Early one summer morning about 15 years ago, I was trolling alone in a 23-foot center console about six miles southeast of Montauk when I noticed a gray spot in the sky some distance away. A few minutes passed, and the spot grew larger and then, quickly, larger again. I pulled my wire, stowed my tackle and headed as fast as I could (less than 10 knots in the suddenly stormy seas) to Little Gull Lighthouse at the entrance of Long Island Sound. I almost made it.
The squall caught me about a mile from Little Gull. Swells lifted the boat high, then laid it low. Waves crashed over the bow. I struggled to avoid being trapped in the deep and widening troughs, the boat falling and shaking. Riding high on a large wave, it collapsed and I nearly pitch-poled. I thought, I may not make it home.
Fortunately, the worst of the weather lasted less than 20 minutes. An hour later I was tying the boat to a mooring in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. I called my wife and said, “Honey, I think we need a larger boat.”
I traded the 23 for a 28-foot Hydra-Sports and then, a few years later, traded up again for a 30-foot Hydra-Sports, both center consoles. In the fall of 2010 I ordered my dream boat: a Hydra-Sports Custom 3400 Vector Center Console.
To assure that modifications I requested would be made, that November I traveled south to the MasterCraft plant in Vonore, Tennessee, to speak directly with the company’s engineers and assembly personnel. MasterCraft had only recently acquired Hydra-Sports out of bankruptcy, and my boat was to be among the first of the larger boats off its brand-new assembly line.
When my boat was delivered, it was clear that all the bugs hadn’t yet been worked out. Several assembly line mistakes became apparent, like missing nuts or washers. Also, the console’s digital gauges were installed waist-high, which meant they could not be easily read when underway.
That said, MasterCraft really stepped up, promising to meet their commitment to quality and their mission statement: “To be held to a higher standard.” The company authorized Atlantic Outboard of Westbrook, Connecticut to correct all problems caused by its first-year assembly line, including fabricating a brand-new console. Atlantic Outboard has addressed every question, reinforcing its reputation for thoroughly professional competence. And I delighted to report that MasterCraft has incorporated many of the suggestions and modifications I made into the version of the 3400 being produced today.
I have the boat I wanted: Her name is Little Grey Gull.
Although I fish mainly the eastern end of Long Island Sound, this boat is built for high-speed offshore operation. The flare of the 34 Center Console is high and solid, its deep shape adding reserve buoyancy when hitting large waves. The keel itself is 60 degrees; like a blade cutting through rough water. The sheer line topside is Carolina, so it is relatively dry in rough water.
The stern of the boat is a deep vee at 23 degrees, which, to answer a question I’m often asked by passengers, is why the middle motor is 30 inches long and the outside motors are 25 inches long. Little Grey Gull drafts 24 inches, with engines up.
The trim tabs are the same as those found on offshore racing boats. They are dual ram and they operate fast. They control list and bow rise well. (For a couple of weeks, we tested an automatic leveling system, but Little Grey Gull was too large and the fishing conditions too rough for automatic operation.)
The electronics were upgraded to twin Garmin 7212 touch screens, a 1 kw transducer and a Garmin 604 open array radar. The radar is fast and the 7212s are clear and crisp.
A Kevlar-reinforced fiberglass hull with a thick ceramic transom, Little Grey Gull is not a light boat. With tackle, gear and fishermen aboard, the gas tank filled (352 gallons), the 55-gallon livewell bubbling and ice packed in the large Frigid Rigid cooler, we leave the dock at well over 14,000 pounds. The weight helps rough-water handling and it tracks solidly, and drifts comfortably. Powered by three 300-horsepower Evinride E-TECs, Little Grey Gull cruises most efficiently about 25 mph at 3000 rpms, burning about a gallon per mile and a quarter.
Full disclosure: I’m sure reading this last paragraph, my fishing buddies are laughing out loud: “When have you ever run Little Grey Gull at 25 mph?”
I normally cruise, a little less efficiently, about 30 to 35 mph at 4,000 rpms. When necessary, and depending upon sea conditions (and amount of fuel, number of people aboard, etc.), I can make a top speed between 55 to 60 mph, maybe more, which is not bad for seven tons. Last fall we were about to leave the Race late one morning when I was asked to take aboard a sick passenger from another boat: We got him safely to Westbrook Harbor (18 to 20 miles) in under 22 minutes.
Little Grey Gull has been modified in several ways to accommodate how we actually fish, which can be three-way drifting with bunker or eels for striped bass, live-lining bunker, wire-lining jigs and bunker spoons on reefs, Butterfly jigging over drop-offs, spin-casting when they’re feeding on the surface or casting inshore on boulder fields. For fluke, we drift. For blackfish, we anchor.
The boat came with two livewell pumps. Atlantic Outboard added two inboard sea strainers to prevent fouling from sea grass or debris. Atlantic Outboard also fabricated a four-foot custom removable fillet table/tackle station chest-high in the transom (saves my back) and a custom casting rail is installed on the bow for safety.
The standard sink was removed from the console at the manufacturing plant and in its place Hydra-Sports replaced it with a cabinet, at my request, and added three coat hooks so I can store Grundens. (The electric head remains.) At the helm, Hydra-Sports custom-molded two compartments with lids, which are handy and a valuable and efficient use of space. Also as requested, Hydra-Sports lowered the rod holders 6 inches on the T-top, so we can actually reach up and remove the rods without looking for a bucket to stand on.
What would I change or add? In hindsight, I would have gotten a dive door in the bulkhead, a Hydra-Sports option on the 3400. The high freeboard on the 3400 (and its toe rails) significantly improve safety, but they are high for boarding.
So how does Little Grey Gull compare?
Dawn is just breaking on an early morning in June: Little Grey Gull is trolling along Six Mile reef. I’m standing at the helm with Jack Katzenbach. Renowned wire-liner Frank Kiernan is at one bulkhead and Pat Abate is at the other, both pulling wire. Drifting a quarter mile down the rip is Captain Mike Deskin’s Destiny out of Clinton, Connecticut, a solid 38-foot Northern Bay (plush with four Sealy beds aboard). We wave to striped-bass world record holder Greg Myerson who, having fished all night, heads back to Westbrook aboard One More Drift, his new 22-foot Eastern, a smile on his face. Trolling wire behind Little Grey Gull is Captain Ed Noble’s Reelentless, a 36-foot Riviera out of Westbrook, with its big bridge and lush cabin. At the top of the elbow (the western end of Six Mile), Captain Keith Salisbury’s Lori Marie, a sleek 28-foot Contender out of Westbrook, is on a long drift, three-waying live bunker. (Keith and I are longtime partners, so he’ll want me to say he’s the one catching bass.)
I’m sure every one of us would insist that the boat we’re on is the best one. And we’d be right.