2007 Chaparral 330 Signature Cruiser FOUR WINNS formula SEA RAY MONTEREY larson

You are bidding on a Super~Clean 2007 Chaparral 330 Signature powered by twin Volvo Penta 5.7 OSXi engines with only 481 hours of use. The Kholer 5kW Generator only has 125 hours!! This is by far one of the cleanest Chaparrals I have seen in a long time... As a matter of fact its one of the cleanest boats we have had in some time folk's. From the cushions, to the canvas, to the newly installed Sea deck flooring, it all shows in close to like NEW condition for her year! The only cosmetic I found was a Simrad Auto Pilot that is functional but has a black ring on the screen from normal humidity, and some minor wood grain edging on the dash (Cockpit). The inside of the cabin is immaculate, and shines like a Diamond. The boat is fully loaded to the gills, for a nice pop cruise to your favorite watering hole, restaurant, or even a trip to the Florida Keys.

The 330 packs features that both day-boaters and cruisers will appreciate. Awesome isn’t a word that crops up all that often in my vocabulary, but in this instance I think it’s probably the most appropriate. I get to see and drive a lot of different boats and every now and then I come across one that’s so much fun I just don’t want to give it back. The Chaparral 330 Signature sportscruiser is case in point. You can feel the awesome power as you push the throttles forward, the engines firing into life and propelling you out of the hole with a kick-arse burble sound. The sense of speed is exhilarating as you wind her up to a point where you’re skimming across the water at more than 40kts. Then the adrenalin rush kicks into overdrive as you throw the 330 into a full-speed full-lock turn, fighting the G-forces that are trying to eject you over the side. As she comes round so predictably and precisely, without the slightest sign of "coming loose", you get a sense of great confidence in her handling abilities that are just — well, need I say — awesome!

Chaparral’s Signature 330 is the double whopper with cheese of express cruisers. With two distinct accommodation plans to choose from, you can have it your way. The dinette layout ($2,971) I tested is perfect for those who day-boat more than actually cruise. This setup arrays a V-lounge with a real-wood table forward, a broad galley counter with a deep shelf built into the backsplash, a salon loveseat and an aft berth that also serves as a quiet alcove. A TV and other goodies also come with this option. So built, the 330 is ideal for the mix-and-mingle, extra-seating- required type of boating many “cruisers” do. But can you sleep aboard? Absotively. In one of the most unique berth-conversion methods I’ve seen, Chaparral utilizes an electric table pedestal and an air mattress that fills the dinette to create a queen-size berth. Flip a switch, draw the concealed privacy curtain and hit the rack. And it can run. My tester hit 45.5 mph at wide-open throttle, attained plane without undue bow rise and offered confident control at the dock where wind and current challenged us. Features like these let any skipper sleep better at night, regardless of his berth.

PERFORMANCE & HANDLING

While it’s hard to fault the fixtures and fittings, it’s the performance and handling that sets Chaparral 330 Signature apart. Together with a traditional deep-vee running surface, Chapparal uses what it calls Extended V-Plane, in other words a running surface on bottom of the boat that extends farther aft either side of the drive unit. Stretching the hull like this results in the boat coming "over" faster when getting on the plane, while the aft section of the hull acts in a similar way to a giant trim tab. Not only does the 330 plane faster, in our case we had her out of the hole at 3000rpm doing 17kts, but she stays on the plane at slower speeds. The engines are rated to 5200rpm and, when I was able to contain myself for a short while, I found that a nice cruise speed was around 3600rpm for 25kts. At this speed the engines feel and sound about right and you’ve got plenty of reaction time.