Four Winns 250 Horizon

There are two sides to most things, especially when you bring up the meteoric rise of the Aussie dollar. While it's not good news for exporters, importers are like Cheshire cats. Those importing American-made boats like Four Winns are among the biggest grinners.

Four Winns falls under the umbrella of marine multinational Genmar, which is the largest boat manufacturer in the United States. There are 15 other boat brands in the family. You might recognise Carver, Glastron, Hydra-Sports, Seaswirl and Wellcraft to name but a few.

So what makes the Four Winns different or special? I first laid eyes on the Four Winns when I was a budding boating writer back in the late '80s. Then, a brace of Four Winns trailerable bowriders won our Boat of the Year Award. Suffice to say, that upset a lot of local boatbuilders.

I was left to man the office, field the phone calls and fend off the flack. And I haven't forgotten Four Winns.

Four Winns have always been pitched as a premium product. However, up till now the brand has really only been associated with trailerboats. Like a lot of big US boatbuilders, Four Winns extends into the realms of big dayboats and serious sportscruisers to more than 40ft LOA. Now the favourable exchange rate is seeing the bigger boats heading Down Under.

Enter the Four Winns 250 Horizon, a new 2004 model, dressed to the nines with a sharp black hull. Though its 2.59m beam means the boat is trailerable with a permit, the importer says the subject of trailers hasn't even entered into discussions with buyers.

Weighing 2200kg dry as a boat/motor combo, the big dayboat is best kept on a convenient marina berth, outside a waterfront home, hauled out of the water in a boatshed or slotted into a drystack somewhere.

On the water, the 250 definitely has a big-boat feel. In fact, I summoned up enough courage to venture outside the heads. In the distance were some big black sails from the latest high-tech maxi yachts. So I ran a few miles east to take a bo-peep. The Horizon seemed an apt name for the 250.

But the 250 Horizon is remarkable for other things - notably, the fancy handle that Four Winns attributes to its design. The company calls it "cross-stream architecture". The term goes some way to explaining the blend of features taken from a sports-orientated bowrider and a lakeside deck-boat.

For example, and it's a great example that other big bowrider makers might consider, there is a bow ladder for easy access to the beach, a separate moulded WC in case you can't find a tree, and a lift-out icebox in a dedicated recess that you can carry ashore for a picnic.

To these deck-boat features you can add some pretty sexy lines derived from a raked windscreen, cool engine breather vents and go-fast graphics. The optional stainless-steel pack includes a scuff-plate at the bow eye, popup deck cleats for swinging fenders and slick stainless-steel headlights.

The 250 Horizon had a few other upgrades: the most powerful engine available - the 375hp Mercruiser 496 with Bravo 3 drive - a holding tank for the pump-out head instead of a portapotti, cockpit table, swim-platform stereo remote, covers, dual batteries, and Quick and Quiet exhaust for that extra throaty note and a few more knots.

BUILD QUALITY
On the construction front, Four Winns uses an 11-stage lamination process to lay up its boats. This involves up to three layers of woven rovings in high-load areas, selective use of coring materials and foam flotation, and fibreglass stringers for stiffness.

The hulls have a lifetime warranty for structural components; five years on osmosis; three years on non-structural parts; and one year on cracking of gelcoat.

The hull and deck are joined with stainless-steel fasteners and adhesive. The insert for the rubbing strip is stainless steel, as is the through-bolted hardware, through-hull fittings and windshield support struts.

These details, and the fact that they are standard issue, separate the Four Winns from some other price-conscious production boats. There is also a superior level of luxury to your average cookie-cut craft.

The hull comes in a choice of six gelcoat colours. The optional solid black colour hit it off with the extra stainless-steel fittings. The fully-moulded internal liner - designed primarily with passenger comfort in mind - is another neat design line.

RIGGED FOR THE DAY
To the untrained eye the layout might look like that from just another bowrider. But test out the sunpads and various seats in the boat at rest and underway, and you'll find excellent comfort levels. This is in part due to the hull volume, but also to the boat's mindful design.

Guest seating is generous on a giant U-shaped lounge tracing the cockpit. The lounge is cut short on the starboard side to make way for the amenities centre behind the helm seat, which includes a small Corian food-prep space, sink linked to 26lt of water and rubbish bin.

The swivel helm seats and optional cockpit table let you create a social seating arrangement for doing lunch aboard. The boat is bundled with a bimini top with stainless-steel fastenings. Wakeboard towers are optional. The top-shelf tower includes board racks, Clarion speakers and a subwoofer to wake up the neighbours.

Seating up front is big enough for adults without the fear of getting wet and, in most sea conditions, suffering from the effects of a pounding hull. My guess is that the boat can comfortably accommodate eight people for a harbour, bay or inshore blast. That fits with the listed maximum load-carrying capacity of about 1100kg.

The aft lounges have interesting hinged mechanisms that let you convert them into two separate sunlounges or one big sunpad using the infills. The transom is a walkthrough design, with a big boarding platform on which you could kick back or ready yourself for a tow. A deep-reach ladder, step pads, ski eye and handheld cold shower await your return.

The boat has a lot of storage under its seats, though the space below the bow cushions is taken up by the plumbing and 11lt holding tank for the WC. However, such is the boat's volume that that there are two cavernous storage hatches recessed under the windscreen.

The cockpit proper has a 35lt cooler, storage below its amenities centre and storage hatches in the transom - the centre one will come in handy for wet togs. The underfloor cockpit hatch has a rubber mat to protect watersports gear. This hold and the two at the transom are big enough to carry waterskis, wakeboards, wetsuits and so on.

The engine-compartment lid lifts on an electric ram after depressing a dash-mounted button. There is yet more storage around the motor. The wiring loom travels in a conduit under the floor, and wires are coded and attached to a colour-coded fusebox.

Across to port ahead of the co-pilot, the WC is both practical and useable. Its moulded surfaces will be easy to keep clean. And it's nice not to have to deal with the chemical loos that are usually provided with a boat of this size.

Things like the plethora of drinkholders, deep anchor locker, contoured cushions, top-grade marine-vinyl upholstery, snap-in carpet and courtesy lights are to be expected in a boat of this calibre. But other things like the fire-fighting system, bow ladder, moulded engine liner, insulated bonnet and suspension system for the helm seats were a nice surprise.

OPEN-WATER CRUISING
The helm is a typically well-designed American number with seats that not only have innersprings but also have car-like bucket shapes. The seat bases flip up so you can stand at the helm or sit higher up on the bolster and drive looking over the windscreen when docking.

The soft-touch, tilt-adjustable wheel was linked to power steering. The switch panels are illuminated for night boating. There is mock burlwood trim, a drinkholder, emergency engine shutoff and a full spread of fog-resistant Faria gauges relaying everything from oil pressure and fuel level to trim.

A compass, digital depthsounder with shallow-water alarm, and stereo remote for the Clarion sound system are part of the package. In the States you also get a one-year subscription to a satellite radio provider that offers hundreds of channels no matter where you are boating in North America. Can't be too far away Down Under.

Anyway, the adjustable helm seat, big wraparound windscreen and throttle that falls to hand make for comfortable driving. So too does a sea that was pretty languid. But it's my considered opinion that the so-called stable-vee hull is a seaworthy one.

The hull has a sharp 20° of deadrise and the necessary trim range so you can glue the forefoot to the water for a smooth ride in headseas. Full above-deck hull sections and plenty of freeboard help displace water. It's not a wet boat.

And with the big V8 putting out 375hp, it doesn't want to hang around. At 2600rpm the 250 Horizon felt restrained cruising at 22.8kt. Its low-speed cruise was a sprightly 26.5kt at 2900rpm. Smooth cruise came in at 30.5kt at 3400rpm.

Flat out the 250 Horizon recorded speeds of 45.1kt and 46.5kt when I opened the through-hull exhaust ports. Impressive, sure, but this is more than a go-fast bowrider. It's a reassuringly predictable boat with a big cockpit for entertaining family and friends.

The 250 Horizon is the kind of boat you can take to see the fireworks, the start of a big yacht race like the Sydney to Hobart or Melbourne to Devonport, or truck across Moreton Bay to Tangalooma. The boat can take the knocks and its fuel capacity of 284lt gives it legs. Such is the upside of the strong Aussie dollar.