Tested by Capt. Bob Smith

Design and Construction

Princecraft boats are built across the border in Princeville Quebec, Canada. They are aluminum boats, which believe me; you have to look hard at the boat in the water to believe that. The Super Pro does have some square lines at the gunwales, but otherwise, above the water line, she looks like most any fiberglass fishing boat you see. The high gloss Acrythane finish is so smooth and shiny, it appears to be fiberglass to the untrained eye, especially from a distance.

Princecraft uses techniques that eliminate most of the welding and riveting you are used to seeing when you look at many aluminum boats and are not the boxy looking boats you saw years ago. Princecraft packs in most of the features you will need for a great day of fun on the water and leave only five factory installed options and nine dealer installed options to choose and personalize your craft.

Layout

Up in the bow, you have space to place two pedestal seats and to attach a trolling motor. A 24-volt deluxe trolling motor panel with Marinco plug and receptacle, voltmeter, tilt switch and wiring harness are also standard fishing features here in the bow. Bow seat cushions can be removed for a true fishing trip and an insert is pulled from the floor and placed between the seats to create a bow-wide casting platform. Deep cycle battery storage is up here for the trolling equipment as well as an ice chest and live well. The walk-through windshield is a full curved unit like a ski boat and is high enough I didn’t have to look down to see under the top.

At the Helm

The helm station has a deluxe molded dash with MaGill rocker switches, Faria gauges and wood accents. A great fishing feature was the standard Lowrance X-51 fish finder mounted at the helm. This boat had the factory upgrade hydraulic steering with tilt wheel. My test boat also had the upgraded captain’s chair that had plush padding, adjustable seat with swing up armrests, adjustable headrest and adjustable back. My one complaint with this boat was the upgrade seat required you to reach under the right armrest to crank the engine, and the throttle control could not go fully into reverse with the right armrest deployed.

Across from the helm was a companion station like you would expect on a ski boat. The port side features side pockets on the port has rod holders and on the starboard room for some other longer items. This boat also had the factory option upgrade exchange sleeper seat on the companion side. If you’re mostly going to fish with this one you probably would stick with the standard arrangement of three folding pedestal seats, which have six locations within the hull for use. Gunwale tops are wide for easy boarding and also wide and strong enough to add downrigger gear to them.

Fishy Features

A really sweet feature on this model is the ability to quickly change the layout from a ski boat to a fishing boat in the stern area. The bench seat back here can be folded down and tucked under itself to convert the stern area into a nice fishing platform. The stern platform also sports the larger livewell that also has timed-aeration, recirculation, remote through hull drain and anti-spill cover.

Performance

The Super Pro glided across the water when at cruise. Except for some stiffness in the strong winds, the hydraulic steering was responsive and easy to use. She takes wide turns at speed, but if you try to tighten them up too much, you are going to lose the bite you need for speed. She is quick out of the hole and has the pick up to get you over you favorite fishing spot or to get your skier up and doing tricks fast. Her reversed chine design and deep Vee gave us a dry ride, even when we were tossing a lot of spray.

Specs

This model is 18 feet, 4 inches on center and has a 7 foot, 10 inch beam. With the drive unit down, you need about 31 inches of room under the hull and she weighs in at about 1,385lbs. She can carry up to 60 gallons for fuel and support power plants up to 175hp. This test boat had a 150hp Mercury Optimax Outboard installed with a Laser II 21 Pitch Stainless Steel prop. Hole shot performance was under 3 seconds and she could reach 30mph in just over six seconds, even in rough water. At 3000 rpms she cruised at about 25mph and at top end she was turning 5150 rpms and over 50 mph.

If you are a fisherman with an itch to do some other water sports but don’t want to spend the money for specialized boats for each sport, the Super Pro 186 Platinum from Princecraft offers the best of both worlds in one easy package.

• Top speed for the Princecraft Super Pro 186 Platinum (Not in Production) is 50 mph (80.5 kph), burning 14.1 gallons per hour (gph) or 53.37 liters per hour (lph).


• Best cruise for the Princecraft Super Pro 186 Platinum (Not in Production) is 25 mph (40.2 kph), and the boat gets 6.64 miles per gallon (mpg) or 2.82 kilometers per liter (kpl), giving the boat a cruising range of 299 miles (481.19 kilometers).


• Tested power is 1 x 150-hp Mercury Optimax.