Robalo R302 Centre Console: Review

Amid an ‘assault’ of imported American centre consoles landing on Aussie shores, the Robalo boats are starting to make inroads. This flagship R302 with twin outboards offers a stack of volume, loads of storage, great fishability and plenty of comforts.

OVERVIEW
- Respected manufacturer big in the centre console segment
Founded in 1969, Robalo is mainstream in the U.S. Its centre consoles from 16-30ft and dual consoles from 20-31ft are so popular that you see them on display at domestic airports when you lob in Florida.

Parent company Marine Products Corporation reports sales of Robalo sportfishing boats has been leading its profitability. The company acquired the Robalo assets and brand name back in 2001. It then moved the yard from Tallahassee, Florida, to Nashville, Georgia, alongside sister brand Chaparral.

The two big boating marques share fair mouldings, integrated deck designs with a lot of inbuilt features, saltwater fit-outs with plenty of sturdy stainless steel fittings, and composite construction using Kevlar-reinforced hulls.

The boats also target the mainstream boater. They do this in two ways — their layouts embrace social and family boating without precluding serious fishing, while their keen price-points ensure they attract attention. You certainly get a lot of well-built boat for your buck.

The new R302, which replaces the R300, also aims to mix it with the big boys in the centre console league.

This twin rig is usually pre-rigged and packaged with a pair of 300hp Yamaha F300XCA 25in Digital 4.2L V6 outboards with Command Link Plus. The R302 is actually rated for up to twin 350hp outboards.

Our test boat, the first R302 in Australia, was imported by the Robalo and Chaparral Australia, who are also Honda dealers. While they can supply Yamaha, they paired the boat with the biggest Honda outboards, the BF250iST models, the only models at this point with drive-by-wire throttle and shift.

These modest 250hp Honda powerplants for this R302, which weighs 4046kg for the hull only, still created a very agile and capable sportfisher.

Importantly, the performance suited the owner, who apparently wanted economy at comfortable 20-25 knot cruise speeds when fishing offshore from Mooloolaba. There’s some good sense in that thinking and, in more general terms, in the R302 when you get aboard.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
- At $325k drive-away, it’s a value proposition
Big American centre console sportfishers don't come cheap, especially when you start adding twin outboards or racks of triples or quads. But in the scheme of things, this R302 is well-priced at about $325k with the twin BF250iST outboards.

The options fitted to the test boat included a forward casting deck infill and cushions, safety glass side console windscreen panes, twin 16in Garmin MFDs with autopilot and 24nm radar, plus Sidevu and 1kW transducer, and a few other small items.

You can get afloat in a R302 from about $250k with 300hp Mercury engine set, we’re told. But do expect to add about $20k of electronics and, well, we’d add a set of outriggers (the Gemlux Deluxe Carbon Fibre Outriggers are the go), an electric toilet and underwater lights.

A lot of the American rigs add the Teleflex Optimus 360 Steering System for Yamaha Engines. But it’s a $15k-plus option.

DECK AND LAYOUT
- A deep centre console with loads of storage
The R302 isn’t just a point-and-shoot hardcore centre console sportfisher. It’s actually a dual-purpose dayboat. The bow seating/casting platform has permanently moulded forward-facing seat backrests where other brands have removable or foldaway backrests. It’s almost crossing into bowrider territory with this social seating layout.

When you sit up front, you can't help but notice the deep freeboard and the flared hull that helps keep you dry. It's a very nice bow seating area.

There’s also an extra seat ahead of the console, the option of a bow table, plus a pullout transom lounge. All told, you can easily pack eight aboard for a weekend fling. The boat had fore and aft speakers to crank up the deck party and a nice lighting plan, too.

Furthermore, the forward opening door on the console reveals a step down head with solid-stone counter top and sink, plus 1.85m of headroom. There’s space and privacy, especially when everyone’s swimming off the transom, to change or when nature calls.

At the same time, the serious fishing features are bundled with the boat. Up front, the  twin insulated and lined fish boxes under the seats drain overboard. There's a centre underseat icebox, plus an exceptionally deep in-floor hold for safety gear.

The windlass and grab rails tracing the bow are recessed to reduce fouling lines or rapping knuckles when cranking a spin reel, while a tackle locker and bin locker are built into the moulded bow seat backrests.

The twin in-floor fish boxes flanking the centre console are about 2m long — big enough for mackerel, mahi mahi and school-sized tuna. They also drain overboard in this self-draining hull.

The toe-kicks with stainless-steel rails and padded coamings make leaning outboard nice and secure, while triple horizontal rod and gaff racks keep the poles, landing gear and so on out of the way. They have tubes to protect rod tips, too.

Rod storage for seven working outfits exists in the powder-coated rocket launcher and alloy frame that holds up the moulded hardtop. The outer holders are angled so you can troll off the top.

The fishing centre at the back of the helm seats includes a second live well, sink and a pullout esky for baits, lunch or drinks. The live wells have rounded corners, LED lights and grunty pumps.

As the hardtop extends well aft, and this centre console had the optional safety glass side panes, you gain a pilothouse-like helm arrangement. Weather protection steps right up on the R302 and it was welcome in mid-winter in Melbourne.

At the transom, there’s a second live well, which of course doubles as storage and a drink box, and a lounge that tucks away. However, I wasn’t so keen to see alloy legs sticking down where traces, lines and backing could easily foul.

A good spread of combo drinkholders/rod holders dots the decks and transom and, with a marlin door, you can walk outboard to the swim platform and ladder. Dive in or sink the gaff in something big.

There was no hull side-dive-door as is de rigueur on other ‘centres’ right now. Also, I reckon a pair of outriggers would set this boat off to my eye. If you’re not going to use them, well, I guess they are expensive jewellery.

The double-width helm and dash provide a surfeit of room for cruising with your mate and mounting electronics. We had twin 16in Garmin screens flanked by stainless steel push-button switch panels, with a sturdy Gucci stainless wheel and throttle falling to hand.

The console glove box doubles as a charging station, there’s a stereo remote for the Clarion sound system and everything is within reach. Driving comfort and vision rates highly, while the lighting plan is ready to serve at night, dawn and dusk for those fishing sorties.

All told, there’s a heap of room, quite extraordinary storage space, serious fishing gear like the twin live wells and in-floor tanks, plus comforts to sate the family. All of this is packaged in a 8.89m or 29ft 2in long hull (length overall), with a generous 10ft 6in or 3.20m beam.

HULL AND ENGINEERING
- A feeling of solidity and seaworthiness
Robalo isn’t backwards in promoting its composite hull construction. This handlaid hull has multi-axial glass, Kevlar reinforcing, a ceramic transom and closed cell foam flotation. Vinylester resin wards against osmosis, while the tinned copper wiring with waterproof connectors and breakers are designed to go the distance.

The hardware, through-bolted wherever possible, is all 316 stainless steel, of course, while the French stitched upholstery is designed for the outdoors and to be fast drying when it gets wet. And it will at some point.

With 21 degrees of deadrise, in a variable-deadrise design, the hull straddles the space between deep-vee cleaver and stable socialiser. You have a lot of scope for trimming this rig. The Lenco tabs and the Honda 250s had no problem shifting the boat as it was loaded from the hole and up and away.

Meanwhile, the 114lt of water for the electric loo, sinks and deck showers is very generous, as is the whopping great 1136t fuel supply. But the underfloor rear battery storage in the aft sub-floor engineering space and bilge mightn’t please everyone. I'm one of those boaters who likes to see the batteries well above water level.

The boat had four batteries, a charger and shorepower connection. Access to the bilge, pumps, seacocks, fuel filter and so on rated as excellent. All the plumbing and seacocks and big boat stuff, too.

ON THE WATER
- Strong performance from the Honda BF250s
Despite being short of this boat’s recommended twin 300hp horsepower rating, the 250hp Honda V6 outboards offered business-like acceleration and a 38-knot top speed at 6250rpm wide-open throttle. You should pull 40 knots when its run in and with a light load.

At 5500rpm fast cruise, we were seeing 34 knots for 100t/hr and a 347nm range from 90 per cent of the 1136t tank. At 4500rpm, this dropped to 27 knots cruise for 58lt/hr but an extended range of 475nm — that's huge — while 4000rpm and about 22 knots saw 48lt/hr for 468nm.

So you can add long fishing and cruising range to this boat's attributes. At 8 knots lure-trolling speed, we saw 21lt/hr, which isn't as good as expected.

The hull has a running surface designed for lift and efficiency, but you also get a lot of internal volume and usable boat. The most impressive bit to my mind was the amount of freeboard in the forward sections, aided by a little kick in the sheerline. I like the look of this hull.

Driving, the boat instils a sense of confidence, with a hull that supports carrying a big load up front, while the flare helped keep us dry. The ride and handling were predictable, in a welcome way, with no vices or on-edge performance.

The optional bonded safety glass side panels add to you helm protection, while the sturdy stainless wheel and clear sight lines made helming really pleasant. The R302 felt smooth, right at home, and reassuring.

Although it was something of a fish out of water on Port Phillip Bay in mid-winter, and there’s wasn’t a lot of heavy weather to deal with on the test day, when the weather does kicked-in this boat will be convincing cruising around mid-20 knots.

It's heavy, solid, with some nice flare and lift up front, yet easily driven.

VERDICT
- A Sunshine Coast sportfisher
The backstory here is that the owner didn’t want a high-speed sportfisher so much as a comfortable fishing boat for parking outside his waterfront in Mooloolaba. He was a net shopper and hit on Robalo on line to wet some lines.

An ex-farmer and retiree, he apparently lived in a highrise with a seaview and had a berth at a Mooloolaba marina. It’s excellent fishing up this way, but you need to run to the 12 Mile to get into it. That he can do in say half-an-hour at 24 knots.

We’re told this is the third Robalo centre console to be sold into Mooloolaba, with the R222 among the more popular models in Australia. With so many centre console options on the market, the Robalo is worth a closer look.

Strong performance, long range and economy, reliable production values, good value and plenty of comforts are built into the R302. It’s a big, capable twin-rig centre console, but one that’s not too demanding in terms of those fuel and fishing costs.

With the in-floor boxes loaded with snapper, pearl perch, tusk fish and coral trout, Spanish mackerel and mahi mahi — perhaps with the release of a sailfish or little black marlin or two — the R302 is going to be well worth it.

LIKES
>> Seaworthy hull with great freeboard
>> Class-leading storage space
>> Comforts including added weather protection at helm
>> Fishing features including twin live wells
>> Smooth and economical performance

NOT SO MUCH
>> Protruding legs of aft lounge when folded
>> Underfloor battery location
>> Permanent moulded bow seatbacks
>> Needs outriggers

Specifications: Robalo R302
Price as Tested: $325k with the twin BF250iST outboards and options including casting deck infill and cushion, safety glass side console windscreen panes, twin 16in Garmin MFDs with autopilot and 24nm radar and Sidevu and 1kW transducer, and a few other small items.
Priced From: About $250k with 300hp Mercury engine set
LOA: 8.89m
Beam: 3.20m
Deadrise: 21 degrees
Fuel: 1136lt
Water: 114lt
Holding Tank: 23lt
Draft: 0.53m min.
Hull Weight Dry: 4046kg
Maximum HP: 700
Engines on Test: Honda BF250 iST V6 drive-by-wire
Props: 17in three-blade Solas

Supplied by:
Chaparral Australia
Anchorage Marina
The Strand Williamstown, Vic
Tel: (03) 9397 6977
For more information see www.robaloaustralia.com.au.