Topaz Yachts

[Bertramp]

A friend is considering an old 24 Topaz center console. I had looked at one years ago and though that they were pretty nice, but that was about 15 yrs ago. How was the construction on Topaz boats .... did the companies Bimini Marine and Tournament Marine (the folks that bought the molds) build decent stuff ?
thanks

 

[Bill Allen]

I have a 37 1987 topaz and have friends that have all diferent size topazs. Everybody I know, myself included rate Topaz as one of the worse head sea boats you'll ever ride in. That said they'll run any other sea like the wind. The quality is ok, certainnly NOT even in the same park as my Hatt. The alum. work is far from perfect. Overall not a bayliner but not a hatt either. Middle of the road.

 

[Akyla]

I have to go with Bill on the overall quality of the boat. I had a 28 for several years and ran through two sets of engines using it out of OC MD and Hatteras. It was overall a very capable boat in all but a big head sea as they do have a fairly flat hull form and they are relatively small lighter boats. I have been out on the 24s many times as well. They are also very decent for the dollar and both are great to fish from. The biggest drawback is the hull to deck joint design being that of the shoe box lid. I worked mine loose twice before tearing out the liner and glassing the joint shut for good as it should have been in the first place. The fuel tanks were aluminum and in early boats not properly installed causing corrision and failure. Most of these have already been cut out and fixed, if not inspect thoroughly and factor in a tank replacement.

Other than that the hulls are fairly solid and overall they used fairly good quality materials throughout the construction. I would own a 24 as a dedicated fishing machine as they run well in most any sea you want to be out in a 24 foot boat and are economical to operate. The bimini marine versions that I looked at were improvements the topaz finish work but dont know about the final version of the breed.