If you’ve ever spent any time aboard a Southport, you know these are brawny boats built to attack anything with fins and scales ranging from white perch in Chesapeake Bay to white marlin at Baltimore Canyon. And if you haven’t, well, just take one for a sea trial and you’ll find out for yourself. For family anglers, however, there is a down-side to blood-and-guts fishing machines. They may not be incredibly family-friendly, and as a result, can get vetoed by certainly family members. That’s why the Southport 33 FE will be of interest to a wide swath of fishermen; the “FE” stands for “Family Edition”.
We first ran across the 33 FE at the Miami International Boat Show, where it was lumped in with about a million other center consoles. It stood out, however, for perks like a huge aft transom seat, a berth inside the head compartment, bow seating with a dinette table that converts into a sunpad, and an entertainment center with an electric grill and a refrigerator. Do things like these cut into fishability a bit? Sure they do. But this is a big platform with plenty of room, so adding them in doesn’t exactly cause a hardship—and if they help get a green-light from the rest of the family, everyone’s going to be happy.
Southport does look for ways to mitigate the impact on fishability, too. That table in the bow, for example, can be lowered to the same level as the seats. Pull off the cushions and leave them at home, and you now have a raised bow casting deck that's perfect for light tackle jigging in the Chesapeake. Fold away the aft seat, and it sits flush against the transom to open up more cockpit space for offshore trolling. And even with the entertainment center built into the back of the leaning post, you still have a 35 gallon livewell and a rigging station with a sink, integrated into the transom.
Other fishing features include under-gunwale rodracks, tackle stowage compartments in the leaning post, flush-mounted stainless-steel rod holders, fresh and raw water washdowns, cockpit coaming bolsters, vertical rodholders inside the console compartment, spreader lights integrated into the T-top, integrated outrigger reinforcements, and a pair of six-foot long 75 gallon fishboxes in the deck that are genuinely large enough to hold 100-pound tuna fish.
Construction of the 33 FE is no different than it is on the Tournament Edition of the Southport 33 (which eliminates the family features, as that version is for you hard-cores). And the boat’s construction, combined with the C. Raymond Hunt and Associates variable-degree deep-V hull design, is what gives it such a muscular, rugged feel when you start punching through waves. Southport builds with vacuum-infusion, which uses a vacuum to suck resin through the fiberglass. This ensures the optimal resin-to-glass ratio, and is significantly more consistent from hull to hull. And as for that resin, it’s vinyester, the more expensive but less water-permeable variety. Meanwhile, the foam-filled composite stringer grid, hull, deck, and liner are fused together with Plexus—the same stuff NASA chose to stick the heat-resistant tiles to the outside of the Space Shuttle.
Match that brawn up with a pair of Yamaha F350 V-8 outboards, and you won’t just be smashing through waves, you’ll also go flying across them. Top-end hits 55 mph, and cruising speed at 4500 rpm is a zippy 43 mph. Throughout the rpm range all the way up to 5000 rpm efficiency stays over one mpg, and peak efficiency comes at 3500 rpm and 25 mph, where fuel burn is just under 18 gph for 1.4 mpg. If you're not quite as power hungry you might opt for a pair of 300 hp 4.2L Yamaha V-6 Offshore outboards instead, which hit peak efficiency at 33 mph while attaining 1.4 gph. Top end with the 300's just breaks 50 mph.
The past few paragraphs probably cover the nuts and bolts you’re interested in, but just for the record: we also happen to think the Southport 33 should get bonus points for good looks. It has tumblehome at the transom, and a wide flared bow that made us drool the first time we saw it. In fact, for just a second we even thought she was almost as pretty as that family member who holds the veto power.
Southport 33 FE Specifications:
- LOA – 32’6”
- Beam – 10’8”
- Displacement – 7,300 lbs.
- Draft (hull) – 1’10”
- Transom deadrise – 22 degrees
- Fuel Capacity – 300 gal
- Max HP – 700
For more information visit Southport Boats.