One of the biggest boat dealers in Southwest Florida recently took delivery of the largest center-console fishing boat available.
Priced at about $1 million, the vessel, the sixth Grady-White Canyon 456 ever built, had to be hoisted by crane onto a trailer at Fish Tale Boats in Fort Myers. With a 14-foot-wide beam, 50 fishing rod holders, sophisticated navigation systems and luxury climate-controlled cabin, the sportsman’s dream machine was prepped for delivery to a client in south Cape Coral at the dealership on Tamiami Trail.
“Powered by four, 425-horsepower Yamaha engines and a 616-gallon fuel tank, an overnight stay in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas is within easy reach of this sport-fishing luxury craft that can hit top speeds near 50 knots,” says Fish Tale Boats Vice President of Operations Travis Fricke in a statement. “The demand is so great for this Grady-White boat that you can’t get one until the end of this year. It’s the big machine.”
The boat offers plenty of consolation for fishermen lamenting the one that got away — with amenities more like a luxury yacht than a sport fishing boat. That includes navigational electronics, air conditioning, fully equipped kitchen, a shower and sleeping quarters with a flat-screen 32-inch TV. Its Seakeeper 6 technology stabilizes and eliminates as much as 95% of boat rolls. The CZone digital-switching technology allows the captain to power all the systems remotely, including electrical, heat and air. The helmsman can keep track of all systems and navigational points on the three, 17-inch screens in the cockpit.
Two 35-gallon live wells on port and starboard keep the bait lively, and the ones that don’t get away can be stored in a 459-quart freezer box fresh for the ride home. That is, if the catch makes it that far. A cockpit galley is equipped with a grill and refrigerator. Dine in air conditioned comfort in the cabin, where the electromechanical-controlled dining table rises and lowers to convert into a berth.