Venture 34: Offshore Fishing Frenzy
With a sharp entry, deep deadrise, and light, high-tech hull construction, this boat can fly through the rough stuff.
January 27, 2012
If you like offshore fishing adventures, a boat like the Venture 34, built by Henley Marine, may be exactly what you’re looking for. This cream-of-the-crop center-console offers some unexpectedly awesome features, including my favorite -- a hard top that’s designed for an upper station—a real rarity on center consoles. Strategically placed aluminum supports act as steps, and there’s a molded-in overhead hatch in the hard top, so climbing up there is easy.
Henley Marine’s Venture 34 is set up for an optional upper steering station, shown above.
You’d rather have a real ladder? No problem, Henley will custom-design and fabricate a top and tower that meets your own personal specs. And when I checked out the elevated observation point on our test boat, I had no doubt that this improved view would help when it comes to spotting—and hopefully catching—more fish.
Getting to those fish will be a piece of cake, too, because rigged with twin Yamaha 250-hp outboards we cruised in the upper 30s and hit a top end just shy of 50 mph. If you feel the need for yet more speed, you can juice this boat up even more with a total of 900 horses and a top end of 65 mph.
Once you’re at the hotspot and swinging fish over the bolstered gunwales, you’ll make good use of the pair of massive bowdeck fishboxes. Each is insulated, and has enough space to swallow up a six-pack of average yellowfin tuna. Other angling perks include a tackle station with six trays and two drawers, a pair of raw-water washdowns, three freshwater washdowns, and a bathtub-sized 55-gallon livewell. There’s also a huge in-deck stowage compartment for bulky gear, plus a console compartment that can be fitted with a head.
Another unique aspect of the Venture 34 is its construction. Built with a Kevlar/fiberglass mix in the hull bottom, a high-compression ceramic matrix in the transom, and vacuum-bagged PVC cores, this boat weighs in at a mere 6,900 pounds dry. Compare that to other 34-foot center-consoles, and you’ll discover it’s 20 percent lighter than most competitors and nearly half the weight of some others. Match the svelte disposition with a 60-degree entry and a 24-degree transom deadrise deep-V hull, and you get the wave-splitting ability you need to go along with those eye-watering speeds. The bottom line? This is one center-console that’s not a mere attention-getter—it’s an adventure-getter.
Other choices in this category include the Yellowfin 34, Jupiter 34, Midnight Express 34, and Pursuit C 340.
For more information, visit Henley Marine.
—Lenny Rudow
