less than 12-15 knots to reveal the soundings.

I found myself ditching the Garmin unit altogether and instead relying on Navionics on my smartphone. YMMV, as they say.

There’s a lot to like about the Whittley FF 1950 from an owner’s point of view.

It’s definitely more than just a fishing boat, with the comfy cabin and the option of a canvas cockpit cover turning it into the perfect weekend escape vehicle for either a young family or a couple.

But it also serves well as a fishing platform, with enough bluewater chops – on paper at least – to run offshore if the owner ever wants to be more adventurous.

Priced from: $66,900 including stainless steel anchor roller and bow rail; cabin cushions and windows; bow access hatch; helm sports seats with footrests; twin under-seat Dometic iceboxes; rubber flooring; bimini with six -rod rocket launcher; side pockets with rod storage; kill tank; bilge pump; transom door with step-through; 100hp Mercury FourStroke extra longshaft (30-inch) outboard engine with mechanical steering; stainless steel boarding ladder; LED anchor and running lights; two-tone gelcoat and sports decal kit; Mackay mechanically braked galvanised single-axle trailer with spare wheel and cover, and fixed ratchet straps; local delivery

Price as tested: $85,132 including 130hp Yamaha F130 four-stroke outboard engine with mechanical steering; front and side clears; enclosed rear canopy; Sav electric winch with plough anchor, rode and chain; plastic bait board with rod holders; aerator for the live bait tank; Garmin Striker Vivid 5CV 5.0-inch fishfinder and chartplotter; Victorian enclosed bays and rivers safety gear; Mackay mechanically braked dual-axle galvanised trailer with spare wheel and cover (no price provided)

Supplied by: Whittley Marine Group