Jeanneau Cap Camarat 7.5 Centre Console: Review

Jeanneau has been building centre consoles and walkarounds for sun-loving European sports-boaters for a long time. The basic open layout is well suited to day boating and high-volume production boatbuilding. But now it’s getting serious with greater bluewater performance.

OVERVIEW
- A French lifestyle centre console with design pedigree
Giant French boatbuilder Jeanneau has stepped-up its game with a range of centre consoles (and walkarounds) with greater hull pedigree from the pen of acclaimed Michael Peters. The Cap Camarat 7.5 Centre Console Series 2 is one such model — the only centre console in the range from Peters — and with a 2.52m beam and approximate rig weight around 2200kg it’s perfectly trailerable with a permit. The test boat was antifouled and living in the water on Sydney Harbour.

The Jeanneau Cap Camarat 7.5 CC appeals as a lifestyle and watersports platform for active boaters who like to fish, dive and cruise about. Compared with hardcore centre consoles from US markets, this French offering has a bit more fixed social seating, greater comforts like drop-in lunch tables and convertible sunpads, and there’s a lot of volume for carrying people.

The amount of dry storage in the cabin, where there’s very basic seating and a portable toilet, is class leading. Most of the inner console space is open and just perfect for stashing the fishing rods, boards, tubes, blow-ups and so on. The convenience of this storage can’t be overstated in this age when we tend to lug piles of gear aboard.

The second biggest offering in the centre console range, which extends from a 4.7 CC to an 8.5 CC (sold recently to a keen Sydney fly fisher), the 7.5 CC is also a nice-sized single-engine platform. This Series 2 model has a new American-style centre console to broaden its offshore appeal and the boat was a very pleasant driving experience with the optional powder-coated T-top with rocket launcher.

Our review boat was well set-up by Jeanneau importer Matthew Willett Marine for its Sydney owner, who intended to use it as a fun boat on the Harbour. Family or fishing, this is the best looking and performing Jeanneau centre console we’ve driven thus far. This is also a real value proposition when stacked up against the big-ticket American centre consoles.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
- A great-value 23ft big centre console
The 7.5 CC has a maximum outboard rating of 300hp and can be powered by a single 200hp. The base price with the 250hp as packaged by Matt Willett Marine (MWM) was listed as $114,900.

This base package included Trim Level Premiere with front and aft cockpit seat cushions and a luxury folding side bench with cushion on the portside. You also get an Electronics Pack with Lowrance combo Elite 7 Chirp with P79 transducer; Audio Pack with Fusion RA 205 with two speakers; windlass; mooring and anchoring kit; steering console and seat covers.

MWM’s package also adds swim platforms; cockpit table; backrests for all seats; water system plus forward and aft deck shower; dual batteries; fuel filter; boat rego and pre rigging including electronic DTS throttle and gauges.

You can also get this boat with a marine toilet with holding tank, cabin berths, shorepower and battery charger, tables, ski pole, live bait tank, raw-water washdown and so on. This way, you can rig the boat more for fishing than family and vice versa.

The test rig performed swiftly driven beyond Sydney Heads with a single 250hp Mercury outboard. You can also get Yamaha set-ups. Either way, hydraulic steering comes standard.

As tested with the options above, plus chemical toilet, T-top with pedestal seats rather than a leaning post, and a small Garmin GPS plotter, our 7.5 CC sold for $125,000. This is definitely good value in the 23ft centre console league.

DECKS AND LAYOUT
- Boosted seating and dry storage with fishing upgrades available
Jeanneau uses a clean and uncluttered moulded internal liner that’s got less built into it compared with the big-ticketed American centre consoles. The underfloor storage doesn’t drain overboard, there aren’t side rod or gaff racks, or dedicated rod storage other than in the optional T-top rocket launcher, a plumbed live bait tank is an option, and there are no tackle lockers.

Rather, the purpose here is to create a sports-utility boat and, it must be said, open-bow centre consoles are becoming popular runabouts and bowrider substitutes. With the addition of the forward seating cushions and table, you get loads of bow to stern deck space and extra comforts.

Up front, we noted a windlass for push button anchoring, a split bow rail to assist access to the beach or wharf, and those seat cushions surrounding a small moulded table. Cushions removed and stored inside, say, the console, you are then left with a forward moulded casting and fishing area.

Back aft, the transom lounge is complemented by fold-down side seats to create a u-shaped area with scope to mount the small moulded table on the deck-mounted pedestal fitting. The moulded transom seat doesn’t give you that clean fishing edge, but remember this is more your lifestyle all-rounder that favours seating over just clear fishing space.

Water access is excellent through the transom cutout over the non-skid live-bait tank lid and down the ladder. There was another moulded area on the starboard side of the single engine for sitting outboard, along with a couple of handy grab rails for safety when moving about back here.

With twin underfloor storage lockers and the huge dry storage area in the centre console, you can just pack all the gear away at the end of the day on this Cap Camarat 7.5 CC. There’s plenty of deck space, seating and storage, making this a great summer day cruiser, commuter, family rig — and potential fishing boat

HULL AND ENGINEERING
- A sharp Michael Peters' hull, Mercury DTS and SmartCraft
The sharp Peters’ hull is self-draining — an ideal small mooring proposition — and deep with plenty of freeboard for safety. The mouldings were nice and fair, while there appeared to be extra heavy-duty stainless steel deck fittings over the previous Jeanneau centre consoles we’ve tested.

Underfloor access to the aft-mounted 280lt polypropylene fuel tank and its sender is direct, with the fuel tap at hand. Our boat had the optional 80lt freshwater deck shower, which is a good thing to rinse the salt away from your body and fishing tackle before packing them away.

There were twin batteries underfloor, amidships just behind the helm, with room left over for stashing boat-washing gear like buckets and so on. The floor hatches lift on gas struts, I noted double hose clips on key lines, pintle holes so the compartments drain to the bilge, and the plywood dividers between these compartments appeared to be sealed along their raw edge.

It’s a pretty simple boat otherwise, with inspection hatches to key equipment so you can access the wiring and replace things if required. There were only two rod holders, so you could do a lot more in that department, plumb the portside live-bait tank, add tackle boxes and so on.

On the Mercury front, the controls were the latest DTS digital throttle and shift, with a single multifunction analogue gauge with SmartCraft, a separate fuel gauge, and a Jeanneau sports wheel linked to hydraulic steering. So there was plenty of room left for mounting, say, 12in multifunction screens.

ON THE WATER
- Carving a smooth and dry path off Sydney Heads
As you can see from the accompanying photos, our offshore shoot was an aerial one from atop North Head. At water level, this is usually a bumpy track, where the swell and chop bounce back off the rocks. I’ve been boating and fishing here since I was about 10yo.

The deep Peters’ hull proved dry, and you can see the flared bow working admirably, shunting the spray aside. With stacks of freeboard for safety and plenty of deadrise for cleaving the swells, the boat felt great.

Driving, the helm pedestal seats with flip-up bolsters, sports wheel, smooth DTS throttle, and clear views over the Perspex windscreen all worked in your favour. There was no grab rail around the Perspex windscreen, leaving the T-top frame to provide plenty of handholds as we powered out to sea.

At trolling speeds and drifting, the boat felt stable and surefooted. It’s definitely at home out here and back inshore with a big crowd or family just seeking a day out on the water.

The GPS revealed the economical setting of 4000rpm returned 21-22 knots cruise. At these revs you are burning around 35-40lt/hr, leading to a 150nm range or so.

Fast cruise was clocked at 5000rpm and 31-32 knots, while top speed touched 41 knots at 6000rpm, which pitches this boat against the Boston Whaler 23 Dauntless for speed.

There were absolutely no handling traits of concern on the test day — Michael Peters' hull designs are proven — and the design pedigree and our hands-on experience tells us that the performance is a real strength of this Jeanneau centre console.

The boat hasn’t the weight of other thoroughbred offshore centre consoles, but it's got a great hull through the water at mid-20 knots cruise.

VERDICT
- Solid foundation for seaworthiness and social boating
The Cap Camarat 7.5 Centre Console Series 2 does a lot of things right. It starts with a very sweet hull, extends to oodles of cockpit space, down into class-leading storage, and adds extra seating, sunpad options and drop-in tables to create a social boat. Being self-draining means it’s a great mooring proposition and it is of course trailerable.

But the biggest advantage over the rafts of American centre-console sportfisher is the price. There’s a lot of boat here for about $130k on trailer with goodies including the T-top. It won’t be expensive to run with a single outboard either.

The Cap Camarat 7.5 Centre Console Series 2 is a utilitarian French centre console with a great hull and accommodating layout to please pretty much everyone.

LIKES
>> Sweet Michael Peters' hull
>> Lots of uncluttered deck space
>> A huge amount of easily accessible dry storage
>> A simple boat with self-draining decks
>> A value buy with low running costs

NOT SO MUCH
>> Underfloor storage compartments haven’t a liner and don’t drain overboard so keep the fish out
>> The deck moulding doesn’t include side storage
>> Wiring behind the dash and centre console could be concealed and neater

Specifications: Jeanneau Cap Camarat 7.5 CC
Price as Tested: $125,000 as tested with 250hp Mercury and options as detailed above (add about $15k for a trailer for approx. 2220kg towing weight).

Priced From: The base price with the 250hp as packaged by Matt Willett Marine was $114,900.
Length Overall: 7:19m
Length: 6.96m
Beam: 2.52m
Draft: 0.49m
Air Draft: 1.74m (without T-top)
Hull Weight: 1440kg dry
Fuel: 280lt
Water (optional): 80lt
HP Rating Maximum: 1 x 300hp
Engine on Test: 250hp Mercury Verado FourStroke, 2.6L six-cylinder, sequential multiport EFI, 25in shaft

Supplied by and tested through:
Matt Willett Marine
D'Albora Marina, The Spit,
The Spit Road, Mosman
NSW 2088
Phone:(02) 9930 0000
Also the

Jeanneau website