Boston Whaler 330 Outrage (2019-)

Brief Summary

Boston Whaler has taken a step outside the box and developed a completely new design for its all-new 330 Outrage. From the keel up she’s been reworked to provide a new boat with better handling, improved comfort and the versatility that the line is so well known for. The model we tested was optioned out for more family oriented cruising, but there’s no taking the fish out of the Outrage. Let’s take a look and see how the combination works.

Key Features

• Covered telescoping swim ladder with stainless steelgrab rail
• Fusion stereo full color LCD, iPod/iPhone dock
  
  audio, AM/FM/USB audio/VHF/WX/Sirius XMTM
  
  ready
• Forward console lounge (60” length) with flip-down
  
  armrests, 2 cup holders and 2 recessed grab rails
• Aft facing couch with convertible work surface
• 2 insulated in-floor 57 gal. fishboxes with pump-out
  
  at aft
• 8 gunnel mounted and 3 transom mounted rod holders
• Lockable console front storage – holds 10 rods,
  
  optional 36 quart cooler and miscellaneous gear

Test Results

Specifications

Length Overall	33’ 1'' / 10.08 m
Beam	10’ 2'' 3.10 m
Dry Weight	9,000 lbs. 4,083 kg
Tested Weight	11,284 lbs. 5,118 kg
Draft	22'' 0.55 m
Deadrise/Transom	23-deg.
Bridge Clearance	9’ 10'' 3 m
Weight Capacity	4,140 lbs. 1,878 kg (max)
Person Capacity	14
Fuel Capacity	300 gal. 1,135 L
Water Capacity	40 gal. 151 L
Total Weight	11,284 lbs. 5,118 kg

Acceleration Times & Conditions

Time to Plane	3.9 sec.
0 to 30	8.9 sec.
Ratio	1.75:1
Props	16 x 17 3-blade
Load	2 persons, 1/4 fuel, no water, 50 lbs. of gear
Climate	81 deg., 84 humid.; wind: 5-10 mph; seas: light

Engine Options

Tested Engine	2 x 350-hp Mercury L6 Verado 4-stroke
Std. Power	2 x 300-hp Mercury Verado CXXL L6 DTS 4-stroke
Opt. Power	8 twin Mercury Verado 4-stroke engines from 250-hp to 350-hp

Captain's Report Learn More
Watch Our Video

Contents of Report

• Overview

• Features Inspection

• Summer Kitchen

• Fishing Features

• Operations

• Anchoring

• Performance

• Handling

• Power Options

• Observations

Overview

Boston Whaler’s newest member of the Outrage family is the 330 Outrage, and she’s all-new from the keel up. Below the waterline is a variable deadrise hull leading down to a flat running pad that we found provides quicker hole shots, reduced planing time and minimal bowrise upon acceleration. Inside she’s got newly designed social areas that make her a standout entertainer while keeping the comfort level that Boston Whaler customers are looking for. Overall, she’s a product of both out-of-the-box thinking and voice of the customer and in our opinion, a fun boat to be in and on.

Features Inspection

Family Features

The model that we tested was optioned out more for the family entertaining and diving while still keeping an eye towards the fishing heritage of the Outrage line. Among the most notable of the family and comfort features was the newly designed bow area.

Bow Social Area

Long gone are the V-seats with a simple cushion on top of the cooler in front of the console. Instead, Boston Whaler installed an aft-facing bench seat that measures in at 5’7” (1.7 m) across and will seat up to four people. Padded bolsters serve as backrests adding to the comfort level.

Just ahead of the console is a double-wide lounge seat measuring 4’ (1.22 m) at its widest with flip-down armrests to both sides. Fore and aft it runs 3’11” (1.19 m). There's plenty of storage both under the forward seat and in the deck between the forward seat and the console lounge.

Garage Storage

Inside the console lounge seat is additional storage and this is so deep that it is able to accommodate optional racks for up to four dive tanks, a pair of 5-gallon (18.93 L) buckets, full-length rods and plenty of room for additional equipment. The rod storage in this area enables full-size fishing rods to store securely. The lounge area is also lockable.

Cockpit Social Area

Moving back to the cockpit, there’s plenty of room for socializing with open space measuring in at 8’ x 4’4” (2.44 m x 1.32 m). We can certainly opt out for having the fishing features enhanced with the deluxe leaning post, but our test boat was fitted with the standard aft-facing bench seat lying directly opposite the forward-facing transom seat that deployed extremely easily. With this standard setup, the cockpit becomes a roomy gathering area with more of the opposing seating, much as we saw in the bow. But this also goes one step further.

The aft-facing seat also has a unique feature. Grabbing the backrest and pulling it aft deploys a table-turning the entire cockpit into an entertainment area complete with a cocktail height table that includes beverage holders. We could easily see utilizing this as a buffet area for dockside parties.

As expected, the 330 Outrage also has a transom bench seat at the stern and Boston Whaler has a great setup for easily deploying the seat that others may want to emulate. This version requires no wrestling but rather a simple lift of the padded bolster and a pull of the seat… done.

Summer Kitchen

Another option that would be popular when entertaining is the summer kitchen. It includes components of the leaning post with cooler and adds an electric grill. To allow for cooking when un-tethered to shore power, a 1500-watt inverter is also included.

Head

As this is such a large boat, the 330 Outrage easily accommodates a large enclosed head. There is a step down into the head and we’d like to see a grab handle just over the entryway. Otherwise it's best to enter the department by going down backwards. Inside, we measured an overhead clearance of 5'10" (1.78 m) and the compartment measures 4’ x 4’2” (1.23 m x 1.27 m).

Just forward is plenty of counter space. There is a molded sink with a pullout sprayer that will turn the head into a shower. At the aft bulkhead is a protected area for the stereo and below there is a dedicated spot for storing the dive reboarding ladder.

Dive Platform

The 330 Outrage comes standard with a hullside dive door located on the port hand side of the cockpit. It's a solid and beefy door mounted to massive stainless steel hinges. In the open position, a dive ladder can be inserted into a mounting position in the deck making for easy reboarding, and just to the aft side of the opening is a swing-away grab handle to further ease reboarding. Couple this with the optional dive tank storage and the 330 Outrage begins to manifest herself as a functional dive platform.

Fishing Features

Staying true to the Outrage heritage, the 330 is still able to accommodate fishing on a professional level.

Hardtop

It starts with the premium-level standard hardtop. It includes tempered glass enclosing the console on three sides. A powered vent is up at the top of the forward windshield. Windshield wipers with integrated wash downs are standard. A single LED flood illuminates the bow and a dual set will light up the cockpit.

There are five rocket launcher-type rod holders to the aft end of the hardtop. LED running lights are integrated into the forward perimeter of the hardtop. The hardtop is outrigger ready and our test boat was fitted with a pair of optional radial outriggers. The overhead dome light is controlled from a two-position switch at the panel and lights in either red or white. Blue LED courtesy lights match the ones at deck level.

Trolling Time

With 19 rod holders going around the boat, including the five rocket launchers at the back of the premium hardtop, fisherman will be able to put out an impressive spread to the fish. While trolling, flip-down seats to both port and starboard side decks will allow more people to keep an eye on the lines while underway. With 20” (50.8 cm) of space between the bolsters and the console, there’s more than enough room for these seats to be comfortable.

Leaning Post

Our test boat didn't have the optional leaning post that would include a sink with pullout sprayer, rod and tackle storage, a 30-gallon (114 L) livewell and a cooler underneath. But it still had the standard transom livewell with its capacity of 50-gallons (189 L). We also counted no less than 19 rod holders throughout the boat.

Bolster the Comfort

Fishing is made even more comfortable by the padded bolsters wrapping nearly 360-degrees around the boat. Only the areas at the hullside dive door and the door leading out to the transom swim platform interrupt these bolsters. The bolster starts at 26” (66 cm) and goes up to 31” (78.7 cm). Underneath the bulwarks to the starboard side are rod holders. All the way to the bottom is a stainless steel toe rail that adds a little bit more security while fishing in the seaway.

Operations

Moving to operations we’ll start with a look at the helm. Boston Whaler did an excellent job here and it's textbook Boston Whaler indeed. Across the top of the panel are rocker switches controlling all the 12-V systems including all pumps, windshield washers, cockpit lighting, water pumps for washdowns, a fishfinder and livewells.

Below there's plenty of open real estate that was occupied by a pair of optional 15” (38.1 cm) Raymarine flatscreen displays. We could also opt for the 12” (30.5 cm) and all can be integrated with the fishfinder, chartplotter, radar, Sirius Satellite radio and vessel data readouts for the mechanical components (engine stats, fuel, etc…). Just below and to the center is an optional 7” (17.8 cm) color SmartCraft display. All the way to the left of the panel was the Precision Pilot control that, on our test boat, had the optional Skyhook position-keeping feature as well as auto heading. A remote control for the hardtop-mounted spotlight was just to the right of the stainless steel wheel, and that was mounted to a tilt base.

We Also Had a Couple of Notable Options at the Helm.

For example the Lenco Dynamic Running Surface automatic trim tab system. There’s a definite love/hate relationship with this feature that sets the trim with no operator input. Our experience has been that it’s still a system that needs work and really only works when operating in head or following seas. Beam seas keep the boat from leaning into the wind and it’s problematic trying to constantly adjust for this. Other options include the Mercury outboard joystick that allowed us to maneuver the 330 Outrage into our docking position with precision and exacting detail. Below the helm are two footrests, one high and one low to accommodate people sitting in the helm seats or standing and using the flipped up bolsters of the helm seats as more of a leaning post. We also appreciate that there is a flip down elevated platform for the vertically challenged operators.

The seat is three across allowing a captain to be accompanied by a pair of observers. Seating is divided into thirds with the captain getting one-third and the observers taking a single seat in each of the remaining two-thirds of the space. The captain and the two observers get individual flip-down bolsters, there are armrests to both ends and a center-mounted armrest that will take up the space of the center observer. Naturally the seats are adjustable fore and aft.

Overhead is an electronics box that has a black Lexan door that, by design, in is a position that is perfect for use as a rearview mirror giving the operator a good indication of traffic behind him or her.

The ship's electrical panel is located to the starboard side bulwarks. It includes all of the main circuit breakers along with the two battery switches, one for the house batteries, one for the engine start batteries. The ignitions are along to the right hand side but these are simply activated to put power to the engine’s start/stop switches at the helm.

Anchoring

The ground tackle is handled by an optional Quick windlass that is recessed under hatch at the bow. The anchor runs through the stem and there's plenty of room on the side of the windlass mounting point to get to the rode underneath and manage any tangles that may occur. A remote control is also under the hatch for operating the windlass.

There are 6 8” (20.3 cm) cleats, three to both sides, in addition to two more pull-up style cross-tie cleats at the transom.

Performance

As for her performance, we tested the 330 Outrage with a pair of 350-hp Mercury L6 Verados that brought us to a top speed of 45.4 kts that was accompanied by a fuel burn of 60.5 gph. This resulted in a range of 202.7 nm. Best cruise came in at 4000 rpm and 25.7 kts. At that speed the fuel burn dropped to 19.5 gph, which in turn increased the range up to 357.3 nm.

We reached planing speed in 3.9 seconds and continued through 30 mph in 8.9 seconds.

Handling

With a redesigned hull configuration on this all-new 330 Outrage, we noticed a definite difference in the way that this boat handles as compared to what we used to consider the characteristic handling of a Boston Whaler. The change is for the better and it provides for a much more agile feel and sense of operation. She also has the characteristic Boston Whaler safety with freeboard at the bow measuring 4'3" (1.29 m), and moving to the stern it's 3’ (.91 m) even.

Head Seas

The boat is lighter on top of the water and tends to skip right across the tops of the waves rather than plow through them. There was no sensation of hitting the speed brakes every time we encountered a wave, but instead the 330 Outrage was able to simply launch right up and over and then meet the next oncoming wave and skip over that one as well. Certainly in a head sea we were able to get it to pound at full speed, but brought back to more manageable speeds the ride became more comfortable as well. It was easy to see that as with other boats, we can still keep the speed up by operating just off the head seas at a slight angle.

Beam Seas

Coming around to a beam sea really found the 330 Outrage to be in her element as she became much more contented and docile handling. She was able to cruise much faster with no need to change course to manage the ride. Here is where our issues with the automatic trim tab system manifests itself. There was a constant tendency to lean into the wind and therefore the waves. Adjusting the trim manually is only as temporary as the next wave. Disabling the system in a beam sea allowed the 330 Outrage to handle the waves herself, and she did it just fine.

Following Seas

Brought around to a following see proved an even more comfortable experience. That same action that she had on the head sea, where she would simply skip across the top of a wave and onto the next, was repeated again here, only now we really keep the speed up much higher and in fact the higher the speed the better she was able to react to the next wave.

Dockside

Simplicity of operation was one of the design goals for this new model year and that becomes no more self evident than with the use of the Mercury Joystick Piloting. This easy to use joystick allowed us to maneuver the 330 Outrage back into our narrow confines with exacting precision. It is remarkably responsive to control inputs and a little goes a long way. It's a progressive joystick so moving the stick a lot adds more power to the maneuvers… moving it a little causes minor changes and that was all that was needed to achieve the precision movements that we were looking for.

Power Options

The 330 Outrage comes standard with a set of twin 300-hp Mercury Verados. Credit will be applied for those looking to downsize to a set of 250s. While we can’t imagine that happening, we can see others wanting to move up to 350s. All come with DTS and joystick Piloting, Skyhook, and autopilot.

Observations

Boston Whaler had a mission to create a boat that was comfortable, easy to operate, and performed better than before. After spending a day putting her through our hoops and getting up close and personal, we can honestly state that all goals have been met, and then some. She exhibits different handling that we’re used to seeing with Boston Whaler and now this larger boat feels more like a smaller and lighter one. And onboard, the comfort level was raised well above previous models.