If you’re dreaming of spending your weekends on the water, we have a relatively new-to-the-Chesapeake brand of boat to recommend (and a whole lot of places to take it!). Contenders have been well known up and down the East and Gulf coasts as well built, hard-core, deep-V, bluewater fishboats ever since the Homestead, Florida, company began turning them out in 1984. Surprisingly, however, the company has not had established dealers in the Chesapeake until this year.
Now, however, both Legasea Marine in Yorktown and Cedar Point Marina beside Kent Narrows in Grasonville have taken on the line of 23 to 44-foot, outboard-powered boats. Contender’s arrival here may have something to do with the arrival of their two new 23-foot and 26-foot shallow-V bay boats.
But for weekends on the water, we want to direct you to the 24S. It’s the one stock design in the line that also caters directly to family use (in addition, of course, to its piscatorial proficiency). We can see this rig carrying a couple or a family comfortably on all sorts of adventures up and down our Bay and its rivers.
We started our test runs first with a pair of Yamaha 150s and later ran one with a single Yamaha 300. Both are impressively fast, able, efficient, and versatile, though we prefer the single-engine version. While the larger, bluewater Contender models have super-sharp 24.5-degree running bottoms, the 24S lopes along on 22.5 degrees, bending to a sharp, wave-cleaving bow entry.
Wide, radiused chines keep the hull stable at rest, on the drift, and at trolling speeds; at speed, they throw spray out flat, aided in the bow by a subtle sponson just above the chine that also adds stability at rest.
We spent some time on the twin-engine boat in the open Bay off the Poquoson River on a raw, blustery early spring day and more time on a warmer, but still windy, day at the mouth of Eastern Bay in the single-engine boat. Both sliced through the seas easily at speeds of 21-31 knots (3,000-4,000 rpm) while showing off fuel efficiency of 2.6-3.4 nautical miles per gallon in the single-engine rig and a bit less in the boat with twins. Both accelerated quickly onto plane and topped out at 45-46 knots.
The layout of the 24S is simple: a center console with the option for a head with holding tank inside, a seat in front with small cooler beneath, a compass, and plenty of space for a large electronic display/VHF radio/stereo layout.
At the helm, there’s a leaning post for two with small-item storage and space for a cooler, two seats port and starboard at the transom flanking a livewell, and two bench seats at the bow (storage under), along with five storage areas and fishboxes in the sole. There’s plenty of space for ice, food and beverages, bait and catch, PFDs, clothing, fenders, lines, tackle boxes, and other necessities.
The self-bailing sole is crowned to drain to the sides and then to a large, screened drain at each transom corner. ABYC standards rate the boat for eight passengers, five seated and three standing with sturdy handholds (two beside the console and one behind the leaning post).
Contender builds its boats with hand-laminated solid fiberglass using biaxial and triaxial cloths, structural PVC core sandwich construction, vinylester resins, and specialty-formulated gel coats. The glasswork is impeccable everywhere, including belowdecks. Plumbing and wiring is readily accessible for normal humans.
A look at the massive longitudinal stringers (in the battery compartments under the stern seats) inspires confidence. Our test boats felt rock-solid in their sea trials. The company offers its boats on a semi-custom basis, with a huge option list: the order form for the 24S lists six pages of them, from power, hardtops, and electronics, to custom hull colors and upholstery stitching. Dealers, however, also order boats for stock based on common uses for their area.
The 24S is a great boat for a big estuary like the Chesapeake. Her hull is sharp enough to cleave a sharp chop or loaf happily—and efficiently—through bigger seas at speeds in the mid-20s. With a bow-mount electric motor, she’d make a great fishboat anywhere from Annapolis to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, and even 20 miles offshore to the Chesapeake Light Tower. From cobia and red drum on lower Bay shoals to speckled trout around Tangier Sound marsh banks and rockfish behind the Bay Bridge pilings, she’ll do it all. She even has vertical holders on the starboard side of her console that can hold four fly rods (through holes in the hardtop).
So what could a Chesapeake family or a couple do with a Contender 24S for a Weekend on the Water? In Norfolk, you could explore the whole Elizabeth River complex, from the shipyards and drydocks to the restoration oyster reefs in the Eastern Branch and the Lafayette River. There is lots going on there now, plus centuries of history.
Ditto for the Potomac between Washington, DC and Alexandria. Be sure also to run downriver to see Mount Vernon. General Washington loved his river.
From Oxford, explore up the Tred Avon to Easton and then run out to fish the restoration oyster reefs in the Choptank’s mouth. On the Chester, the river around Chestertown is lovely, but the late-summer wild rice marshes above town are special and full of migratory birds. Remember that during the schooner and steamboat eras, the river had commercial wharves all the way up past Deep Landing and Crumpton to Ford’s Landing and Millington.
For day trips like these, Contender’s 24S makes a safe, comfortable explorer—when she isn’t fishing. Bareboat retail price with a Yamaha 300 is $133,711. Figure on $30-40,000 in options that include hardtop, electronics, head in console, and smaller but valuable items. For more information, visit Contender Boats, Cedar Point Marina, and Legasea Marine.
SPECIFICATIONS
LOA: 24’6″
Beam: 8’6”
Draft: 18”
Weight: 5,250 lbs. (dry)
Transom Deadrise: 22.5 degrees
Fuel Capacity: 130gal.
Water Capacity: 10 gal. (optional)
Waste Capacity: 10 gal. (optional)
Max HP: 400
Available Power: Yamaha outboards 300-400 hp
