Fish are quaking in their boots.
If you watched Local Knowledge S04 E03, there’s a good chance you were left drooling over the SeaVee 340Z. When it comes to hard-core fishing machines it’s easy to make the argument that few boats are as well-armed and well-designed as a SeaVee. A recent afternoon of fishing aboard a new 320 reinforced that notion, and even though it’s a hair smaller, the 32-footer is just as impressive as its larger sibling – whether you’re standing on the deck of a 320 (traditional deep-V) or the 322Z (the stepped-hull version).
The 320 and the 322Z are available in what SeaVee terms “Open” and “Luxury” (LE) editions. Basically, the Open boats are fishing machines through and through, while LEs add in forward seating and aft bench seats. Regardless, it’s hard to generalize about either version because the truth of the matter is that SeaVee builds each boat in a more or less semi-custom manner.
Look at the range of options for something like the leaning post. Most manufacturers have one design or maybe two posts to choose from, while the 320 can be had in either pipe or fiberglass frame designs, with or without tackle stations, with or without slide-out coolers (both manual and pneumatic), with or without additional seating, and so on. Or consider the top options, which range from simple canvass T-tops to hardtops with towers and an upper station.
One of the core stand-out character traits of a SeaVee which you’ll certainly see on the 32s are kick-butt livewell systems. In fact, these boats have some of the best bait-hauling capacities on the water. On the 320, a whopping-big 60-gallon well is standard, you can add a second well to the transom, and there’s also the option for a 60-gallon deck well behind the leaning post.
Tournament live-baiters can add a custom sea chest system with four 2,000 gph pumps, and/or an additional bow 53-gallon livewell in the foredeck with another 1,100 gph pump. On the 322Z, 40-gallon transom corner wells begin the list before you start adding any of the options.
Fish-chilling abilities are just as amazing on the 320, with a cavernous 160-gallon forward fishbox, a pair of 45-gallon boxes on the sides, and (if you don’t have it plumbed as a livewell) the 60-gallon box awaits ice and fish in the aft deck. The 322Z has slightly different sizes spec’d but the same essential capabilities. And as if all this wasn’t enough, you can have a four-foot coffin box mounted on the bow-deck of either model, on an electric lifter that maintains access to that huge box under the deck.
SeaVee 320 Specifications (320/322Z)
- LOA – 32’5”/32’9”
- Beam – 9’4”/9’6”
- Draft – 1’8”/1’8”
- Displacement – 7,220 lbs./6,900 lbs.
- Transom deadrise –25 degrees/22 degrees
- Fuel capacity – 310 gal./312 gal.
Another core trait of SeaVees: they run like a bat out of hell. SeaVee publishes a top-end of up to 65-mph when rigged with twin 450s, which seems quite reasonable considering that the 320 we ran had a pair of 350s on it and nipped at the 60-mph mark with a full load on the boat and a chop under the keel. Speaking of a chop: one of the nicest things about spending time aboard this boat was that it squashed a one-foot chop like ants under the tires of a Hummer. We had to wait for some two-foot boat wakes to give it any sort of a challenge, but then we discovered that they didn’t challenge this boat, either.
The hull design is part of why the boat runs so smoothly, but spend an afternoon fishing from it and you’ll soon come to realize that general all-around construction quality is, too. Nothing ever vibrates. There’s no hollow drumming, and there are no rattles. From the perfectly-fitted hatches that dog down tightly to the drawers secured in the tackle station, everything is so tight and solid that the boat feels like one solid 7,220-pound unit underfoot.
If you get a 32-foot SeaVee, will you catch fish like the guys on Local Knowledge? That, we can’t promise. But we can tell you one thing for sure: if you don’t get one, you’ll probably keep on drooling. And drooling, and drooling…
