Chaparral Cruiser 330

It is a fact that at any marina you’ll see a few sportscruisers languishing on their lines, rarely visited, let alone used. It’s a fact of life that many people don’t get the time to use their boats these days and, while most may have the best intentions, many boats are left neglected.

Not so this boat. This boat is a part-time liveaboard, which is certainly rare for a 33ft sportscruiser. The owner of this Chaparral Cruiser 330 lives out of town but has business interests in Melbourne so, for around three or four days a week, this boat is his home away from home.

So much is this boat used that we had to shift all manner of personal effects to get our photos (I sure hope Ellen, our photographer, folded the owner’s pyjamas properly!). It was nice to see food in the galley, a cluttered aft cabin, charts at the helm and all the necessities of boating in the cupboards. It made the boat feel used and loved.

Chaparral is a name that’s probably not all that well known to sportscruiser owners here in Australia. In the US, however, it is well known. In fact, Chaparral has been building boats for 41 years and is known as the largest independent manufacturer of sterndrive recreational boats in that country.

The boats that the company turns out are tough, well-finished boats that have a high level of specification, and this 330 is no exception.

 In a finicky market, with owners wanting their boats loaded with goodies, this is a burger with the works. The Chaparral 330 comes standard with big engines, loads of electronics, a generator, reverse-cycle air-conditioning, TV with DVD, even an icemaker in the cockpit so you can enjoy cocktails on the Dura-Life Max lounge under the stars or under the Sunbrella canopy when you reach your favourite anchorage. It’s all there and all top-quality.

BIG WATER CRUISING
Chaparral builds its boats for what it calls ‘big water’. The company uses a quad-radial lamination system in construction to give the hulls strength and light weight. Woven rovings and mat are used all the way up the hull sides and NidaCore coring in the deck for increased rigidity and durability.

The design of the 330 is what they call ‘Extended V’. The 20-degree deadrise comes well aft and the hull is designed to plane easily at low speeds and cut through chop without slamming – an aspect we appreciated on the day of our test.

Standard engines are 5.0 Volvo sterndrives rated at 280hp per side and the standard gen set is a 5kVA Kohler. The test boat was upgraded to the Volvo 5.7s with Duoprops giving 320hp per side and considerably more performance. Another interesting option is to fit twin MerCruiser diesels, which would make for a very interesting package for the serious cruiser.

Before we left the dock we flicked the rocker switch on the dash panel to operate the electric lifting system for the cockpit floor, revealing a well laid-out engine room with great access to the engines and gennie. There’s plenty of room for storage in there as well. Scott O’Hare, the Chaparral dealer, said he devised a storage system for the engine room with pull-out plastic bins in which to put all your maintenance gear. Nice idea.

I also noticed that all the deck gear was top quality. Stainless steel glistens from stem to stern. Fillers, deckrails pop-up cleats, even cabinet hinges are all stainless items. The name Lewmar is prominent and the result is a feeling of quality.

OUTDOOR LIVING
The Chaparral 330 comes with full camper covers, converting the cockpit and bridge deck into one big indoor entertaining area, but for our test we removed the rear section for an outdoor, sporty look.

Entry is via a little door on the centreline from the big aft swim platform. The platform itself is a whopper and ideal for sunbaking in the warm months or swinging a rubber duck from. There are two handy lockers built into the transom, which are ideal for wet gear, fenders, or mooring lines. There’s a built-in deck shower there, too.

In the cockpit, there’s a two-seater lounge to port and four-seater dinette to starboard, further forward to port is the ‘entertainment area’ which sports a solid Corian benchtop with a sink and icemaker below. I’d probably opt for a fridge rather than the icemaker, but these are for the American market and they love their icemakers. Forward, again, is another lounge, opposite the helmstation.

The helm seats are a broad double affair that can be individually folded up for standing or sitting. Vision is excellent all around.

In front of the skipper is the well laid-out dash, featuring a neat array of rocker switches for most systems. There’s a remote for the stereo, controls for the pulpit-mounted spotlight, and comprehensive white-faced gauges for the engine systems.

Of course, there are also the controls for the standard bowthruster.

The whole affair is set in a non-glare beige, set off with faux wood grain insets. The wheel is also in wood grain and adjustable for tilt.

I found it a comfortable and stylish helmstation, which, even with the wood grain touches, didn’t look glitzy.

BELOW DECKS
Entry to the saloon is via a nice sliding door that has an opening section with an insect screen, providing ventilation without mozzies or sandflies. In fact, all the hatches and opening ports had insect screens.

 Down a few steps and we were into the main saloon, which is broad, light and airy. The manufacturers have made good use of the beam and there is close to two metres of head room. The cabinetry is of light maple with a high-gloss sheen.

There are two tables, both of which convert to lounges. The main table forward raises and lowers on an electrically-operated pedestal and can convert to a full double bed with a curtain separating it from the rest of the saloon. There’s a flatscreen TV on the forward bulkead and the CD/DVD/iPod and AM/FM are to port near the galley.

The galley itself is pretty compact but has everything you need for a weekend, or even a week away.

There’s a stainless steel sink with stainless taps and fittings, a two-burner electric stove, microwave, Isotherm stainless fridge and plenty of storage for food and utensils. Once again, all the benchtops were solid Corian.

The teak and holly laminated wood cabin sole gives a traditional nautical flavour to what is a modern and tasteful saloon.

The head to starboard is quite roomy. It has an electric loo with macerator and holding tank. There’s a hot shower and vanity, and a handy inclusion of an electric extractor fan.

The aft cabin is to port. This is separated by a solid entry door and has a vanity unit with sink, mirror and storage. There is also a little upholstered lounge seat for changing or just relaxing. The bed is cosy and perhaps a bit tight if you’re big, but the whole concept is that you can get away from the rest of the crew if you want to. One thing I didn’t find was hanging space for clothes and/or jackets.

ON THE WATER
The day of our test dawned blowing a gale. It was perfect to check the sea-keeping ability of this boat, which was allegedly built for the ‘big water’.

And big water it was. With 30-plus knots of breeze and fair-old fetch building off Williamstown, we headed out of the marina with the two big Volvos burbling under the cockpit. The burble wasn’t much, though. Chaparral has done a very good job of soundproofing the 330 – even at full noise we didn’t have to shout. According to the photographer, it wasn’t noisy as it zoomed past, either.

As mentioned earlier, the 330 is designed to plane early for an economical slow cruise and I found that at 2700rpm we were planing at 11.5kts on the GPS. Not bad for a six-tonne boat.

Open the throttles and the burble becomes a dull roar. By 4000rpm we were skating over the chop at 38kts. The ride is great; the deep vee cuts the chop like a knife and apart from some spray on the clears, we hardly knew it was blowing.

There was no drumming on the hull, because, as Scott O’Hare explained, the cavities are all foam-filled and the structure of the boat is inherently stiff.

The 330 has a high freeboard which, combined with the deep vee, means that when it’s cranked over in a high-speed turn it does tend to lean in quite a bit. I found this unnerving to start with but, as Scott demonstrated to me later, it’ll lean over to a certain extent then sit on the chines and power through the turn.

After our photo shoot, Scott and I headed off to some flat water for some high-speed runs. Flat out on the GPS we got 43kts, but Scott reckons that without the wind and chop and with a clean bum, it’ll do four or five knots better.

Everyone’s thinking of economy these days and Scott has done some figures at cruising speed and he’s confident that at an economical cruise of 24kts, the 330 will return around 35lt/h per engine.

 In all, I found the 330 to be a well-built boat that would be ideal for a cruising couple. It has great sea-keeping ability, good top speed and a lovely, loping slow cruise. With a 644lt fuel capacity and the right weather, you could even do some coastal hops.

The boat comes fully-loaded with the only extras on this the Raymarine C80 electronics package and the engine upgrade. They’re not cheap, but if you want a burger with the works, then you have to pay the extra.


HIGHS