Princecraft Xperience 188: Nature Calls
The Princecraft Xperience 188 can make a day on the lake better—in more ways than one.
According to the SBFA (Small Boat Fisherman’s Alliance), last year more than 34 million fishing trips on aluminum boats were interrupted by the words “I gotta pee.” This shouldn’t surprise anyone, since the need to relieve yourself on a boat of this type means asking everyone to turn away and keep still. (In the case of the fairer sex, it may also mean precariously perching your posterior over the gunwale.) Of course, it may surprise you that someone has attempted to tabulate just how often this sort of event occurs.
Actually, I just made up this statistic—and the SBFA—out of thin air, because my intensive research (read: Google) didn’t offer any reliable data. But I'm thinking 34 million is a pretty good guess.
What, you ask, could any of this possibly have to do with a boat review?
Like it or not, the need to relieve oneself has a significant impact on virtually every fishing trip on a small boat. For some boaters, it’s a very real impediment to making long runs or spending full days aboard. And while we’ve found ingenious ways to hide head compartments in center consoles, bowriders, and pontoon boats, anglers on aluminum fishing boats under 20 feet or so still have no good options. At least they didn’t, until Princecraft unveiled the new-for-2015 Xperience 188.
Ready for an improved on-the-water Xperience? This Princecraft will make it happen.
Head Games
Princecraft is quite familiar with both building effective fishing boats, and solving design problems with creative engineering. On the Princecraft Nanook DLX for example, we discovered a healthy list of fishing features, including a monster livewell, six different pedestal seat locations, and dedicated stowage for seven-foot rods. Then we tested the Quorum 25 SE, and encountered a slew of unique design features. Now we come to the Princecraft Xperience 188, and we find a model in which Princecraft melds its fishing know-how with creative engineering to, among other things, find a solution to the “I gotta pee” dilemma.
A pop-up privacy compartment with a slide-out head may be common fare on pontoon boats, but on a V-hull fishing boat, this is a new trick.
The secret lies in the stern. There's a vertical hatch with a grab handle, centered between two stern jump seats. Swing it up, pop out the aluminum frame at the top, pull the slide-mounted MSD out from under the aft deck, and presto-change-o, you have a head compartment made private on all four sides by a canvas curtain. This is a trick taken right out of the pontoon boat playbook, but engineering it into an 18’ fishing boat is no small feat. Can you think of one single other aluminum V-hull fishing boat of this size with a pop-up head compartment? Neither could we.
With that age-old problem finally solved (whew!) you can start focusing on how this boat will help you fool the fish into biting. The Xperience has a rod locker in the deck with a rod organizer for up to 10 rigs, a 16-gallon stern livewell with intermittent recirculation and an overflow drain, and it comes ready to fit out with a 12, 24, or 36 volt trolling motor. It’s also ready for a 9.9 HP kicker on the transom. Gunwales are wide enough to accommodate downriggers, though you’ll want to add the optional downrigger supports. The aft jump seats fold down to create the prerequisite aft casting platform, and the bow has a forward casting platform that also looks to be standard fare.
But looks can be deceiving. That forward casting platform can quickly and painlessly convert into a bow cockpit with seating— and you don’t need to remove any bulky, heavy inserts, then try to find somewhere to stow them. Where do those seats come from? They fold up and out of the deck itself, with extension cushions that pop out from underneath. Flip them into place, and they not only form seats with cushioned backrests (thanks to the wrap-around bolsters lining the bow inwales); they also open up the space that was occupied by the casting platform for additional legroom.
Goodbye, clunky inserts - the Xperience 188 doesn't need them to convert the bow between seating and casting deck.
Get Xcited
If you’re not enthused by the creative bowdeck design or the prospect of peeing in private on a 19 foot boat, one thing that’s sure to excite you is this boat’s performance. Our test boat was rigged with a 200 HP Mercury Verado, and with two people onboard and a full tank of fuel we blasted past 50 MPH at top end. Swap our rig's aluminum prop for stainless-steel, and you'll eek out a couple more MPH. Even better was this rig’s efficiency, which provides a five MPG cruise at about 30 MPH.
The 5052 H36 aluminum hull with double reverse chines handled well, too, keeping a firm grip in both tight turns and trimmed-out speed runs. And remember, the H36 designation means the alloy of the Xperience 188 has a higher temper designation than the H32 or H34 aluminum used by most boatbuilders. It has higher fatigue, sheer, and tensile strength, and a slightly higher strength-to-weight ratio. On top of that, the bow and chines are double plated. So you will have some serious confidence when you’re seated at the helm of this boat.
Though not laid out with electronics in mind, the helm is slick and comfortable. Note the full-sized windshield and tilt steering.
More about that helm: it has lighted toggle switches, and a slick molded dash insert for the gauges. Unfortunately, that molded dash doesn’t leave room for flush-mounting your electronics. Instead they have to be binnacle-mounted off to the side. This explains why the list of optional fishfinder/GPS units is limited to those with relatively wimpy five-inch-diagonal screens which, IMHO, are too small to effectively use in split-screen mode (much less the tri-splits needed to best use side-finding fishfinder units). If this was going to be my next boat, I’d order it without any electronics at all and use an extension mount or a piece of Starboard to mount a more substantial fishfinder/chartplotter on top of the dash.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Length | 19'0" |
| Beam | 8'2" |
| Draft (max) | 2'9" |
| Deadrise | NA |
| Displacement | NA |
| Fuel capacity | 40 gal. |
Diversified Xperience
Though the Xperience 188 is clearly targeting the hook-happy, it also offers some features for broader appeal. Our test boat had a removable ski pylon, and the boat will serve well when the kids want to break out tow tubes and wakeboards. You can add a swim platform with a telescopic ladder, or even opt for a removable pedestal-mount dinette table that fits into the seat bases. There’s also a standard 160-watt Bluetooth-capable Jensen stereo mounted on the side of the helm console. I wish it was more protected from spray and rain, but moving it inside of the passenger’s console would mean some additional wiring work, and thus, additional cost. Still, considering the quality level and pricing of this model, I think they should do it.
In case you didn’t catch the hint in that last sentence, this is not a cheap boat. With a standard single-axle disc brake trailer and a 90 HP Mercury on the transom, the base boat costs in the mid-30’s. Rig it to the teeth, add in the big Verado, and upgrade to a tandem axle trailer, and the price can quickly go north of $50,000. That’s not unreasonable in today’s marketplace, but it’s not a bargain boat either. Nor should it be—the Xperience is constructed better and performs better than boats being built to meet an artificially low price point.
| Performance Data | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Test conditions: Winds 5-10 knots, calm seas, 2 POB | |||
| RPM | MPH | GPH | MPG |
| 1000 | 4.4 | 0.8 | 5.5 |
| 2000 | 7.1 | 2.4 | 3.0 |
| 3000 | 17.0 | 3.5 | 4.9 |
| 4000 | 29.9 | 6.0 | 5.0 |
| 5000 | 36.2 | 9.7 | 3.7 |
| 6000 | 44.5 | 18.4 | 2.4 |
| 6500 | 50.2 | 20.5 | 2.4 |
| Power | Single 200 HP Mercury Verado, swinging a 14.25" x 21" three-bladed aluminum prop. | ||
Besides, nothing out there in this class will provide you with the same kind of private “ahhhhh” moment you’ll have, the next time you are the one answering nature's call. And for some anglers, that perk alone is priceless.
Other Choices: With cushioned bow inserts and optional reclining helm seats, the Crestliner 1850 Super Hawk leans a bit more towards family fun and a bit less towards fishing. The Lund 1875 Crossover XS also prowls the same waters, at a comparable price point. Neither of these other models, of course, comes with a head and enclosure.
To see that head enclosure in action, watch our Princecraft Xperience 188 Video Boat Review.
For more information, visit Princecraft.
