What stopped me in my tracks, when I saw the Crevalle 24 Bay sitting in the convention center at the ICAST fishing tackle show? Mostly, the fact that I didn’t see it—while slurping down a dose of coffee as I weaved through the crowd, I managed to bob left when I should have weaved right, and planted my forehead on the boat's rubrail. What’s more interesting, however, is that once my attention was a bit more focused, the Crevalle held it. The sharp flared bow, two-tone colored hullside, and curvaceous T-top pipework work together to give the boat the striking—and aggressive—look of an apex predator.
Then I remembered that a local dealer who advertises with FishTalk carries the brand, which meant I should at least take some time to check it out, right? And that moment of hesitation was enough to pick up on some seriously fishy details. The leaning post rocket launchers, for example, are staggered at two different levels so that reels don’t bang into each other. There are rodracks in the forward stowage compartments, turning them into locking rodboxes. And there’s a grand total of three livewells in this little fishing machine.
A closer inspection of those livewells proves that Crevalle has done its homework, to say the least. The pair built into the aft casting deck carry 28 gallons of water, have dedicated 800 GPH pumps, and check valves on the intakes. Stand-pipes are protected by poly plates, so they don’t get knocked askew by accident. And the insides are gel-coated baby blue to keep baits calm and prevent them from bashing themselves silly against the fiberglass. Crazy as it sounds this actually works, and research performed by Mote Marine Laboratory proved that baitfish surrounded by baby blue remain calmer and don’t hurt themselves trying to escape, as compared to baitfish surrounded by stark white gel coat.
The third well under the forward console seat has a side-mount overflow so you can dump a cast net without the stand-pipe getting in the way. Crevalle calls the big ones “release wells” and number three a baitwell. That makes sense for a red drum tournament angler in Texas, but in this neck of the woods we don’t expect to see a lot of releasing going on once a fish makes its way into one of these compartments. That said, we do like having the third well in the front of the boat so anglers working from the bow don’t have to elbow their way to the aft deck to get a fresh bait.
What about performance? I obviously couldn’t take the helm in the middle of the convention center, but Mercury has a performance report posted for the Crevalle powered with a Verado 250. It shows a 35.7 mph cruise at 4500 rpm, netting a very respectable 3.2 mpg. Wide-open throttle juices it up to 50.7 mph, but drags down mpg to 1.9.
What else do you need to know about this boat? Construction-wise, it looks like a winner. Crevalle shows going the extra mile with touches like using coal tar epoxy coating (a heavy-duty saltwater intrusion barrier suitable for immersion) on the fuel tank, finishing all the hatches on both sides, using upholstery with multi-density foam (so Bubba’s butt doesn’t bottom-out when you hit waves), and antimicrobial vinyl (which retards mildew growth) for seats and bolsters.
Want to learn more about the Crevalle 24 Bay? Then you need to do exactly what we need to do before we can say anything more than what we already have said: take it for a sea trial. Just watch where you’re going—that rubrail’s not exactly soft.
Crevalle 24 Bay Specifications
- LOA – 23’6”
- Beam – 8’6”
- Displacement – 3200 lbs.
- Draft (hull) – 1’0”
- Transom deadrise – 16 degrees
- Fuel Capacity –70 gal
- Max HP – 300
Crevalle 26 Bay Boat
Crevalle also has a 26 footer, which we spent an afternoon casting from on the Chesapeake Bay. If the 24 is a little small for your tastes, check the larger model out.
Editor's note: this article was originally published in October of 2017 and was last updated in December of 2024.