A little over one year ago Parker Boats broke new ground with the Parker Offshore 2400CC, introducing a whole different breed of boats for this builder. Along with it they rolled out a 2200CC, and followed these introductions with a 2600CC. The mission: To maintain Parker’s reputation for strength, seaworthiness, and reliability, while adding a new level of comfort and family-friendly features to their lineup of fishing boats. The latest, which we spotted at the Miami International Boat Show, is the Parker Offshore 2900CC.
Parker 2900CC Design and Construction
The 2900CC maintains a straightforward center console fishing boat design with an open aft cockpit and forward cockpit, while adding a large lounger and seating up forward. The hull sports 21-degrees of deadrise for softening up the chop, and a wide 9’6” beam means there’s plenty of room inside the gunwales. Those gunwales are, however, one stand-out feature of the design that may prove to be a bit of a surprise. They’re unexpectedly tall, and make for a very deep cockpit particularly in the bow. While this increases windage and weight, it’s a design feature family anglers love since it keeps the kids contained and safe inside the boat.
Construction-wise Parker strives to live up to its age-old reputation for building stout boats. You’ll find through-bolts where some builders might use screws, stainless-steel where some might provide plastic, and rock-solid D-channel pipework supporting the T-top. When we poked and prodded through the boat we didn’t spot anything that made us question our expectations from this builder of historically beefy fishing machines.
Also note that this is a bracket boat, so the twin F300s sit well behind the transom. Add the bracket in with the boat’s measurements and the Parker 2900CC actually stretches the tape all the way to 34 feet.
Parker 2900CC Fishing Features
The boat we inspected was set up to provide some serious bait-hauling abilities, with a 25-gallon livewell in the leaning post and a second 40-gallon well in the transom. When you swing your catch over those tall gunwales you’ll find plenty of room to ice it down, with a 67.5-gallon transom box and three different integrated fishboxes in the deck totaling out at over 130 gallons of capacity. You can also use the forward lounger compartment to chill down those fishes, and this one holds another 60 gallons. As far as rod holders go there are six flush-mounts in the gunwales and four rocket launchers on the top (the two on the sides angled out). A raw water washdown and integrated tackleboxes with four pull-out trays in either side of the leaning post are also standard-issue fishing features.
Parker 2900CC Family Features
Go back 20 years and you most definitely wouldn’t have expected to find a forward console lounger on a Parker, but this model has a double-wide with fold-down arm rests and a top that swings up on gas-assist struts. Also note that the hatch, like the others on this boat, is fully finished on both sides — another nice touch one wouldn’t have seen on older Parkers. Forward of the lounger there’s center-facing seating with a removable insert, allowing you to set the bow up to maximize seating, become a sunpad, or serve as a casting deck, whichever the day’s plans call for.
The stern is also a bit more luxurious than expected, with a fold-down transom seat and an aft-facing seat built into the back of the leaning post. The helm boasts a doublewide seat with flip-down bolsters. Perks like stainless-steel cup holders, USB charging ports, and a six-speaker stereo system are all present and accounted for.
Parker 2900CC Performance
While we couldn’t take the 2900CC off the dock at the show, Yamaha has run performance numbers on this model with the twin F300s and we’ve always found their reports to be 100-percent reliable. In this case, they ran at a 45.0 mph cruising speed while turning 4500 rpm, and hit a wide-open top-end of 60.0 mph. When the throttles are dialed back to 3000 rpm, the boat turned in an impressive 2.06 mpg while running at 26.3 mph.
Parker 2900CC Specifications
- Length Overall: 28’3”
- Beam: 9’6”
- Weight: 8,682
- Draft (min.): 1’5”
- Transom Deadrise: 21 degrees
- Max HP: 600
- Fuel Capacity: 191 gal.
You’ve always loved the Parker fishing boats, but wished they had a bit more comfort built in? Family anglers, rejoice: the 2900CC delivers just what you’ve been waiting for.
See Parker 2900CC boats for sale on Boat Trader.