Chaparral 270 Signature

Pocket sportscruisers don’t get much better than this American-made beauty. There’s a thoughtful layout with clever convertible seating, sleeping for four and more amenities below decks, a sharp hull with a single 300hp V8 engine, and a great finish throughout.

OVERVIEW
- A nice getaway for a family who wants to sleep aboard
Your BoatPoint and boatsales crew are advocates of sleeping aboard. We do it on our boats in Sydney with a young family in tow and in Melbourne with our partner and pet pouch as second mate. We swap notes after weekends of bobbing about and talk about our next planned weekend. This is our passion.

Spending a night, a weekend and longer afloat is a wonderful thing, offering on-water experiences that you just don’t get from a quick fling in a runabout. There’s so much to share and celebrate from stunning sunsets and stellar fishing at dawn and dusk, to peaceful sleeps in the cabin, nautical nosh-ups fit for a king, and exploration and discovery.

The Chaparral 270 Signature, which measures 8.23m or 27 feet overall including swim platform, is a ticket to overnight and weekend boating. A pocket sportscruiser, the big little boat sleeps four, has a compact bathroom and small galley, a smart cockpit with switchable seating and integrated amenities, and a powerful V8 engine. And with a sweet deep-vee hull you can get to where you want to go and back home again in comfort.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
- Good value especially with the extras and quality of finish
We’ve followed the entry-level sportscruiser market closely over some decades and American-made pocket sportscruiser like this have always commanded a $125K-$150K price. You get a lot of boat and possibilities with Chaparral’s 270 Signature.

Priced from $149K with a single 260hp MerCruiser 5.7L, our 270 Signature test boat had some upgrades to bring it up to $165K five-star rig. There was a 300hp MerCruiser 350 MAG with a Bravo 3 sterndrive leg for starters.

The counter-rotating prop certainly makes this an easier boat to dock and drive, not to mention improving hole shot and grip in corners, while the V8 grunt asserts its authority over the high-volume sportscruiser hull.

There are engine options up to a 380hp, and also with the Volvo Penta camp, but we liked this pairing that led to a top speed of almost 50mph or 80km/h. More on the sporty handling later. Meantime, the boat was kitted out for comfort at anchor too.

Among the other options and upgrades were a tilt switch and stereo remote on the transom; TV antenna to the hinged radar arch with fore and aft biminis; windlass for push-button anchoring; and snap-in cockpit carpet. The boat had a bow scuff plate or small stainless sprit, steering wheel upgrade to a sportier number, and there was a fire-extinguisher system.

The main cabin had an optional TV with DVD player, while the toilet was upgraded to a freshwater Vacuflush number with overboard discharge as well as a 14-litre holding tank. The 83-litre water capacity is also modest, but it should get you through a weekend.

The other consideration is power. The 270 offers shorepower and a heat exchanger for hot water. The small fridge is an AC/DC number, but the optional electric stove and microwave oven need 240V to operate.

As touched on, an extra battery and an inverter can be fitted, which we would do. We would also add a decent barbecue on a transom tee-bar, a cutting board and rod holders, and one of those cheap portable butane camping stoves for making a cuppa in the cockpit.

LAYOUT AND ACCOMMODATION
- Big little boat with a clever cockpit layout and full headroom below
The decks and mouldings of the 270 Signature achieve a lot. They maximise bow and stern access, include plenty of crew seating, incorporate a lunch setting in the shade, and a moulded amenities centre, and there is a social helm station.

With a good amount of storage space in the integrated design, you get all these things and an unobstructed thoroughfare from the stern swim platform to the bow and through this big little boat.

The swim platform is big enough for a couple to do a casual lunch, the kids to strut their stuff, and to strap a small kayak between runs to the anchorages. Recognising that Australians like to fish, the boat had twin aft rod holders.

As touched on, you could easily add a utility station on the swim platform, using a stainless tee-bar to tie your little tender, mount a gas barbecue and more rod holders and a bait-cutting board. With the snapper snapping on Port Phillip Bay, this would make a great bay fishing weekender. Imagine the fish dinners.

But none of this is new to the Chaparral importer, Scott O’Hare, who told us the most common options were: an inverter to power the cabin amenities, a stern rail with barbie and snapper racks, and Garmin electronics (fitted locally).

Back aboard, the rear ‘boot’ at the transom contains the easily accessible battery switches and shorepower connection, plus hooks for swinging mooring lines, with storage space leftover. Pop-up cleats are among the stainless-steel deck gear and there’s plush upholstery that’s a cut above from this Florida-based saltwater-boat builder.

The clip-out rubber-backed cockpit carpet and folding alloy targa arch (2.44m bridge clearance when dropped) are handy upgrades in a cockpit that will be the centre of attention on the 270. It rates as a great example of good sportscruiser design, with an integrated portside amenities centre with solid counter, a sink and 23-litre Igloo portable icebox for picnics ashore and drinks and/or lunch on the run.

Drinkholders are were you want them alongside the convertible cockpit seating that includes a rear lounge, whose base drops out to enhance deck, fishing and legroom. Lounge in place, two crew can sit and face forward for the run, With the table added, there’s seating for four for lunch largely shaded by the bimini tops.

Folded flat, the back-to-back helm seat turns into a big daybed for an open-air nap. There’s also a co-pilot seat for two that doubles as a chaise lounge.

There is an optional seating layout, with a swivelling helm bucket and an aft sunpad for about $2K, which creates an even better outdoor bed under the camper covers. About half the buyers opt for this seating option instead, we’re told.

The moulded steps up the dash and walk-through windscreen assist your access to the non-skid flat foredeck with windlass with foot and dash controller. There’s also a spotlight for finding your mooring at night and a supportive bow rail. The mouldings, rails and steps are all mindful of ergonomics.

Below decks, Chaparral doesn't break the mould but it does provide a voluminous interior for a family of four. There’s plenty of headroom, ranging to 1.88m or 6ft 2in, and the sense of space in the bow, where the dinette converts to a double bed, is enhanced by the use of mirrors, lights and fixed portlights. The AV system includes speakers and a Samsung TV with DVD player. Snuggle up on those wet days, back at the marina and before lights out.

There’s the separate head with upgraded Vacuflush toilet, hand shower with hot water from a heat exchanger and shorepower, which you will also need to use the microwave oven and single burner cooktop in the galley. So do add that invertor and extra battery if you want autonomy. The basic AC/DC switch panel is near the companionway and, thus, handy.

Aside from the aforesaid amenities, the compact galley mid-saloon has solid counters, a 12/240V stainless steel Isotherm fridge, deep round sink with a spray rinser, and nice tapware. There are opening portlights here and across in the enclosed head, storage under the vee berth and in side pockets, plus galley cupboards. You even get a dedicated locker for the dinette table, a bin under the companionway steps, and good access via a hatch to the shower sump pump.

The aft or mid cabin has a permanent double bed, reading lights at the entrance and a small hatch for ventilation. With your head near the cabin entrance you should get plenty of air. Throughout, the fit and finish was of a very high standard, if not a tad American in the styling with dark joinery veneers compared with some Euro offerings. But the boat felt solid and there weren’t the creaks heard from some mass-produced Euro sportscruisers whose interiors are built with loads of self-tappers.

HULL AND ENGINEERING
- Deep vee and top engine access
Even though the yard sells around the world, it helps that Chaparral is based in Florida because that is one mean environment for boats. The 270 and other Chaparrals we’ve been aboard have a great saltwater build quality, the upholstery and mouldings are top shelf, while the engineering is in keeping with a boat designed to live in the water.

You get dual hose clips, stainless skin fittings, top electrical connectors, and more. The hull has Kevlar reinforcing in some areas, with quad-axial layup and a lifetime warranty. The deep-vee design seemed eager to plane and the 270 cruises agreeably without harsh noise.

Access to the engine is through a cockpit hatch and there’s obviously a heap of room around the single V8 block, so much so there’s even dedicated cockpit table storage in the bay. You could also fashion some more storage ideas for holding other kit down here if you wanted.

ON THE WATER
- Sports handling from a sportscruiser
We had a typical Melbourne day with a spry northerly that turned the otherwise calm bay waters into a nice little chop by mid-afternoon. The deep-vee Chaparral hull was therefore welcome.

The wide trim range courtesy of the Bravo leg, trim tabs and ‘extended V-plane hull’ helped this boat jump out of the hole and maintain low cruising speeds, stay on an even keel in cross winds, and run flat (without being wet) using a touch of in-trim when we punched the ‘weather’.

With 300 litres of fuel, you’re going to have to manage your cruising, given that the 350 MAG will use about 37-38 litres per hour at 3500rpm for 22 knots, but the range suits the boating use of a weekender on a local waterway.

At 4000rpm we found a fast cruise of 30.5 knots while 5000rpm WOT gave 42 knots, 48mph or 77km/h. This is plenty fast enough. The Bravo 3 drive adds to the rip-and-grip steering and the boat can be driven in a sporty fashion.

For the most part, however, the 270 Signature will serve as a comfortable family chariot with plenty of hauling power for the crew and their kit, even the kids on tubes or a board in a protected bay or river.

Windage wasn’t too extreme back at the marina and the B3 drive helped with reversing. So newbies won’t need a bow thruster and in the handling department this is just a user- and driver-friendly sportscruiser.

VERDICT
- A weekender for exploring and experience overnight boating
The only cruiser with a single engine in Chaparral’s Signature range, the 270 doesn’t reinvent the wheel or the weekender. But what this American sportscruiser does is fine-tune, polish and go close to perfecting the time-honoured pocket-sportscruiser formula.

This is just a great compact cruiser for getting away from it all with a young family in tow. With a 2.59m beam and sub-3500kg boat weight, you could tow it with a permit and a truck. A rack and stack or little marina berth would be a better option.

With the 270 Signature, you can certainly make a weekend of it. Take the family, sleep aboard, do dinner from a city marina or head upriver or out into the bay for a fish or fling. Experience a night or two aboard and you’ll discover a whole new world of immeasurably more-pleasurable pleasure boating.

LIKES
>> A high-quality, well-finished and polished pocket sportscruiser
>> Smart design integration and ergonomics 
>> Lots of cockpit seating, lunch space and storage room
>> High-volume cabin that sleeps a family of four
>> 300hp 350 MAG with Bravo 3 drive has loads of grunt
>> Sporty performance and great handling with a smooth, dry ride
>> Just about everything you need for some serious weekend boating afloat

NOT SO MUCH
>> Small holding tank and water capacity always a factor in this class
>> Order the invertor so you can use the galley 240V amenities away from dock
>> As with most savvy buyers, we would add a rear rail, barbecue, rod holders and cutting board

Specifications:
Price as tested: $165,000 with 300hp MerCruiser 350 MAG, options from anchor winch to TV antenna, cockpit carpet to upgraded toilet, and more.
Priced from: About $149,000 (time of writing) with a single 260hp MerCruiser 5.7L
LOA: 8.23m
Beam: 2.59m
Bridge clearance arch down: 2.44m
Deadrise: 20 degrees
Dry weight: 3130kg with base engine
Weight on trailer: <3500kg
Fuel capacity: 299 litres
Water: 83 litres
Holding tank: 14 litres
Passenger capacity: 10
Sleeping: 4 + 1 in cockpit
Maximum HP: 380hp
Engine on test: 300hp MerCruiser 350 MAG petrol sterndrive with Bravo 3 leg

Supplied by:
Chaparral Australia
Anchorage Marina
The Strand Williamstown, Vic
Tel: (03) 9397 6977
www.chaparralaustralia.com.au