Steiger Craft 255 Center Console - The Fisherman

Steiger Craft 255 Center Console

Boat Review Steigercraft 255CC Profile

Although more than 90 percent of Steiger’s current semi-custom production of roughly 100 boats per season is dedicated to their signature three-sided Miami and totally enclosed Chesapeake pilot house designs, their owner’s roots of fishing open center consoles “back in the day” still runs deep. This love for 360-degrees of total fishability and the ease of working a large gamefish from the bow to the stern area and back is manifested in the current 2019 version of the 255 CC. This dog can hunt and is the largest of a trio of center consoles (255, 23 and 21) currently offered by this Bellport, Long Island-based boat builder that is approaching its fifth decade of producing quality coastal fishing boats.

The layout of the new-and-improved 255 CC is wide open with over 33 square-feet of unobstructed cockpit space aft of the standard leaning post/rocket launcher, which features two enclosed lockers with a total of ten tackle drawers down below and a two-tiered, five-rod rocket launcher above. There’s additional tackle storage in the transom, with removable Plano 3700-series boxes and/or deep slide-out drawers set aft of weatherproof hatches in each corner that can be removed to allow access aft for critical maintenance items like the fuel filter, drains and fuel lines. The console companionway door set into the starboard side of the console allows entry to the head area that features a neat “trap door” floor – with the hatch lowered to the “down” position, this creates a storage space that will hold a variety of fishing gear and safety equipment. With the floor raised, this morphs into a step-down area to the standard Porta-Pottie marine head that offers five-feet, eight-inches of standing headroom when nature calls. Other notable standard features include hydraulic steering; T-Top with power-coated rails; recessed trim tabs; raw water washdown; a quartet of gunwale-mounted rodholders; pop-up bow and stern lights; forward anchor locker and more.

SPECIFICATIONS
LENGTH 25-feet, six-inches (hull only, not including standard outboard bracket)
BEAM eight-feet, six-inches
WEIGHT 4,900-lbs
DEADRISE AFT 21-degrees
DRAFT 20-inches (engine drive up)
FUEL CAPACITY 150-gallons
MAX HORSEPOWER 300 HP (single or twin outboards)

After talking with owner Al Steiger, the refreshed 2019 is merely the harbinger of more good things to come for the 255 CC. The next-gen 2020 version, which will be available in June, will undergo yet additional changes to transform her into a high-octane sportfisher that is ready to prowl the back bays, inlets, inshore and blue waters. According to Al, the new 255 CC will offer higher gunwales with deeper cockpit freeboard; a supersized center console command station with increased height; additional dash space for flush-mounting electronics and more headroom down-under; a larger insulated fishbox/livewell set into the transom cap and accessed via a flush deck hatch; increased onboard tackle storage; plus a trio of front deck options (open one-level cockpit with or without coffin box cooler, or raised casting platform) that will please the most discerning owners who occasionally perform family fun days at the beach.

Although she can be rigged with either twin 150s or a single 300 V6, the preliminary factory tests were done with a 4.2-liter Yamaha F300, spinning a 15-1/2 diameter x 16-inch pitch stainless steel 3-blade Saltwater Series II prop. With a half tank of fuel, two crew, twin marine batteries and a bunch of gear onboard, the Steiger topped out at 45.4-mph at wide open throttle, reaching 5900 rpm on the digital tach. The optimum midrange band of 3500-to-4500 rpms produced a wide range of fuel efficient cruising speeds, getting 24.8-mph/2.78-mpg at 3500; 30-mph/2.59-mpg at 4000; and 34.6-mph/2.27-mpg at 4500 revs. If you are beating back into a tight afternoon chop after a long day offshore or on the opposite end of the bay, you can trim down the 21-degree aft deadrise deep-vee hull with the standard recessed tabs and hold plane at a mere 3000 rpm, netting 17.9-mph/2.57-mpg and really smoothing the ride back to the marina.

Notable standard features on the Steiger 255 CC include a forward insulated fishbox; dedicated anchor locker; pop-up bow and stern navigation lights; a Porta-Pottie down under; a powder-coated T-Top with hard fiberglass top; powder-coated leaning post; raw water washdown; a two-tone deck, plus a quartet of gunwale-mount flush rodholders. Desirable options include bow bolster cushions, a recessed bow rail, colored hull and a drop-down transom bench seat. For more information, visit www.steigercraft.com.

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