SALTY SEA AXE

The Viper fits into the ‘bay boat’ category. We’d settle for the ‘salty sea axe’ class. We jumped from wave to wave at 30-plus knots with the hull barely changing attitude. It’s not a deep-vee that does the damage as the dead-rise is only 15-degrees at the transom, drawing only 33cm of water at rest. What makes it work so well in bay chop is the narrow profile, pronounced Carolina flare and down-turned chines. It’s not just a great ride, but also a dry one. Not a bad feat for what is essentially a floating casting platform. The helm position is set back, with a bank of comfortable fold-down seats across the transom. In fact, every seat is deliciously comfortable on the Sea Fox; the builders clearly put in the hours on the water. The performance of the hull belies the brochure specs. You’d swear it’s heavier than the stated dry weight (about a tonne) and beam (2.5m). Helping trim attitude on the Viper are two live-wells located in the centreline, plus the option of a third on the side. In these two centreline tanks alone, there is 136 litres of storage for bait, gear or ballast, not that we needed it.

SMART SPACES

The Captain loves touring in large casting platforms such as the Viper. It’s not just the fish-ability on a triple hook-up  it’s also the storage and accessibility underfoot. Quicker than you can say, “Blackstock stocks black socks”, you can switch from a casting position to sitting down against a backrest with a cold beer sourced from a compartment under the seat. There’s no crawling into the cabin to remove your home and contents, just to find your favourite Halco. It’s a smart layout with plenty of fishing zones and space to walk around.

We fished four people and never bumped into each other – except when Trevor and Jack battled manfully for the final Peroni. Stability at rest is unbeatable for a 22ft boat, pontoon boats aside. The 235-litre fuel tank helps with stability and also means we could’ve camped at Rooney’s for a whole week without needing reserve fuel. And there’s a 65-litre water tank (also located in the centreline) to wash down the tackle at the end of the day.

AT THE HELM

The stylish console offers everything you’d expect from a high-volume console manufacturer from the USA. The flat section for the Simrad NSS16 sounder is mounted high, in an upright position that’s visible from the transom. We put it to good use on the shoals, where Jason showed us how Spanish mackerel mark on a sounder compared to reef fish (in case you didn’t know, mackerel and some other pelagics show up as wave-like readings). The top section on the console is large enough to hold sunnies, tackle and bits and pieces, with a soft ‘grippy’ cork finish that is also affixed in the foot-well. If anything, we wouldn’t mind a recessed section on the dash-top, just to hold things in place when travelling at warp speed.