Welcome onboard the 2005 Chaparral 270 sports cruiser. 

A nice getaway for a family who wants to sleep aboard.

Spending a night, a weekend and longer afloat is a wonderful thing, offering on-water experiences that you just don’t get from a quick fling in a runabout. There’s so much to share and celebrate from stunning sunsets and stellar fishing at dawn and dusk, to peaceful sleeps in the cabin, nautical nosh-ups fit for a king, and exploration and discovery.

The Chaparral 270 Signature, which measures 8.23m or 27 feet overall including swim platform, is a ticket to overnight and weekend boating. A pocket sportscruiser, the big little boat sleeps four, has a compact bathroom and small galley, a smart cockpit with switchable seating and integrated amenities, and a powerful V8 engine. And with a sweet deep-vee hull you can get to where you want to go and back home again in comfort.

The decks and mouldings of the 270 Signature achieve a lot. They maximise bow and stern access, include plenty of crew seating, incorporate a lunch setting in the shade, and a moulded amenities centre, and there is a social helm station.

With a good amount of storage space in the integrated design, you get all these things and an unobstructed thoroughfare from the stern swim platform to the bow and through this big little boat.

The swim platform is big enough for a couple to do a casual lunch, the kids to strut their stuff, and to strap a small kayak between runs to the anchorages. Recognising that Australians like to fish, the boat had twin aft rod holders.

As touched on, you could easily add a utility station on the swim platform, using a stainless tee-bar to tie your little tender, mount a gas barbecue and more rod holders and a bait-cutting board. With the snapper snapping on Port Phillip Bay, this would make a great bay fishing weekender. Imagine the fish dinners.

But none of this is new to the Chaparral importer, Scott O’Hare, who told us the most common options were: an inverter to power the cabin amenities, a stern rail with barbie and snapper racks, and Garmin electronics (fitted locally).

Back aboard, the rear ‘boot’ at the transom contains the easily accessible battery switches and shore power connection, plus hooks for swinging mooring lines, with storage space leftover. Pop-up cleats are among the stainless-steel deck gear and there’s plush upholstery that’s a cut above from this Florida-based saltwater-boat builder.

The clip-out rubber-backed cockpit carpet and folding alloy Targa arch (2.44m bridge clearance when dropped) are handy upgrades in a cockpit that will be the centre of attention on the 270. It rates as a great example of a good sports cruiser design, with an integrated portside amenities centre with a solid counter, a sink and a 23-litre Igloo portable icebox for picnics ashore and drinks and/or lunch on the run.

Contact our team for more information on this vessel or if you would like to step onboard.