Judging by all the marketing brochures, you’d think there are a million and one hard-core center console fishboats in the mid-30-foot range being built these days. Judging by the actual boats, you’d realize that 90-percent of the time, those alleged “fishing boats” trade away angling prowess in favor of frou-frou features like huge sunpads and loungers, massive deck-space-eating console cabins, and extending sunshades that eliminate a rack of hard top rocket launchers. Hard core fishing boats? There actually aren’t that many. One we had the chance to check out up close and personal is the Invincible Boats 36 Open Fisherman. Before we dig into the details, check out this brief video of the boat:
Swinging open the hatch in front of the console we discovered a gaping insulated fishbox large enough to curl up inside of and take a nap. Nice. But then we opened the forward deck hatch running into the bow and found an even larger fishbox large enough to stretch out inside of. And yes, we crawled inside and pulled the hatch shut just to prove it. Our conclusion? Unless you catch a fish longer and three to four times bulkier than the average adult male, you’ll have no problem putting it on ice.
As for turning those aspirations into angling accomplishments, the boat is rigged to the teeth to help make it happen. Invincibles are highly customizable boats and you can order one outfitted pretty much however you’d like, but the hull we hopped on would be hard to improve upon. The gunwales were lined with flush-mount rodholders from stem to stern, and the sides of the console were lined with vertical holders. The oval transom livewell and the raw water washdown get fed via a sea chest system, and there’s another pair of (mortal-sized) fishboxes in the aft deck. Another cockpit deck box can serve as a second livewell.
The sheer volume of open, single-level deck space is a bit mind-boggling, and it’s not an exaggeration to say you could set up for a drift, line a dozen anglers along one side of the boat, have them all drop their baits, and bumping elbows or tangling lines would be rare. But it’s the tackle station that’s puts slimy icing on this fish cake. Grab the back of the aft-facing bait-watching seat and give a tug. It’s firmly held up by magnetic catches, and when you swing it down your eyes will be greeted by multiple glorious pull-out boxes and drawers. There’s room inside to neatly organize everything you’ll need to start your season trolling for trophy stripers on the Bay, move on to targeting yellowfin tuna during the summer months, and then wrap up your season with some deep-dropping for swordfish.
Follow that plan, and you’ll be putting quite a few miles under the keel. Don’t worry, they’ll go by quickly. The 36 Open Fisherman can take a whopping 1350 horses on the transom, break 70 mph at wide-open, and cruise in the mid- to upper-40s without breaking a sweat. Credit gets split between the twin-stepped ventilated hull design, and vacuum-bagged cored hull construction.
So, what fishability sacrifices does Invincible make in the name of comfort? There’s a head in the console, which adds maybe 20 pounds to the boat and therefore shaves off something like .0001 mph of speed. Attention hard-core anglers: You want to become an apex predator? Then this is a boat that you need to see up close and personal.
Invincible Boats 36 Open Specifications
LOA – 36’8”
Beam – 10’0”
Displacement – 9200 lbs.
Transom Deadrise – 22 degrees
Draft – 1’10”
Fuel Capacity – 475 gal.
Max. Power – 1350 hp
Area Dealers – Intrinsic Yacht Sales, Annapolis, MD, and Ocean City, MD, (410) 263-9288.