Bayliner 305

 

Issue: September 2003
Manufacturer: Bayliner

Imported boats like the Bayliner 305 are a better than ever prospect while the Aussie dollar continues to improve against the greenback, even if Bayliner were always competitively price anyway. Some imported boats literally sit awkwardly on Aussie water. Boating overseas and boating here are like chalk and cheese. Apart from the west coast of the United States that is, where Aussies from anywhere from the Whitsundays west to Fremantle would feel right at home. And like the US west coast, the Bayliner 305 Sportcruiser is the exception to the rule.

She?s not a boat designed for lengthy stays onboard, or travelling too far from marina facilities, although a couple with two kids will find her an excellent weekender. But on the other hand, day trips with more than just a few friends onboard is not a problem ? all in luxurious comfort. It?s a package that doesn?t quite make it to 32 old fashioned feet ? she?s 31? 6? in imperial measure. But the thing about being 31? 6? is that the Bayliner 305?s actual length is somewhat irrelevant. Onboard the only time size does matter is when you are maneuvering in the confines of a marina or anchorage.

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We?ll leave that line of thought there for the sake of decorum, but in terms of living space, one of the things the Modern Boating team liked most of all about the Bayliner 305 was just how well it uses what space it did have. For a boat its size, the Bayliner 305 has a remarkable amount of living room. Nothing is cramped, not the head and shower, not the bow berth, not the dinette, nor the galley. The layout follows an established formula of upstairs dinette, downstairs saloon/galley, bow berth, head and shower to port as you go downstairs and a supplementary berth aft below the stairs, or more geographically correctly, below the helm.

OK, so there?s nothing too unique there, but it?s the perception the boat creates of being anything but cramped. Compact yes, cramped, no way. The bow berth is set at an angle across rather than along the boat?s centre line. While it?s not as easy to get the linen straight when doing your housework, this arrangement does allow more space in the galley and dinette. The amount of living space I keep referring to literally starts here. A curtain running in an L-shaped track around the ceiling provides privacy for the bow berth. You do have to step onto the dinette to clamber up into the berth though and that may present some difficulties for the less than limber.

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